CiiAP !V Moral Sense. 97 



CHAPTEE IV. 



Comparison of the Mental Powekb of Man and thh 

 Lower Animals — continued. 



Ihe moral sense — Fundamental proposition — The qualities of social 

 animals — Origin of sociability — Struggle between opposed instincts — 

 Man a social animal — The more enduring social instincts conquer other 

 less persistent instincts — The social virtues alone regarded by savages — 

 The self-regarding virtues acquired at a later stage of development — 

 The importance of the judgment of the members of the same community 

 on conduct — Transmission of moral tendencies — Summary. 



I FULLY subscribe to the judgment of those -writers^ who 

 maintain that of all the differences between man and the 

 lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the 

 most important. This sense, as Mackintosh^ remarks, " has a 

 "rightful supremacy over every other principle of human 

 " action ;" it is summed up in that short but imperious word 

 ought, so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all 

 the attriViutes of man, leading him without a moment's hesita- 

 tion to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature ; or after due 

 deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or 

 duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause. Immanuel Katil 

 exclaims, " Duty ! Wondrous thought, that workest neither by 

 " fond insinuation, flattery, nor by any threat, but merely by 

 " holding up thy naked law in the soul, and so extorting for 

 " thyself always reverence, if not always obedience ; before 

 " whom all appetites are dumb, however secretly they rebel ; 

 " whence thy original ?" * 



This great question has been discussed by many writers * of 

 eonsummate ability ; and my sole excuse for touching on it, is 

 the impossibility of here passing it over; and because, as far as 1 

 know, no one has approached it exclusively from the side oi 

 natural history. The investigation possesses, also, some in- 



* See, for instance, on this subject, and Moral Science,' 1868, p. 543- 

 Quatrefages, ' Unite' de i'Espfece 725) of twenty-six Britisli authors 

 Humaine,' 1861, p. 21, &c. who have written on this subject, 



' ' Dissertation on Ethical Philo- and whose names are familiar to 



jophy,' 1837, p. 231, &o.. every reader ; to these, Mr. Bain'n 



^ ' Metaphysics of Ethics,' trans- own name, and those of Mr. Lecky, 



lated by J. W. Semple, Edinburgh, Mr. Shadworth Hodgson, Sir J. 



i8H6, p. 186. Lubbocl:, and others, might bs 



* Mr. Bain gives a list (' Mental added. 



