316 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



conclusions seem clear and definite. If ethical dis 

 tinctions are fixed in the order of Nature, judgment 

 hereafter will proceed upon these distinctions, as they 

 are recognised in the present. If the life be con 

 tinuous, so must be the consequences of its own 

 action, which has given fixedness to character, and 

 has extended its results into the history of suc 

 ceeding generations. But, on the other hand, it seems 

 manifest that the law of heredity does not throw a 

 deep and long shadow into the life beyond ; rather it 

 seems to follow from the facts of the present order, 

 that there shall be such limits of judgment hereafter, 

 as there are limits of responsibility here. It shall be 

 required of a man according to that he hath. Judg 

 ment is measured by responsibility, and responsibility 

 includes no more than belongs to personal choice. A 

 man s actions are his own ; for these only can he be 

 commended or condemned. Hence, judgment of life 

 by moral distinctions visible all through its course, is 

 such judgment as lies recorded in personal conduct 

 Judgment of our actions is not a thing of weights and 

 measures, however naturally we introduce the analogy, 

 weighed in the balances, and found wanting. If 

 there is truth in this analogy, as there is, it lies behind 

 the symbol; judgment was already fixed when we 

 weighed, and selected, and determined the course of 

 our own action. Short of this, there is no re 

 sponsibility. Where dawning rationality appears, 

 responsibility begins. This is continually affirmed in 

 our judgments of our fellows. All this belongs to 

 ordinary ethical thought. It is implied in the awards 

 of praise and blame we are daily recording, as we 

 judge ourselves and others. The tests of a man are 



