yi PREFACE 



account of the serious fatigue and hoarseness 

 which public speaking has for some years caused 

 me ; while I knew that it would be my fate to 

 follow the most accomplished and facile orator of 

 our time, whose indomitable youth is in no matter 

 more manifest than in his penetrating and musi 

 cal voice. A certain saying about comparisons 

 intruded itself somewhat importunately. 



And even if I disregarded the weakness of my 

 body in the matter of voice, and that of my mind 

 in the matter of vanity, there remained a third 

 difficulty. For several reasons, my attention, 

 during a number of years, has been much directed 

 to the bearing of modern scientific thought on the 

 problems of morals and of politics, and I did not 

 care to be diverted from that topic. Moreover, I 

 thought it the most important and the worthiest 

 which, at the present time, could engage the atten 

 tion even of an ancient and renowned University. 



But it is a condition of the Romanes foundation 

 that the lecturer shall abstain from treating of 

 either Religion or Politics; and it appeared to me 

 that, more than most, perhaps, I was bound to 

 act, not merely up to the letter, but in the spirit, 

 of that prohibition. Yet Ethical Science is, on 

 all sides, so entangled with Religion and Politics, 

 that the lecturer who essays to touch the former 

 without coming into contact with either of the 

 latter, needs all the dexterity of an egg-dancer ; 

 and may even discover that his sense of clearness 



