130 HEEED1TY. 



well developed, as in man." Thus Darwin derives 

 conscience from the combined operation of the social 

 instincts and of the intellectual faculties. He makes 

 remorse of conscience to be only the feeling of dis- 

 satisfaction a man has when the social instincts are 

 not satisfied. He would have us explain the feeling 

 that we are to blame, by the fact that we are not 

 satisfied in our social instincts. 



What are some of the more important objections 

 to Darwin's theory of the origin of conscience ? 



1. Darwin teaches that "man comes to feel, through 

 habit, that it is best for him to obey his more persist- 

 ent instincts." But in the same connection he affirms 

 that " the wish for another man's property is perhaps 

 as persistent a desire as any that can be named." 

 (Descent of Man, American edition, vol. i. pp. 88, 89.) 

 Two pages before the first of these sentences, I find 

 the second one. The context shows that instinct and 

 desire are used here as synonymes. Theft and rob- 

 bery, therefore, if we are to be logical, are to be 

 justified on the basis of Darwin's theory. To fol- 

 low conscience is to obey our more persistent in- 

 stincts ; but the wish for another man's property is 

 perhaps as persistent an instinct as any that can 

 be named. As Professor Calderwood of Edinburgh 

 University has said : " Neither a good morality nor 

 a doctrine of personal obligation can rest on this 

 basis." (Handbook of Moral Philosophy, p. 147.) 



The strength of an instinct depends on two things, 

 — the persistency of the desire it represents, and the 

 vividness with which we recall the pains or pleas- 



