ORIGIN OF MORALS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 5, 6 July 1910, Page 2

ORIGIN OF MORALS.

EVOLUTION OP CIVILISATION. Mr. Joseph M'Cahe addressed a large audience at the Town Hall last evening on "The Evolution of Morality and Civilisation." He at once discaxded as mythical the Mosaic law given on Mount Sinai, tracing the morality of the Hebrews to Egyptian and Babylonian origin. The civilisations of those countries, he maintained, formed the basis of cho civilisation of the Hebrews, an originally nomadic people to all intents and purposes Bedouins. Maternal love as exemplified •by the solicitude of the ante and bees for thoir young — the establishment of the bond between parent and child — were shown to have had their effects in the growth of morality in the animal kingdom. At the same time, it was doubtful if the ant or the bee had any intelligence whatever. The idea of a German school was that they acted purely mechanically and with no shadow of consciousness whatever. However, in the ant and the bee one saw the raw material of morality. Some cbservers were of opinion that an ant full of honey must, even under penalty of death, feed an ant that was hungry. Climatic changes of great extent and intensity had wrought wonderful changes on animal life in regard to the care for the young. The species observed certain laws because they wero useful to the community. PRIMITIVE PEOPLE. Then Mr. M'Cabe passed to primitive and savage races of the present era, beginning with the extinct Tpsmanians — a people without virtue and without vice ; having language which needed helping out with gesture, and which was not heard after dark because gestures were then invisible. These people owed nothing to the Sifliatic laws or any other moral code. They rarely quarrelled, did not lie, murder was almost unknown. The Veddahs of Ceylon were a similarly viceless people and without virtue, and yet they supported the- widows of their tribe — an example that' was not followed in our highest civilisations to-day. After rapid glances at the Bushmen of Africa, some Tierra del Fuegians, the Todas of India, and some other similar races, Mr. M'Cabe laid it down that these people proved that where no moral ideas existed, the moral condition of such people was good. The moment primitive men split up into tribes they found themselves at war with other tribes. The growth of the moral idea was shown, and the effect of it upon the peoples of the l J acific was described as to their undoing and gradual but certain extinction. The influence of pure Buddhism in Burma, and the happy position of woman in that country had brought Burma us near the perfect social state as could be hoped. PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT. It was pressure from without, not from any inherent principle, that was the chief agency in civilisation. It was the conflict between nation and nation, particularly the intellectual .clash, that brought nations to a high level of civilisation. In Burma, the Buddhist precept: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as a mother loves her children" was carried out. That was the right idea. The Chinese had solved the problem of disputing with moral creeds, for at heart they were sceptics as to their gods or pantheism ; but they were most faithful followers of the philosophy of Laotze and Kung-foutze, or Confucius. Mis. Archibald Little, one of the best writers on Chinese life, had laid it down that a certain way of transforming a hostile crowd into a friendly one was to quofc a few Confucian texts. "I would like to see the man in Wellington," said Mr. M'Cabe, "who could turn a rowdy crowd to a friendly one with a few texts from the New Testament. The moral standard of the Chinese was exceedingly high, and all authorities agre&d upon that. In fact, class for class, their morality was higher than that of any nation in Europe. Chinese merchants as a body were more honest than any body of merchants in tho world. Here Mr. M'Cabe's remarks wero received with some marks of disapproval, but he went on with his lecture, referring to the change that had come over the Japanese since their country was "opened" lo Western influence, ?Jso to Che advanced morality of the Egyptians I laid Babylonians, briefly touching to the j religions of those peoples, concluding with references to Greek; Roman, and Mediaeval morality and civilisation, and their effects upon modern Europe.