132 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



Christianity, even considered as a moral system, 

 seems inseparable from the view, apparently ac- 

 cepted by Mr. Green, that the history of ethics is 

 a history of "the natural fulfilment of a capability 

 given in reason itself." For Christian morality is 

 indissolubly bound up with the dogma of the 

 Incarnation and the Sacramental teaching of the 

 Church. The Divine life, which is set before man 

 as his ideal, is for those whose nature has been 

 transformed by a Divine power ; and it is the belief 

 that such a transformation of human nature has 

 taken place that makes the Christian ideal a possi- 

 bility for man. For the claim of Christianity is 

 that, while it sets before man a new and higher 

 ideal in the life of Him in Whom dwelt the fulness 

 of the Godhead, it gives a new moral dynamic to 

 enable him to realize it. But we can no more take 

 our moral ideal from Christianity and our moral 

 dynamic from Paganism than we can base the 

 unselfish Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill on the 

 Hedonism of Epicurus and of Hobbes. 



Mr. Green, in two remarkable lay sermons, has 

 shown us what his attitude towards the faith of 

 Christendom is. We are not now anxious to dis- 

 cuss this, nor is it necessary in reviewing the " Pro- 

 legomena to Ethics," except when that false view, 

 as we hold it to be, shows itself in an imperfect 

 conception of the nature of the Christian ideal. 

 For the rest, if we are unable to believe that Mr 



