76 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



engaged can be best approached by an examination of the 

 meaning which we attach to the word value ; but before 

 proceeding it is as well to premise that the distinction 

 between good and evil is not, correctly speaking, a difference 

 in degree of value ; it is rather a difference in kind ; a differ 

 ence, that is to say, between attraction and repulsion, between 

 movement towards and movement away from an action 

 regarded as an object of the will ; of direction and not of 

 pace. Though, therefore, there are degrees of evil and 

 degrees of aversion, and though these probably fall under 

 the same law as degrees of good and of attraction, we have no 

 common word which embraces both the series which depart 

 in opposite directions from the point of indifference. When 

 we speak of a value, we always intend something above 

 zero, and not a minus quantity. The statement, then, of 

 our argument will be much simplified, and no harm will 

 be done, if we employ the word value in the sense of 

 degree of good only ; it being understood that the omission 

 of degrees of evil is intentional, and that the same considera 

 tions apply to them as to relative values or degrees of 

 good. 



The concept of value has its origin in the conflict of in 

 terests. If our interests were perfectly harmonious, it 

 would have no meaning ; there would be no relative values ; 

 but, though the origin is the same, two classes of value may 

 be recognized. The first is when any single impulse is taken 

 by itself, and we inquire what degree of strength in that 

 impulse is to be most highly valued. In all there is an opti 

 mum of strength, which is not identical with the maximum, 

 and, when that optimum is exceeded, the impulse loses 

 its value and is regarded as bad. In this case the comparison 

 is between that impulse and the whole remaining complex 

 of impulses which are necessary to existence. Any single 

 impulse ceases to be valued, or passes beyond its optimum, 

 when it interferes harmfully with the balance of conflicting 

 interests on which our life depends. This is especially true 

 of those which are most highly valued, and it explains the 

 popular saying Corruptio optimi pessimum . Religion and 



