52 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. « 



ferocious destructiveness when his anger is roused 

 by opposition. 



But, in proportion as men have passed from 

 anarchy to social organization, and in proportion 

 as civilization has grown in worth, these deeply 

 ingrained serviceable qualities have become de- 

 fects. After the manner of successful persons, 

 civilized man would gladly kick down the ladder 

 by which he has climbed. He would be only too 

 pleased to see " the ape and tiger die." But they 

 decline to suit his convenience; and the unwel- 

 come intrusion of these boon companions of his 

 hot youth into the ranged existence of civil life 

 adds pains and griefs, innumerable and immeasur- 

 ably great, to those which the cosmic process 

 necessarily brings on the mere animal. In fact, 

 civilized man brands all these ape and tiger 

 promptings with the name of sins; he punishes 

 many of the acts which flow from them as crimes; 

 and, in extreme cases, he does his best to put an 

 end to the survival of the fittest of former days 

 by axe and rope. 



I have said that civilized man has reached this 

 point; the assertion is perhaps too broad and gen- 

 eral; I had better put it that ethical man has 

 attained thereto. The science of ethics professes 

 to furnish us with a reasoned rule of life; to tell 

 us what is right action and why it is so. What- 

 ever differences of opinion may exist among ex- 

 perts there is a general consensus that the ape and 



