RATIONAL LIFE 315 



Nature has made universal in the whole species : l 

 Reasoning from the common course of Nature, and 

 without supposing any new intervention of the Supreme 

 Cause/ 2 it is clear that the government of the world 

 deals with distinctions between right and wrong 

 as fixed distinctions. Rewards and penalties are 

 distributed accordingly. The Avorst penalties, as the 

 best rewards, belong not to the body, but to the mind. 

 Penalty and reward appear in the continuity of the 

 life- experience. Hence we conclude that moral law is 

 the expression of the Divine will, and that judgment 

 to come is a natural sequence to the present order. 

 Under force of this conviction it is, that we are con 

 strained to deal with the deeper ethical problems 

 connected with interpretation of the laws of heredity, 

 as these bear on human destiny. If moral distinctions 

 are the ultimate test of life ; if virtue and vice are 

 placed in vivid contrast in the present order of things; 

 how, then, shall it be as to judgment, in view of the 

 amazing differences of inheritance with which men 

 start ? The question is one of deep and painful 

 interest. The answer is to be sought with utmost 

 deliberation, from readings of the laws of government 

 in the present order. In anticipation of such a stupend 

 ous event as a final award on the outcome of human 

 life, it is safe to maintain the reserve of Hume s 

 canon, just quoted, to reason from the common course 

 of Nature, and without supposing any new intervention 

 of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be 

 excluded from philosophy. Even thus, our ethical 



1 Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, Section I. Green s 

 ed. of The Essays, vol. ii. p. 172. 



2 Ibid. ii. p. 400. 



