OF THE SPIRIT. 411 



/ 



sideration. Guyau's aim of establishing a religion or a 

 spiritual view of things without recourse to any definite 

 doctrine or dogma, though it naturally sprang up in 

 a country and among surroundings which have witnessed 

 the tyranny of the Church, the frightful deeds of religi- 

 ous persecution, and the abuse of dogma, cannot con- 

 sistently be carried through. For — after the destruction 

 of all traditional beliefs, of all rigid dogmas, and of all 

 moral compulsion — it will yet leave standing one last 

 and solitary dogma, which consistently it should not 

 hesitate ultimately and finally to destroy. This " last 

 dogma " is morality itself, the sense of Duty, and the 

 distinction of Good and Evil. 



It is interesting to see how, in modern literature, this 

 conviction that morality itself must fall as a " last ti'e " last 



dogma." 



dogma " before the logical consequences of a purely 

 naturalistic view is gradually gaining ground and finding 

 definite expression.^ This is considered by one class 

 of thinkers to be a reductio ad dbsurdum of the natural- 

 istic position ; by another class as an indication that 

 utilitarian systems of morality rest upon an illogical 

 introduction of a principle alien to the purely natural- 

 istic view. Such a principle, which in the end is 

 introduced in order to combat the purely selfish and 

 individualistic view, is found, by Comte, simply in 

 Altruism ; by Guyau, in the expansive principle of Life ; 

 by Fouillee, in the " force of ideas " ; by Lange and others, 

 in Ideals ; and ultimately by all these and other thinkers. 



83. 

 Morality 



^ One of the earliest discussions 

 of this subject will be found in 

 three articles by M. Delboeuf in 



the 'Revue Philosophique,' vols. 

 xiii. and xiv. (1882). 



