ETHICAL IMPORT OF DARWINISM. 



CHAPTEE I. 



.METHODS OF ETHICS, EVOLUTIONARY AND OTHER. 



Nothing can be more perplexing to anyone re 

 flecting upon the unanimity of men s moral judg 

 ments than the diversity and contrariety of the 

 theories founded upon them. The incongruity is 

 as palpable as it is startling. ISTor is it much, if at 

 all, relieved by the qualification of varying moral 

 belief and practice, which a more extended survey 

 of humanity, past and present, obliges us to make 

 in our first generalization. For if human moral 

 ity is not at all times and in all places absolutely 

 identical, it is rather in minor details or in unex 

 pected applications of common principles that 

 there is any considerable deviation from the uni 

 versal type. Besides, this divergency cannot be 

 the origin of our opposing ethical theories, since 

 were it to vanish, they would still remain. And, 



