VALUES AND FINAL CAUSES 101 



examples. It is probable that the Afghans would gain greatly 

 in wealth by their acceptance of British rule ; but, though 

 they are among the most covetous of peoples, and though 

 the British yoke is notoriously easy, they would indignantly 

 reject the bargain. Men love freedom, because it secures 

 them the faculty of spontaneous development, which they 

 lose directly they are subjected to the will of a stranger ; 

 and to the same reason patriotism owes its rank among the 

 highest virtues. 



Much more to the same effect might be collected from an 

 examination of other of the higher values, but it will be 

 sufficient for our present purpose if we call to mind the 

 extreme repulsion with which men regard degeneration 

 generally, as a descent to a lower position, either in the scale 

 of creation or in any of those series to which a common 

 agreement has assigned ascending values. No man with 

 his eyes open would accept the sty of Circe, even though 

 all the delights of her island were added with it. No penalty 

 is more deterrent than the loss of a grade in the public ser 

 vice, or descent to a lower station in society, and no sacrifice 

 is thought too great if it brings promotion in either. Honours, 

 which are only a special form of promotion, are a more 

 potent instrument than the most liberal offer of material 

 reward for securing to the country a self-sacrificing devotion 

 to its interests ; and an additional incitement is that they 

 connote something greater than, and beyond, the ordinary 

 achievements of the rank and file. Even these are not the 

 highest values. Those are only attained by the man who 

 exhibits the same devotion and self-sacrifice, without the 

 prospect of any reward, material or honorific. If we found 

 that retrogressive evolution, or a descent in the scale of 

 development, brought with it an increase of happiness and 

 this is not by any means impossible we should still reject 

 it ; or if, perchance, we yielded to the bribe, we should earn 

 the contempt of our fellows. 



The foregoing considerations enable us to compare human 

 estimates of value with the facts of forward evolution. The 

 characteristic of that process is a continuous increase in all 



