146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



And yet, unless our own judgment is fatally at fault, Mr. Smith, 

 one of the very best-furnished critics of modern times, has signally 

 failed to do justice to Mr. Spencer's philosophy, or at least to the por- 

 tion of it embodied in his last volume but one, " The Data of Ethics." 

 The article contributed by Mr. Smith to the " Contemporary Review " 

 for February of this year constitutes the most serious attack, by far, 

 that has been made upon the volume in question. To mention Mr. 

 Smith as its author is to vouch for the force, perspicuity, and felicity 

 of the style, and for a large infusion of that common-sense philosophy 

 which carries persuasion to the general reader. Many have read that 

 article who never read " The Data of Ethics " ; and we have little 

 doubt that the opinion of these in regard to the questions at issue has 

 been largely molded by it. In these days of rapid literary produc- 

 tion it is a rare thimr to find an article remembered three months after 

 it is written ; but Mr. Smith's article still finds echoes in many quar- 

 ters of society, and particularly from the pulpit. It can not, therefore, 

 be considered too late to submit it to a careful examination, in order 

 to see how far Mr. Spencer's positions have really been shaken by the 

 arguments brought against them. 



Mr. Spencer's book is essentially a study of human conduct (pur- 

 posive action) in its origin and development, with a view to discov- 

 ering the nature and sanctions of morality. That it is of the utmost 

 importance that men should feel strongly the distinction between right 

 and wrong Mr. Spencer everywhere implies ; and his object is to place 

 that distinction on a basis which, if not so imposing as that heretofore 

 furnished by theology, may at least not be subject to the vicissitudes 

 which seem to be the portion of all theological codes. We must pre- 

 sume our readers to be more or less familiar with the work in question, 

 and to have followed Mr. Spencer in his demonstration that, as purpose 

 takes a wider range, it gathers to itself an accompaniment of moral 

 emotion. In connection even with self -regarding actions, a certain 

 sense of moral power accompanies every subordination of an immedi- 

 ate impulse to one more remote. The individual awakens to a sense 

 of the capacity for choice, and the foundations are thus laid for moral 

 freedom. It is, however, the life of the family, the tribe, the commu- 

 nity, that lends the greatest enlargement to individual thought and 

 feeling. Care for offspring comes first to break down the tyranny of 

 exclusive regard for self. The family develops into the tribe, and men 

 learn to practice a certain measure of justice toward one another as 

 the essential condition of co-operation. The increasing harmony of 

 outward relations has its inward counterpart in increased strength and 

 breadth of sympathy. The moral quality of an action depends upon 

 the degree in which it tends to promote or diminish happiness ; but 

 this, as Mr. Spencer repeatedly points out, is in most cases to be de- 

 termined rather by the conformity or non-conformity of the action 

 with certain general principles ascertained to be favorable to happiness 



