Page:George Archdall Reid 1896 The present evolution of man.djvu/183

Rh them by all the sermons, homilies, and text-books which moralists and theologians have been able to produce." — History of Civilization, vol. i. p. 180.

But of these fundamental parts of almost all moral systems which Mr. Buckle instances, it is to be observed that they are precisely those which would naturally be inculcated, for their own good, by the normal instructors of youth. They are nearly universal, not because they are inborn, but because the conditions under which they are acquired are almost universal.

Here I cannot refrain from observing, though the remark is foreign to the purpose of this work, that the great diversity of moral systems among the peoples of the world should render each individual human being cautious in believing, that the moral system which he has acquired from his progenitors is an absolute guide as to right and wrong, is a compendium to which he may safely refer moral questions with absolute confidence. Other moral systems which sanction rape and murder are plainly wrong, and so may be our own system in some particulars. Conscience alone is evidently an unsafe guide, since its promptings manifestly vary with time and place, since conscience prompted the Crusades and the horrors of the Inquisition, and prompts at this day the West African to torture before his Fetish sentient animals, valuable to him, but sacrificed because of his sense of right. That only should we regard as right which we have valid reason for thinking so; that only as wrong which, not for ancient prejudice or superstition, but for valid reason, we perceive to be so. Reasoning by analogy from other peoples, we may be sure that much that we abhor is not abhorrent, and much that we revere is not reverend, but the reverse.

In a species of ant,