EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



throughout his life, was to ground morality in nat- 

 ural law. In the preface to the Data of Ethics 

 the masterpiece of a master-mind Spencer says : 



"Written as far back as 1842, my first essay, consisting 

 of letters on The Proper Sphere of Government, vaguely 

 indicated what I conceived to be certain general prin- 

 ciples of right and wrong in political conduct; and from 

 that time onward my ultimate purpose, lying behind all 

 proximate purposes, has been that of finding for the prin- 

 ciples of right and wrong, in conduct at large, a scientific 

 basis." 



Hence it was that Spencer, thinking that his pow- 

 ers were nearing exhaustion, hastened to the for- 

 mulation of the evolutionary ethics, and left the 

 sociological section of his philosophy untouched 

 until this was completed. Readers of the anony- 

 mous and puerile essay on Spencer, informed 

 throughout with every species of bias and igno- 

 rance, which disfigures the last edition of the En- 

 cyclopedia Britannica, may remember that even 

 this writer is prepared to concede that Spencer's 

 study of ethics is "not unlikely to be the most 

 permanently valuable part of his philosophy." 

 For forty years this man set himself, heedless of 

 the ideals and "successes" which suffice lesser 

 folks, to his supremely important task. Some few, 

 in times past, have pursued some such ideal, and 

 of these many, such as Spinoza, have fallen by 

 the way, crushed by the brute forces of a heedless 

 generation ; but to Spencer it was granted not only 

 to deserve but to achieve success. 

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