SCIENCE AND MORALITY. 769 



ations of wrong which we find in such passages of Mr. Spencer's work 

 as this : 



Such a view (of the progress of altruism) will not he agreeahlo to those who 

 lament the spreading dishelief in eternal damnation ; nor to those who follow the 

 apostle of brute force in thinking that because the rule of the strong hand was 

 once good it is good for all time; nor to those whose reverence for one who 

 told them to put up the sword is shown by using the sword to spread his doc- 

 trine among the heathens. The conception set forth would be received with 

 contempt by that Fifeshire regiment of militia, of whom eight hundred, at the 

 time of the Franco-German War, asked to be employed on foreign service, and 

 left the Government to say on which side they should fight. From the ten thou- 

 sand priests of the religion of love, who are silent when the nation is moved by 

 the religion of hate, will come no sign of assent ; nor from their bishops, who, 

 far from urging the extreme precept of the master they pretend to follow, to 

 turn the other cheek when one is smitten, vote for acting on the principle strike, 

 lest ye be struck. Nor will any approval be felt by legislators, who, after pray- 

 ing to be forgiven their trespasses as they forgive the trespasses of others, forth- 

 with decide to attack those who have not trespassed against them, and who, 

 after a Queen's speech has " invoked the blessing of Almighty God " on their 

 counsels, immediately provide means for committing political burglary. 



This is enough to show that, whatever the writer's moral system 

 may be, his own moral sentiment is strong. But, surely, it is a splen- 

 did inconsistency. The bishop and the Fifeshire militiamen were in 

 certain stages of evolution, or, in other words, of progress from the 

 homogeneous to the heterogeneous, through the necessary differentia- 

 tions and integrations. The Episcopal organism in its state of com- 

 parative homogeneity could no more help being fond of convei'ting 

 Afghans, by killing them and burning their cottages, than a tiger can 

 help wanting to eat the bishop, or the Buddhist sage in Mr. Arnold's 

 " Light of Asia " can help wanting, in the immensity of his benevolence, 

 to be eat<m by the tiger. Bishop and militiamen alike will surely give 

 their censor the crushing answer that they could not possibly be more 

 differentiated or nearer the perfection of moving equilibrium than they 

 are, without breaking the Spencerian law. 



Another strong point, which any organism indisposed to altruism 

 might make, is the warrant apparently given to purely selfish action 

 by the struggle for existence. " In large measure," says Mr. Spencer, 

 " the adjustment of acts to ends which we have been considering are 

 components of that ' struggle for existence,' carried on both between 

 members of the same species and between members of a different spe- 

 cies ; and, very generally, a successful adjustment made by one creat- 

 ure involves an unsuccessful adjustment made by another creature, 

 either of the same kind or of a different kind. That the carnivores 

 may live, herbivores must die ; and, that its young may be reared, the 

 young of weaker creatures nmst be orphaned." Why, a Borgia or a 

 Bonaparte will ask, is the law to be confined to the case of carnivores 

 and herbivores ? Do not I equally fulfill it by making a prey of the 

 vol. xx. 49 



