21 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tissue by effort, and the need for those cessations of effort during which 

 repair may overtake waste. Nor is it less clear that between the rate 

 of mortality and the rate of multiplication in any society, there is a 

 relation such that the last must reach a certain level before it can bal- 

 ance the first, and prevent disappearance of the society. And it may 

 be inferred that pursuits of other leading ends are, in like manner, de- 

 termined by certain natural necessities, and from these derive their 

 ethical sanctions. That it will ever be practicable to lay down i^recise 

 rules for private conduct in conformity with such requirements, may 

 be doubted. But the function of absolute ethics in relation to private 

 conduct will have been discharged, when it has produced the warrant 

 for its requirements as generally expressed ; when it has shown the 

 imperativeness of obedience to them ; and when it has thus taught the 

 need for deliberately considering whether the conduct fulfills them as 

 well as may be," 



Mr. Spencer's great advantage, then, consists in the jirimary and 

 constant reference to the physical side of our being. For a very large 

 part of our happiness, physical tests may be assigned ; and the prob- 

 lem is transferred fi'om the purely subjective estimates, which are 

 so vague, to objective conditions which are comjDaratively well de- 

 fined — from the inward and spiritual grace to the outward and visible 

 symbol. The author's antagonism is not toward the utilitarians as such, 

 but toward the almost universal disregard of physical conditions by our 

 forefathers. He is not the first to call attention to this great desid- 

 eratum ; but he makes a more thorough and systematic employment 

 of it for the ends of happiness. Lord Shaftesbury said long ago that 

 there were among us human creatures in such vile physical conditions 

 that even religion was not possible to them. It would not be difficult 

 to assign the lowest pitch of worldly means compatible with the fair 

 requirements of a human being. The settlement of this point pre- 

 cedes all computations of pleasures and pains ; or rather it is a short 

 cut to the goal. The utilitarian has more or less enjoyed the advan- 

 tage, without being so fully aware of it as he might be ; for he has 

 not scrupled to use worldly abundance as a first rough test of well- 

 being ; and, if the test were only rigorous and thorough, there would 

 be nothing perplexing in the Hedonistic calculation ; it would be as 

 simple as common arithmetic. Personal ethics would be. Make a suf- 

 ficient amount of money : social ethics. Do not defraud any one, and 

 be ready, on suitable opportunity, to help those that are in need. The 

 Hedonistic difficulties begin where money gained and expended is not 

 commensurate with happiness. Moralists in all ages (Aristotle per- 

 haps excepted) have delighted to dwell upon the occasions where the 

 two things are incommensurable. A better consideration of the hu- 

 man organism, supplying a better knowledge of physical conditions, 

 explains many of the exceptions, and helps to reinstate the problem on 

 a definite basis. 



