I2O FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



affected the theories of morals or of society which 

 follow biological lines. 



Now plainly there is an ambiguity here. In the 

 previous chapters,' for the most part, we have been 

 dealing with a scientific analogy, consciously lifted 

 out of one region of thought and introduced into 

 another, coming no doubt with a great deal of 

 authority, but still presenting itself to view, and con- 

 tinuing to be regarded, as a foreign visitor. We shall 

 still find such a course followed in some instances 

 by writers who are employing Darwinian clues and 

 modes of thought. The doctrine of struggle for 

 existence may be applied to other things besides 

 plants or animals, to competing states, or types 

 of society, or types of ethical thought. But there 

 is a nearer way in which Darwinism may bear upon 

 our problems. Man himself as an organism is 

 brought within the range of Darwinian theories. In 

 connection with the assertion of man's descent from 

 brute races, fresh light of a lurid kind, as many 

 will think is made to fall upon the problems of 

 ethics; and questions as to social origins will run 

 back into questions regarding human origin by pro- 

 cess of evolution. 



When the world first heard of "Darwinism in 

 Morals " from Miss Frances Power Cobbe, it was to 

 this latter bearing of the Darwinian theories that she 

 called attention by a resonant protest. Darwin 

 like Leslie Stephen after him, but with a distincter 

 reference to animal ancestors of the human race 

 explained morality from sympathy, and from the 

 interests of the species. In particular, he laid it 

 down that the social instinct, with intelligence added 



