Darwinism in morals, and other essays : reprinted from the Theological and Fortnightly reviews, Fraser's and Macmillan's magazines, and the Manchester Friend / by Frances Power Cobbe.

  • Frances Power Cobbe
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Darwinism in morals, and other essays : reprinted from the Theological and Fortnightly reviews, Fraser's and Macmillan's magazines, and the Manchester Friend / by Frances Power Cobbe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/416 (page 35)
    HEREDITARY PIETY. ^ The history of Public Opinion during the last half century may be not inaptly compared to that of a well-fed, steady- going old roadster, long cherished by a resjDectable elderly squire, but unluckily transferred at his demise to his wild joung heir. Accustomed to all the neighbouring highways, and trained to jog along them at five miles an hour, the poor beast suddenly found itself lashed by “the discipline of facts” and sundry new and cruel spurs, to get over the ground at double its wonted pace, and at last to leave the beaten tracks altogether and cut across country, oveV walls and hedges which it never so much as ]3eeped over before. Under this altered regime it would appear that Public Opinion at first behaved with the restiveness which was to be expected. On some occasions he stood stock-still like a donkey, with his feet stretched out, refusing to budge an inch ; and anon he bolted and shied and took buck leaps into the air, rather than go the way which stern destiny ordained. But as time went on, such resistance naturall}^ grew less violent. The plungings and rearings subsided by degrees, and anybody who now pays attention to the animal^ will probably be only led to observe that he is a little hard in the mouth and apt to refuse his fences till he has been brought 1 Hereditary Genius. An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequenc Fiancis Galton, F.R.S. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 390. Macmillan. 1869. Psychologie Naturelle. Etude sur les Facultes Intellectuelles et Mora i rosper Despine. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris: F. Savy. 1868. By Par