Moral Consciences of Heredity. 351 



which the savage nature of man continually burns with an infernal 

 fire. 



We must ever bear in mind these facts, and be careful not to be- 

 lieve that education explains everything. We would not, however, 

 in the least detract from its importance. Education, after centuries 

 of effort, has made us what we are. Moreover, to bear sway over 

 average minds is in itself a grand part to play; for though it is the 

 higher minds that act, it is mediocre minds that react, and history 

 teaches that the progress of humanity is as much the result of the 

 reactions which communicate motion, as of the actions which first 

 determine it 



in, 



We are now in a position to inquire into the part which heredity 

 plays in the formation of moral habits. Our task were easy enough 

 if the genesis of moral ideas and the history of their development 

 had been discovered. Had some one, taking for his standpoint 

 the doctrine of evolution, shown through what successive phases 

 human morality must needs have passed in order to rise from the 

 lower forms of savage life to the higher forms of our present civili- 

 zation; had the various stages of this progress been so marked that 

 we might see their logical dependence, and understand why one 

 precedes and another follows, and wherein the former is the condi- 

 tion of the latter we could then readily discover the place of 

 heredity as a factor in this development. Unfortunately, the 

 genesis of moral ideas has never been traced with anything like 

 perfection, and it is a work to be attempted only by some master 

 hand. While we wait for this to be done by Mr. Spencer in his 

 Principles of Sociology, we are compelled to attempt here a coarse 

 and imperfect sketch. 



In doing this there are two possible methods. We might pro- 

 ceed analytically, starting from current moral ideas, as now mani- 

 fested in the usages, laws, and opinions of civilized nations ; then, 

 tracing back the course of history, we would eliminate all sentiments 

 of new formation, thus by successive simplifications reaching 

 the basis, the essential condition of all morality. Or we might 

 proceed synthetically, starting from the rudest state of society, and 

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