24 Analogy with Physical Science. 



any facts which follow one another according to 

 constant laws are in themselves fitted to be a sub 

 ject of science, why deny the scientific character 

 of an investigation whose ideal is to follow the 

 development of morality from its earliest rudi 

 ments and to ascertain the order of antecedence 

 and consequence in the series of intervening 

 phenomena ? Physical ethics, based on the law 

 of universal causation, applies to morality the 

 same method of investigation as biology has used 

 for the elucidation of the true relations of the 

 phenomena of life ; and on whatever ground we 

 term the one a science, the other would seem 

 entitled to the same appellation. 



Nevertheless there is a striking difference, if 

 not in the intrinsic character, in the external con 

 dition of these two sciences. Biology, as natural 

 history of life, is an achievement ; physical ethics, 

 as natural history of morals, is a dream. It may 

 be that the aspiration of the scientific moralist is 

 a genuine prophecy, that his vision is an inspira 

 tion of the faculty divine ; but it must be ad 

 mitted that in the meantime his ideal of a science 

 of ethics is unrealized. And this negative in 

 stance is sufficiently striking to give pause to our 

 scientific enthusiasm. 



Let us consider the matter a little more closely. 





