MORAL NATURE. 315 



supernatural. But this is of little importance, for 

 the fact still remains that the human race is charac- 

 terized by these beliefs, even though some few de- 

 graded tribes have lost them. 



We are told by Spencer that such beliefs have had 

 a purely natural origin. A belief in life after death 

 arose from dreams, in which those who had died re- 

 appeared to their friends. Primitive man, knowing 

 nothing of the nature of dreams, naturally concluded 

 that his friends were still in existence and had re- 

 turned to him. A belief in the supernatural arose 

 from the attempt to find an explanation of natural 

 phenomena. Every phenomenon which was not 

 understood must have been caused by some power, 

 and these unknown powers were the gods of prime- 

 val man. Religion was simply the attempt to pro- 

 pitiate these unknown powers by offerings. The 

 feeling of reverence is only such feeling as any 

 animal feels before beings which he acknowledges 

 superior to himself. It is closely akin to the feeling 

 which the dog has for his master, if not identically 

 the same. All of these beliefs and feelings are thus, 

 according to this evolution school, simply the result 

 of man's inability to explain the world around him. 



But the important factor of the moral nature is 

 quite different from any of these. It is what is 

 known as moral sense, or conscience. This is the 

 factor in his nature which causes him to distinguish 

 between a right and a wrong. This law of thought 

 is unique. It stands at the foundation of all codes 

 of morals, and upon our belief as to its origin will 

 depend our whole conception of human nature. 



