474 "THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the "line of direction" falls within it. In young children, in 

 boys and girls who are admonished to " sit up/' in weakly people, 

 and in the old, the spine lapses into that convex form character- 

 istic of lower Primates. It is the same with the balancing of the 

 head. Only by a muscular strain to which habit makes iis in- 

 sensible, as it does to the exposure of the face to cold, is the head 

 maintained in position : immediately certain cervical muscles are 

 relaxed, the head falls forward ; and where there is great debility 

 the chin rests permanently on the chest. 



So far, indeed, is the assumption of Kant from being true, that 

 the very reverse is probably true. After contemplating the count- 

 less examples of imperfections exhibited in low types of creatures, 

 and decreasing with the ascent to high types, but still exemplified 

 in the highest, any one who concludes, as he may reasonably do, 

 that Evolution has not yet reached its limit, may infer that most 

 likely no such thing as a perfect organ exists. Thus the basis of 

 the argument by which Kant attempts to justify his assumption 

 that there exists a good will apart from a good end, disappears 

 utterly, and leaves his dogma in all its naked unthinkableness. 



One of the propositions contained in Kant's first chapter is that 

 " we find that the more a cultivated reason applies itself with de- 

 liberate purjDose to the enjoyment of life and happiness, so much 

 the more does the man fail of true satisfaction." A preliminary 

 remark to be made on this statement is that in its sweeping form 

 it is not true. I assert that it is untrue on the strength of per- 

 sonal experiences. In the course of my life there have occurred 

 many intervals, averaging a month each, in which the pursuit of 

 happiness was the sole object, and in which happiness was success- 

 fully pursued. How successfully may be judged from the fact 

 that I would gladly live over again each of those periods without 

 change, an assertion which I certainly can not make of any por- 

 tions of my life spent in the daily discharge of duties. That 

 which Kant should have said is that the exclusive pursuit of what 

 are distinguished as pleasures and amusements is disappointing. 

 This is doubtless true ; and for the obvious reason that it over- 

 exercises one group of faculties, and exhausts them, while it leaves 

 unexercised another group of faculties, which consequently do not 

 yield the gratifications accompanying their exercise. It is not, as 

 Kant says, guidance by " a cultivated reason " which leads to dis- 

 appointment, but guidance by an uncultivated reason ; for a culti- 

 vated reason teaches that continuous action of a small part of the 

 nature, joined with inaction of the rest, must end in dissatisfaction. 



But now, supposing we accept Kant's statement in full, what is 

 its implication ? That happiness is the thing to be desired, and, 

 in one way or another, the thing to be achieved. For if not, what 



