150 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



elucidated when we have described what we mean by 

 objective morality. 



Objections may be raised to the statement that an ethical 

 end can never be a means to another, ulterior, end, and it 

 is true that when two or more ethical motives concur in 

 recommending the same action, their relations may be 

 stated in the form of an inference, the less important duty 

 being represented as the end and the more important as 

 the means. For example, one of the Spartans might have 

 argued, I obey orders because I wish to save my country, 

 and I wish to save my country because .1 shall thereby save 

 my wife and children. The appearance of inference thus 

 given is illusive. If he obeyed orders merely in order to 

 save his country, and regarded the latter duty as more 

 important than the former (in which case, as we have seen, 

 it would really be the more important), that would be his 

 sole ethical motive, and he would be under a moral obligation 

 to inquire whether obedience to the specific command he 

 had received would be more likely to attain that end than 

 any other course of action. Then, even if he did decide to 

 obey, his action would be no longer in compliance with the 

 motive of obedience, but with the motive of patriotism. 

 And he would contradict his assertion that his motive was 

 obedience to orders. The same is true of the next apparent 

 inference : the ethical motive, if one were represented 

 as a means to the other, would be either love of country 

 or love of wife and children, but not both ; and if the pro 

 position were that I save my country in order to save my 

 children, the former would cease to be ethical at all, or in 

 any sense his real end. He would be compelled to consider 

 the question whether he could do better for his family by 

 deserting to the great king, and giving him valuable infor 

 mation as to the Greek general s plans. 



If, then, of two ethical motives, one is stated as a means 

 to the other, the former, that is to say the one that is regarded 

 as a means, is extinguished altogether or must be taken 

 as a mere result, which does not really affect the conduct 

 from which it flows. But, it may be observed, neither 



