34 Evolution and Religion 



Varying Moral Ideas 



In speaking of one of the lowest peoples on earth in 

 the evolutionary scale to-day (but whether a decadent 

 race or simply an undeveloped one remains yet to be 

 proved), Darwin says: "While observing the barbarous 

 inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, it struck me that the 

 possession of some property, a fixed abode, and the 

 union of many families under a chief, were the indis- 

 pensable requisites for civilization." 1 This seems to 

 be undoubtedly true; though there are other indis- 

 pensable factors as well which appear to enter into the 

 complex problem of civilization. But confining our- 

 selves for the moment to his three, how can you per- 

 manently maintain the idea of the sacredness of property 

 rights if the individual has not yet been brought through 

 some means of suasion, moral* or otherwise, to learn 

 to subdue his purely selfish passion of covetousness ? 

 How can you maintain the idea of the sanctity of the 

 home and family life if the individual has not yet 

 learned to control his purely selfish passion of lust? 

 How can you maintain tribal life under a chief if the 

 individual has not yet learned to subordinate his purely 

 selfish interests to the general welfare of the community ? 

 This self-control by the individual would appear to 

 be the one indispensable basis of all community life, 

 both among men and among the gregarious animals 

 as well. But as man's mental horizon of what consti- 

 tutes the general widens, so will his ideas of morality 

 1 The Descent of Man, vol. I. pp. 160, 161. 



