192 MORAL MERIT. 



I can scarcely conceive the possibility of so defining 

 morality, morals or the moral sense, moral responsibility, 

 and religious feeling as to exclude the lower animals from 

 participation in the possession of these qualities. The 

 probability at least is that any ingenious definition that 

 could be so framed as to exclude these animals would also 

 exclude whole races and ranks of mankind. Philosophers 

 are constantly guilty of the folly of basing their psycho- 

 logical definitions on faculties, feelings, or phenomena that 

 occur in the most highly cultured individuals of the most 

 highly- civilised human races. Their moral sense is that of 

 the moral philosopher, their religious feeling that of the 

 Christian theologian. 



However man may view the subject, certain of the lower 

 animals themselves have an obvious sense of personal merit 

 or demerit, and they show this feeling in a great variety of 

 very practical ways. The dog shows its consciousness of 

 having performed some praiseworthy act by looking for 

 approbation and reward, or of evil-doing by confessing its 

 guilt and preparing either for punishment or its evasion. It 

 is proud of a noble action and ashamed of a mean one. It 

 exhibits equally its satisfaction at successful defence or the 

 salvation of life or property, and its shame at theft, especially 

 if caught inflagrante delicto. It submits to punishment that 

 it feels it has deserved, but protests against suffering for a 

 crime it has not committed. The feeling that it deserves 

 praise, credit, or reward leads also to self-applause or self- 

 approbation in the dog (Watson). As is elsewhere shown, 

 the dog, horse, mule, elephant, and other animals attach a 

 value to their work. They form an estimate, and a generally 

 correct one, of their deserts or rights, upon which they some- 

 times insist if they are not duly recognised by man. 



All evidence goes to show that moral merit and demerit 

 must, along with virtue and vice in general, be conceded to 

 the lower animals in common with man. It is not easy, no 

 doubt, to determine what precise amount or degree of the 

 said merit or the reverse they deserve in connection with 

 given actions; but the very same kind of difficulty occurs 

 incessantly in regard to man himself. 



