158 Herbert Spencer 



the courtesan are as mucli the necessary results and outcome 

 of that ultimate principle as are the charity of a Howard 

 and the self-devotion of ' Marseilles' good Bishop.' 



The prevalence of such a philosophy then is no mere 

 question of speculative interest, but is one of the highest 

 practical importance. No mistake can be greater than that 

 of supposing that philosophy is but a mental luxury for the 

 few. The many become rapidly subjected to its influence. 

 As exphcitly declared and consciously pursued, metaphysics 

 may indeed be a luxury ; but an implicit, unconscious philo- 

 sophy possesses the mind and influences the conduct of every 

 peasant. No efforts, then, can well be more practical than 

 those directed against metaphysical error, for philosophical 

 doctrines filter down from the cultured few to the lowest 

 social strata. Such doctrines, for good or ill, come to be, as 

 it were, the very marrow of the bones first of a special school 

 — then of a general society — ultimately of a nation. 



At a period when calamitous social and political changes 

 are urged upon us with the reckless but pertinacious zeal of 

 democratic passion, earnestness of defence is a necessity of 

 pohtical existence. But what earnestness is to be expected 

 from men imbued with the conviction, not only that their 

 wills are utterly powerless, but with the deliberate persua- 

 sion that actions the most opposed and all political results 

 are in the last analysis of equal worth as but divergent 

 actions of one common force, and equally manifestations of 

 the Unknown and Unknowable ? UtiHty is not of course our 

 direct object of pursuit when we investigate metaphysical 

 truth, but it may reasonably intensify our efforts. If any 

 system, in addition to being philosophically false, has social 

 consequences which are manifestly evil in the highest degree, 

 then surely these consequences peremptorily call upon us not 

 to regard such a system with idle indifference, but to examine 

 it with a keen and searching scrutiny. 



