LITERARY NOTICES. 



847 



Mr. Spencer is accused of relaxing the 

 restraints of morality; but he has sim- 

 ply sought to make its reasons clearer, 

 its foundations deeper, and to give to 

 its principles the authority of science. 

 Is morality weakened by being better 

 understood, or are its obligations loos- 

 ened by changing blind rules into ra- 

 tional principles ? It is the peculiarity, 

 and we may add that it is the diffi- 

 culty, of scientific ethics that it is the 

 most stringent of all systems. "Where 

 else are we taught so emphatically that 

 the penalties of misdoing follow neces- 

 sarily in the very nature of things and 

 can not be escaped ? Scientific ethics 

 teaches that moral laws can not be 

 broken with impunity, because of the 

 inexorable causal relation between ac- 

 tions and results. This is, indeed, its 

 great power as a controlling system, 

 and it needs but to be thoroughly real- 

 ized to exert its full influence. That 

 it can not be ao realized is largely be- 

 cause the community is educated in a 

 different system. "While it is recog- 

 nized in common experience that im- 

 morality has its natural retributions, 

 and while society embodies this princi- 

 ple in its laws by annexing inexorable 

 penalties to criminal actions, yet the 

 moral system which claims the highest 

 sanction is of quite another order. A 

 morality is taught by religious authority 

 in which sins are forgiven in the sense 

 of a remission of the penalties of im- 

 moral actions. In the current moral 

 code the relation of cause and effect in 

 conduct, as an inevitable law, finds no 

 place ; nay, the doctrine that the con- 

 sequences of evil-doing may be escaped 

 is a permanent ground of appeal to the 

 evil-doer. 



Professor Smith says: "Can it be 

 maintained that the belief in an All- 

 seeing Eye in infallible, inflexible, and 

 all-powerful justice, in a sure reward 

 for well-doing and a sure retribution for 

 evil-doing has been without influence 

 on the conduct of the mass of man- 

 kind ? " But has the belief in an All- 



seeing Eye been associated in the past, 

 or is it now associated, with " infallible, 

 inflexible justice " ? Are we not rather 

 taught that the All-beholding has a plan 

 by which the "vilest sinner'' maybe 

 saved from the consequences of im- 

 moral conduct? Do our ten thousand 

 churches teach this view, or do they 

 not ? In what system is righteousness 

 accounted as but " filthy rags " ? Is it 

 agnostics, or theists, who for centuries 

 have trafficked in absolution ? Who 

 furnishes the weekly passports of mur- 

 derers from the gallows to glory ? Stu- 

 pendous and immortal penalties have 

 been threatened against wrong actions, 

 and then the evasion of these penalties 

 has been conveniently provided for. Is 

 not this easy system of morals, which 

 arranges for the defeat of justice, more 

 open to the charge of laxity than a sci- 

 entific system in which penalties are 

 both proportioned to transgressions and 

 follow them with a salutary certainty ? 



index to "the popular science 

 monthly:' 



The present number closes the twen- 

 tieth volume of " The Popular Science 

 Monthly." The contents of these vol- 

 umes are esteemed so valuable for ref- 

 erence that there have been many ap- 

 plications for a full index. This is now 

 in preparation, and will shortly be is- 

 sued in a separate form. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES, No. 

 XXXIX. 



The Brain and its Functions. By Dr. J. 

 Luys, Physician to the Hospice de la 

 Salpetriere. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

 327. Price, $1.50. 



We have here one of those striking cases, 

 unfortunately too rare, in which the very 

 ablest man makes the most thoroughly pop- 

 ular book. Dr. Luys, at the head of the 

 great French Insane Asylum, is also one of 

 the most eminent and successful investiga- 

 tors of cerebral science now living ; and he 



