LITERARY NOTICES. 



705 



supposed that society was made up of 

 children, savages, and individuals, and 

 that according to the natures and attri- 

 butes of these units would be the char- 

 acter of the societies formed of them. 

 But this it seems is a case in which the 

 properties of a whole are not dependent 

 upon the properties of its parts. Verily 

 it would be an extraordinary " social 

 science " that should arise by omitting 

 the study of man as an individual, and 

 interpreting society by the ideals of its 

 literary prophets. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



SPENCER'S SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY: 



The Data of Ethics. By Herbert 

 Spencer. New York : D. Appleton & 

 Co. Pp. 288. Price, $1.50. 



This little book is the first part of the 

 treatise on morality that will close Spen- 

 cer's " System of Philosophy." As explained 

 in his preface, it is the result of long prep- 

 aration, and is published not in the order 

 he at first designed. He says : " I have 

 been led thus to deviate from the order 

 originally set down by the fear that persist- 

 ence in conforming to it might result in 

 leaving the final work of the series unex- 

 ecuted. Hints repeated of late years with 

 increasing frequency and distinctness have 

 shown me that health may permanently fail 

 even if life does not end before I reach the 

 last part of the task I have marked out for 

 myself. This last part of the task it is to 

 which I regard all of the preceding parts as 

 subsidiary. Written as far back as 1842, 

 my first essay, consisting of letters on ' The 

 Proper Sphere of Government,' vaguely in- 

 dicated what I conceive to be certain gen- 

 eral principles of right and wrong in politi- 

 cal conduct ; and, from that time onward, 

 my ultimate purpose, lying behind all proxi- 

 mate purposes, has been that of finding for 

 the principles of right and wrong in conduct 

 at large a scientific basis. To leave this 

 purpose unfulfilled, after making so exten- 

 sive a preparation for fulfilling it, would be 

 a failure, the probability of which I do not 

 like to contemplate ; and I am anxious to 

 preclude it, if not wholly, still partially. 

 vol. xv. 45 



Hence the step I now take. Though this 

 first division of the work, terminating the 

 ' Synthetic Philosophy,' can not of course 

 contain the specific conclusions to be set 

 forth in the entire work, yet it implies them 

 in such wise that definitely to formulate 

 them requires nothing beyond logical de- 

 duction." 



But few will deny the importance of the 

 work which Mr. Spencer has so long had in 

 view for, of all fields of thought, the ethi- 

 cal is in the most chaotic condition. Some 

 find the grounds of morality in the Ten 

 Commandments, and others in the rules of 

 the New Testament. The fear of hell is 

 appealed to as a motive to right conduct, 

 and the divine intuitions of conscience are 

 claimed as guides to duty. As faith in the 

 supernatural declines, many are left with- 

 out any authoritative moral guidance, while 

 some fall back on a prudential utility, and 

 others upon the interdicts of public law. 

 These theoretical discords are accompanied 

 by varying standards of right and wrong in 

 different states and periods of society, while 

 everywhere are seen the most glaring dis- 

 crepancies between professed moral pre- 

 cepts and actual moral practice. 



Meantime, in other fields of thought, sci- 

 ence is the great reconciler of conflicting 

 opinions. By the establishment of compre- 

 hensive principles that command universal 

 assent, it is constantly bringing men into 

 better agreement ; and it has thus become 

 an authority that is enforcing the submis- 

 sion of the human mind with steadily in- 

 creasing power. Moral phenomena, like 

 mental and physical phenomena, are obe- 

 dient to principles of order, and are thus 

 amenable to scientific method ; science, 

 therefore, must traverse the ethical field in 

 its legitimate progress ; and there is no 

 reason to doubt that it will perform the 

 same benign office of illumination and guid- 

 ance here, that it has performed in the other 

 great spheres of its application. 



But, if this is true, it may well be asked 

 why science has not long since accomplished 

 so desirable a work. It is because centu- 

 ries of preparation were required to develop 

 the preliminary sciences and perfect the 

 method of inquiry ; and because it is a task 

 of such difficulty that but few men could be 

 expected to combine the scientific quali- 

 fications, the patient, untiring industry, 



