OF THE GOOD. 213 



time there also appeared in this country the important 

 works of Tylor and Lubbock, which soon became known 

 in Germany. The sense of perplexity which had 

 come over students of the ethical problem seemed for 

 a time relieved when a much larger field of research 

 was opened out through these anthropological studies. 

 To these was joined the new science of Sociology, 

 created by Comte in France, the study of humanity 

 or human society, in opposition to Psychology, the 

 study of the individual human mind. 



The general tendency of all these studies was to 

 give a more emphatic meaning to the dictum of Hegel, 

 that the Heal is the Eational. But it had the further 

 effect of toning down the rigour, of relaxing the dis- 

 cipline which had found expression in the Categorical 

 Imperative of Kantian Ethics. In fact it became more 

 and more difficult to explain, from the historical point 

 of view, according to which everything was in a state 

 of flux, the sense of duty, the facts of the moral con- 

 science ; still more the inviolability of a supreme moral 

 law and order which could be followed or otherwise, 

 constituting the difference between Good and Evil. Into 

 the place of the sanctity and holiness of a moral order 53. 



Antithesis 



which could be realised or violated but not altered by between 



fixed moral 



free agents, there tended to slip the idea of a purely { 

 natural law and order, which could not be broken, $ morality. 

 and left no room for distinction and choice between 

 good and evil. This meant the ultimate destruction of 

 the conception of human freedom and human responsi- 

 bility. Thus for the philosopher who would still uphold 

 these conceptions there arose the task : to build up a 



