266 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



that actions were "right" because they were " unjust," 

 or " wrong" because they were " just." 



One of the clearest of all ethical judgments is that as 

 to " justice " and " injustice ; " and, by common consent, 

 the native Australians are admitted to be at about the 

 lowest level of existing social development, while the 

 Esquimaux cannot be said to be an elevated race. But 

 Australians (at least some tribes of them) are of opinion 

 that crimes may be compounded for by voluntary sub- 

 mission to punishment to be inflicted by those who have 

 been injured. A criminal will thus submit himself to 

 the ordeal of having spears thrown at him or thrust 

 through certain parts, such as the calf of the leg or 

 under the arm, by those he has injured. But if the 

 punishment exceeds the, extent sanctioned by the native 

 code, or is inflicted in a wrong place, then the man so 

 offending becomes liable to punishment in turn. 



A yet stranger example of the existence of distinct 

 moral perception amongst very rude people is furnished 

 us by the Greenlanders. Should a seal escape with a 

 hunter's javelin in it, and be killed by another Green- 

 lander afterwards, it belongs to the former. But if, 

 after the seal is struck with the harpoon and bladder, 

 the string breaks, the hunter loses his right. If a man 

 finds a seal dead with a harpoon in it, he keeps the seal 

 but returns the harpoon. Any man who finds a piece 

 of driftwood can appropriate it by placing a stone on it, 

 as a sign that some one has taken possession of it. 



The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are, if possible, 

 more wretched savages than the Australians. Yet even 

 these have an unmistakable perception that to waste 

 human food is wrong, and may justly incur retribution 

 from a higher power. Although there may be savages, 

 as there may be Englishmen, who seem devoid of moral 



