3 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it is in part a question of numbers, and the smaller groups may 

 consist of the more capable warriors), there would still be an 

 adequate answer. It is only during the earlier stages of human 

 progress that the development of strength, courage, and cunning, 

 are of chief importance. After societies of considerable size have 

 been formed and the subordination needed for organizing them 

 produced, other and higher faculties become those of chief im- 

 portance ; and the struggle for existence carried on by force, does 

 not always further the survival of the fittest. The fact that but 

 for a mere accident Persia would have conquered Greece, and the 

 fact that the Tartar hordes very nearly overwhelmed European 

 civilization, show that offensive war can be trusted to subserve 

 the interests of the race only when the capacity for a high social 

 life does not exist, and that in proportion as this capacity de- 

 velops, offensive war tends more and more to hinder, rather than 

 to further, human welfare. In brief we may say that the arrival 

 at a stage in which ethical considerations come to be entertained, 

 is the arrival at a stage in which offensive war, by no means cer- 

 tain to further predominance of races fitted for a high social life, 

 and certain to cause injurious moral reactions on the conquering 

 as well as on the conquered, ceases to be justifiable; and only 

 defensive war retains a quasi-ethical justification. 



And here it is to be remarked that the self-subordination 

 which defensive war involves, and the need for such qualification 

 of the abstract principle of justice as it implies, belong to that 

 transitional state necessitated by the physical-force-conflict of 

 races; and that they must disappear when there is reached a 

 peaceful state. That is to say, all questions concerning the ex- 

 tent of such qualifications pertain to what we distinguished as 

 relative ethics ; and are not recognized by that absolute ethics 

 which is concerned with the principles of right conduct in a 

 society formed of human beings fully adapted to social life. 



This distinction I emphasize here because throughout succeed- 

 ing chapters we shall find that recognition of it helps us to 

 disentangle the involved problems of political ethics. — Nine- 

 teenth Century. 



The constantly receding character of the unexplained was illustrated by Dr. 

 Burdon Sanderson, in his address at the British Association, by reference to the 

 discovery of the cell, which seemed to be a very close approach to the mechanism 

 of life ; " but now we are striving to get even closer, with the same resnlt. Our 

 measurements are more exact, our methods finer ; but these very methods bring 

 us to close quarters with phenomena which, although within reach of exact inves- 

 tigation, are, as regards their essence, involved in a mystery which is the more 

 profound the more it is brought into contact with the exact knowledge we possess 

 of surrounding conditions." 



