228 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



treatise certainly stimulated the followers of Evolution 

 to elaborate more fully the ethical bearings of their creed, 

 whilst opponents prepared a fuller criticism of what they 

 termed the Ethics of Naturalism, meaning by this de- 

 nomination the peculiar development and amplification 

 which utilitarian Ethics had received by assimilating the 

 aspect of Evolution. The first or constructive task was 

 performed on a large scale by the philosopher of Evol- 

 ution himself, Herbert Spencer ; the second or critical 

 task has been taken in hand by several thinkers who 

 came under the direct personal influence of Sidgwick as 

 well as of his writings. Their work is by no means com- 

 pleted ; I confine myself to mentioning Professor Sorley's 

 'Ethics of Naturalism' (1885, second edition 1904)1 



^ To this must be added three 

 Lectures delivered by Professor 

 Sorley at Cambridge in 1904, en- 

 titled ' Recent Tendencies in 

 Ethics,' dealing mainly with the 

 ethical views of Nietzsche in Ger- 

 many, of Darwin and Spencer and 

 of Green and I'radley in this 

 country. A significant I'omark is 

 made in the introductory pages of 

 the first Lecture. Contrasting the 

 ethical question of to-day with the 

 same ethical ([uestion as conceived 

 by earlier thinkers in the course of 

 the nineteenth century esi)ecially 

 in this country, Prof. Sorley laj-s 

 it down as a fact "that the ethical 

 question is no longer so purely an 

 academic question as it was some 

 years ago" (p. 13). As I have had 

 occasion to state repeatedly in this 

 and former chapters, the idealistic 

 I)hilosopher8 in Germany had no 

 intention to combat or change the 

 e.xisting ethical and religious doc- 

 trines traditionally handed down, 

 but rather to understand, to 

 rationalise, or to spiritualise them. 

 So also Prof. Sorley refers to " the 



large amount of agreement between 

 the two [earlier prevailing] schools 

 regarding the content of morality. 

 The Utilitarians no more than the 

 Lituitionists were opponents of the 

 traditional — as we may call it — 

 the Christian morality of modern 

 civilisation" (p. 7). The change 

 is shown by a growing alarm, 

 •abroad even more than in this 

 country, that practical morality 

 itself is reallj' in danger. This 

 apprehension is certainly most dis- 

 tinctly alive in France, as I shall 

 have opportunity to show later on. 

 It contrasts markedly with what, 

 as late as 18/8, Mr Balfour stated 

 — but could hardly repeat to-day : 

 " Ethics is a subject which has 

 suffered a somewhat singular fate ; 

 for whereas on its practical side 

 there has been a more perfect 

 agreement about it than about any 

 other important branch of human 

 knowledge, on its speculative side 

 it has been, and still is, the centre 

 of apparently endless controversy 

 — the subject of eveiy species of 

 confusion " ('Mind,' vol. iii., 1878, 



