But actually, mankind inherited
from its brute ancestry instincts which, unguided, wrought great harm.
Without the development of some system of checks men would forever
have been the prey of overindulgence, sexual wantonness, civil strife,
and apathy. They would have remained beasts and never won their dominance
on the earth. Even rudimentary moral codes came as an amelioration
of this dangerous and unhappy situation; they enabled men, by abstention
from dangerous passions and from idleness, to make their lives
efficient, interesting, and comparatively free from pain; by
cooperation and mutual service to resist their enemies and develop
a civilization. Morality thus has been the greatest instrument of
progress, the most fundamental of man's achievements, the most
important part of the wisdom of the race.
Is moral progress certain?
A measure of hopefulness is to be won from the observation that, quite
apart from the conscious effort of men, natural laws have been making
for moral progress. And unquestionably there has been a great advance
in morality within historic times. We are forever past the age of
cannibalism, of human torture, of slavery, of widespread infanticide.
War is on the wane and may vanish within a few generations. Never
before was there so much sympathy, so much conscious dedication to
human service, in the world. We are apt to idealize the past; we sigh
for a "return to nature," or to the golden age of Greece.
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