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advances of science become theories, and can fairly be propounded 

 as such at the present time. The assertion may be doubted, but 

 it will bear a close examination. Does not the nebular theory of 

 the planetary system hold good as a reasonable explanation of 

 phenomena, and is it not clearly supported by facts? This is 

 evidently so, and though not established upon so purely mathe- 

 matical a basis as Laplace's theory, that of Darwin holds no second 

 position. Generalisation from facts is the basis of both theories, 

 and they both become absorbed in that higher generalisation which 

 points to the theory of evolution as that which may possibly in 

 time become fully accepted as the most rational explanation, not 

 of the causes of existence — ideas of these must remain purely 

 speculative — but of the mode in which the universe became what 

 we now see it to be. 



In speaking of the philosophical explanation of moral phe- 

 nomena, a field is opened up which could hardly have been 

 intended to be entered upon when this discussion was instituted, 

 yet it is difficult to treat of so wide a subject without some 

 reference to this branch of it, probably the most important of all, 

 as the conduct of life must to a very great extent be guided by 

 theories of morality. These may be defined as rules of conduct 

 deduced from experience, and from an estimate of the consequences 

 of human action. As such every man may form his own theory as 

 to what course of action will in practice tend towards the greatest 

 good, either for the one or for the many. He is free to form his 

 own judgment- or to accept the theories propounded by others. 

 The high moral tone adopted by many writers is based upon a 

 theory of ethics which it is a lamentably rare thing to see practically 

 applied. This is much to be deplored. The slight bond which 

 appears to exist between theory and practice in the moral universe, 

 contrasts very unfavourably with the relations they hold to each 

 other in physics. A course of action guided by a theory of morals, 

 that is, by a system which is laid down from deductions drawn 

 from the results of conduct, ought to hold as close a position 

 relatively to the theory which guides it, as does the practical 

 working out of theory in the material world. In each case there 



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