ETHICAL IMPULSES 87 



by mankind has appeared to the religious- 

 minded to be a convincing proof of Divine inter- 

 vention. Evolutionist philosophers have felt 

 obliged to attribute their existence to the dis- 

 criminating power of the human intellect which 

 could perceive utilitarian reasons for the adoption 

 of behaviour that to the unenlightened appears to 

 be a foolish disregard of practical interests. But, 

 considered dispassionately, these impulses appear 

 to be undoubtedly instinctive. There is hardly 

 a man, however degraded, whose pulse is not 

 quickened by the display of self-sacrificing cour- 

 age, of self-denial, of undaunted chastity. No 

 reasoning calculations could have evoked so 

 useless, so painful a habit as the ascetic. Indeed, 

 the eccentricities of asceticism are sufficient to 

 prove that its foundations lie far below human 

 ingenuity or the human will. What social con- 

 ventions could have produced an emotion which 

 is capable of urging mankind to the unnatural 

 practice of celibacy, to the self-infliction of 

 torture, even to self-mutilation all supremely 

 useless, from a practical point of view, to society 

 and to themselves ? 



Our search for the germs of these impulses 

 amongst the lower animals is impeded by our 

 inability to enter into their minds. But it is not 

 altogether fruitless. Many insects display self- 

 devotion in the cause of their community, and the 

 unresisting submissiveness of the males of certain 1 

 kinds to be eaten by the females excites our 

 astonishment. A cock will deny himself for his 

 family of hens ; both horses and dogs appear to 

 possess a sense of justice ; and we may perhaps 

 see in the practice of monogamy by many birds 

 and quadrupeds, some indication of a self-denying 



1 Certain mantises and beetles. This curious self-devotion also 

 occurs amongst some scorpions and spiders. 



