more mysterious than is the mysterious power by which a
particle of structureless sarcode develops successively into an egg, a
grub, a chrysalis, a butterfly, when all the conditions, cosmical,
physical, chemical, and vital, are supplied, which are the requisite
accompaniments to determine such evolution. [Page 188]

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX.

EVOLUTION AND ETHICS.

The origin of morals an inquiry not foreign to the subject of this
book.--Modern utilitarian view as to that origin.--Mr. Darwin's
speculation as to the origin of the abhorrence of incest.--Cause
assigned by him insufficient.--Care of the aged and infirm opposed by
"Natural Selection;" also self-abnegation and asceticism.--Distinctness
of the ideas "right" and "useful."--Mr. John Stuart
Mill.--Insufficiency of "Natural Selection" to account for the origin
of the distinction between duty and profit.---Distinction of moral acts
into "material" and "formal."--No ground for believing that formal
morality exists in brutes.--Evidence that it does exist in
savages.--Facility with which savages may be misunderstood.--Objections
as to diversity of customs.--Mr. Hutton's review of Mr. Herbert
Spencer.--Anticipatory character of morals.--Sir John Lubbock's
explanation.--Summary and conclusion.

Any inquiry into the origin of the notion of "morality"--the conception of
"right"--may, perhaps, be considered as somewhat remote from the question
of the Genesis of Species; the more so, since Mr. Darwin, at one time,
disclaimed any pretension to explain the origin of the higher psychical
phenomena of man. His disciples, however, were never equally reticent, and
indeed he himself is now not only about to produce a work on man (in which
this question must be considered), but he has distinctly announced the
extension of the application of his theory to the very phenomena in
question. He says:[202] "In the distant future I see open fields for {189}
far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new
foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and
capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his
history." It may not be amiss then to glance slightly at the question, so
much disputed, concerning the origin of ethical conceptions and its bearing
on the theory of "Natural Selection."

The followers of Mr. John Stuart Mill, of Mr. Herb