r88 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



widely diffused througli the effects of habit, example, in- 

 struction, and reflection. It is not improbable that after 

 long practice virtuous tendencies may be inherited. With 

 the more civilized races, the conviction of the existence of 

 an all-seeing Deity has had a potent influence on the ad- 

 vance of morality. Ultimately man does not accept the 

 praise or blame of his fellows as his sole guide, though 

 few escape this influence, but his habitual convictions, con- 

 trolled by reason, afford him the safest rule. His conscience 

 then becomes the supreme judge and monitor. Nevertheless 

 the first foundation or origin of the moral sense lies in the 

 social instincts, including sympathy ; and these instincts no 

 doubt were primarily gained, as in the case of the lower 

 animals, through natural selection. 



The belief in God has often been advanced as not only 

 the greatest, but the most complete of all the distinctions 

 between man and the lower animals. It is, however, im- 

 possible, as we have seen, to maintain that this belief is 

 1 innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand, a belief 

 \ in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal; 

 \and apparently follows from a considerable advance in 

 man's reason, and from a still greater advance in his fac- 

 ulties of imagination, curiosity, and wonder. I am aware 

 that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used 

 by many persons as an argument for His existence. But 

 this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled 

 to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant 

 spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the be- 

 lief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Deity. 

 The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not 

 seem to arise in the mind of man until he has been ele- 

 vated by long-continued culture. 



He who believes in the advancement of man from some 

 low organized form will naturally ask. How does this bear 

 on the belief in the immortality of the soul ? The barbar- 

 ous races of man, as Sir J. Lubbock has shown, possess no 



