MB. GOLD WIN SMITH ON " THE DATA OF ETHICS:' 149 



More important still is it to remark that Mr. Spencer distinctly 

 assigns the action which he cites to a lower plane altogether than that 

 to which the action of the Italian physician properly belongs. These 

 are the words with which he introduces his illustration : " Among the 

 best examples of absolutely right actions to be named are those arising 

 where the nature and the requirements have been molded to one 

 another before social evolution began." (The italics are ours.) The 

 adaptation found subsisting between mother and child was established 

 in a pre-social period ; and, though social evolution has since been 

 carried forward many stages, the relation in question retains its char- 

 acter as an almost wholly physical one. No doubt maternal love is 

 to-day a much tenderer and more complex thing than in savage days ; 

 but, as the higher affection is not always guided by adequate knowl- 

 edge, we must still look to the physical adaptation as the highest ex- 

 ample of perfect adjustment. The action of the mother nourishing 

 her child is " absolutely right," but " absolutely right " in a compara- 

 tively low sphere of conduct ; the action of the Italian physician is 

 only " relatively right," but it is " relatively right " in a much higher 

 sphere of conduct. It is, therefore, not correct to say, without care- 

 ful qualification, that, according to Mr. Spencer's philosophy, " the 

 action of the Italian physician is ethically inferior to that of a Caffre 

 woman suckling her child." What may be said of it is that it is typ- 

 ically inferior, although ethically higher ; that is to say, less adapted 

 to serve as the type of perfect action, though indicating the presence 

 of far superior moral elements. The distinction is not difficult to 

 seize. 



The precise position from which Mr. Smith makes his attack on 

 Mr. Spencer is not very easy to discern. He evidently does not like 

 the evolution philosophy in its application to morals ; and yet it is 

 not very clear that he takes his stand distinctly on any other. A 

 most critical time, he thinks, has arrived in the intellectual develop- 

 ment of society, and what the result is going to be he does not venture 

 to predict. Serious breaches have been made in the defenses, not 

 only of revealed, but of natural religion ; the theistic hypothesis itself 

 is threatened. The breaches may be repaired Mr. Smith does not 

 feel at all certain one way or the other ; but meanwhile he thinks it a 

 safe thing to point out the deficiencies of the evolution philosophy 

 as compared with a theistic philosophy. But supposing the breaches 

 should not be repaired, but, on the contrary, widened ; and supposing 

 we should have in the end to fall back on the evolution philosophy or 

 something like it, would it not then be the part of wisdom to make 

 the most of it to show it in the most favorable, rather than in the 

 least favorable, light ? Mr. Smith seems to us to be somewhat in the 

 position of a man battering a house in which, according to his own 

 admission, he may some day have to live. Supposing the evolution 

 philosophy to be true, or to be an adumbration of the truth, any de- 



