168 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



had not offended against the moral consciousness of the 

 community. It would be recognized at once as an outrage 

 to justice. That this is a fact will, I think, be admitted, 

 and it illustrates vividly the superiority of ethical over 

 algedonic values. Men will not tolerate the infliction 

 of a moral wrong by the state, except in requital for 

 another moral wrong ; no sum of happiness, however great, 

 will serve as a set-off against it. By neglecting these con 

 siderations a government will destroy the respect on which 

 it must ultimately rely for its permanence. 



It would be interesting to trace the operations of ethical 

 motives in such matters as the delegation of the powers of 

 the state to special tribunals, the selection and definition 

 of punishable acts, and the apportionment of penalties to 

 degrees of guilt, but it is not essential to the purpose we have 

 in mind. We should find throughout, as we have found for 

 the general basis of criminal justice, that the action of the 

 state is to be defended on moral grounds, and enforced on 

 it as its duty, and that prudential motives, and a regard 

 for the happiness or the riches or even the intellectual 

 interests of its citizens have only a very subordinate im 

 portance. A single illustration may be permitted. The 

 system of trial by jury has been defended on the ground 

 that it is a means to the mental education of jurymen ; that 

 it strengthens their active faculties, exercises their judge 

 ment, and gives them a familiar knowledge of the business 

 of the courts. Not all these advantages would weigh for 

 a moment against any loss of efficiency in the administration 

 of the law. They would be more than counterbalanced 

 by a single unjust condemnation of an innocent man, which 

 another system would have avoided. The only valid 

 defence of the jury system is that, notwithstanding some 

 defects, its decisions on the whole are more just than those 

 of the trained lawyers who sit on the bench would be. 

 All other advantages are really irrelevant, though they 

 may be recognized with satisfaction. 



To sum up : the coercion of the individual conscience 

 by public morality is justified when it is felt that to refrain 



