21 



is that of moral approbation and disapprobation. The moral 

 laws which prevail in almost all societies, if not in all, are 

 partly founded upon utility, and partly upon feeling. The 

 proper answer, therefore, to the question what is the moral 

 standard? would be, the enactments of the existing society 

 as derived from some one clothed in his day with a moral 

 legislative authority. The very same remarks apply to re- 

 formers and the founders of new sects generally, who, from 

 causes quite assignable by history, have obtained influence 

 over a body of followers, 1 a position which Spencer adopts. 

 In this there is a striking similarity to the theory of evolu- 

 tion as propounded by Darwin and applied to the sphere of 

 morals. Of course Bain deals with man only, and has not the 

 unlimited resources of the evolutionist. In Spencer, too, we 

 have a close parallel, his whole theory of adaptation through 

 pleasure and pain being equivalent to Bain's law of self- 

 conservation. 



11. RELATION OF DARWIN TO THE ASSOCIATIONISTS. 



Thus we come, through the writers of the Association 

 School, to a consideration of Darwin. We might, at first 

 glance, take it for granted that Darwin, as a natural scientist, 

 would be quite free from any influence from the labours of the 

 British Association School, or any other school of psycholo- 

 gists. But the close relation that had existed between the 

 study of the mind and the study of the body, during the pre- 

 vious century, must not be overlooked. A suggestion of this 

 may be noted above, where the conditions of pleasure are 

 associated with an increase, and the conditions of pain with a 

 decrease of all or some of the vital functions. The faculty- 

 psychology, represented by men like Shaftesbury and Hutche- 

 son, had had the seeds of its dissolution sown in the works of 

 Locke, Gay, etc., of the Association School. That Darwin was 

 familiar with the Association doctrine, is evident from the 

 following quotation: "We can only judge by the circumstances 

 under which actions are performed, whether they are due to 

 instinct, or to reason, or to the mere association of ideas." 2 

 Not only so, but in his chapter on the Moral Sense, Darwin 

 often refers to Alexander Bain's 'Mental and Moral Science', 

 to John Stuart Mill's 'Logic' and 'Utilitarianism', and to 

 Hume's 'Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals', in 



HD.C. p. 283. 



'Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man", 2nd English ed., 1874, Ch. 3. 



