Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I ON THE DESCENT OF MAN
- CHAPTER I THE EVIDENCE OF THE DESCENT OF MAN FEOM SOME LOWER FORM
- CHAPTER II COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS
- CHAPTER III COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMAL—continued
- CHAPTER IV ON THE MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM
- CHAPTER V ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES DURING PRIMEVAL AND CIVILISED TIMES
- CHAPTER VI ON THE AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY OF MAN
- CHAPTER VII ON THE RACES OF MAN
- PART II SEXUAL SELECTION
CHAPTER III - COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMAL—continued
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I ON THE DESCENT OF MAN
- CHAPTER I THE EVIDENCE OF THE DESCENT OF MAN FEOM SOME LOWER FORM
- CHAPTER II COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS
- CHAPTER III COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMAL—continued
- CHAPTER IV ON THE MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM
- CHAPTER V ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES DURING PRIMEVAL AND CIVILISED TIMES
- CHAPTER VI ON THE AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY OF MAN
- CHAPTER VII ON THE RACES OF MAN
- PART II SEXUAL SELECTION
Summary
I fully subscribe to the judgment of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important. This sense, as Mackintosh remarks, “has a rightful supremacy over every “other principle of human action;” it is summed up in that short but imperious word ought, so full of high significance. It is the most noble of all the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow-creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause. Immanuel Kant exclaims, “Duty! Wondrous thought, “that workest neither by fond insinuation, flattery, nor “by any threat, but merely by holding up thy naked “law in the soul, and so extorting for thyself always “reverence, if not always obedience; before whom all “appetites are dumb, however secretly they rebel; “whence thy original?”
This great question has been discussed by many writers of consummate ability; and my sole excuse for touching on it is the impossibility of here passing it over, and because, as far as I know, no one has approached it exclusively from the side of natural history.
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- The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex , pp. 70 - 106Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009