284 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is 

 by far the most important. ... It is the most noble 

 of all the attributes of man, leading him without a 

 moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow 

 creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by 

 the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some 

 great cause. ^ 



And again in the general summary of his theory 

 at the end of the book he says : 



A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on 

 his past actions and their motives — of approving of 

 some and disapproving of others ; and the fact that man 

 is the one being who certainly deserves this designa- 

 tion, is the greatest of all distinctions between him and 

 the lower animals.^ 



This moral sense which so clearly distinguishes 

 man from the animal world, however, does not 

 mark a break in the cosmic process, but is an 

 inevitable result of the great principle of evolution 

 which runs through the universe. The moral 

 sense, according to Darwin, is the natural and 

 inevitable development from the social instincts, 

 and he lays down as the basis of his thesis the 

 following proposition: 



. . . Any animal whatever, endowed with well- 

 marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections 

 being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral 

 sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers 



' The Descent of Man, p. 1 12. « Idem, p. 634. 



