Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-12-20

NNl y 'h'i'S i'llE NH6N pNlf"i''s 'ailo III
cracker, and a we'll known physician
and the rotiiera with It's acts seemingly
adjusted to no end, than between the
Maybe and the lowest savage
And notice the difference Of grada-
ton in intelligence throughout the
animal world, from the lowest to the
highest. Do we not find the law Of
constantly increasing completely to hold
good2 ! believe no rational nterpre-
tation OF mind is valid which docs not
take into consideration the psychical
relation Of man to animals yet in the
intellectual development Of the infant
to adult man or womanhood is stuff
cient evidence Of progress Watch the
new born infant How does its intel
leetual condition compare with that Of
a Newton' A few convulsive move
ments, indicating either pain or hunger,
is about all We can say OF it, Still
further on in its development, a few
sense perceptions, first noticing a red
something placed before it. Its intelIi-
gence seems on a par with its move
simple and uncertain Now,
as advancing age comes, the sense per
ceptions are still predominant then
memory, Imagination, and finally the
highly complex reasoning faculties begin
to develop. This much is known en-.
pirically to every young woman who
essays to teach primary class in our
schools. And here let it be said, that
if it were more generally recognized
and attended to, we should have better
teachers to instruct our infants The
fact, then, that the intelligence develops
in the same way that other things do,
is part, and conhrmatory, of the great
law OF evolution.
And let me here disclaim in behalf
Of evolution, most emphatically, that its
conclusions are material" Its dis
coverers and promoters have been stig-
matized as materialists." No doctrine,
so far as we know, has proven scienti-
fically the difference between matter
and mind. As Professor Tynda says,
if 1t be possible to prove that a right
spiral movement OF a certain nerve.
excited by something externally, goes
on always in given case, it does not
explain the iaea OF red found in the
mind. 1t is true that mind and matter
are intimately associated and evolution
teaches that they have a genetic con-
nection-thus far and no farther may
materialism be attributed to evolution.
Lastly, what has evolution say about
moralsp Does it teach that morals are
intuitive or derivative 7 In sense it
says neither, and yet il holds to both
qualihedly.
Perhaps the two theories of morals
best known by modern moralsts are
those of Locke and Kant. Locke took
the ground that the mind was a tabnlo
,aSa--a perfect blank, like a sheet of
white paper, without either intellectual
or moral intuitions. This left both the
rnptap,e rS MIND o,J ,,,nroi. 80 l..
written upon the blank page, and of
necessity both, when fully developed,
depended entirely on the scribblers
who happened to be nearest at hand.
Kant, with far more acuteness, observ-
ing in the mind of man certain organ
lied intuitions, both intellectual and
moral, took the ground that morals
were intuitive; that these lately
developed moral intuitions were ulti-
mate and incapable of analysis. Locke
believed what are called moral intuitions
simply result from what the individual
finds useful 1t is easy to see without
further light that the supporters OF
Kant would always have the better of
the argument. Although the law of
. heredity was little thought of at that
time, the common sense of mankind
knew something was needed further
than environment to account for
the moral eccentricities OF man whose
environment had been good, but whose
morals from some cause were bad
Evolution here steps in and, as in so
many other Earring system, reconciles
the two theories. 1t makes Locke and
Kant metaphorioally, lie down together.
II recognizes in Rants moral intuitions
the recently worked out law of heredity,
and in Locke's blank page, the power
OF surroundings, q. of environment, in
determining the moral status of the
individual.
II would require more space and
more power than | possess to make
plain the elementary moral beginnings
OF our race which evolution points out,
and ] would refer all those interested
in the subject to Mr. Dawin's Descen,
of Man, and Sir John Lubbocks Print.
tive Civilization Mr.. Darwin believes,
and he offers abundant facts for the
faith within him, that the germ OF
morality, as distinguished from mere
utility, is traced to the prolongation of
the period of infancy, as man emerged
from a very low condition. A pro-