126 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. V. 



the advance to a higher harmony impeded. There would be a retarda 

 tion of that grand progress which is bearing humanity onwards to a 

 higher intelligence and a nobler character.&quot; 



In blaming Mr. Spencer for this passage I strongly protest 

 against being charged, as I have been by Professor Huxley, 

 with the absurdity of denying merit and beauty to sponta 

 neous acts of voluntary adhesion to good. Such acts may be 

 highly meritorious, and at the same time eminently free. 

 All I mean is that for an act to be &quot;moral,&quot; the doer of it 

 must directly or indirectly be moved by the idea of &quot; right &quot; 

 present to his mind then or antecedently, so as to have 

 become mentally habitual. Such habitual actions may be 

 eminently &quot; free,&quot; since freedom consists in the unhindered 

 power of following the dictates of intelligence concerning 

 what is best and most desirable. In proportion as less worthy 

 motives have more power over us, just so far are we less free. 



It would be a superfluous task here to expatiate upon the 

 immorality of a philosophy which denies to man s will any 

 more power of choice than a fragment of paper thrown into 

 a furnace has a choice concerning its ignition. 



But Mr. Spencer s system is even yet more profoundly 

 immoral, as it denies any objective distinction between right 

 and wrong in any being, whether men are or are not re 

 sponsible for their actions. According to our author, the 

 laws of nature are ultimately reducible to one force riot neces 

 sarily moral, and therefore all laws and all actions must be, 

 in ultimate analysis, equally moral or equally immoral. 



Every action whatever is a mode of the Unknowable, and 

 the stab of the assassin and the traffic of the courtesan are 

 as much the necessary results and outcome of that ultimate 

 principle as are the charity of a Howard or the self-devotion 

 of Marseilles good bishop. 



With reason then we may affirm of Mr. H. Spencer s 

 system, &quot;that it is radically and necessarily immoral.&quot; 

 Although (as I have learned with no small surprise)* it is a 



* From his Replies to Criticisms : Fortnightly Review, November 

 1873, p. 729. 



