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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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spreads through instruction and example to the<br />

young, and eventually becomes incorporated in<br />

public opinion.<br />

<strong>The</strong> highest possible stage in moral culture is<br />

when we recognise that we ought to control<br />

our thoughts, and "not even in inmost thought<br />

to think again the sins that made the past so<br />

pleasant to us." (44. Tennyson, Idylls <strong>of</strong> the<br />

King, p. 244.) Whatever makes any bad action<br />

familiar to the mind, renders its performance<br />

by so much the easier. As Marcus Aurelius long<br />

ago said, "Such as are thy habitual thoughts,<br />

such also will be the character <strong>of</strong> thy mind; for<br />

the soul is dyed by the thoughts." (45. '<strong>The</strong><br />

Thoughts <strong>of</strong> the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus,'<br />

English translation, 2nd edit., 1869. p. 112.<br />

Marcus Aurelius ws born A.D. 121.)<br />

Our great philosopher, Herbert Spencer, has<br />

recently explained his views on the moral sense.<br />

He says (46. Letter to Mr. Mill in Bain's<br />

'Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, p. 722.), "I

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