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Methods of Ethics. 37 



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philosophizing until an ethical science has been 

 constructed through a comprehensive study of the 

 phenomena of universal morality. 



But has not the scientific coryphaeus of the 

 century, it will be asked, undertaken these his 

 torical investigations and evolved from them a 

 final philosophy of morals ? Darwin certainly is 

 the father of evolutionary ethics ; and the first 

 five chapters of his &quot; Descent of Man &quot; are turning 

 out, as the late Professor Clifford was keen enough 

 to anticipate, more pregnantly suggestive and more 

 revolutionary than any other modern contribution 

 to the subject of morals. Two considerations, 

 however, suggest the incompleteness of Darwin s 

 ethical work. In the first place, the historical 

 method is in his hands less an independent in 

 strument of investigation in morals than an apt 

 means of confirming a biological hypothesis. 

 And in the second place, it never escaped the 

 embrace of the spirit of speculative utilitarian 

 ism. With Darwin, in fact, historical ethics was 

 forced into the service of a foregone conclusion 

 upon the origin of species, and a foregone conclu 

 sion upon the derivation of morality. The time has 

 now arrived when the history of morals should be 

 followed out for its own sake and allowed to tell 

 its own story. But such an investigation will not 



