354 MIND IN EVOLUTION 



comes more stable, it is also more capable of c 

 Social changes are on the average far more rapid than those 

 changes in the physical constitution of a species upon which 

 instinct ultimately rests. Chpuge of behaviour through 

 modification of instinct must proceed with the same geo- 

 logical slowness which marks all the stages of physical ' 

 evolution. Through submission to the social standard, 

 conduct may be made to ace )date itself to the < 



ing requirements of social life, without lagging more than 

 two or three generations behind the requirements them- 

 selves. 



Thus by the standardising of morality a force grows up 

 outside of instinct to regulate conduct. Ijj the en<^ this 

 force no doubt owes its origin to hereditary tend cies, but 

 it is a heredity modified, on the one hand, by >dition : 

 on the other, by the rational aoprehens on of what is 

 required, one may wn ultimate meaning. 



What is recognised as right in accordanc with this standard 

 may ?n many cases be ^ from the inborn 



impulses of the guidance, the 



so' -.] impulses develop into a recognition of what is due 

 t.Q others, placed above momentary r^rice or personal 

 desire. Such a standard admits of development into a 

 code, adaptable to the thousand details of a complex 

 social structure ; while finally, as thj needs of social life 

 change, the standard is capable of organic modification along 

 with them, in accordance with the reasoned appreciation 

 of neces 



In this place, I am only concerned to contrast animal 

 behaviour with human morality taken in the rough and as 

 How morality a a contribution to the organi- 

 sation of life develops within the human race to the stage 

 thus roughly indicated, would have to be the subject of a 

 separate inquiry. To the same inquiry would belong the 

 consideration of the steps by which it further advances 

 to something higher. What the nature of this higher 

 stage is, will be t iiy indicated in a later chapter. 



8. The position jf instinct. 



It needs no argument to show that intelligence, when 

 developed to the point now reached, must very largely 



