THE ORIGIN OF MAN 243 



greatest possible number of individuals can be reared 

 in full vigor and health, with all their faculties per- 

 fect, under the conditions to which they are exposed. 

 As the social instincts both of man and the lower ani- 

 mals have no doubt been developed by the same steps, 

 it would be advisable, if found practicable, to use the 

 same definition in both cases, and to take as the test 

 of morality, the general good or welfare of the com- 

 munity, rather than the general happiness; but this 

 definition would perhaps require some limitation on 

 account of political ethics." * 



Again he says: "It is possible, or, as we shall 

 hereafter see, even probable, that the habit of self- 

 command, like other habits, may be inherited. Thus 

 at last man comes to feel, through acquired, and, per- 

 haps, inherited habit, that it is best for him to obey 

 his more persistent instincts. The imperious word 

 ought seems merely to employ the consciousness of 

 the persistent instinct, either innate or partly ac- 

 quired, serving him as a guide, though liable to be 

 disobeyed. We hardly use the word ought in a meta- 

 phorical sense when we say hounds ought to hunt, 

 pointers to point, and retrievers to retrieve their 

 game. If they fail thus to act, they fail in their duty 

 and act wrongly." f 



He expresses the following doubt as to whether 

 habit may be inherited or not. " My chief source of 

 doubt with respect to any such inheritance, is that 

 senseless customs, superstitions and tastes, such as the 

 horror of a Hindoo for unclean food, ought on the 

 same principle to be inherited. Although this in it- 

 self is perhaps not less probable than that animals 

 should acquire inherited tastes for certain kinds of 

 food or fear of certain foes, I have not met with any 



* Descent of Man, Vol. 1, p. 93. t Ibid, p. 88. 



