MR. GOLD WIN SMITH ON " THE DATA OF ETHICS." 151 



itself. Our hope, therefore, is that, in the society of the future, not 

 only will "the milkman go his rounds" a point upon which Mr. 

 Smith kindly reassures us, and, after all, one of no little significance 

 but volunteers for the life-boat, the fire-brigade, and all necessary 

 heroic undertakings, will still be forthcoming. If, when the time ar- 

 rives, men have ceased to risk their lives, as they now so frequently do, 

 in foolish enterprises, without, so far as one can judge, being particu- 

 larly incited thereto by ideas or hopes connected with the village 

 church, it will be all the better. 



2. Evolutionary ethics can not explain conscience, can not tell us 

 why the bad man is miserable in prosperity, and the good man happy 

 in adversity. Is it really so ? What is human character but a com- 

 plex of mental and moral habits, every habit incorporated into it be- 

 coming a more or less imperative voice vibrating through the man's 

 whole nature ? To know that you have not dotted an i or crossed 

 a t will sometimes give you an uncomfortable feeling. Make a rule 

 of anything, and you will not depart from it without uneasiness. How 

 powerful are the habits of the body every one knows, and those of 

 the mind are not less so. The murderer referred to by Mr. Smith 

 is ill at ease because he has allowed a momentary impulse connected 

 with the least authoritative * part of his nature, the mere desire for 

 personal advantage, to carry him into an act of rebellion against a 

 principle of conduct woven into his nature long before he was born, 

 and for which in his subsequent life he has constantly been compelled, 

 not only to profess, but to demand, respect. If it be said that it is 

 impossible to account on this theory for the tone of absolute authority 

 with which conscience urges its decrees, we would ask for a very care- 

 ful consideration of the passages quoted below from the "Data of 

 Ethics." Mr. Spencer has well shown that, just in proportion as the 

 reasons for doing, or refraining from, a particular act are dissociated 

 from what we may call the ultimate material inducements or deter- 

 rents, will the authority they possess be greater. When a man eats 

 because he is hungry, he feels the power, but not the authority, of ap- 

 petite. When, on the other hand, he refrains from a vicious indul- 

 gence because its later effects will be bad, or when he takes a walk 

 before breakfast because he believes it will conduce to his health, 

 though its good effects may not be immediately apparent, he recog- 

 nizes and feels the authority of sanitary rules. In these cases the 

 degree of dissociation between the rule or principle recognized by the 

 mind and the actual facts on which it rests is but slight ; yet the rise 

 of authority is plainly visible. 



* Let the reader who needs to do so refresh his memory with the following passages 

 from Spencer, " Data of Ethics," chapter vii " The Psychological View " : " From the 

 first, complication of sentiency has accompanied better and more numerous adjustments 

 of acts to ends. . . . Whence it follows that the acts characterized by the more complex 

 motives and the more involved thoughts have all along been of higher authority for 

 guidance. . . . When, led by his acquisitiveness, the thief takes another man's property, 



