Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/785

 THE GENESIS OF ETHICAL ELEMENTS 769

that by this means men can get very far or rise very high. No advanced race has come by its moral heritage in just this way. Such noble ethical achievements as the character of Jehovah, the Persian dualism, the Stoic ideal, or the Beatitudes cannot be ascribed to slow evolution. They are as much the creation of genius as the higher gains in the arts and sciences. The reason why standards cannot become very exacting or ideals very high by way of selection and survival is that they can never rise quite clear of the vulgar private fact. The conventional valuations of things cannot shake themselves quite loose from the sensual views of the individual. The ideal that triumphs in the social mind is anchored close to earth by the base admira- tions of the common mortal. The notions of right that become sole legal tender in the community are tainted by the sweat and grime of private hands they must pass through. Not entirely can the ideal disengage itself from human clay.

The " volunteer crop " of morality that springs up quickly and passes into the tradition of tribes of Arabs or Samoyeds or red- skins or negroes, is marked by a regard for the obvious and near- lying conditions of individual welfare. It is sure to exalt personal prowess and martial courage, and to frown upon murder, wanton aggression, theft, arson, malicious injury to property, adultery, false witness, the settlement of disputes by violence, the use of unfair weapons such as poison. But when the harm of a line of conduct is not so clear and plain, it is ignored until the more far-sighted few set up stricter standards. The development of the clan ethos in disapproval of lying, slander, vengeance, gam- bling, drunkenness, unchastity, feud, exposure of infants, or the sacrifice of widows, as well as the. discovery of new forms of old vices and new corollaries of old virtues, is usually traceable to superior persons who see farther than the rest into the conse- quences of conduct and the laws of well-being.

II. THE ELITE.

The distinct and separate ethical threads that are woven into a civilization are rarely of anonymous origin. They can usually be traced back to men of unusual insight into the requisites of