Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles
Science
Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles Darwin
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology)
Looking to future generations, there is no cause to fear that the
social instincts will grow weaker, and we may expect that virtuous
habits will grow stronger, becoming perhaps fixed by inheritance. In
this case the struggle between our higher and lower impulses will be
less severe, and virtue will be triumphant.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GOLDEN RULE.
[Page 125.]
There can be no doubt that the difference between the mind of
the lowest man and that of the highest animal is immense. An
anthropomorphous ape, if he could take a dispassionate view of his own
case, would admit that though he could form an artful plan to plunder
a garden, though he could use stones for fighting or for breaking open
nuts, yet that the thought of fashioning a stone into a tool was quite
beyond his scope. Still less, as he would admit, could he follow out a
train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve a mathematical problem, or
reflect on God, or admire a grand natural scene. Some apes, however,
would probably declare that they could and did admire the beauty of the
colored skin and fur of their partners in marriage. They would admit
that, though they could make other apes understand by cries some of
their perceptions and simpler wants, the notion of expressing definite
ideas by definite sounds had never crossed their minds. They might
insist that they were ready to aid their fellow-apes of the same troop
in many ways, to risk their lives for them, and to take charge of their
orphans; but they would be forced to acknowledge that disinterested
love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man, was
quite beyond their comprehension.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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