OF THE SPIRIT. -419 



fulfilled, will ever remain and recur as the undying 

 aspiration of the human intellect. 



The interest which the human mind takes in the 85. 



.... HI- • -r-- ^ 1 T Reli;.'ious 



spiritual View of things, in the Divine Order, lies interest in 



the problem 



ultimately in this, that it interprets and supports the of society, 

 moral ideals of our race, and that it leads beyond 

 the purely subjective, selfish, or utilitarian interpreta- 

 tion and conception of the voice of duty. As we 

 saw, at the end of the last chapter, both schools of 

 ethics — the theological and the anthropological — 

 recognise the necessity of getting beyond the subjec- 

 tive or selfish point of view ; both seek to place the 

 motives of human action upon a broader basis and 

 on a deeper foundation. The anthropological or natural- 

 istic school do so by introducing and developing the 

 idea of Humanity, of human society or of the human 

 race as a whole. They do not think it necessary to 

 introduce, or possible to maintain, any other principle 

 than what they find in human experience individually 

 and collectively ; they are equally serious in recognising 

 the necessity of interpreting and following the call to 

 duty. The activity of this school has been very great 

 during the nineteenth century ; its teaching is much 

 more recent and perhaps more original than the teach- 

 ing of the other, the theological school. The writings 

 of the former bulk very largely in nineteenth-century 

 philosophy. In the following chapter I propose to take 

 up this side of the moral problem. It will, accordingly, 

 deal with the growth- and diffusion of the idea or Ideal 

 of Humanitv. 



