292 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



lines of conduct on the character of the individual, 

 and on the general good, are perceived; and then the 

 self-regarding virtues come within the scope of pubUc 

 opinion, and receive praise, and their opposites blame. ^ 



Darwin finds the chief force making for moral 

 progress in this love of praise and dread of blame, 

 which acts through public opinion. He traces it 

 back to the remote antiquity of the race and shows 

 how it has become a highly complex sentiment 

 in modern times: 



We may therefore conclude that primeval man, at a 

 very remote period, was influenced by the praise and 

 blame of his fellows. It is obvious that the members 

 of the same tribe would approve of conduct which 

 appeared to them to be for the general good, and would 

 reprobate that which appeared evil. To do good unto 

 others — to do unto others as ye would they should do 

 unto you — ^is the foundation-stone of morality. It is, 

 therefore, hardly possible to exaggerate the impor- 

 tance, during rude times, of the love of praise and the 

 dread of blame. A man who was not impelled by any 

 deep, instinctive feeling to sacrifice his life for the good 

 of others, yet was roused to such actions by a sense 

 of glory, would by his example excite the same wish 

 for glory in other men, and would strengthen by exer- 

 cise the noble feeling of admiration. . . . Ultimately 

 our moral sense or conscience becomes a highly complex 

 sentiment — originating in the social instincts, largely 

 guided by the approbation of our fellow-men, ruled by 

 reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep reli- 

 gious feelings, and confirmed by instruction and habit. ^ 



' The Descent of Man, p. 635. ' Idem, pp. 147-48. 



