202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



law which of itself finds entry into the breast, and wins for itself un- 

 willing reverence, if not always obedience ; before which all desires 

 are dumb, even should they work against it in secret. What origin 

 is worthy of thee, and where shall I seek the roots of thy noble de- 

 scent, which proudly spurns all kinship with the desires ? " 



But, if we accept the system of Herbert Spencer, the rigoristic 

 conception of Kant appears superfluous and even injurious. The doc- 

 trine of natural development affords a glimpse of the promised land, 

 of a future wherein virtue and happiness will mean the same thing, 

 wherein no antagonism will be conceivable between duty and inclina- 

 tion. No ethics can cheer us to unresting strife by a nobler goal, none 

 can hold out a sublimer prospect. A beautiful faith is that in the 

 upward movement of humanity. It renders easy the battles, the dan- 

 gers, the countless sacrifices, which lie in the way. 



But, notwithstanding the merits of the work under consideration, 

 in certain principal utterances, and in its distinguished contributions 

 to relative ethics, the fundamental principle of absolute ethics, the 

 ethical criterion of action, appears to belong as yet to the number of 

 those problems most needing solution. The last word is not yet 

 spoken ; but the results placed in our possession so far, justify the as- 

 sumption that the evolutionary system of Herbert Spencer will mate- 

 rially assist the thorough reform of ethics, by its critical and positive 

 preparatory work. 



COST OF LIFE. 



By JOHN PEATT. 



"VTOTHING so forcibly strikes the attentive observer of natural 

 -L ^ phenomena as the prodigal expenditure of force and matter 

 the immense over-supply of seed ; the enormous waste of sun-force in 

 irrigation ; the incalculable power, never to be utilized, represented in 

 tidal action, and in atmospheric, oceanic, and river currents. If we 

 extend our observation to the solar system and the inconceivable spaces 

 intervening between that and the neighboring systems, the imagination 

 fails to grasp the relation between the force that is utilized and that 

 which is wasted. A million carried to the tenth power as a multiple, 

 would fail to represent the waste of natural forces, as compared with 

 the rudest Newcomcn pumping-engine of the earliest type. This is 

 familiar science, yet the expansion of the idea may present some 

 points of novelty. 



It is obvious that the whole system of planets, representing so 

 many minute points in space, receive only an almost infinitesimally 

 small proportion of the light and heat evolved by the sun. Some 

 physicists are fond of giving the exact figures, but this is presenting 



