BJ 1335 J3 Vol. I. September i, 1889. No. n. H^e O M dern $ clence fl ssaylst. Popular Evolution Essays and Lectures. Monthly, or oftener. Single Number, 10 Cts. (Subscriptions for the First Series, 15 Numbers, $1.50.) CONTENTS OF THIS NVMKER: EVOLUTION OF MORALS BY LEWIS G. JANES AUTHOR OF "A STI-J>V OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY," "THE EVOLUTION OF THE KAHTH," ETC., ETC. The eye reads omens where it goes, And speaks all languages the rose ; And, striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form. Nature, i., 1. THE fossil strata show us that Nature began with rudimental forms, and rose to the more complex as fast as the earth was fit for their dwelling-place ; and that the lower perish as the higher appear. Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preced- ing" inferior quadruped organization. . . The age of the quadruped is to go out, the age of the brain and of the heart is to come in. And if one shall read the future of the race hinted in the organic effort of Nature to mount and melior- ate, anil the corresponding impulse to the Better in the human being, we shall dare affirm that there is nothing he will not overcome and convert, until at last culture shall absorb the chaos and gehenna. He will convert the Furies into Muses and the hells into benefit. Culture. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. BOSTON : THE NEW IDEAL PUBLISHING COMPANY ESTES PRESS BUILDING, 192 SUMMER ST. Entered at Post-office, Boston, for mailing at second-class postal rates. PROSPECTUS OF THE BROOKLYN SERIES. 1. Herbert Spencer: His life, writings, and philosophy. By Mr. Daniel Greenleaf Thompson. 2. Charles Robert Darwin : His life, works, and influence. By llev. John AV. Chadwick. :]. Solar and Planetary Evolution : How suns and worlds come into being. By Mr. Garrett P. Serviss. 4. Evolution of the Earth : The story of geology. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 5. Evolution of Vegetal Life : By Mr. William Potts. 6. Evolution of Animal Life: By Dr. Rossiter W. Raymond. 7. The Descent of Man : His origin, antiquity, growth. By Prof. E. D. Cope. 8. Evolution of Mind : Its nature and development. By Dr. Robert G. Eccles. 9. Evolution of Society : Families, tribes, states, classes. By Mr. James A. Skilton. 10. Evolution of Theology : Development of religious beliefs. By Mr. Z. Sidney Sampson. 11. Evolution of Morals: Egoism, altruism, utilitarianism, etc. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. 12. Proofs of Evolution : The eight main scientific arguments. By Mr. Nelson C. Parshall. 13. Evolution as Belated to Religious Thought. By Rev. John W. Chadwick. 14. The Philosophy of Evolution : Its relation to prevailing systems. By Mr. Starr H. Nichols. 15. The Effects of Evolution on the Coming Civilization. By Rev. Minot J. Savage. To be followed by other Lectures and Essays, of similar explanatory and con- structive tenor, based on modern scientific research and attainment. Subscriptions for the Fifteen Lectures above enumerated will be received for $1.50. Single copies of any lecture, as published, may be had for 10 cents each. Address THE NEW IDEAL COMPANY. BROOKLYN ETHICAL ASSOCIATION EVOLUTION ESSAYS XI. . LIKRARV , J : ' v ^ ' EVOLUTION OF MORALS x BY LEWIS G. JANES AUTHOR OF "A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY," "THE EVOLUTION OF THE EABTH," ETC., ETC. BOSTON : THE NEW IDEAL PUBLISHING COMPANY ESTES PRESS BUILDING, 192 SUMMER ST. 1889 PREFACE. THE publication of the series of essays on Evolution, delivered tinder the auspices of the Brooklyn Ethical Association, is under- taken in response to a general and increasing demand for a correct statement, in popular form, of the leading ideas, inferences and tendencies involved in the acceptance of the Evolution Philosophy, together with a clear statement of the main lines of evidence or proof by which the conception of Evolution is sustained. The plan of the series involves not only the treatment of the physical and biological phases of the subject, but also its ethical, social, religious and philosophical aspects the whole to be introduced by biographical sketches of the two great men of our own time whose names are most intimately associated with the Evolution hypothesis. As to the selection and arrangement of topics in the programme of the Ethical Association, Mr. Herbert Spencer says : " The mode of presentation seems to me admirably adapted for popularizing Ev- olution views"; and Mr. John Fiske writes, "I think your schedule attractive and valuable. ' ' The essayists have been selected with care, with special reference to the character of the topics to be treated. It is hoped that the publication of these lectures may aid societies and individuals throughout the country, in organiz- ing and conducting classes in the study of Evolution, and thereby prepare many minds for an intelligent and systematic perusal of the more voluminous and scientific works of Darwin, Spencer, and other standard authorities. The different phases of the subject are treated in this series in a certain natural order of succession, which the student and reader will do well to follow in the perusal of the lectures. L. G. J. EVOLUTION OF MORALS.* "Virtue is the adherence in action to the nature of thinys, and the nature of things makes it prevalent." KALPH WALDO EMEKSOX : Spiritual Laws. IT has been tersely said that " the moral is the measure of health." This is true not only of man, but of ideas, of institutions, of religions, and of philosophical systems. These, too, are rightly regarded with suspicion if found wanting when subjected to the moral test. A system of thought doubtless finds its ultimate sanctions in evidences appealing to the intellect ; but any apparent deficiencies on the ethical side, affecting the guidance of conduct and the development of character, should justly subject its claims to renewed and rigid scrutiny. That only is completely reasonable which is sane, healthy, moral. It is precisely on this ground that the Evolution philos- ophy has been most violently assailed by its critics. This fact, however, should not of itself create distrust of the essential validity of the philosophy. Such assaults have been the common fate of all new systems of thought, since man began to drop the plummets of his reason into the ocean-depths of his physical and psychical being and envir- onment. To the conservative mind, the new and untrodden path always seems full of dangers. The turn-pike road of the fathers is the safe and narrow way. The engineer who sets out through the wilderness to survey a path for the iron rails, is committing an act of sacrilege and impiety. Seeing that this is so, it behooves us nevertheless to look well to the ethical foundations of this new doctrine of Evolution. The welfare of men and of kingdoms may depend upon their stability and strength. The present age is a period of transition. Old sanctions are being undermined. Man fronts the Universe and the problems of life in a new attitude. The revolution in thought through which we are passing has been well termed, by * COPYRIGHT, 1889, by The New Ideal Publishing Co. 258 Evolution of Morals. Mr. Savage, " A change of front of the Universe." It is the passage of man, in his mental estate, from dependent childhood to self-reliant manhood always a critical and dangerous period in the history of the individual, none the less critical and dangerous in the life of a nation or a civil- ization. Heretofore the ethical systems of the world have, in the main, rested on the sanctions of theology upon man's thought of God instead of upon the Divine Reality as revealed in the nature of things. It has been assumed that man's supreme obligations were due to God or the gods, as he conceived them, and that they were enforced by a sys- tem of rewards and penalties to be bestowed or inflicted in a future state of existence. The new philosophy affirms that man's primary obligation is to his fellow-man that duty grows out of the necessities of social communion ; that \ it is founded in the nature of things, instead of in the \ arbitrary will of an absent deity ; that its penalties are not V extrinsic but intrinsic that they are registered immedi- ately on the tablets of character, and their enforcement is dependent upon no speculative beliefs, whatever may be the theological implications involved in such beliefs. The old sanctions, resting on theology, are losing their force and efficacy in all thinking minds. A few only, as yet, comprehend the significance and bearing of modern "den- tine thought, and especially of the doctrine of evolution, upon the foundations of morality ; hence the assumed and not altogether imaginary danger of a " moral interregnum " a temporary lapse into laxity of thought and depravity of life. Intuitional metaphysics joins with theology in the at- tempt to discredit the foundations of evolutionary ethics. The sanctions of morality, it declares, rest not indeed upon the arbitrary mandates of deity, but upon the nature of the human mind. The sense of obligation is a primary intui- tion of consciousness. IH has had no causal genesis no historical evolution. Its " ought " is the " categorical im- perative," which cannot be analyzed, scientifically investi- gated, or traced to any less definite or coherent substratum of primitive impulse. The intuitive system appeals for rational recognition by its fundamental assumption of the supremacy of reason, and affirms its competence to deal with the problems of philosophy and psychology by the deductive or a priori method, independent of the facts of experience. Evolution of Morals. 259 In ethics, it rejects as incompetent all moral judgments based upon experiential tests. The actual bearing of the doctrine thus assailed, upon ethical sanctions, may best be understood by the study of its theory of the genesis and development of the moral sense. It should be said at the outset, however, that the leading representatives of the new school of thought by no means admit the validity of these charges of their critics. The evolution philosophy affirms the supremacy of ethics, and makes moral science the culmination of its entire sys- tem of thought. "My ultimate purpose," says Mr. Spencer, in his preface to the Data of Ethics, "lying behind all proximate purposes, has been that of finding for the princi- ples of right and wrong, in conduct at large, a scientific basis." In its investigation of morals, the new philosophy lays its foundation upon the solid rock of fact, as revealed in human experience. Its ethical structure does not rest upon a cloud-fabric of theological or metaphysical assump- tion, but upon human nature, itself upon man's natural desire and effort to make the most of life, both in its per- sonal and its social aspects, and upon the observed good or evil effects of actions, judged by this practical test. In collecting and collating its facts, it follows the scientific 'method studying man as he exists to-day, and as he has existed throughout the entire period of his evolution. As in the field of the physical sciences, commencing with the historical era, it prolongs its vision into prehistoric times by a legitimate use of the scientific imagination. By the study of savage races and the investigation of language and archaeological remains, it forms a vivid conception of man as he was gradually outgrowing the inheritance of his brute ancestry, and progressing toward civilization. Even more deeply than this, the Evolution philosophy searches for facts on which to rest its science of morals. It perceives that moral conduct is only a part of a larger whole conduct in general. It is necessary, therefore, to study conduct first in its universal aspect, in order rightly to estimate the nature and status of ethical conduct. Con- duct may be tersely defined, in the language of Mr. Spencer, as "acts adjusted to ends." * It includes only those actions which are accompanied by volition, excluding those which are automatic and mechanical. In the lower forms of or- * Spencer's Data of Ethics. 260 Evolution of Morals. ganic life, consciousness is vague, indefinite, and protoplasmic limited to mere sentience in its most primitive and undif- ferentiated form. Such organisms manifest but little evi- dence of definite, conscious purpose. Their action is mainly automatic, in response to external stimuli. The polyp has no special organs of sense ; it does not even seek intelli- gently for its food, or manifest a definite purpose to propa- gate its kind. Its action is more like that of a vegetable than a conscious being. Attached to a support, it appro- priates suitable articles of nourishment whenever they are brought in contact with it by the action of external forces. It propagates its race by gemmation or budding, like a vegetable organism. The differentiation of purposeful actions, as we ascend the scale of being, is a gradual and progressive process a process of evolution. With greater complexity of structure, we find an ever-increasing number of purposeful actions, directed toward definite and intelligi- ble ends. Food is intelligently sought, instead of being passively appropriated from accidental contact. Dangers are intentionally avoided. Life becomes less the sport of accident conies more and more within the scope of intelli- gent volition. The probability of fulfilling its natural period steadily increases as we advance from infusorium to ascidian, from ascidian to fish, from fish to reptile, front reptile to mammal, from brute to man. Life not only in- creases in relative duration, but also in breadth or amount. Conduct increases in complexity as it reaches successively higher stages of evolution. In estimating the relative posi- tion of an organism in the scale of being, we must consider not merely the length of its life, but rather the sum of its vital activities. The elephant lives longer than man, but it does not live as much as man. Its activities are fewer, its adjustments of acts to ends less definite and numerous. This principle of the gradual evolution of conduct in defi- niteness and complexity applies not only to conduct in gen- eral, but also, evidently, to those volitional acts which constitute the yet undifferentiated protoplasm of moral conduct. The primary motive which governs the purposeful actions of the lower organisms is the desire for self-preservation. Their voluntary movements are directed to securing nutri- ment, and to escaping from dangers which threaten to terminate their existence. Propagating with marvelous Evolution of Morals. 261 rapidity, the contest for existence forces them into compe- tition and conflict with their kind, as well as into the struggle against the inertia or opposition of natural forces. Thus the problem of life steadily increases in complexity. It demands greater activities of mind and body, and the demand induces the supply. Out of the desire and purpose to live, and the conflict consequent upon action in accordance with that purpose, the inter-action of intelligent volition in the organism and the stress of environing conditions, have grown all the splendors of the intellectual activities, all the diversified wonders of organic structure and function. As intelligence increases, it is at length naturally per- ceived that the welfare of the individual organism is largely dependent upon the preservation and perpetuation of the race. The latter end, after a time, to some degree supplants the primitive impulse for self-preservation as a conscious motive for voluntary effort. In the lowest organisms the race is perpetuated without conscious purpose sometimes by fission, or automatic sub-division, each section or part of an original unitary organism forming, when separated, an independent individual. This process is automatically ini- tiated whenever increasing size in the organism, or dimin- ished food-supply, renders nourishment too difficult ; or when other physical conditions over which the organism has no voluntary control, operate to produce a like result. The action is purely instinctive and purposeless. Higher in the scale of being, intelligence co-operates more and more with inherited instinct in securing race-perpetuation. Off- spring require and receive more care. Many of the higher animals will risk their own lives, or deprive themselves of food, to protect or feed their mates or their young during the breeding season. Accepting the Darwinian account of man's origin,* we must conceive of him as emerging from brutehood possessed of these two inherited instincts of self-preservation and race-perpetuation. The historical period evidently consti- tutes but the smallest fraction of the time during which he has existed on the earth. Some six or seven thousand years, at most, bring us to the beginnings of human history ; but the facts of man's present condition, and the evidence of ancient monuments and archaeological remains, render it necessary for us to assume a period of several hundred * Darwin's Descent of Man. 262 Evolution of Morals. thousand years since man was derived from that old-world ape, "probably arboreal in its habits," which Mr. Darwin regards as man's immediate ancestor. Into this dim past, guided by such facts as we may obtain from archaeological, philological and aboriginal studies, we must prolong our mental vision, and form such conception as we may of the characters of our early ancestors, and the probable facts involved in the evolution of man's moral nature. Somehow, in the struggle for existence, primitive man had evolved greater intellectual capacity and acuteness than V,the brute-creatures by whom he was surrounded. His f relative feebleness, and the consequent adversities against which he had to struggle, doubtless helped to secure this result. It is this intellectual characteristic closely related on its biological side to the development and posses- sion of a fore-limb and hand capable of manual dexterity, and the physical organs and intellectual possibility of .speech which, in the judgment of Mr. Darwin, differen- tiates man from the lower animals. This superior intellect- ual capacity has its bearing on the evolution of conduct, as we have already seen ; but a fact even more pertinent to our inquiry, as Mr. Fiske has shown,* is the lengthening of the period of infancy, which necessitated more prolonged care for the offspring of man's progenitor than that which is bestowed by any other animal. It was registered in the great Book of Life, of which man's history constitutes the latest chapter, that only by becoming as a little child could he enter into the high heaven of moral aspiration and en- deavor. The earliest instincts of primitive man were doubtless purely egoistic, like those of the brutes ; they were not im- moral, properly speaking, but un-moral; the moral sense was as yet undeveloped. If proof of this assertion is needed, it may be found in the study of language in the investi- gation of the origins of those words which we now use to define and express ethical conceptions. "If we examine the words, those oldest prehistoric testimonies," says Geiger, an eminent philological authority, " we shall find that all [expressions of] moral notions contain something morally indifferent." The original meaning of "right," for exam- ple, is straight; of "wrong," wrung or crooked. "Con- science " has primarily an intellectual, " ought " and " duty " *Fiske's Cosmic Philosophy. Evolution of Morals. 26$ a commercial, not a moral signification. These words come to represent ethical ideas only by a process of metaphorical transformation. " But why," continues the authority just quoted, "have not the morally good and bad their own names in language ? Why do we know them from some- thing else that previously had its appellation ? Evidently because language dates from a period when a moral judg- ment, a knowledge of good and evil, had not yet dawned in the human mind." * With some of the higher animals, primitive man inherited, however, in common with the gregarious instinct, an in- stinctive sympathetic quality in which Mr. Darwin distin- guishes the germs of morality.! These earliest social tendencies, as well as those subsequently developed, are directly related to that steady increase of population, which intensified the struggle for existence, and thereby com- pelled greater activity of body and intellect in the effort to preserve life. As this process progressed, man's conduct became more highly differentiated and evolved than that of any other animal. Memory became more vivid and com- prehensive. He looked backward and compared the effects of his past actions, as determined by diverse motives, and was influenced by this recollection when similar emergencies arose thereafter. $ As all his motives were egoistic, looking toward self-preservation and self -gratification, his conduct cannot, however, yet be regarded as moral. If the instinct for self-preservation could be satisfied by protecting and ministering to companion and offspring, well and good ; if, as he judged, by their destruction, no moral scruples stood in the way of his deadly purpose. The long period of infancy nevertheless held the family together, and necessitated a continuance of those acts of mutual forbearance and affection which cease among animals when the young are able to make shift for themselves. The mother ministered to the child, while the father gathered food and protected the family from wild beasts and savage men. Other children came, perhaps, before the care of the mother over the first-born could be relaxed. So, in the rude cave-dwelling, grew up the germ of the home the earliest *Geiger's Address delivered to the Merchants of Frankfort-on-the-Main. In the Australian, and some other languages of extant savage races, there are no words to express justice, or moral obligation, sin or guilt. t Darwin's Descent of Man. tlbid., I., pp. 99, 100. "264 Evolution of Morals. example of the permanent family relation.* The preserva- tion of the family became recognized as essential to the life and happiness of the individual. The family became a larger self, and toward the preservation of this self instead of the individual self, the efforts of each member of the i'amily were directed. f This change involved still greater complexity in the adjustment of acts to ends more active intelligence, greater fulness and length of life : in a word, a higher evolution of conduct. It was probably during this earliest stage of social evolution that language was evolved, giving a great impulse both to intellectual development, and to that tendency to social combination out of which has grown the moral sense. " Any being," says Darwin, " if it vary, however slightly, in a manner profitable to itself, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected." Such a variation, evidently, was this change in conduct, as a higher order of intelligence and greater facil- ities for social' communication were evolved. The vital activities, no longer exhausted in the struggle to live and the effort to perpetuate the race, turned naturally into other channels. As a larger average number of individuals reached maturity, reproductive activities were diminished and the struggle for existence was ameliorated. $ The law of competitive contest which, superficially regarded, seemed to threaten either universal selfishness or universal destruc- tion, was found to contain the proper antidote for these evils in the natural result of its own operation. The co- operative family, it is evident, would be better able to cope with unfavorable conditions in the struggle for existence than the lone anthropoid progenitor of man had ever been. The growth of the family-self into the tribal-self, of the tribe into the city and State, doubtless proceeded along the lines which we have already indicated in describing the evolution of the family ; resulting in a gradual enlargement of the area of altruistic service, a constant diminution of warfare and struggle, a higher order of individual and social life. Our study of the evolution of society has proved to *It is not assumed that the monogamic family constituted the earliest form of the domestic relation. Doubtless polygamous and polyandrous relations succeeded the primitive herdal (gregarious) habits of man's progenitors, pre- ceding the monogamic family in the order of evolution. The theory of moral evolution herewith set forth requires only a permanent family relationship, however constituted. t Wake' s Evolution of Morality. t Spencer's Essay on the Law of Population. Lone, though gregarious, because his motives were fundamentally egoistic. Evolution of Morals. 265 us that the great nations of antiquity, and the civilizations of our own time were developed from the primitive family as the social unit. The family altar has ever been the school for the moral culture of the race. The full signifi- cance of these facts of social evolution, in their relation to our topic, is only made manifest when we perceive that throughout the entire process, from its beginning in the rude cave-dwellings of primitive man, the obligation to serve others has been substituted ever more and more widely for the obligation to serve one's self, as the conscious motive in the government of conduct. Man has progressively iden- tified his individual welfare with that of ever-increasing numbers of his fellow-men. The instinct of obligation is, indeed, intuitive from the beginning; an inheritance not only from man's brute-progenitors, but from far away origins in the operations of inorganic forces. It is akin to those instinctive gropings of vegetable forms, deep-buried in the earth, for light and nourishment. It impelled volition in the lowest conscious adaptations of acts to ends. In its primitive form, however, it was an egoistic, not a moral im- pulse. The " ought " of primitive man was not a moral obli- gation ; it was a recognition of something owed to himself. The sense of duty, as we understand it, was not born until the secondary and indirect motive of race-maintenance and altruistic service was consciously and voluntarily substi- tuted for the primary, egoistic motive of self-preservation and- self -gratification. By this substitution, the gradual and entirely natural result of growing intelligence and pleasurable experience in altruistic service, conscious al- truistic feeling and desire have grown out of egoism, Duty has supplanted an animal instinct. Yet here has been no creation, but merely a process of transformation, of evolu- tion. The "raw-material" of morality is found in the simplest orderly manifestations of volitional activities in organic nature ; yes, back even in those steadfast laws and tendencies which are manifest in the action of the inor- ganic universe. Stability, order, law, evolutionary tendency these are the essential elements in morality, as in the differentiation and integration of nebulous matter, and the movements of the planets around their central suns. In the last analysis it is not two things that fill the mind with awe, as in the familiar phrase of Kant, but one thing, whether it 266 Evolution of Morals. be manifested in the order of the galaxies, or in the orderly impulse to right action which we term Conscience or Duty. Perhaps the modus operandi of moral evolution may be better understood by studying the psychological principles underlying the entire process of organic development from yet another point of view. The growth of the manifold faculties of sentient organisms can only be understood on the fundamental assumption that life is inherently good, and that each successive stage in the evolution of life is productive, on the whole, of an increase in the sum total of subjective satisfactions.* In order to survive in the strug- gle for existence, each organism and race must adapt itself to its environment. Upon its greater or less degree of adaptability depends the amount of conscious satisfaction which it derives from the use of its faculties or, in other words, from its conscious life.f The experience of this satisfaction from right adjustment, and of the pains conse- quent upon rnal-adjustment, has been the immediate motive- power in effecting social and moral evolution. The higher organisms are doubtless susceptible of greater pain and suffering than the lower; but this must be more than counterbalanced, on the whole, by an increase of satisfac- tions, or the life of the individual and the race would come to an end. The suffering to which conscious beings are subjected is not, therefore, an essential quality of life ; it is the result of some interference with its spontaneous and perfect manifestation. Life itself, in its essential quality, is good. All organisms, consciously or unconsciously, seek instinctively or voluntarily for more abundant life, and find their health and satisfaction in its achievement. Conscious volition, in this particular, simply follows the path made for it by the inherited sum total of past involuntary and unconscious experiences. It testifies to the immanence in the organism of a universal biological law. It naturally follows that those actions which tend to adapt the organism to its environment, though they may at first be attended with pain, and demand effort or self-denial, and are perhaps initiated only by reason of the imperative * Spencer' s Principles of Psychology. t " Life " is denned by Mr. Spencer as " the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations ' (Principles of Psychology). This expression is synonymous with the one we have used "the adaptation of the organism to the environment." Life is adjustment, or adaptation, involving a movement or process, tending toward a condition of harmony or equilibrium between the organism and the totality of its environing conditions. Evolution of Morals. 267 necessity for self-sustenance or race-maintenance, yield greater and greater satisfactions as they become habitual and instinctive. It is entirely natural according to this principle, that altruistic actions, originally initiated from egoistic motives, should be continued, when they become habitual, from higher motives. The original selfisli impulse of desire or fear may be wholly eliminated, and the action may be pursued without thought of ulterior recompense. The child at first shares its playthings with its little com- panions, perhaps, under the stress of paternal compulsion ; but it soon comes to receive pleasure from the perception and sympathetic appreciation of their pleasure : the gener- ous act brings its own reward. Thus habit, in adapting man to his social environment, revolutionizes his ethical point of view. Not only does it induce this change of conscious motive ; it also differentiates the sense of moral obligation from those peremptory selfish instincts in which it has its root, thus creating the imperative impulse of Duty. The " ought " of the Evolution philosophy having been evolved out of the struggle for a larger life, implies the obligation to strive for fulness of life in one's self and in the world at large.* For the service of Self, it substitutes the service of Human- ity. It is more than an impulse to seek one's own imme- diate or proximate advantage and happiness. Interpreted even in egoistic terms, it implies an obligation to seek for the perfection of self,f including the perfection of one's moral and spiritual nature ; and to seek it, if need be, there- fore, at the sacrifice of one's immediate personal comfort and happiness. Life is measured, ethically, not by length of years, not even by the present or proximate sum total of the individual activities ; but rather by the sum total of tit e individual's influence in promoting fulness of life in all sen- tient creatures now living and yet to be. The conception of moral obligation presented by the new ethics thus accounts for the action of the world's sages, saviours and moral heroes for that of men like Socrates, Jesus and the Buddha as well as for that of the conventional well-disposed citi- zen of the well-ordered State ; for there are times when the clear vision of noble souls perceives that only by contempt for the conventional, by the overthrow of institutions which have become barriers in the path of human progress, can Fiske's Cosmic Philosophy. t Maude's The Foundation of Ethics. 268 Evolution of Morals. the perfection of the race be achieved. When such a con- viction is clearly held by a strong and well-balanced mind, it can do no otherwise than seek the perfection of its own manhood through intelligent and devoted service to the welfare of mankind. Not to follow the imperative mandate of duty, even if it lead to contumely and death, would para- lyze the life with a sense of ignoble shame. Such is the history, in brief, of the evolution of morals such the facts which underlie the foundations of moral sci- ence. Throughout the ages since man emerged from the brute- egoism of his original estate, diverse human motives and activities have been pitted against one another in a struggle for existence similar to that which has gone on in the lower range of biological development. The same law has held good in moral evolution which justified the method of nature on the lower plane the fittest in action has survived. Those motives, impulses, desires, which best fit man for the rational use of all his faculties, and which best serve the race in its struggle toward a condition of social equilibrium, have gradually emerged, and become not indeed actually triumphant over all lower impulses, but at least of gener- ally recognized authority among intelligent people. The law of conflict, which seemed fraught only with pain, de- struction, and the perpetuity of egoistic tendencies in the government of human conduct, blossoms at last with the noblest flowers of unselfish character. It now remains for us to consider the nature of the ethical system which logically results from the facts of moral evo- lution, and some of the objections which have been raised against it. As the principle of utility, in a high sense, has determined the selection or rejection of motives and activi- ties throughout the entire process of moral evolution, it naturally follows that the Science of Morals should be classed as a utilitarian system. That it differs radically, however, from the crude utilitarianism of the older schools is evident from our previous discussion, and will be still farther evident upon consideration. Moral Science treats of the conduct of man in his relations to other men and to society in general. The order of moral evolution, and the laws governing it, are registered in the history and experience of the race. Its sanctions have been universally operative, alike upon the ethically wise and the ethically ignorant, thus educating all to a knowledge of the Evolution of Morals. 269 imperative nature of its demands. Its result is organized as conscience in the mind of the individual. Conscience, therefore, is the individual's inheritance of the moral expe- riences and tendencies of all past generations ; it is not merely the creation of the existing social status. Prevail- ing customs, ideas, and institutions may influence the form of its immediate manifestations, they do not account for its fundamental character as an imperative obligation urging man to an ideal end. Conscience appears in the individual as an intuition ; but like all other intuitions it is the out- growth of inherited experiences. It is of variant force and reliability in different individuals, dependent upon circum- stances of organization and culture. In so far as it is actively existent, it urges man always to do the right, leav- ing his intellect, however, to determine what the concrete right is in any special emergency. It is not true, therefore, that conscience is an infallible guide, in the unqualified sense assumed by the transcendental moralist. The nature of actions as good or bad can only be determined by an ob- servation and estimation of their effects. Morality therefore involves an action of the intellect as well as of the feelings ; it holds man responsible for the intelligent investigation of the results of actions, as well as for the vague intention to do right. Moral Science asserts that the qualities of actions are not accidental or arbitrarily determined by the will of Deity. They are "necessary consequences of the constitution of things." * By the study, therefore, of the laws of life, and of human conduct as related thereto, we may ascertain what kinds of action necessarily extend the boundaries and satis- factions of life, in the individual and in the community, and what kinds produce a contrary effect. These deductions, when ascertained, are recognized as laws of conduct, and the educated conscience is impelled to conform to these laws irrespective of any direct estimation of resultant happiness or misery. Thus the crude utilitarianism of the older schools is superseded by the rational utilitarianism of the evolution philosophy. Obedience to the moral law becomes the object and incentive of the highest intelligence, in place of the empirical impulse of immediate utility or egoistic pleasure. Moral Science as thus described embodies the truths * Spencer's Data of Ethics. 270 Evolution of Morals. while it discards the errors of conflicting ethical systems. It recognizes alike the intuitional and the experiential nature of conscience ; it is an intuition in the individual resulting from experience in the race. Conceiving of Deity as the Power immanent in all the processes of evolution, as immediately manifested in the nature of things, and of ethical endeavor as the action of human volition in the effort to achieve harmony with this evolutionary tendency in nature and society, it recognizes also an underlying truth in the conception that moral action is obedience to the divine will. The obedience, however, is not to a testamentary will of God, made known in a verbal revelation, but to his actual will, revealed in the instant operation of natural and universal laws. " Fulness of life " is only another term for that "perfection or excellence of nature" which yet another school of thinkers regards as the ultimate object of moral action. Rising above empirical utilitarianism, the conclusions of Moral Science harmonize with the conception that Virtue, not egoistic pleasure, should be the object of ethical endeavor ; yet it recognizes also that happiness is the natural concomitant of that perfection of life which all virtuous activities have in vitew, and is therefore in one sense the end, though it cannot be the immediate object of pursuit, in the perfect life.* Deducing its system from the actual facts involved in the evolution of conduct, Moral Science recognizes both an absolute ethic, adapted to the perfect man in an ideal state of society, and a relative ethic, applicable to all men in each successive stage of social evolution. In many of the affairs of life there is fortunately for us no conflict between these two standards of judgment. In the relations of the well-ordered family, for example, all natural individual activities should be promotive of reciprocal satisfactions which tend to the completion of each individual life. Mutual service should bring mutual reward and happiness. The subject of ethics, however, in its total scope, is a very com- plex one. It is easy to turn a syllogism ; it is not so easy, always, to decide what is right in the multifarious situations of life. Many of the problems of practical affairs are in- capable of solution by the application of the simple tests required by an ideal standard of perfect conduct. A recent writer in the Fortnightly Review has treated of " The Ethics * Spencer's Data of Ethics. Evolution of Morals. 271 of Cannibalism " ; and it may be admitted that he has fairly demonstrated that this social custom is not so wholly divorced from ethical considerations as might at first appear. The system of slavery, which, as related to our modern civilization, was rightly denounced by John Wesley as " the sum of all villanies," was, in its inception, a beneficent sub- stitute for slaughter and cannibalism, and its adoption indi- cated an ethical advance on the part of its originators. In many of the situations of life as they arise in the course of social evolution, under the pressing exigencies of contem- porary custom, business competition, governmental regula- tion and popular prejudice, it must be recognized that the best that the conscientious individual can do is to choose that course of conduct which, under all the circumstances, seems likely to be productive of the fewest evil results, instead of that which is absolutely right, even if he is capa- ble of comprehending the absolute right. A man who, in the midst of a savage or barbarous community, in defiance of current social or religious customs, should attempt to live the ideal life of a perfect civilization, would doubtless quickly be eliminated from such a society by violent and tragical means, and thus effectively be estopped from influ- encing those around him to better ways of living. Much of our enforced civilization of savage races has been fatal in its effects upon the health and happiness of the vast major- ity, while it has failed to elevate the average morals of the survivors. This is likely to be the result whenever conven- tional education is forced upon a people in advance of their functional development. The Hawaian Islanders offer a fruitful and impressive example of the truth of this asser- tion, if such be needed. Even in our modern civilized com- munities he who attempts to live a life of ideal moral perfection will often " find himself in sufficiently dramatic situations." * He must be a very strong and well-balanced man who can materially aid society by violently and radi- cally opposing its conventional methods and tendencies. The gradual evolutionary processes of ethical culture are usually more effective in bringing about social reforms, than "running a-muck" against social evils with violent denun- ciation and abuse. The ultimate practical test of Moral Science in doubtful emergencies, when formulated, is nevertheless precisely *The phrase is "Christopher North's." 272 Evolution of Morals. what it would be in an ideally perfect society : That course of conduct 'must be adopted which will promote the greatest possible development of life-giving energies, both in the indi- viduals immediately affected, and in society at large, including the life of posterity. Such action, wisely followed after a due consideration of alLattendant circumstances, will always satisfy the demands of an enlightened conscience. It must be remembered, however, that the absolute standard of right should always be held in view ; and that no deviation from it is ever justifiable in one who is capable of apprehending such a standard, unless it clearly appears that any other course of action would diminish the sum total of life-giving activities in the world at large. Moral Science, as thus described, holds in just perspec- tive the claims of both altruism and egoism in their relation to conduct. The primary instinct of self-preservation which lies at the foundation of moral evolution, is ethically justified when pruned of undue selfishness, and held in proper adjustment and equilibrium with the general well- being. Man's first duty to society is to render himself an independent and self-supporting member thereof, and to qualify himself by the cultivation of his faculties for the intelligent and useful service of mankind. The exercise of all his natural functions and faculties, in due proportion, is to be regarded as a moral obligation, since by repeated neglect or disuse the organism is weakened, and thereby rendered less competent to add to the sum total of life-giving energies, both personal and social. For a like reason, all excesses are to be condemned and avoided including ex- cesses of self-renunciation in altruistic service. Care of the body, the preservation of physical health, thus becomes a moral obligation. It cannot be doubted that in a more perfect state of society the confession of disease will become as shameful as the admission of moral delinquency. Even unavoidable invalidism, other than that which is the natural accompaniment of age, will be placed upon a par with in- herited and ineradicable tendencies to moral lapse, like kleptomania and dipsomania. Right thought, conscientious investigation of intellectual problems, is also enjoined by Moral Science. The moral man will cease to be an intellectiial parasite, and form his own intelligent judgments on all the problems of thought. Thus only can the highest life be attained. The scope of Evolution of Morals. 273 ethics is wonderfully broadened by the application of the tests required by evolutionary morals. Eight action is no mere concern of conventional morality, an obedience to the "Thou shalt nots" of the formal code. It becomes a matter of positive, all-comprehensive and enduring obliga- tion, inspiring the mind to purity, activity and integrity of thought as well as of deed to nobility of motive, intelli- gent and conscientious regard for the possible results of action, and a sublime self-consecration to the interests, welfare and happiness of all sentient creatures. The fulness of life which is the end of ethical endeavor being the result of conduct in its ultimate stage of evolution, there will be no conflict between the wisest egoistic and the wisest altru- istic endeavor in the perfect life of society, as governed by an ideal moral standard. In wisely seeking the perfection of self, we are seeking the welfare and happiness of others, and vice versa.* The new ethics thus cultivates and justi- fies a manly self-respect instead of the abject self-abnegation demanded by the old theological dogma of total depravity. " Self-love," it affirms with Shakspeare, " is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting." This attitude is not so widely sepa- rated as may at first appear from the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, for the obligations implied by the beatitudes and the Golden Rule also find their sanctions and equipoise in self-interest. The intuitive moralist finds an insuperable objection to the evolutionary theory of morals, in the fact that its sense of duty is derived. Duty, he says, is an original endow- ment of the human mind a primitive and imperative in- tuition. Kant, however, the noblest thinker of the tran- scendental school, admits that the moral imperative is merely formal ; it simply says we ought, without declaring what we ought to do. It tells us that duty exists, but it does not tell us what duty is in any given case. "The only objects of practical reason," says Kant, "are therefore those of good or evil ; but it depends upon experience to find what is good or evil."f An obligation empty of content is evi- dently no infallible guide to right action ; and it is difficult to see what advantage the intuitive moralist has over the evolutionist as to the strength of his ethical sanctions, since both theories admit that the sense of obligation is intuitive in the individual, and both derive the moral content from * Maude's The Foundation of Ethics, t Kant's Critique of Practical Reason. 274 Evolution of Morals. the lessons of experience. The recognition of the derivative character of duty, however, as interpreted by legitimate inferences from the study of the evolution of morals, would appear to strengthen rather than to weaken its imperative nature, since it thus appears that the sense of obligation is derived from the essential nature of things the very con- stitution of the universe. Duty is derived only as man and all his faculties are derived. It appears in the human mind as the culmination of the entire process of evolution. All living things, all worlds, the Infinite Power which is revealed in all phenomenal manifestations, have striven to build up this imperative impulse in the mind of man. It is the latest and finest product of evolutionary labor, and necessarily, therefore, a supreme obligation to him in whose mind it has developed, until its behests are completely organized in his being. Then obligation ceases, only to give place to pleas- urable instinct ; and right action becomes as natural as the blossoming of flowers or the silent, resistless operation of the law of gravity. To be consistent, the intuitionist is compelled to deny that spontaneous right-action, pleasurably anticipated, and unaccompanied by a sense of compulsion, possesses any moral value whatever. The advocates of this theory are so earnest in affirming that a sense of duty and of the difficulty of doing right are essential to morality, that one might naturally infer that they must be personally conscious of heinous moral guilt, and suffering therefor the pangs of remorse. ( They would doubtless resent the per- sonal interference, however, as energetically as does the sleek devotee of the revival meeting, who denounces him- self, in a Pickwickian sense, as the vilest of sinners.} Moral spasms and paroxysms of self-condemnation illustrate not only an immature stage of moral development in the subject, but also an immature phase of thought concerning the nature and sanctions of morality. Kant's definition of Duty as " necessitation to an end which is unwillingly adopted," certainly justifies us in cherishing Spencer's hope that pleasurable spontaneity in right action will ultimately supersede the sense of obligation.* Happy and willing obedience to the moral law would certainly seem to indicate a higher condition of ethical health than the compulsory and unwilling performance of moral obligations ; and the self-respect implied in such obedience is ethically a nobler * Spencer's Ethics of Kant. See also, Data of Ethics. Evolution of Morals. 275 and more helpful state of mind than remorseful self-depre- ciation. "Do not waste time in compunctions," said the Concord seer, in the spirit of the New Ethics. Longfellow's "Let the dead past bury its dead," phrases the same high thought : this is the nobler inspiration" of evolutionary morals. Praise* and blame are indeed justly apportioned to indi- viduals according to the degree of difficulty under which they pursue right courses of action ; but the moral law is ultimately concerned with something infinitely higher than the task of justly awarding praise and blame for individual actions. Its purpose is the development of the highest life, both in the individual and in the social organism. When it has achieved this result in the individual as far as it is possible, by his conversion to pleasurable and voluntary right action, shall it be said that it is no longer operative in his life ? Let it rather be recognized that therein it is completely operative. Another objection often raised against the evolutionary ethics, is that it fails to recognize the freedom of the will. In this freedom, it is said, resides the sole opportunity for moral action. In the light of the facts of moral develop- ment, the conception of uncaused volition in man is evidently untenable. This conception, indeed, has no logical founda- tion in theory, save as it is connected with some hypothesis of a pre-existent will or ego and of this we have no evi- dence in nature, nor in the observed facts of a rational psychology. The names of eminent thinkers of the meta- physical school may indeed be marshalled in the support of this dogma Bruno, Leibniz, Eosmini-Serbati, Kant, Lotze and others, as well as the Oriental sages of this and by-gone generations ; but it is a doctrine evidently manufactured to sustain certain metaphysical assumptions concerning the nature of the soul and conscience, rather than a conclusion deduced from the scientific examination of man's mental constitution, unbiassed by metaphysical pre-judgments. It is contradicted by the unquestioned facts of heredity, and by all the accessible data of a rational psychology. Kant rests his doctrine of moral responsibility upon the assump- tion of a pre-existent will thus making the individual - man rather than his parents, ancestors or the circumstances of his environment responsible for his nature. He admits, """" however, that man is free to act only in accordance with 276 Evolution of Morals. his nature. " All human actions," he says, " are determined according to the order of Nature by the empirical character and the co-operating conditions." From a knowledge of these, he admits, " they might be foretold with certainty, and necessarily deduced." He thus practically recognizes the operation of cause and effect in human action. The conception of the will as an entity, apart from and superior to the mental faculties, has no foundation, however, in the observed phenomena of mind which constitute the data of mental and moral science. Moreover, as the sanctions of evolutionary ethics inhere in the nature of things, they Operate on alL minds, irrespective of their theoretical judg- ments.} Hence, the importance of belief in the freedom of the will seems to be greatly over-estimated by its advocates. The will, as defined and recognized by the new ethics, is an inseparable element in all conscious adaptations of acts to ends. "Will, or volition," says Bain," "comprises all the actions of human beings, in so far as guided by feel- , ings."* "Volition," says John Fiske, more tersely, "is '. the process whereby feeling initiates action. * * The will ~~ is not an entity, but a dynamic process." f It is therefore, as Dr. Eccles has pointed out, an element not only in human conduct, but in the conscious activities of all sentient creatures even the lowest. Human volition, in all sane minds, is determined by rational and ascertainable motives ; and herein lie the chief means and incentives to man's^ moral regeneration. C A new thought projected into the mind, a new point of view held up as a mirror in which man may regard the tendencies and results of his actions, may become the all-powerful motive leading to a revolution^ of conduct. ." All our educational systems, all wise penal and reformatory methods, are based upon the belief that normally constituted minds will inevitably respond to certain motives by corresponding and predicable lines of action. Nature herself, indeed, appears to have acted in .accordance with this understanding, throughout the entire course of moral evolution ; and thus man has been led onward and upward out of brute-egoism toward the ideal of a perfect manhood. Man but endeavors, in the range of the moral activities, to substitute for the slow process of natural selection, the quicker appeal to intelligent selection by means of legisla- tive enactments, education, and volitional effort. In the * Bain's Moral Science. f Fiske's Cosmic Philosophy. Evolution of Morals. 277 natural and causal sequence of motive and action, and the relation of motives to their logical antecedents in thought, we note the only possible conditions for improving man's moral nature. Is human conduct therefore necessitated ? Yes : but by the nature of man's own being by no external force; and this nature is therefore largely, though not exclusively, of his own making. The motives which govern his action are a part of his essential being. He necessitates himself, which is only another way of saying that he acts as he freely wills to act. In obedience to law, in voluntary conformity to the nature of things, he finds the only possible reality and exercise of freedom. Having arrived at an intelligent con- ception of the laws of conduct, of the end and logical results of his voluntary actions, he is no mere automaton or machine played upon by external forces. He has developed a gen- uine, though limited autonomy, and may justly be held responsible for his moral conduct. Kant sees nothing but pure determination in the concep- tion of conduct as governed Hby motives7 He compares it to the action of a balance and its weights. Professor Schur- man thus aptly replies to his argument : " Whoever reflects that a motive is merely an idea, and that an idea has no ex- istence apart from the subject that has it, must object to the comparison of a man and his motives to a balance and its weights. The former is merely an ideal, the latter a real duality. Man is nothing apart from his ideas ; but the weights and balance have each an independent existence. Thus, volition, or willing according to motives, is by no means a necessitation. And it was here that Kant failed to see the full significance of his fundamental notion, while contending for an empty shadow which was scarcely the ghost of a living freedom. If freedom be not found in our volition with motives and not without them, it dwells not with man, it is nowhere to be found." * Man's conduct being necessitated from within, not from without, under the law of motive, he has, if we mistake not, a real freedom of action, though it is something quite different from the uncaused volition which is assumed by the advocates of the doctrine that the will is a pre-existent entity. A fine reconciliation of intuitional with utilitarian ethics is discoverable in the perception of the identity in charac- * Schurman's Kantian Ethics, and the Ethics of Evolution. 278 Evolution of Morals. ter of the moral law with all natural laws, and the logical inference that though discovered inductively and through experience, it is universal in its scope and operation, un- limited by social conventions or individual intelligence. As\ the law of gravity operated eternally before its discovery \ and definition by Newton, so the condition of things ex- ] pressed by the moral imperative has operated during the I entire course of human history and biological evolution./ The scientific law of conduct is found to be the statement of a fundamental and a priori condition of the highest development of individual character and social activities. The impulse to right action appears in truth as a "categori- cal imperative," not alone in the consciousness of man, but in the constitution of the universe operating in man to create the individual conscience, and everywhere revealing itself as the condition precedent to all social and moral ad- vancement, on which individual character and harmonious communities depend. " The rule of right, the symmetries of character, the requirements of perfection, are no provin- cialisms of this planet : they are known among the stars ; they reign beyond Orion and the Southern Cross ; they are wherever the Universal Spirit is; and no subject-mind, though it fly on one track forever, can escape beyond their bounds." * As all moral acts are life-promoting acts, it is the essen- tial nature of immorality to be destructive suicidal. The penalty of evil conduct is the instant and immediate atrophy of character ; if persisted in, it is both moral and physical death. Salvation, therefore, is rationally identical with character-building; but character means more than mere goodness ; it means fulness of life, the cultivation of every manly and womanly faculty, the devotion of the life to human welfare. Evolutionary ethics respects the individual. It makes perfection of individual character the supreme end, seeing that thus only can society be perfected. Society is indeed regarded as an organism,! but the individual is to society * Martineau's A Study of Religion. t The social organism differs from the lower forms of organic life in an impor- tant particular: in the latter, the cell, or unit, appears to exist for the sake of the organism ; while in the former, the organism appears to exist for the sake of the individual or unit. In all organisms, however, the perfection of cell-life appears to go along with the perfection of the organic structure. The resem- blances between social and organic growth seem to be sufficiently striking to justify the use of the term " social organism." Evolution of Morals. 279 what the cell is to vital tissue : the more perfect the cell, the healthier is the tissue. Obliterate the individuality of the cell, and all high organization is impossible. The com- munistic idea would subordinate the individual to society, to humanity in general. It would sacrifice the living man to an abstraction. The ultimate tendency of this ideal is toward the obliteration of individuality the establish- ment of homogeneity of character and intellect, the fossil- ization of social instincts and activities through individual conformity and inactivity, thus defeating its avowed end and aim. This tendency is opposed to the entire trend of evolution, which constantly tends to differentiation, hetero- geneity, individualism, progress. Whenever the communis- tic ideal becomes dominant, society is arrested in its develop- ment or hastens to decay. Communism is the sure precursor of social disintegration and death ; it is a reversion to the earliest social status of uncivilized man. After communism, by a natural reaction, comes anarchy ; and anarchy lived out is social dissolution. This result can only be prevented by respect for the rights and personality of the individual, and respect by the individual for the laws of conduct as determined by the science of morals. Voluntary co-opera- tion instead of legislative communism constitutes the social ideal prophetically outlined by the study of the principles underlying the entire process of ethical and social evolution. The liberation of the individual his increasing freedom to secure the satisfactions consequent upon the natural and harmonious use of all his faculties proceeds pari passu with an increasing dependence on society in general. Thus society integrates by a natural process of growth, forming a real brotherhood of consent, instead of a militant organi- zation, consolidated by external coercion. The condition of society involved in this ideal is one in which each indi- vidual shall have full opportunity for the development of his whole nature, and to which each shall freely contribute his noblest and most conscientious service. Among the hills of old Berkshire, there is a noble birch tree, gigantic in trunk and limb, and abundant in foliage, which towers above its neighboring companions, but grows, apparently, out of an immense granite bowlder which was deposited centuries ago, where it now rests, by the action of a mighty glacier whose resistless energy had borne it from some far-away mountain summit. Beneath the rock the 280 Evolution of Morals. earliest tiny rootlets of the tree found soil and nourishment : its first tender shoot sprung up into some small crevice in the great bowlder above them. Here, one might think, it would have paused, submitting to the adamantine pressure, either crushed utterly to the earth, or dwarfed and deformed by its unyielding environment. But it had the irresistable evolutionary forces of Natitre behind it ; the sunlight above wooed it from its prison-house it pushed upward toward the light. Gradually the little crevice in the rock was widened, the great bowlder was split asunder as by the hammer of Thor, the noble tree, scarcely distorted by the struggle, protected from destructive storms by its conquered enemy, grew with the years, and spread abroad on every side its leafy beauty and the blessing of its grateful shade. So conscience the moral sense a little germ at first, inclosed in the hard shell of the natural instincts, struggling against the mighty bowlder of animalism, has at last split the obstacle in twain, and emerged to bless the world and justify the method which has given it birth. And the In- finite Energy, one in the misty nebula and the glowing sun, in rock and tree and animal, and in the mind and conscience of man, " saw everything that it had made, and behold, it was very good." Evolution of Morals. 281 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCUSSION. PROFESSOB THOMAS DAVIDSON: The fact that I was invited to open this discussion with the full knowledge that the frankest dissent might be expected of me, in- dicates a high degree of moral evolution on the part of the man- agers of this course of lectures. The limited time, however, places me at a disadvantage, speaking as I do to an audience made up of those who agree with the able lecture of Dr. Janes. I object not so much to the observed facts of Evolution, as to its theory about them. I object to the presupposition that there is no knowledge outside of experience. Man's aim, according to the evolution philosophy, is to serve an abstract humanity, without any reward therefor. Evolution, the lecturer declares, is a tendency which has been observed in Nature a purposeful tendency a tendency to "fulness of life." The lecturer, however, has failed to de- fine what life is. The assumption that there is no knowledge outside of experience is not due to evolutionary thought, but to a negation of thought. The effort to erect a philosophy on this basis is due to a reactionary impulse in thought which must be short lived. Evolutionists declare that there are three stages in the development of thought, the theologic, the metaphysical and the scientific. One would think that the metaphysical stage, being so much in advance of the theological, would be treated with respect, but on the contrary it is treated with contempt and abuse. John Stuart Mill, who was a devoted adherent of this philosophy, was one of a class whom we may call " metaphysical -phobists." Now, metaphysics is in bad repute principally on account of the shallowness of thought and narrowness of reading of these meta- physical-phobists who are now so popular. Evolutionists know nothing of metaphysics. What do they know of Aristotle, of the Xeo-Platonists, of Thomas Aquinas ? We do not get all our own knowledge from experience. The assertion that we know nothing of the spiritual which is not revealed in experience is due to pure prejudice. Dr. Janes indeed speaks of a "Universal Spirit" with a purpose, and this is essentially a theological conception. And this "fulness of life," what does it mean? Does it mean the maintenance of all life the life of "all sentient creatures," or of 282 Evolution of Morals. man only ? What are we to do with the gnats and mosquitoes, for instance ? "Fulness of life" is a very vague phrase for a summum bonum. In mere mechanism there is no tendency either to good or evil. Then, according to this philosophy, the moment this ten- dency gets where it can be of use, the moment it gets into life, it errs. "Fulness of life" is defined as "subjective satisfactioti." But animals have no morality, yet they seek this satisfaction. Carnivorous animals destroy "fulness of life" in seeking this sat- isfaction. Only the satisfaction of intelligence, without reference to pleasure, shows the moral. Evolution puts the cart before the horse. The moral sense inherent in the constitution of man has developed morality, not physical changes and social necessities. If environment produces morality, why are not animals moral ? It is the fundamental moral faculty that is the cause of moral development. REV. JOHN W. CHAD WICK: I am surprised at Professor Davidson's torrent of negation. I had hoped that he would give some reasons for the faith that is in him. I will not speak at length in reply to his statements, from which I dissent, preferring to give as much time as possible to Dr. Janes. MB. THOMAS GABDNEB: I find myself thoroughly in accord with Dr. Janes in his treat- ment of this question. I cannot understand how an intelligent man can ascribe the rejection of the metaphysical philosophy, by leading scientific men, to their ignorance of the literature of that school of thought. Certainly Spencer and Huxley, and others of the Evolution school, have shown abundant knowledge of meta- physics. If I were to cri ticise Dr. Janes' s able paper, it would be in that he has omitted the admiration of the heroic and the love of the beautiful in considering the influences which led to the evolution of morals. These influences were of great importance, it appears to me. MB. NELSON J. GATES: I regret that Professor Davidson made no definite affirmations in expressing his dissent from Dr. Janes' s paper. Evolution holds that morals are developed from within, from the very constitution of things. But all ethical theories must be tested by experience. The theory of the Sermon on the Mount was evolved from a con- sideration of the static relations of human society, but it has been Evolution of Morals. 283 rejected by experience. Take, for example, the command, "Who- soever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." We all agree in rejecting such a rule as impracticable. PBOFESSOB P. H. VAN DEB WEYDE: Professor Davidson has said that evolutionists are ignorant of metaphysics, but it is my experience that metaphysicians are all ignorant of the simplest principles of physics. Now it seems to me that metaphysics must be based on physics. The material world should be the first subject of study, but this is neglected by metaphysicians, who are far more open to the charge of ignorance of physics than are the scientists to the charge of want of knowl- edge of metaphysics. DB. EOBEBT G. ECCLES: Professor Davidson declares that evolutionists have metaphysi- cal-phobia; but he has evidently come in contact with Comteists rather than with Spencerians. Evolution has no contempt for metaphysics. On the contrary, it admits a measure of truth in all systems of thought, and desires to harmonize the truths of varying systems into a synthetic philosophy. Professor Davidson cannot get back of phenomena, nor can any metaphysician, however boldly he may proclaim his ability to do so. The "fulness of life," which he criticises, means adjustment; it means the perfec- tion or correspondence between inner relations and outer relations, between organization and environment. DB. JANES: I regard it as a high compliment to be criticised by Professor Davidson, one of the ablest metaphysicians, without doubt, in this country. And if his criticism has taken the form, mainly, of unverified assertion and barren negation, its weakness is a defect in the method of metaphysics, not in the man. Evolution, as Dr. Eccles has said, recognizes that all systems of thought contain some truth, and explains also why this must be so. The human mind can but reflect, in some degree, the truth of that Universe out of which it has been evolved. Metaphysical assumption, however, should be verified by experiential tests. Since all thought is a part of experience, I confess I am unable to see how we can have any extra-experiential knowledge. It seems to me that my critic descended from his usual high plane of thought in raising the questions about gnats, mosquitoes and carnivorous animals. I think the principle which I laid down is clear to all unprejudiced 284 Evolution of Morals. minds: we are bound to preserve and sustain life in all creatures which do not interfere with or detract from fulness of life in the totality of things taking into account, of course, the quality of life as judged by an evolutionary standard. This law makes it our duty to destroy those creatures which impede human advance- ment, as it is our duty to exercise protection and kindness toward our poor relations of the animal world, who are helpers of man- kind. Animals, indeed, are not moral, as I have declared. Neither was piimitive man. But animals are on the road toward the moral. The moral is but man's self-conscious recognition of laws that reach all the way down, through the brute to inanimate nature. I fail to see that the moral sense is in any way discredited by being explained, as the intuitionalists assume. The evolutionary sanctions of morality seem to me quite as imperative as the metaphysicians. COLLATERAL READINGS Spencer's Psychology, Data of Ethics, and Ethics of Kant (in Fortnightly Revieiv, July, 1888, and Popular Science Monthly, Sep- tember, 1888) ; Fiske's Cosmic Philosophy ; Bain's Moral Science ; Staniland Wake's Evolution of Morality ; Savage's Morals of Evo- lution; Thompson's Problem of Evil; Schurman' s Kantian Ethics and Ethics of Evolution, and Ethical Import of Darwinism ; Clif- ford's Scientific Basis of Morals (in Contemporary Review, Septem- ber, 1875); Sheldon Amos' s Science of Law ; Dr. C. C. Everett's Essay on The New Ethics (in Unitarian Review, October, 1878) ; Frances Power Cobbe's Darwinism in Morals; On a Moral Sense, in Darwin's Descent of Man. Popular Works on the Evolution Basis. The Morals of Evolution. By M. J. SAVAGE. 191 pages, $1.00. Treats such topics as The Origin of Goodness, The Nature of Goodness, The Sense of Obligation, The Relativity of Duty, Morality and Religion in the Fu- ture, etc., etc. "We all owe Mr. Savage thanks for the earnestness, frankness, and ability with which he has here illustrated the modern scientific methods of dealing with historv, philosophy, and morality." "The book is a fund of intel- lectualand moral cheer." Science and Immortality. Cloth, 75 cents ; paper, 50 cents. A " Symposium," giving the opinion of many of the most prominent scientific men in this country concerning the relation of science to the question of im- mortality. Concise, candid, the earnest thought of the foremost thinkers of the day, whether of expectation or of doubt. The Faith of Reason. By JOHN W. CHADWICK. 254 pages, $1.00. A series of Discourses on the Leading Topics of Religion : The Nature of Re- ligion, God, Immortality, Prayer, Morals. "Free, original, brave, manly speech is here : never prosv, always earnest, often curiouslv apt, and sometimes swell- ing with its theme into fervid eloquence." " A book that inspires courage, that makes a man think, that makes a man glad, that makes a man willing to sac- rifice something, if need be, that the Truth may be still more spread." Creed and Deed. By FELIX ADLER. A series of Essays from the standpoint of Ethical Culture. $1.00. Includes essays on Immortality, Religion, Spinoza, The Founder of Christi- anity, Reformed Judaism, and others. " Mr. Adler is always strong, always progressive, a thought-awakener, a worker, and practical." The Evolution of Immortality. 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