the impulsive,
unstable nature of the savage, when he also chances to be gifted with
a peculiarly generous and affectionate disposition, is of all others
the man most oppressed with the sense of sin.

Now, it is a just assertion, and a common theme of moralists of many
creeds, that man, such as we find him, is born with an imperfect
nature. He has lofty aspirations, but there is a weakness in his
disposition which incapacitates him from carrying his nobler purposes
into effect. He sees that some particular course of action is his
duty, and should be his delight; but his inclinations are fickle and
base, and do not conform to his better judgment. The whole moral
nature of man is tainted with sin, which prevents him from doing the
things he knows to be right.

The explanation I offer to this apparent anomaly seems perfectly
satisfactory from a scientific point of view. It is neither more nor
less than that the development of our nature, whether under Darwin's
law of natural selection or through the effects of changed ancestral
habits, has not yet overtaken the development of our moral
civilization. Man was barbarous but yesterday, and therefore it is not
to be expected that the natural aptitudes of his race should already
have become molded into accordance with his very recent advance. We,
men of the present centuries, are like animals suddenly transplanted
among new conditions of climate and of food: our instincts fail us
under the altered circumstances.

My theory is confirmed by the fact that the members of old
civilizations are far less sensible than recent converts from
barbarism, of their nature being inadequate to their moral needs. The
conscience of a negro is aghast at his own wild, impulsive nature, and
is easily stirred by a preacher; but it is scarcely possible to ruffle
the self-complacency of a steady-going Chinaman.

The sense of original sin would show, according to my theory, not that
man was fallen from high estate, but that he was rising in moral
culture with more rapidity than the nature of his race could follow.
My view is corroborated by the conclusion reached at the end of each
of the many independent lines of ethnological research--that the human
race were utter savages in the beginning; and that after myriads of
years of barbarism, man has but very recently found his way into the
paths of morality and civilization.

ARNE GARBORG

(1851-)

Arne Garborg is one of the most potent fo