NATURE, HISTORY, AND ETHICS 4O9 



men were selected whose conscience was pricked, not 

 only if they committed murder, but also if they were 

 guilty of theft or any other crime against the community. 

 That they were able to act at all against the instinct was 

 due to the fact that selection favoured not only the more 

 social, but also the more intelligent, members. Intelli- 

 gence — and intelligence alone — can bring a man to act 

 against instinct ; just as in the case of the animals it is 

 only the most sagacious, such as the dog, that can act 

 contrary to their instincts. However, this disadvantage 

 of intelligence is insignificant in comparison with its 

 many advantages. 



Hence in the first human societies "good " and " bad " 

 were synonymous with socially useful and prejudicial. 

 Primitive men wovdd not be conscious of such ideas. 

 The " good " acted unconsciously on their instinct ; they 

 were chosen by selection, and the " better " were 

 favoured amongst their descendants. As the human 

 intelligence continued to develop, and gave birth to 

 speech, to think and act in a socially useful way became 

 a matter of course to them, to such an extent that they 

 would regard social conduct as the rule in life, as moral 

 or "good," without being conscious of its utility. They 

 then endeavoured to foster " good " conduct by punish- 

 ment and education, and here again they were assisted 

 by selection, which favoured the "best" races. 



The origin of conscience by natural selection is 

 confirmed when we turn to study the races that are still 

 at a low level of culture. Amongst these, "good " and 

 "bad" often mean something quite different from what 



