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.

  • Cobbe, Frances Power, 1822-1904.
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.

    403/416 (page 391)
    ESSAY XIV. THE EVOLUTION OF MORALS AXJ) RELIGION.' [The following brief Essay, written while this hook has been in the press, is here reprinted as supplementing the expression of the writer’s views on the Development of Morals in Essay I.] Histories of the progress of the Intellect and of Religious Ideas have occupied the attention of scholars for a consider- able time. It may be questioned whether we should not now direct our studies rather to the history of the Religious Sentiment, and to the development through the ages, not of human thoughts about God, but of human feelings towards Him. The furthest insight we are able to obtain into our own nature, seems to show that the share which ideas exer- cise in the production of feelings is superficial compared to the profound influence of feelings in the formation of opinions; and that the transmission of ideas by means of oral or written language, is, in moral and religious matters, of the smallest possible value, unless, by some extraneous means, the feelings may be brought up to the level whereto the ideas belong. Only in our day have the materials for anything like a sketch of the history of the Religious Senti- ment been collected; and much yet remains obscure; but the outline of such a progress begins to be apparent. The Moral 1 Reprinted from The Manchcstei' Friend, January 15th, 1872.