Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/102

84 constitute the beginnings of a conscience, supposing the theory which we are testing to be the true one.

Similarly, there is an obvious distinction in ourselves between injured conscience and injured pride. But, if conscience has been developed in the way here supposed, it follows that in the rudimentary stages of such development the distinction in question cannot be so well defined. Pride presupposes consideration for the opinion of others, and this in turn—as we have just seen—presupposes sympathy, which is the foundation-stone of conscience. Now, it is certain that long before we reach, in the ascending scale of animal psychology, intellectual faculties sufficiently exalted to admit even of our suspecting the presence of an incipient moral sense, we can perceive abundant indications of the presence of pride. And, forasmuch as animals that are high in the psychological scale frequently exhibit a very profound appreciation of their own dignity, we may pretty safely conclude that in no case can we expect to find indications of a moral sense in an animal without a greater or less admixture of pride.

I will now sum up this rather tedious preamble: From Mr. Darwin's theory concerning the development of conscience, it appears to follow that the presence of this faculty in animals must be restricted—if it occurs at all—to those which are intelligent enough to be capable in some degree of reflecting upon past conduct, and which likewise possess social and sympathetic instincts. From the first of these conditions it follows, supposing Mr. Darwin's theory true, that in the case of no animal should we expect to find the moral sense developed in any other than a low degree.

There is no reason to suppose any mere instinct (such as the maternal) due to conscience; for an instinct acquired by inheritance is obeyed blindly, in order to avoid the uncomfortable sensation which ensues in a direct manner if it is not so obeyed; whereas conscience enforces obedience only through a process of reflection; the uncomfortable sensation which non-obedience entails in this case being only brought about in an indirect manner through the agency of representative thought.

Although conscience in man is independent of, or distinct from, love of approbation, fear of reproach, and sense of pride, there is no reason why we should suppose conscience in its rudimentary forms to be independent of these passions. On the contrary, I think we should expect a rudimentary form of conscience to be more or less amalgamated with such passions; for, long before the faculty in question has attained the highly-differentiated state in which we find it to be present in ourselves, it must (by the hypothesis) have passed through