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PREFACE.

THE present work has been written with the object of showing how far the doctrine of "Evolution" is applicable to the field of morals. As applied to this subject, the use of the term "evolution" is intended to convey that certain principles of man's being are brought into active operation in the particular line or direction which is denoted by the phrase "moral." This direction is guided by external influences in a mode analogous to that of the development of the forces of material nature. In the latter case the determining agencies are physical, whilst in the former, social influences are those which chiefly operate. Moral Evolution is therefore the development of the principles or faculties of man's nature in response to the action of social influences, the result being what is called "morality." How far the title of the book is well chosen, the writer must leave others to judge. It is a generalized expression of the conclusion which he has sought to establish, but he is well aware that the performance has fallen far short of the intention. A more scientific form might perhaps have been given to the work by more strictly observing

the divisions of the subject-if the principles of man's nature on the one hand, and the social forces on the other, had been more exactly and fully treated of before showing the "moral" result of their co-action. The idea, however, was to treat the subject historically as far as possible, showing first of all the moral ideas entertained by peoples of different degrees of culture, and then endeavouring to explain the origin of those ideas. In carrying out the first part of this plan, it was found that the morality of all primitive peoples has much in common; and as no general and connected description of it has appeared elsewhere, it was determined, at the risk of interfering with the general aim of the work, to supply this deficiency, rather than to select examples merely. As this aim is to trace the general progress of moral development, and not to explain perfectly the special phases of it exhibited by different peoples, (although this has been done where necessary), certain apparent omissions may be accounted for. Thus the more cultured Mohammedan peoples are only slightly referred to, and Mohammedanism itself is not specially treated of. The explanation of this is that the system established by the Arabian prophet did not introduce any new moral feature. In fact, so far from being an advance, it was rather a perpetuation of, or reversion to, an older type,* having reproduced the Semitic phase

*

This is shown by Mr Bosworth's admirable Lectures, which appeared while the present work was passing through the press.

of morals, instead of continuing the development of the purely Oriental system which Christianity adopted and improved. Any special examination of the moral teachings of Greek philosophy has been omitted for another reason. However profound may be many of the ideas there preserved, it is doubtful how far they directly influenced the popular morals. Indirectly, as in the cultivation of human sympathy, Greek philosophy had doubtless much influence, and this is considered when treating of the formation of the idea of "humanity."

Some explanation is perhaps due why sexual morality has not been more fully considered in the following pages. Its phenomena are frequently referred to when describing the character of particular peoples, but the subject embraces so wide a range that it was found impossible to do it justice in the present work. Moreover, as most of those phenomena are wanting in an element, "injury to others," which is essential to the idea of immorality, they are better fitted for independent enquiry; as they have become in modern thought almost a separate branch of morals. It might be thought that in a history of moral culture, special consideration would be given to the origin and nature of moral evil and the "Fall." I had prepared chapters on these subjects, but they were omitted because the former subject is too speculative for a work like the present, and the latter is more fitted for treatment in connection with sexual morality. The chapter on the doctrine of emanations.