XXIV 



THE PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCT 



THE conclusion of the last chapter will have 

 reminded the reader that ethical principles derived 

 from the study of biology are by no means new; 

 but I have already tried to demonstrate the im- 

 portance of deriving these principles from facts, 

 from nature, rather than from the dicta of teachers, 

 however illustrious or sublime. But the accom- 

 plishment of this is merely the initial service of 

 the evolutionary ethics. For it takes the main 

 principle of morality, the law of love, shows us 

 its relations to biological, psychological, and socio- 

 logical facts, and thereby guides us in the applica- 

 tion of the principle. If we take, for instance, the 

 older utilitarianism, which is associated with the 

 ever-glorious name of that great saint and phi- 

 lanthropist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham, we 

 find an ethical system which is purely empirical 

 and lacks that guidance by principles which distin- 

 guishes the new ethics. Believing, as every one 

 now believes, that our end must be the "greatest 

 good of the greatest number," the older utilitarians 

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