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Show 102 THE DESCENT OF MAN. PART L " believe that the experiences of utility organised and " consolidated through all past generations of the human " race, have been producing corresponding modifications, "which, by continued transmission and accumulation, " have become in us certain faculties of moral intuition" certain emotions responding to right and wrong con" duct, which have no apparent basis in the individual " experiences of utility." There is not the least inherent improbability, as it seems to me, in virtuous tendencies being more or less strongly inherited ; for, not to mention the various dispositions and habits transmitted by many of our domestic animals, I have heard of cases in which a desire to steal and a tendency to lie appeare~ to .run in families of the upper ranks; and as stealmg Is so rare a crime in the wealthy classes, we can hardly account by accidental coincidence for the t endency occurring in two or three members of the same family. If bad tendencies are transmitted, it is probable that good ones are likewise transmitted. Excepting through the principle of the transmission of moral tendencies, we cannot understand the differences believed to exist in this respect between the various races. of ma?kind. We have, however, as yet, hardly suffiCient eVIdence on this head. Even the partial transmission of virtuous tendencies wo~ld be .an immense assistance to the primary impulse denved dHectly from the social instincts, and indirectly from the approbation of our fellow-men. Admittino· ~or the moment that virtuous tendencies are inherited, It appears probable, at least in such cases as chastity temp~rance, humanity to animals, &c., that they beco~~ first. I~presse~ on the mental organisation through habit, I~struc:twn, and example, continued during several g~nerahons m the same family, and in a quite subordmate degree, or not at all, by the individuals pos- CUAP. III. MORAL SENSE. 103 sessino- such virtues, having succeeded best in the strug;le 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 Hindoo for unclean food, ought on the same principle to be transmitted. Although this in itself is perhaps not less probable than that animals should acquire inherited tastes for certain kinds of food or fear of certain foes, I have not met with any evidence in support of the transmission of superstitious customs or senseless habits. Finally, the social instincts which no doubt were acquired 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, and some feeling of sympathy. 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 superstitions ; as he regarded more and more not only the welfare but the happiness of his fellow-men; as from habit, following on beneficial experience, instruction, and example, his sympathies became more tender and widely diffused, so as to extend to the men of all races, to the imbecile, the maimed, and other useless members of society, and finally to the lower animals,-so would the standard of his morality rise higher and higher. And it is admitted by moralists of the derivative school and by some intuitionists, that the standard of morality has risen since an early period in the history of man.37 As a struggle may sometimes be seen going on 37 A writer in the' North British Review' (July, 1869, p. 531), well capable of forming a sound judgment, expresses himself strongly to this |