THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 99 



pares for the future, are all qualities, that from their earliest 

 appearance, must have been for the benefit of each commu- 

 nity, and would, therefore, have become the subjects for 

 natural selection. . . . Tribes in which such mental 

 or moral qualities were predominant would, therefore, have 

 an advantage in the struggle for existence over other tribes 

 in which they were less developed, would live and maintain 

 their numbers, while the others would decrease and finally 

 succumb." 



But for the evolution of morality it is not 

 necessary that the struggle should always go 

 so far as the extinction of all the individuals 

 practising a hurtful custom. Successful types 

 of custom are imitated, and the disappearance 

 of injurious customs before their successful rival 

 customs may take the place of the disappearance 

 of the persons or tribes who practise the in- 

 jurious customs. It is a further step, and a 

 step that, more than anything else, marks the 

 rise of civilisation out of barbarism, when deli- 

 berate reflection leads a group of human beings 

 to change their customs in order to escape the 

 penalties of suffering and extinction which come 

 from a blind adherence to old customs that once 

 promoted the well-being of the community, but 

 in changed circumstances have now become 

 hurtful. Natural selection does not cease to 

 operate ; but the conflict of ideas takes the 





