410 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ecclesiastical lamentations over our pol- 

 icy. The disentangling of ethics from 

 theology and the treatment of it as an 

 independent science were demanded as 

 a logical requirement of our educational 

 system, for morals must be taught in 

 public schools, while religion is left to 

 the special agencies of spiritual instruc- 

 tion. And, if the country has thus 

 decreed the divorce, why mourn over 

 a book which merely conforms to it, 

 and which furnishes the best defense of 

 the national wisdom in making the di- 

 vorce ? 



But the characterization of Spen- 

 cer's work as dreary and the sugges- 

 tion about " the setting of a great 

 hope " are untruthful, and are probably 

 morbid subjective illusions of the writer. 

 The "Data of Ethics," so far from 

 being a dreary book in its spirit and 

 tone, is, on the contrary, a book more 

 buoyant with hope and more full of 

 rational encouragement than any for- 

 mer philosophical treatise upon morals 

 ever written. It connects the moral 

 duty and improvement of man with 

 pleasure and happiness more closely and 

 profoundly than any other ethical sys- 

 tem hitherto promulgated. It arrays 

 the grand results of modern science 

 against a spurious metaphysics to stem 

 the black tide of advancing pessimism ; 

 and it appeals to the unfolding of the 

 universe as giving trust of something 

 brighter and better for man — yet to 

 be realized this side of his chances of 

 perdition. Other reviewers of " The 

 Data of Ethics " have not ftiiled to rec- 

 ognize and to declare this quality of 

 the book. 



A writer in the " Home Journal " 

 of November 16th closes an interesting 

 account of Spencer's work as follows : 

 " To whatever criticism the system of 

 ethics which is thus logically developed 

 from the law of evolution may be sub- 

 jected on the part of the opponents of 

 the evolution theory, yet this at least is 

 evident — that as an instrument for the 

 acceleration of the progress of society 



toward the beautiful ideal which it 

 sketches out, as a stimulus to individual 

 exertion in furtherance of this high aim, 

 the new system is immeasurably supe- 

 rior to all antecedent theories of life. 

 While other systems have encouraged 

 the hope, none have supplied the data 

 of a rational faith in the ultimate re- 

 alization of a lofty morality among the 

 masses of mankind. ISTay, the prevalent 

 codes which claim for themselves a su- 

 pernatural origin make it their duty to 

 proclaim the native irapotency of man, 

 and place the realization of their ideal 

 quite beyond this * vale of tears.' 



"Believe in the perfectibility of 

 men, believe that society in the very 

 conditions of its existence is impreg- 

 nated with the potency that insures this 

 perfectibility, and a great step is made 

 toward the end desired. Faith in this 

 preestablished destiny — the faith that 

 the laws of the universe are working in 

 and through and side by side with the 

 aspirations and endeavors of individual 

 men, can not fail but impart a new im- 

 pulse to these aspirations and a new 

 vigor to these endeavors." 



Equally to the point are the words 

 of a critic in "The Nonconformist" 

 of November 5th — a journal which is 

 the leading organ of English orthodox 

 Dissenters. After an excellent analysis 

 of the work, tbe writer remarks : " The 

 value of the discussion in this volume 

 is the glimpses it affords into the future 

 which its author anticipates. No loftier 

 view, we venture to think, was ever en- 

 tertained. Whatever may be the opin- 

 ions we hold respecting the origin of 

 our ideas of right and wrong, and of the 

 sanctions by which they are enforced, 

 we can not refrain from admiring the 

 optimism of Mr. Herbert Spencer. It 

 is as pure and sublime as that of the 

 most spiritual seers of the past, and it 

 involves as radical a change in human 

 nature as that demanded by the New 

 Testament. It is, in his own words, ' a 

 rationalized version of its ethical prin- 

 ciples.' He feels, as we feel in reading 



