216 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



its freedom, and, with this consciousness, the reality of 

 freedom itself ; another promises us a Church which will 

 subject all speculative minds to a coercive discipline and 

 forbid the examination of the principles universally accepted 

 as the basis of thought and action. Each of these is sup 

 ported by the highest authority, and there are many more. 

 Proof and disproof are equally impossible, and the appeal 

 is really not to our reason, but to our prepossessions. 

 Eedeunt Saturnia regna. The time is not far distant when 

 we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and repose in 

 the sunshine of universal peace. 



It is in our asserted power to predict the actions of in 

 dividuals that the advocates of the universality of the law 

 of uniform sequence find their favourite argument ; and 

 nowhere, perhaps, is the weakness of their claim more 

 conspicuous. No doubt we find a great uniformity among 

 the actions of men in all nations and ages ; the same motives, 

 such as power, wealth, or pleasure, usually, but far from 

 always, are followed by similar results ; and a study of the 

 temper and actions of the French and English would make 

 a man better qualified to understand the sentiments, 

 inclinations, and course of life of the Greeks and Romans x ; 

 but it is equally plain that the correspondence is rough and 

 inaccurate, and that expectations which are built on no 

 firmer foundation are liable to frequent disappointment. 

 Our intellect, as an instrument of prediction, has gained next 

 to nothing from the advance of science, and is little, if at 

 all, better now than it was at the dawn of history. New 

 problems emerge as fast as the old ones are solved. A savage 

 or an infant is a better judge of character than a closet 

 philosopher. We are still in what corresponds to the pre- 

 scientific stage, and predict the actions of a man with 

 at the best, no stronger assurance than we predict a frost 

 in January. A man of known bravery may show fear, 

 and a timid man courage. However well we may be ac 

 quainted with a man s character, what his behaviour will 

 be under certain conditions can only be foretold with some 

 1 Hume, Essays, II. 68. 



