XXIII 

 THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY 



IF any one is inclined to question the assertion 

 that the application of his idea of evolution to 

 ethical inquiry would alone have given Spencer a 

 place among the greatest thinkers of all time, let 

 him compare and contrast the literature of ethics 

 before and after say the year 1890. To quote a 

 convenient illustration of the all-embracing revo- 

 lution which this master-idea has wrought in ethi- 

 cal inquiry, one may refer to the famous mono- 

 graph written for the Encyclopedia Britannica by 

 Sidgwick in 1878, and Professor Stewart's article 

 written a year or two ago for the tenth edition of 

 that work. In the former the name of Spencer 

 does not occur, and the new ethics is briefly al- 

 luded to in the last few lines of Sidgwick 's search- 

 ing and scholarly discussion of the history of 

 ethical inquiry. Turn to Professor Stewart's ar- 

 ticle, and it is seen that, in less than a quarter of a 

 century, a revolution has taken place the magni- 

 tude and rapidity of which can surely never have 

 been surpassed in the history of any branch of 

 thought. Now it affords a sympathetic glow of 

 pleasure to recall the fact that Spencer's aim, 

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