TEE ORIGIN OF MAN 255 



to rise above instinct, and to acquire the high mental 

 powers of man. 



Even if animals had clear ideas of the useful, it is 

 not at all evident that they would ever be able to 

 apply them except to themselves as individuals. 



But I do not think that it can be shown that they 

 have any abstract conception of the useful, and much 

 less can it be true that they have a conscience which 

 has been evolved out of their ideas of utility. 



I quote again the following from Darwin: "It is 

 possible, or, as we shall hereafter see, even probable, 

 that the habit of self-command, like other habits, be 

 inherited. Thus at last 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 con- 

 sciousness of the existence of a persistent instinct, 

 either innate or partly acquired, serving him as a 

 guide, though liable to be disobeyed. We hardly use 

 the word ought in a metaphorical sense when we say 

 hounds ought to hunt, pointers to point, and retriev- 

 ers to retrieve their game. If they fail thus to act, 

 they fail in their duty and act wrongly." * 



He thus uses the word ought, which expresses in the 

 fullest way our sense of moral obligation. In hunt- 

 ing, hounds follow a persistent instinct, and this in- 

 stinct constitutes the moral faculty, and yet Darwin 

 admits that no animal is a moral being. They hunt 

 without any intelligent purpose, and without freedom 

 of choice, for instinct is blind and can not reason. If 

 the instinct to hunt is similar to the moral quality in 

 man, then all instincts are moral, and ought to be 

 obeyed. If the hound ought to follow his instinct 

 and hunt, then man ought to follow his instinct and 

 slay his enemies. 



* Descent of Man, Vol. 1, p. 88. 



