The Relations of Moral Philosophy to Speculation Concerning the Origin of Man [pp. 288-302]

MORAL PIHILOSOPHY AND THE ORIGIN OF MAN, 299
power of passion is fostered by thought and fancy; the ruling
powers are perverted to the service of unholy desire; the man
becomes the slave of passion, and in due course he is a wreck
of humanity. There is nothing hyperbolical in this language;
nothing in the direction, which Dr. Bain suggests, of vilifying
vice in order to pay a compliment to virtue. The slavery is a
verity, and the deterioration is of a kind unknown in the history
of organism, worse than appears in animal life in any of its subordinate orders. That such sudden and serious deterioration
is possible, is a fact altogether adverse to the theory which
would account for man's superiority by organic evolution.
A similar perplexity appears in the possibility of moral elevation in individual history. Reflection as to the right in
human conduct, and self-direction in accordance with such reflection, lead to such attainment in individual history as is not
reached under the laws of organic evolution. That which we
denominate loftiness of character, which wins our admiration,
giving an inexpressible dignity to human life, and securing our
trust, has a history of its evolution which cannot be included
under laws of organism. Here are laws of intelligence and selfcontrol of which not the most meagre explanation is offered in
the most advanced treatises on Physiology. And if we advance
to works more properly philosophical belonging to the Evolution school, we are not much farther advanced. We take the
words of Herbert Spencer: "The truth that the ideally moral
man is one in whom the moving equilibrium is perfect, or aproaches nearest to perfection, becomes, when translated into
physiological language, the truth that he is one in whom the
functions of all kinds are duly fulfilled " (The Data ofEthics, ~ 30,
p. 75). There is not much to quarrel with in such a statement as
this, but it tells us very little, containing little of a science or
philosophy of the elevation of moral character. "The functions of all kinds are duly fulfilled." Suppose we agree as to
"the functions of all kinds" appropriate to human life, what is
meant by all these being "duly fulfilled "? The statement implies a standard of comparison, or scale of relative values, which,
being recognized, enables the agent himself, or observers of his
conduct, to say that all parts of his nature are having a due
measure of exercise. There is a reasonable enough meaning