110 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



gains very little credit, however great the addition to the 

 happiness of others. With this clue to guide us, we may be 

 sure that profuse hospitality is admired, not for the pleasure 

 gained by the guests, but for the magnificence of the host. 

 The sight of bare benevolence, without the accompani 

 ment of self-devotion or self-sacrifice, or of some other ethical 

 principle, moves us very slightly. Benevolence is certainly 

 the most highly valued of all classes of action which have 

 pleasure for an end, but it is thus preferred because the 

 resultant gain is to others, and not to oneself ; and that is 

 a purely ethical consideration. The amount of the re 

 sultant happiness is not taken into account. Indeed, it 

 has often been doubted, and with some justice, whether the 

 ideal of the greatest happiness of the greatest number 

 would not have the best chance of realization if every one 

 attended to his own business. If it be admitted that bare 

 benevolence is the highest of the motives which have 

 pleasure for their conscious end, it must also be admitted 

 that the whole class of which it stands at the head is 

 inferior to that other class of motives which, when they 

 are added to it, lend to its satisfactions nearly the whole 

 of their value. Even self-regarding prudence, or the 

 direct pursuit of happiness for oneself, is often admired, 

 though not so often or so strongly as benevolence ; but, in 

 this case, our admiration is paid, not to the actual success 

 in procuring happiness, but rather to the qualities by which 

 that success was obtained such as self-restraint and 

 clearness of prevision, qualities which are admired on their 

 own account, because they distinguish a man from a beast, 

 which the love of pleasure does not. Men who are enriched 

 by a windfall are not, on that account, admired at all. 

 If prudence has a lower value than benevolence, it is not 

 because it produces less pleasure, but because the element 

 of self-sacrifice is wanting. It need hardly be added that 

 there is no self-sacrifice in self-restraint, if the object is 

 to realize the greatest possible amount of personal happiness. 

 Again, it is commonly asserted that the esteem in which 

 men of genius are held is due to the pleasure which their 



