BAIN OX THE DATA OF ETHICS. 213 



tending to balance or equilibrium. " Complete life in a complete so- 

 ciety is but another name for complete equilibrium between the co- 

 ordinated activities of each social unit and those of the aggregate of 

 units." The author admits that there is some strangeness in thus pre- 

 senting moral conduct in physical terms. 



The Biological view takes account of man's nature as an organism, 

 or an aggregate of organs, to be maintained in due condition by regu- 

 lated exercise, rest, and nutrition, and as liable to disorder by excess 

 or defect. According to this view, the moral man is he whose func- 

 tions — numerous and varied though they be — are all discharged in 

 degrees duly adjusted to the conditions of existence. It is immoral to 

 treat the body so as in any way to diminish the fullness or vigor of its 

 vitality. One leading test of actions is. Does the action tend to main- 

 tenance of complete life for the time being, and does it tend to pro- 

 longation of life to the full extent ? This position is not simply the 

 consequence of the necessity of living in order to be happy ; it takes 

 us up to the further docti-ine that happiness is fulfillment of function 

 in each and all of the organs. In fact, the law of pleasure and pain — 

 connecting pleasure with vitality and pain with the opposite — is here 

 invoked as an indispensable link in ethics, and as one of the ways of 

 rendering the science deductive, and of superseding the laborious if 

 not impossible calculations of empirical Hedonism. In this chapter Mr. 

 Spencer illustrates the truth at great length as a practical and moral 

 lesson, and one as yet very imperfectly apprehended. The dependence 

 of the mental on the physical, so completely neglected by our fore- 

 fathers in all but the most obtrusive instances, has been gradually 

 receiving more attention, and Mi\ Spencer will be hereafter distin- 

 guished for giving it an additional impetus, as well as for contributing 

 to its more precise definition. It must necessarily enter more and 

 more into the guidance of human conduct, and must to that extent 

 become an ethical factor. The doctrine in his hands cuts closer than 

 ever ; he proceeds upon the assumption that pleasure points out the 

 way to the healthy discharge of the functions, and pain to the opposite. 

 He is not unaware of the exceptions, and regards them as an imper- 

 fection of adjustment destined to pass away as evolution reaches its 

 term. 



The Psychological view takes us to the genesis of the moral con- 

 sciousness through conflict of states, and through the subordination of 

 lower ends to higher. In order to this we must conceive pleasures 

 and pains in the future, and by such conceptions hold in check all 

 present urgencies incompatible with remoter interests. The yielding 

 of the lower to the higher may, however, be carried to excess ; the 

 subordination is a conditional subordination. The pleasures of the 

 present are not to be absolutely sacrificed to the pleasures of the fu- 

 ture ; the present is always to be counted at its own value in striking 

 the balance. Mr. Spencer illustrates this by the practical absurdity of 



