244 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



evidence in support of the transmission of supersti- 

 tious customs or senseless habits." 



If the doctrine of heredity, as insisted on by Dar- 

 win and Spencer, is true, it is evident that any course 

 of conduct long persisted in ought to become heredi- 

 tary. And yet after diligent search he tells us that 

 he has " not met with any evidence in support" of 

 this necessary part of the theory of evolution. Why 

 insist on a theory which he admits does not explain 

 all the facts? If acquired habits of morality can be 

 inherited, then special Hindoo habits which have been 

 formed in successive individuals for thousands of 

 years ought to be inherited, but they are not. 



Spencer attempts to explain the origin of intuitions 

 as follows: " These all have arisen from the organ- 

 ized and consolidated experiences of all antecedent 

 individuals, who bequeathed their slowly-developed 

 nervous organizations, till they practically became 

 forms of thought apparently independent of experi- 

 ence. 



"I believe that the experiences of utility organ- 

 ized and consolidated through all past generations of 

 the human race, have been producing corresponding 

 nervous modifications, which, by continued transmis- 

 sion and accumulation, have become in us certain 

 faculties of moral intuition — certain emotions re- 

 sponding to right and wrong conduct, which have no 

 apparent basis in the individual experiences of util- 

 ity." 



Thus, according to Spencer, the moral faculties are 

 due to the " experiences of utility." 



According to Darwin, " man comes to feel through 

 acquired, and, perhaps, inherited habit, that it is 

 best for him to obey his more persistent instincts. 

 The imperious word ought seems merely to imply the 

 consciousness of the persistent instinct." 



