14 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



the utility of force, as a means, consists in its promoting 

 a transcendental end, there can be no excess in the develop 

 ment of force. 



In close relation to the principle that values are to be 

 sought for in our judgements and not in our motives is 

 the distinction which must be drawn between subjective 

 and objective values. The valuations of each individual 

 will be very strongly biased by self-love. The same natural 

 disposition to overrate the worth of his own children or 

 own possessions will also affect each man s valuation of his 

 own motives, and lead him to admire in himself conduct 

 which may appear to others of little or no value. His 

 judgements on the conduct of his neighbours will often, 

 though not by any means always, be biased in the same 

 direction, and give rise to a class of perverted values, which 

 when they are taken to the market, will not be accepted by 

 the great majority of dealers. The perversion may some 

 times be in the opposite direction, and there are men who 

 are led by a strong sense of their own unworthiness to 

 depreciate unjustly their own motives ; but such cases are 

 not equally common. Judgements of a personal derivation, 

 whether they are unduly favourable or unduly depreciative, 

 are of no use in determining a scale of objective values. 

 That must be found in the more general and lasting valua 

 tions of men who are not directly interested. The most 

 striking illustration of this law is afforded by the motive 

 of pleasure. Conduct which is guided by that motive 

 is often rated highly by individuals, when that conduct is 

 their own ; but in the general estimation of mankind it 

 has no value whatever and here another distorting influ 

 ence must be allowed for. What each man desires he 

 values, while the desire lasts, at a much higher rate than 

 when the desire is absent. The extravagant delusions of 

 the lover are a matter of common observation. Quisquis 

 amat ranam, ranam putat esse Dianam. But the principle 

 is universal. His own comfort and his own pleasures are 

 desired by every one, and, on that account, invested by him 

 with an importance which is purely subjective, and is not 



