LITERARY NOTICES. 



4!7 



ism. So, also, local self-government has pe- 

 culiar benefits which no tree and intelligent 

 people should ever forego ; but local au- 

 tonomy involves political weakness, which 

 is not to be neglected. And so in attempt- 

 ing to get away from the evils of indissolu- 

 ble marriage by opening a way of escape, 

 we find ourselves at once in the presence of 

 new evils, and the proper balance of strin- 

 gency and liberality is by no means clearly 

 seen and ready of attainment. 



It was this conception of life, as involv- 

 ing in all its aspects a choice of evils, that 

 led the author on to the study of the ne- 

 cessary antagonisms in the constitution of 

 nature, and which he found to be equally 

 displayed in the lower orders of life, and to 

 be rooted in the actions and reactions of 

 the physical forces themselves. His book 

 is an attempt to trace out this principle of 

 conflict in the order of natural things, from 

 its simplest to its most complicated mani- 

 festations. 



Part I is intended to show the past 

 prevalence of optimism and the fragment- 

 ary and fruitless conceptions of antagonism 

 exemplified in the views of eminent repre- 

 sentative men by summaries and brief quo- 

 tations from their writings. Part II deals 

 with the fundamental conceptions of exist- 

 ence, and speculations concerning the pri- 

 mary forces into which the conception of 

 conflict has entered as an undefined princi- 

 ple of the philosophy of science. Its illus- 

 trations are traced through a series of the 

 principal branches of science, physics, chem- 

 istry, biology, mind, morals, etc. The last 

 chapter deals with morality in accordance 

 with the ethical systems that have grown 

 out of utilitarian experience, on the hypoth- 

 esis that the moral instincts become fixed 

 by association and habit, and in which the 

 higher faculties or the later organized or 

 more complex feelings overrule the lower or 

 earlier developed feelings in determining 

 ethical action. This chapter insists on the 

 struggle in life through which morality has 

 taken form as conduct in the direction of 

 least social conflict. The author maintains 

 that the prevalence of moral order has been 

 determined and is maintained through con- 

 flict as really and to quite as great a degree 

 as the struggle for existence has produced 

 the local forms among plants and animals. 

 vol. xxiii. 27 



The writer observes that Mr. Spencer recog- 

 nizes antagonism in the origin and develop- 

 ment of moral systems, but also indulges in 

 optimistic anticipations which are without 

 warrant in " the constitution of things." He 

 interprets Spencer as maintaining that in- 

 dustrialism is to supersede militancy in such 

 a manner that antagonism will be done 

 away with. But the author insists that any 

 possible industrialism only complicates an- 

 tagonism and changes its forms. Part III 

 illustrates the subject from a survey of his- 

 tory, and Part IV deals with it in connection 

 with the theory of evolution. The doctrine 

 is, of course, accepted, and the exposition 

 of it given in Spencer's " First Principles " 

 is taken as authoritative ; but the writer 

 is of opinion that the principle of antago- 

 nism is not accorded its due weight, and 

 various exceptions are taken to the Spen- 

 cerian argument. Part V is chiefly devoted 

 to the discussion from the point of view of 

 geology and meteorology, showing that the 

 necessary conditions of physical life and 

 enjoyment necessarily involve discord and 

 pain. Part VI illustrates the subject in 

 relation to practical life, and aims to show 

 that, whatever schemes of improvement may 

 be adopted, there are always drawbacks, 

 accompanying evils, which stand in the way 

 of perfection in results. The chapter on 

 " Relative Prolificacy " deals with this agen- 

 cy not only as a permanent and perpetual 

 social element, but in its immediate bear- 

 ing upon the various grades and classes of 

 society, and it involves a criticism of the 

 tendency to overrate the optimistic side of 

 evolution. 



It will appear, from what we have said, 

 that this work on conflict is offered as a 

 contribution to the philosophy of life, or as 

 deepening the foundations for such a phi- 

 losophy. The claims in this direction are 

 brought out in a general way in the final 

 chapter. Its conclusions are broadly prac- 

 tical. The philosophy of conflict inculcates 

 moderate expectations. Avoiding the ex- 

 tremes of optimism and pessimism, of con- 

 servatism and radicalism, it aims to do work 

 only where work will be effectual work 

 that will make things better, and work 

 which prevents them from becoming worse. 



We have here endeavored simply to 

 state the general object of the book before 



