178 A STUDY IN HEREDITY 



divorce) ; those of non- Christians depart very 

 widely from the Christian standard [e.g. as regards 

 infanticide or " vice "). There is therefore no 

 criterion of morals, no tapu, that is valid for the 

 whole human race. Even for Christians there is 

 no absolute criterion, since Christians in different 

 times and places have variously interpreted the 

 Scriptures and advocated very different codes. 

 Only a little while ago our ancestors thought it 

 right to murder heretics ; we think it the most 

 heinous of offences. 



If the reader thinks a while he will conclude, 

 first, that almost all the greater crimes of history 

 have been committed in the attempt to enforce 

 purely moral ideas, pure tapus, by secular punish- 

 ments ; and, secondly, that almost our whole 

 advance in civilised government has been due 

 to the gradual abandonment of such attempts. 

 For example, again and again during the course 

 of history it has been thought by the adherents 

 of this or that religion that this or that belief 

 was the right one which should be held, and that 

 this or that code of morals associated with it was 

 the right one which should be followed. The 

 attempt to enforce these ideas led, among other 

 crimes, to the persecutions of the early Christians, 

 to the horrors of the Dark Ages, and in recent 

 times to the Armenian massacres and to the reign 



