OF THE GOOD. 



229 



and Professor James Ward's " Gifford Lectures " (' Natu- 

 ralism and Agnosticism,' 1899). 1 



The positive outcome of Herbert Spencer's application 

 of the canons of the Philosophy of Evolution to the 

 ethical problem is characteristically and candidly ex- 

 pressed by himself when he confesses that Evolution 

 has not furnished for Ethics the results which he had 

 hoped. 2 A similar failure of the mechanical theory to 

 explain the phenomena of life was admitted by him 

 after the revision of his ' Principles of Biology ' and 

 referred to in a characteristic statement. 3 There are 



62. 



Spencer's 

 acknow- 

 ledged dis- 

 appoint- 

 ment. 



p. 67). And about the same time 

 Huxley (' Nineteenth Century,' vol. 

 i., 1877, p. 539) could state: "For 

 my part I do not for one moment 

 admit that morality is not strong 

 enough to hold its own. But if it 

 is demonstrated to me that I am 

 wrong, and that without this or 

 that theological dogma the human 

 race will lapse into bipedal cattle, 

 more brutal than the beasts by the 

 measure of their greater clever- 

 ness, my next question is to ask for 

 the proof of the truth of the dogma. 

 If this proof is forthcoming, it is 

 my conviction that no drowning 

 sailor ever clutched a hencoop more 

 tenaciously than mankind will hold 

 by such dogma, whatever it may 

 be. But if not, then I verily be- 

 lieve that the human race will go 

 its evil way ; and my only consol- 

 ation lies in the reflection that, how- 

 ever bad our posterity may become, 

 so long as they hold by the plain 

 rule of not pretending to believe 

 what they have no reason to believe 

 because it may be to then- advan- 

 tage so to pretend, they will not 

 have reached the lowest depths of 

 immorality." 



1 A second series, less critical 

 and more constructive, has ap- 

 peared in 1911, under the title 



' Pluralism and Theism.' I shall 

 have an opportunity of referring to 

 these Lectures, which are not ex- 

 clusively occupied with the ethical 

 problem, in a later chapter which 

 will deal with recent attempts in 

 the direction of systematic philos- 

 ophy. 



2 ' Principles of Ethics ' (vol. ii. , 

 1893, Pref.) : " Right regulation 

 of the axioms of so complex a being 

 as man, living under conditions so 

 complex as those presented by 

 Society, evidently forms a subject- 

 matter unlikely to admit of definite 

 conclusions throughout its entire 

 range." Prof. Sorley in quoting 

 this passage remarks that "the 

 lack of confidence which the author 

 [Spencer] himself felt . . . there is 

 good reason to extend to the whole 

 structure of evolutionary ethics " 

 ('Recent Tendencies, &c.,' p. 123). 



3 Referring to Prof. Japp's and 

 Pasteur's opinions on 'Stereo- 

 Chemistry and Vitalism,' discussed 

 in 'Nature' (Oct. 1898), Herbert 

 Spencer concludes his remarks : 

 "My own belief is that neither in- 

 terpretation [the physico-chemical 

 or that of Prof. Japp] is adequate. 

 A recently issued, revised, and en- 

 larged edition of the first volume 

 of the ' Principles of Biology ' con- 



