168 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



stand the differences believed to exist in this respect be- 

 tween the various races of mankind. 



Even the partial transmission of virtuous tendencies 

 would be an immense assistance to the primary impulse 

 derived directly and indirectly from the social instincts. 

 Admitting for a moment that virtuous tendencies are in- 

 herited, it appears probable, at least in such cases as chas- 

 tity, temperance, humanity to animals, etc., that they 

 become first impressed on the mental organization through 

 habit, instruction, and example, continued during several 

 generations in the same family, and in a quite subordinate 

 degree, or not at all, by the individuals possessing such 

 virtues having succeeded best in the struggle for life. My 

 chief source of doubt with respect to any such inheritance 

 is that senseless customs, superstitions, and tastes, such as 

 the horror of a Hindu for unclean food, ought on the same 

 principle to be transmitted. I have not met with any evi- 

 dence in support of the transmission of superstitious customs 

 or senseless habits, although in itself it is perhaps not less 

 probable than that animals should acquire inherited tastes 

 for certain kinds of food or fear of certain foes. 



Finally the social instincts, which no doubt were ac- 

 quired by man as by the lower animals for the good of the 

 community, will from the first have given to him some wish 

 to aid his fellows, some feeling of sympathy, and have com- 

 pelled him to regard their approbation and disapprobation. 

 Such impulses will have served him at a very early period 

 as a rude rule of right and wrong. But as man gradually 

 advanced in intellectual power, and was enabled to trace 

 the more remote consequences of his actions ; as he acquired 

 sufficient knowledge to reject baneful customs and super- 

 stitions ; as he regarded more and more not only the welfare, 

 but the happiness of his fellow-men ; as from habit, follow- 

 ing on beneficial experience, instruction, and example, his 

 sympathies became more tender and widely diffused, ex- 

 tending to men of all races, to the imbecile, maimed, and 

 other useless members of society, and finally to the lower 



