The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-29

question. IL will be observed that MS reply
comedies almost exactly with that mace
by Herbert Spencer In the Data oil Elm
les. In a concise exposition OF DIS own
views on the subject, our author starts with
ayowinR his own personal conviction that
"sympathy Is not only one Of the nobleet and
finest functions of the human brain, but alec
one of the first conditions Of the social Ire
of the higher animals. The preoepts OF
Christian charity, which the Gospels rightly
placed In the very foreground OF moranVy,
were not first discovered by Christ but tney
we're successfully urged by Him and his
followers at time when refined selhsh-
ness threatened the Roman civilization with
decay. These natural principles OF SYM
pathy and altrusm had arisen thousanos
OF years before In human society and are
even found among all the higher animals
that live social life. They have their hrst
roots in the sexual reproduction OF the
lower animals, the sexual love, and the caro-
OF the Young, on which the maintenance OF
a species depends Haeokel goes on to
maintain that athe modern prophets OF
pure egoism, Friedrich Nietasohe. MAX
Stimer. 30. commit a biological error whom
they would substitute their morality OF the
strong for universal charity and when they
ridicule sympathy as weakness OF charac-
ter or an ethical blunder OF Christianity
1t 10 just In Its lnsistenoe on sympathy thnt
the Christian teaching Ia most Valuable
and this part of it's system will survive long
after It's dogmas have sunk into oblyio :
However" concludes Prof Haeckel, TINS
lofty duty must not be confined TO men, but
extended TO our relations, the higher verte-
brates, and in fact. TO all animals whose
brain organization seems to point to the
possession of sensation and a consciousness
OF pleasure and pain. Thus, for instance,
IN the case of the domestic animals which
we Use daily In our service and which have
an undoubted psychic affinity to ourselves,
we must take care to increase their pleas
ures and mitigate their suferings.'
The quotation that we have just made
is from the chapter on Death In later
chapter, expressly devoted to Morality"
the author sums up all that monistie or
naterialistio science can teach, or has thus
far taught, as to the origin and develop
ment OF ethics In the following series OF
propositions: We reproduce them In their
order, but for the detailed demonstration
ofthem we must refer the reader 10 the
book itself. Starting with the beginning
Of organic existence, Haeokel points out
that by adaptation TO different conditions
Of life the simple plasm Of the earliest
organisms, the archlgonous monera, under
goes certain notifications As the living
pasm reacts on these influences, and the
reaction Us often repeated, hdbf 10 formed
This habit is hereditary. the repeated i'm
pressions being fixed In the nucleus In the
case Of the unicellulars When hereditary
transmission lasts through many generations
and is strengthened by cumulative adapta-
ton 1t becomes an insiipct, Even in the
PROTEST cgnobid (the cell communities Of the
protophyta and protozoa) social instincts
are formed by association OF cells. The
antithesis OF the individual and social in
stincts, or OF egoism and altrtdsm, increases
in the animal kingdom in proportion TO the
development Of psychic activity and social
life, In the higher social animals definite
customs arise in this way, and these become
rights and duties when obedience to them
is demanded by the society (herd. flock,
tribe peopie) and the breach Of them pun
ished Savage races at the lowest stage
OF human development the stage which
knows not religion, are not differently
related TO their customs than are the higher
social animals. The higher savages, how
ever. develop religious ideals. combipe their
superstitious practices Cfetichism and amin
ISM with ethical principles, and transform
their empirical moral laws into religious
commands. Among barbaric, and more
particularly among nearly civilized. races
definite moral laws are formed by the asso-
citation OF hereditary religious, moral and
legal ideas. In the civilized races the
Church formulates the religious commands,
and jurisprudence the legal commands, in
more definitely binding forms; the advanc-
ing mind remains, however. subservient
in many respects to Church and State.
Ultimately, in the higher civilized nations
pure reason gains more and more influence
on practical life and thrusts back the au-
thority Of tradition; on the basis OF biologi-
Gal knowledge a rational or monistio ethic
is developed. NJ. w. II.