H4 Fortuity not Involved. 



ous labors of evolutionary teachers in Europe and 

 America. That there is no necessary connection, 

 however, between the two, that Darwinian science 

 is independent of this philosophy of mechanism 

 and fortuity, has, I think, Been convincingly estab 

 lished in the course of the present examination. 



The determination of the general philosophical 

 significance of Darwinism is a considerable step 

 towards the solution of our ethical problem, for 

 which, indeed, it was an indispensable precondi 

 tion. Every system of ethics is affiliated to a 

 metaphysics, expressed or understood ; and every 

 system of metaphysics carries with it a definite 

 ethics. The moral philosophy of Kant could not 

 be grafted upon the mental philosophy of Hume ; 

 and the &quot;First Principles&quot; of Spencer would 

 never blossom into the &quot; Sermons on Human 

 Nature.&quot; On the other hand, the mechanical 

 conception of the world has always engendered a 

 utilitarian theory of morals. But if, as we have 

 shown, Darwinian biology does not imply the 

 philosophy of Democritus, it cannot, at least 

 through that channel, conduct to the ethics of 

 Epicurus. Are morals, then, in any way affected 

 by the doctrine of natural selection ? 



To this question an answer is attempted in the 

 following pages. 



