MR. GOLD WIN SMITH ON " THE DATA OF ETHICS." 155 



direction, which is used in the furtherance of life and happiness. There 

 is a school of French philosophers to-day * who, while making frank 

 profession of atheism, speak of man as the union of an organism with 

 an " immateriality." The language is uncouth ; but it might be used, 

 at least provisionally, to express Mr. Spencer's conception ; for, while 

 the whole direction of every human being proceeds from his con- 

 sciousness, that consciousness is not itself material or physical, the 

 very essence of materiality being objectivity to sense. From the evo- 

 lutionary point of view every mite of moral effort is just as precious as 

 from the theological point of view ; but what the evolutionary theory 

 does not do is to reconcile us to the miseries that have abounded and 

 still abound in the world, as possibly having their explanation and 

 justification in some supernatural scheme of government. If the suffer- 

 ings borne by our fellow-creatures are any part of the Divine scheme, 

 as Mr. Smith hints may perhaps be the case, what confidence can we 

 feel that we are right in trying to alleviate them ? With a strange 

 inconsistency, the partisans of a supernatural view of disease are always 

 ready to apply themselves most vigorously to abbreviating by natural 

 means the chastisements which they say are meant for their good ; 

 while the more sensible among them manage, by a careful attention 

 to the rules of health, to escape such chastisements altogether, or nearly 

 so. And so we have no doubt it would be if Mr. Smith had it in his 

 power to greatly ameliorate the general lot of mankind : he would do 

 it, and let the moral education of the race take its chance under the 

 happier conditions. 



Evolutionary ethics tell us what is evil, and explain the why. They 

 tell us that whatever depresses the energies of any human being, or 

 comes between labor and its due reward, is evil. It drops no hints of 

 mysterious compensation hereafter for ills borne in this life so making- 

 things a trifle more comfortable still for the " man in the suburban 

 villa, with a good business in the city," whom the voice of duty so im- 

 periously calls to take a regular luncheon every day, instead of merely 

 swallowing a hasty sandwich. That worthy citizen might, in the in- 

 terest of his digestion, like to think that the shivering, storm-tossed mari- 

 ner, the delver in the mine, the overworked and underfed farm-laborer, 

 and all the beaten and baffled and despairing ones whose lot is so dis- 

 agreeable a contrast to his own, should some day, after they had served 

 their turn here in the production of capital, have some modicum of 

 compensating happiness dealt out to them in a better world. If such 

 be his soothing fancy, he can not at least profess to draw it from the 

 doctrine of evolution, which proclaims, without reserve or qualification, 

 that suffering is suffering, that injustice is injustice, and that, if we 

 would remedy these, we must work while it is called day. It is the 

 weakness not the strength of theological and ultra-mundane doctrines 



* The so-called " Socialistes Rationnels," whose organ, " La Philosophic de l'Avenir,'' 

 contains some acute and powerful writing. 



