rove the social nature of moral law. The moral laws have
evolved much the same as physical man has evolved. There is no
indication whatsoever that the moral laws came from any revelation since
the sense of moral law was just as strong amongst civilized peoples
beyond the range of Christianity, or before the Christian era. Joseph
McCabe, commenting on Professor Westermarck's work states, "All the fine
theories of the philosophers break down before this vast collection of
facts. There is no intuition whatever of an august and eternal law, and
the less God is brought into connection with these pitiful blunders and
often monstrous perversions of the moral sense, the better. What we see
is just man's mind in possession of the idea that his conduct must be
regulated by law, and clumsily working out the correct application of
that idea as his intelligence grows and his social life becomes more
complex. It is not a question of the mind of the savage imperfectly
seeing the law. It is a plain case of the ideas of the savage reflecting
and changing with his environment and the interest of his priests."

Justice is a fundamental and essential moral law because it is a vital
regulation of social life and murder is the greatest crime because it is
the greatest social delinquency; and these are inherent in the social
nature of moral law. "Moral law slowly dawns in the mind of the human
race as a regulation of a man's relation with his fellows in the
interest of social life. It is quite independent of religion, since it
has entirely different roots in human psychology." (_Joseph McCabe:
"Human Origin of Morals."_)

In the mind of primitive man there is no connection between morality and
the belief in a God. "Society is the school in which men learn to
distinguish between right and wrong. The headmaster is custom and the
lessons are the same for all. The first moral judgments were pronounced
by public opinion; public indignation and public approval are the
prototypes of the moral emotions." (_Edward Westermarck: "Origin and
Development of the Moral Ideas."_)

Moral ideas and moral energy have their source in social life. It is
only in a more advanced society that moral qualities are assumed for the
gods. And indeed, it is known that in some primitive tribes, the gods
are not necessarily conceived as good, they may have evil qualities
also. "If they are, to his mind, good, that is so much the better. But
whether they are good or bad th