1 6 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



social phenomena, we come at last to the " Principles of Ethics," which 

 Mr. Spencer regarded as the crown of his system. One can not but 

 be struck by the resemblance in this respect of Herbert Spencer's career 

 to that of Auguste Comte. Both began with a lively interest in what 

 may be called political ethics, an interest which they both continued to 

 feel through life. But both saw, after their early survey of the field, 

 that the world was not ready for their final achievement, and therefore 

 both stopped and devoted twelve or fifteen years of arduous labor to 

 laying a scientific foundation for the magnum opus which was to reform 

 the world. Comte laid special stress on this, and placed as a motto at 

 the head of the first volume of his " Politique Positive " the lines of 

 Alfred de Vigny: 



Qu'est-ce qu'une grande vie? 

 Une pens^ de la jeunesse, ex6cut^ par I'age mQr. 



Spencer could not even wait to complete the last of the preparatory 

 works, and stopped in the middle of it to write the final work. So 

 strongly was he impressed by the importance of this last work, and so 

 apprehensive that he might not live to complete it, that he said in the 

 preface to the first part (" Data of Ethics " issued separately) : 



I am the more anxious to indicate in outline, if I can not complete, this 

 final work, because the establishment of rules of right conduct on a scientific 

 basis is a pressing need. Now that moral injunctions are losing the authority 

 given by their supposed sacred origin, the secularization of morals is becoming 

 imperative. Few things can happen more disastrous than the decay and death 

 of a regulative system no longer fit, before another and fitter regulative system 

 has grown up to replace it. 



The implication of course is that Herbert Spencer's " Principles of 

 Ethics " will henceforth constitute the Koran of moral doctrine to the 

 exclusion of all other codes ! Comte has been pronounced an egotist 

 and a fanatic for proclaiming himself the high priest of the religion 

 of humanity, but he never assumed to be an infallible pope in the 

 domain of moral conduct. The parallelism, however, does not end 

 here. The world has passed judgment upon Comte's career, and while 

 his final work for which he had lived and labored, viz., his " Positive 

 Polity," has been declared a mistaken dream, the preparatory work, 

 his " Positive Philosophy," which he intended to be only the pedestal 

 upon which the monument was to stand, is looked upon by most men 

 as a path-breaking, by many as an epoch-making achievement, and as 

 marking the beginning of scientific philosophy. In Spencer's case it 

 is too early to speak thus definitely, but all things point to the complete 

 rejection of his political ethics as outlined in " Social Statics " and 

 perfected in his " Principles of "Ethics " and " Man Versus the State," 

 while his cosmic philosophy, which he regarded as little more than a 



