OF THE GOOD. 



155 



from Kant. 



The influence of Comte as well as his own studies led 

 Mill, moreover, a step further in the direction of modern 

 ethics. He arrived at the recognition of progress, not only 

 in public morality under the influence of law and society, 

 but likewise in the individual moral character. This 

 marks the intrusion of the idea of development even in 

 that province where other thinkers or systems of morality 

 have been wont to set up the doctrine of unalterable 

 standards of good and right. 1 



Instead of following the further course which ethical 20. 



The devel- 



thought took in this country after Mill, it will for the opment 



* frnm TTa 



moment be more interesting to glance at the develop- 

 ment which Kant's ideas underwent in Germany. This 

 development was at that time, and for more than a 

 generation after, quite independent of what took place 

 in the neighbouring countries. For though the prominent 

 thinkers in Germany up to and including Kant had 

 come under the influence of contemporary English and 

 French thought, this influence for the time being ceased 

 completely with Kant on the one side, and with the 

 original productive power which showed itself in general 

 literature and criticism on the other. Kant succeeded 

 in giving to philosophical thought in general, and to 

 ethical speculation in particular, quite a new character. 

 But this came out fully and clearly only as Kantian 



1 A very important passage in 

 Mill's ' Utilitarianism ' is that in 

 which he speaks of the interest 

 in a state of security ; "to every 

 one's feelings the most vital of all 

 interests . . . this most indis- 

 pensable of all necessaries after 

 physical nutriment cannot be had, 

 unless the machinery for providing 



it is kept unintermittently in active 

 play " (' Utilitarianism,' pp. 79, 80). 

 Compare what was said above at 

 the beginning of this chapter on 

 the existence and maintenance of 

 order and the accompanying sense 

 of security in this country as com- 

 pared with the Continent (supra, 

 pp. 129 sqq). 



