But I say unto you, Love your
enemies!" From the same lips came the final answer to the question,
"Who is my neighbour?" It can be found in the tenth chapter of the
Gospel according to Luke. By what means was social morality produced?
(1) The earliest source of social morality lies in the maternal
instinct; the first animal that took care of its young stood at the
beginning of this wonderful advance. The originating causes of the
first slight care of eggs or offspring lay, no doubt, in some obscure
physiological readjustments, due to forces irrelevant to morality.
But the young that had even such slight care had a survival advantage
over their rivals, and would transmit the rudimentary instinct to their
offspring. Thus, given a start in that direction, natural selection,
steadily favoring the more maternally disposed, produced species with
a highly developed and long continuing maternal love. In similar manner
but in lesser degree a paternal instinct was developed. The existence
of these instincts implied the power of sympathy and altruistic action
that is, action by one individual for another's welfare. From sympathy
for offspring to sympathy for mate and other members of the group was
but a step; and all sympathetic action may have its ultimate source
in mother love.
(2) Not only was natural selection early at work in the rivalry for
existence between individuals, protecting those stocks that had the
stronger maternal and paternal instincts, but it played an important
part in the struggle between groups.
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