COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



respectively of the individual and of the com- 

 munity. And on the other hand, it is equally 

 true that there is a highly complex feeling, the 

 product of a slow emotional evolution, which 

 prompts us to certain lines of conduct irrespec- 

 tive of any conscious estimate of pleasures or 

 utilities. In no department of inquiry is the 

 truth and grandeur of the Doctrine of Evolu- 

 tion more magnificently illustrated than in the 

 province of ethics. 



Before we conclude, there are one or two fur- 

 ther points to which it seems necessary to al- 

 lude. In asserting that we possess an instinc- 

 tive and inherited moral sense, it is not meant 

 that we possess, anterior to education and expe- 

 rience, an organic preference for certain particu- 

 lar good actions, and an organic repugnance 

 to certain particular bad actions. We do not 

 inherit a horror of stealing, any more than the 

 Hindu inherits the horror of killing cattle. We 

 simply inherit a feeling which leads us, when we 

 are told that stealing is wrong, to shun it, with- 

 out needing to be taught that it is detrimental 

 to society. Hence there is a chance for patho- 

 logical disturbances in the relations between the 

 moral sense and the actions with which it is 

 concerned. Imperfectly adjusted moral codes 

 arise, and false principles of action gain tempo- 

 rary currency. These, nevertheless, come ulti- 

 mately to outrage our sympathies, and are con- 

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