But there is another nature in man which is higher than this. It
expresses itself in various ways, but on a higher plane. Love of
truth, mastery over passion, control of the senses, disinterested
self-sacrifice, mercy and kindness to all creatures, desire to help
the distressed, forgiveness, faith in a Supreme Being and devotion;
all these are the expressions of that higher moral and spiritual
nature. They cannot be explained as developed from animal nature by
means of the struggle for material existence. For these qualities are
not to be found in lower animals, although the struggle for existence
is there. The moral and spiritual nature of human beings cannot be
traced as the outgrowth or gradual development of the animal
nature. There is a dispute among the Evolutionists as to the method of
explaining their cause. Some say that these higher faculties have
evolved out of the lower ones and have developed by variation and
natural selection; while others hold that some other higher influence,
law or agency is required to account for them.
Professor Huxley says: "As I have already urged, the practice of that
which is ethically best--what we call goodness or virtue--involves a
course of conduct which in all respects is opposed to that which leads
to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless
self-assertion, it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside
or treading down all competitors, it requires that the individual
shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows; its influence is
directed not so much to the survival of the fittest as to the fitting
of as many as possible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial
theory of existence. It demands that each man who enters into the
enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his debt
to those who have laboriously constructed it, and shall take heed that
no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted to
live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the
cosmic process, and reminding the individual of his duty to the
community, to the protection and influence of which he owes, if not
existence itself, at least the life of something better than a brutal
savage." ("Evolution and Ethics," pp. 81-82.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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