THE CANNIBAL IN EVOLUTION 145 



dangerous, which is, I must suppose, the time when the 

 supporters of some particular view wish to see every one's 

 energy consumed in the search for facts to uphold it. 

 But, to alter the phrase of the Master of Trinity, none is 

 infallible, even the oldest, who not unnaturally are apt 

 to regard their settled opinions with the greatest respect. 

 A new hypothesis, or a new application of an ancient 

 one, is, however, in its way as much a fact as bones in a 

 tumulus, and may perhaps do work as important as the 

 Piltdown skull. 



Among the curiosities of the human intellect is its 

 great reluctance to acknowledge anything now regarded 

 with moral reprobation as once normal to mankind. The 

 tendency of all races to place the Golden Age in the past, 

 which is the result of a dread of change, since any alteration 

 may bring disaster, and must cause temporary disorder, 

 acts thus as a forgotten complex even in science. In spite 

 of some authorities having recognized the probability that 

 all races have passed through a stage of cannibalism, 

 many others of equal or greater prestige appear to regard 

 the notion with horror. 



It is objectionable to their moral feelings, and, although 

 it is the first duty of the scientific thinker to clear his 

 mind of prejudice, some are obviously unable to do so. 

 Accordingly one very great authority practically asserts, 

 not without feeling, that horror of incest is a primary feeling 

 in man, an abstract notion thus preceding experience — a 

 totally impossible position to occupy in any " science " 

 but theology. As it happens I myself encountered this 

 moral feeling with regard to cannibalism, when in an essay, 

 published in an obscure journal more than twenty-five 

 years ago, I attributed to it very great and important 

 evolutionary results. It is true that no notice of an 



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