TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY. 89 



to be the organ of our knowledge of the real. 

 And in both cases the moral theory comes to be 

 a deduction from a prior theory of the universe : 



"The genius of the Greeks," he says, "was essentially 

 objective ; . . . nor could they readily deal with anything 

 as an inner fact, till they had had their look at it as an 

 hypostatized reality beyond their own centre. Hence, their 

 systems are all either metaphysical or physical in their 

 basis ; and their ethical element is in no case intelligible, 

 till it is studied as a sequel to this earlier portion of the 

 scheme." 



Here, in spite of our objection to the term "un- 

 psychological," we recognize a division which is 

 intelligible and exhaustive. But a difficulty arises 

 when we ask, Who are to represent physical ethics 

 among the Greeks ? Not the Hylicists, nor any 

 pre-Socratic philosopher ; not Socrates, who refused 

 to theorize about nature ; not his great descendants 

 Plato and Aristotle ; not the Sophists nor the 

 Cyrenaics nor the Epicureans, though as pheno- 

 menalists they had much in common with modern 

 champions of physical ethics. Can Dr. Martineau 

 mean the Stoics ? It is possible. We turn 

 anxiously to find out the chosen representative, 

 and we find Auguste Comte ! 



" Of this doctrine," says Dr. Martineau, " we are fortunate 

 enough to have a thorough-going recent representative in 

 M. Comte ; and an English interpreter, perhaps of less 

 original genius, but of far more balanced judgment, in J. 

 S. Mill." 



