RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 519 



are no criterion of what actually exists in nature. The very 

 same argument of the necessary perfection of the cosmos led 

 the ancients to believe that the orbits of the planets must be 

 circles, for circles are the only " perfect " curves ; and that 

 their number could not be more than seven, for seven is the only 

 " perfect " number. Ideas of perfection change so radically 

 from age to age, and from race to race, that it is impossible to 

 suppose the cosmos to be constructed on so shifting a founda- 

 tion. Here we have an example of the confusion of science 

 and ethics. The " laws " of science are the same in all places 

 and times. Those of ethics are relative to the people who live 

 under them, and to the different circumstances in which they 

 find themselves. 



A translation has been published of M. Deshumbert's La 

 Morale fondee sur les Lois de la Nature, under the English title 

 of An Ethical System : Based on the Laws of Nature. This 

 presents a system of Evolutionary Ethics of the type made 

 popular last century by Herbert Spencer. It defines Good as 

 " everything that contributes to the conservation and the 

 enlargement of life," and Evil " everything that diminishes 

 life to no purpose." There is nothing new in this : such novelty 

 as may be found in the book seems to be in the association 

 between the ideas of the Chinese philosophers with the idea of 

 evolutionary ethics. The confusion between science and ethics 

 is carried to a higher degree than in the volume previously noted. 

 Nature is personified, after the manner of a god. The author 

 deems it necessary to answer objections to the theory that 

 ethics is founded on natural laws, such as the objection that 

 " Nature is cruel." It is hard to see what this has got to do 

 with it ; harder still to perceive why M. Deshumbert thinks it 

 incumbent on him to deny the cruelty of nature. He is thus 

 at some pains to prove that the experience of being eaten by a 

 lion is neither terrifying nor painful ; and as for being frozen 

 to death, it is one of the most agreeable forms of quitting our 

 earthly existence. A number of instances are given to prove 

 the " intelligence " of nature : the argument being that many 

 natural processes resemble processes invented by man ; thus the 

 sting of a wasp resembles- a hypodermic syringe ; the human 

 eyelid resembles a wet rag used for cleaning windows. Finally . 

 a number of " duties and precepts " are enunciated, such as 

 those of avoiding alcohol, not giving beer to children, consulting 



