EDITOR'S TABLE. 



845 



should have to say that combustion is a 

 natural process of which men knew a 

 great deal that was true and indispensa- 

 ble long before science appeared. What 

 science did was simply to develop, 

 step by step, the pre-existing common 

 knowledge upon the subject into a 

 more complete, accurate, and method- 

 ical form. So also with morality, or 

 the phenomena of human conduct, in 

 respect to its quality of right and 

 wrong. Much was known about it 

 that was true, practical, and essential 

 to human society before science was 

 ever dreamed of. But the early knowl- 

 edge was imperfect, and required to be 

 improved and made more clear and sys- 

 tematic by the establishment of princi- 

 ples, as has been the case with other 

 forms of knowledge that have gradually 

 grown into science. There was never 

 any "new basis" in this process of 

 growth. Practical morality has always 

 been grounded in nature and in com- 

 mon experience has always, to some 

 extent, recognized the right and wrong 

 of human conduct as determined by the 

 known consequences of human actions. 

 Scientific morality was never something 

 to be " found " or done without ; it was 

 an inevitable stage in the development 

 of thought and a part of the great mod- 

 ern movement of the study of the order 

 of nature. The problem has not been 

 to find a new thing to replace an old 

 one, but to make the old one better. 

 The problem of our time has come to 

 be to determine the bearing of the 

 later and more highly developed sci- 

 ences upon the improvement or prog- 

 ress of ethics. 



Professor Smith believes that owing 

 to the great advances of modern thought 

 there is a loosening of old bonds and a 

 great peril to morality. He says: "Sci- 

 ence, in combination with historical 

 philosophy and literary criticism, is 

 breaking up religious beliefs ; and the 

 break-up of religious beliefs is attend- 

 ed, as experience seems to show, with 

 danger to popular morality." Twenty- 



five years ago Herbert Spencer foresaw 

 the emergency that Professor Smith 

 declares has now arisen, and, adopting 

 what Professor Smith considers to be 

 the "unspeakably momentous" princi- 

 ple of evolution for his guide, gave him- 

 self entirely to the mastering and re- 

 construction of those divisions of knowl- 

 edge which lead up to ethical science, 

 or " the establishment of rules of right 

 conduct on a scientific basis." Having 

 reached the subject with this profound 

 and systematic preparation, he has given 

 us a preliminary outline of his views of 

 scientific morality in the small volume 

 of the "Data of Ethics." Professor 

 Smith's article is an attack and, we 

 regret to say, a most unscrupulous at- 

 tack upon this book. 



Throughout his article Professor 

 Smith represents Mr. Spencer as assert- 

 ing, in his ethical volume, that the 

 individual is to decide the right and 

 wrong of an action by a direct balanc- 

 ing of the pleasures and pains involved, 

 not to the community in general, but 

 simply to himself. This is not so. Even 

 had Mr. Spencer made no disavowal of 

 this doctrine, the most cursory exami- 

 nation of his work would have shown 

 that he takes no such position. But, 

 when he dwells specifically upon the 

 point, shows the fallacy of the idea, 

 and explicitly repudiates it, the charge 

 made against him is, to say the least, 

 without excuse. 



Spencer says, " It is quite possible 

 to assert that happiness is the ultimate 

 aim of action and at the same time to 

 deny that it can be reached by makiug it 

 the immediate aim." And, again: "The 

 view for which I contend is, that mo- 

 rality, properly so called, the science 

 of right conduct, has for its object to 

 determine how and why certain modes 

 of conduct are detrimental and certain 

 other modes beneficial. These good 

 and bad results can not be accidental 

 but must be necessary consequences of 

 the constitution of things ; and I con- 

 ceive it to be the business of moral 



