 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Hereditary Genius
349
civilized life. The half-reclaimed savage, being unable to deal with
more subjects of consideration than are directly before him, is
continually doing acts through mere maladroitness and incapacity, at
which he is afterwards deeply grieved and annoyed. The nearer
inducements always seem to him, through his uncorrected sense of
moral perspective, to be incomparably larger than others of the same
actual size, but more remote; consequently, when the temptation of
the moment has been yielded to and passed away, and its bitter result
comes in its turn before the man, he is amazed and remorseful at his
past weakness. It seems incredible that he should have done that
yesterday which to-day seems so silly, so unjust, and so unkindly. The
newly-reclaimed barbarian, with the impulsive, unstable nature of the
savage, when lie also chances to be gifted with a peculiarly generous
and affectionate disposition, is of all others the man most oppressed
with the sense of sin.
Now it is a just assertion, and a common theme of moralists of
many creeds, that man, such as we find him, is born with an
imperfect nature. He has lofty aspirations, but there is a weakness in
his disposition, which incapacitates him from carrying his nobler
purposes into effect. He sees that some particular course of action is
his duty, and should be his delight; but his inclinations are fickle and
base, and do not conform to his better judgment. The whole moral
nature of man is tainted with sin, which prevents him from doing the
things he knows to be right.
The explanation I offer of this apparent anomaly, seems perfectly
satisfactory from a scientific point of view. It is neither more nor less
than that the development of our nature, whether under Darwin's law
of natural selection, or through the effects of changed ancestral
habits, has not yet overtaken the development of our moral
civilization. Man was barbarous but yesterday, and therefore it is not
to
 |
|
 |
|