300 Darwin's Theory of Social Progress 



landscape, or refined music," become important 

 survival factors because of their contributions to 

 the power of imagination, and it is through its 

 contributions to a higher standard of morality 

 that religion and the "ennobling belief in the 

 existence of an Omnipotent God"^ become impor- 

 tant factors of social progress. 



Among the most important contributing factors 

 to moral advancement and therefore of social pro- 

 gress, Darwin emphasizes the extension of the 

 recognized limits of association. He shows by 

 numerous examples that the narrower are the 

 limits of association the lower will be the standard 

 of morality, and assigns to this factor the first 

 place among the causes of the low morality of 

 savages : 



The chief causes of the low morality of savages, 

 as judged by our standard, are, firstly, the confinement 

 of sympathy to the same tribe. Secondly, powers 

 of reasoning insufficient to recognize the bearing of 

 many virtues, especially of the self-regarding virtues, 

 on the general welfare of the tribe. Savages, for 

 instance, fail to trace the multiplied evils consequent 

 on a want of temperance, chastity, etc. And, thirdly, 

 weak power of self-command; for this power has not 

 been strengthened through long-continued, perhaps 

 inherited, habit, instruction, and religion.^ 



He traces the evolution of morality with the 

 widening intellectual horizon of man as follows: 



' The Descent of Man, p. 109. ^Idem, pp. 134-35. 



