On the Genesis of SpeciesMivart, St. George Jackson
Religion
On the Genesis of Species
Mivart, St. George Jackson
Evolution (Biology)
Abundant examples may, indeed, be brought forward of useful acts which
simulate morality, such as parental care of the young, &c. But did the most
undeviating habits guide all brutes in such matters, were even aged and
infirm members of a community of insects or birds carefully tended by young
which benefited by their experience, such acts would not indicate even the
faintest rudiment of real, _i.e._ formal, morality. "Natural Selection"
would, of course, often lead to the prevalence of acts beneficial to a
community, and to acts _materially_ good; but unless they can be shown to
be _formally_ so, they are not in the least to the point, they do not offer
any explanation of the origin of an altogether new and fundamentally
different motive and conception.
It is interesting, on the other hand, to note Mr. Darwin's statement as to
the existence of a distinct moral feeling, even in, perhaps, the very
lowest and most degraded of all the human races known to us. Thus in the
same "Journal of Researches"[210] before quoted, bearing witness to the
existence of moral reprobation on the part of the Fuegians, he says: "The
nearest approach to religious feeling which I heard of was shown by York
Minster (a Fuegian so named), who, when Mr. Bynoe shot some very young
ducklings as specimens, declared in the most solemn manner, 'Oh, Mr. Bynoe,
much rain, snow, blow much.' This was evidently a retributive punishment
for wasting human food."
Mr. Wallace gives the most interesting testimony, in his "Malay
Archipelago," to the existence of a very distinct, and in some instances
highly developed moral sense in the natives with whom he came in contact.
In one case,[211] a Papuan who had been paid in advance for bird-skins and
who had not been able to fulfil his contract before Mr. Wallace was on{198}
the point of starting, "came running down after us holding up a bird, and
saying with great satisfaction, 'Now I owe you nothing!'" And this though
he could have withheld payment with complete impunity.
Mr. Wallace's observations and opinions on this head seem hardly to meet
with due appreciation in Sir John Lubbock's recent work on Primitive
Man.[212] But considering the acute powers of observation and the industry
of Mr. Wallace, and especially considering the years he passed in familiar
and uninterrupted intercourse with natives, his opinion and testimony
should surely carry with it great weight. He has informed the Author that
he found a strongly marked and widely diffused modesty, in sexual matters,
amongst all the tribes with which he came in contact. In the same way Mr.
Bonwick, in his work on the Tasmanians, testifies to the modesty exhibited
by the naked females of that race, who by the decorum of their postures
gave evidence of the possession in germ of what under circumstances would
become the highest chastity and refinement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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