148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bodily pain and mental pain; and the painful sensation borne by the child 

 brings, as its results, physical mischief and some damage to the emotional nat- 

 ure. Thus the act is one that is to both exclusively pleasurable, "while absten- 

 tion entails pain on both ; and it is consequently of the kind we here call abso- 

 lutely right. 



Here we are asked to recognize the reductio ad absurdum of Mr. 

 Spencer's whole system of ethics. For our own part, we wholly fail 

 to see where the absurdity comes in. If what we are in search of is a 

 type to which all actions might advantageously conform, where, we 

 ask, shall a better be found than this? What would the condition of 

 society be if all the actions of men conformed to this type, blessing 

 alike the doers and those toward whom the actions were directed? 

 There is but one answer : it would be perfect. The end of all ethical 

 self -discipline, the end of all social adjustments, is precisely to bring 

 things as nearly as possible to this consummation. The good man, in 

 the highest sense of the word, is he who loves his neighbor as himself; 

 in other words, who desires that his action shall benefit his neighbor 

 equally with himself, and not one neighbor only, but all neighbors, and 

 who, therefore, regulates his actions with a view to universal utility. 

 And in all social reforms what is it that we desire to bring about but 

 this that one man's gain shall not be another man's loss, but that the 

 gain of one shall be the gain of all ? 



Mr. Smith places in contrast with the typical action chosen by Mr. 

 Spencer the case of an Italian physician who courted the infection of 

 a deadly plague in order that he might, for the benefit of his stricken 

 fellow-citizens, the better understand and describe its symptoms and 

 development. But is that the type to which we should wish all human 

 actions to conform ? That there should be such actions, Ave must, in 

 the first place, have plagues ; and in order that we may have plagues 

 we must have ignorance and filth. Would it really be worth while to 

 order these things, to the end that one Italian physician might, by an 

 act of sublime self-sacrifice, shed one ray of light athwart the general 

 gloom ? 



Mr. Smith says that, according to Mr. Spencer, " the action of the 

 Italian physician ... is ethically inferior to that of a Caffre woman 

 suckling her child." This, however, is misleading. Though Mr. 

 Smith speaks of actions, the contrast which his words suggest is be- 

 tween motives. When we want to estimate the quality of an action 

 in relation solely to the doer, motive is everything ; but, when we de- 

 sire to estimate its intrinsic value as a link in the net-work of human 

 activity, motive must be left out of sight. The motives of the Inquisi- 

 tors were, we may presume, good, but their deeds were diabolical. 

 The motive in this case was of the highest possible order ; but, 

 when the act was completed, a noble life had been sacrificed. How 

 can an act which inwraps so much of irreparable loss be classed as 

 perfect ? 



