32 



quality, such as reflection or reason. Of such a quality he has 

 already declared himself to be incapable of suggesting an 

 origin. 1 Instinct, however, is the product of Natural Selection, 

 and in the main, the course of the development of conscience 

 is, according to Darwin, under the control of this factor. By 

 Natural Selection is here understood the meaning which 

 Darwin himself has given to the term, namely, the blind, 

 unconscious selection by Nature, as contrasted with the pur- 

 posive selection by man. 2 



Following the course of this development we pass from 

 the individual to the tribe. Those tribes which have the social 

 instinct most strongly developed survive where others perish, 

 because 'in unity there is strength'. 3 In connection with the 

 individual the standard of moral excellence is maintained 

 because of the fact that primeval man, at a very remote period, 

 was influenced by the praise and blame of his fellows. Where 

 did this praise and blame originate? we might ask. "In the 

 first place," says Darwin, "as the reasoning powers and fore- 

 sight of the members became improved, each man would soon 

 learn that if he aided his fellowmen, he would commonly re- 

 ceive aid in return." From this 'low motive' sympathy 

 would result through habit, and in consequence, praise and 

 blame. 4 Thus conscience takes its rise in those acts which tend 

 most to the preservation of the individual and the tribe ; those 

 acts which serve best to adapt the organism to its environ- 

 ment, for "It may be well first to premise that I do not wish 

 to maintain that any strictly social animal, if its intellectual 

 faculties were to become as active and as highly developed as 

 in man, would acquire exactly the same moral sense as ours", 5 

 in justification of which Darwin cites his famous illustration 

 of the possible rearing of men under precisely the same con- 

 ditions as hive-bees, under which circumstances the feeling of 

 right or wrong, or conscience, would be quite different to what 

 we understand it under present conditions. 



(2) Criticism. 



But let us test the force of Darwin's position in regard to 

 Natural Selection, in the ethical field. In doing so, however, it 

 is necessary to state that such a test will be made on the basis 



p. 28. 



2 See pp. 25-6. Also note confirmation of this in the statement of Vernon 

 Kellogg, who describes Natural Selection as "causo-mechanical (hence non- 

 teleologic) ". 



3 O.C. p. 162. 



4 O.C. pp. 163-5. 



6 O.C. p. 73. 



