CH.xxn.] GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY. 2Bn 



reduce functions that are in excess, and leaves them to be 

 reduced by direct equilibration. The process is accordingly- 

 slow, since direct adaptation to a rapidly changing environ- 

 ment is attended by the appearance of minor unfitnesses 

 which further complicate the emotional disturbance, and 

 disarrange the normal relations between incentives and 

 actions. We need not, therefore, be surprised at the fact 

 that men often find pleasure in detrimental activities ; nor 

 need we indorse the Puritanic or ascetic theory, suggested 

 partly by the contemplation of this fact, "that painful actions 

 are beneficial and pleasurable actions detrimental." Tor if 

 this were to any considerable extent the case, sentient life 

 would inevitably disappear from the face of the earth. The 

 cases which we have cited belong to ethical pathology. And 

 just as pathologic phenomena do not invalidate the laws of 

 physiology, just as the dynamic theory of life is not invali- 

 dated by the fact that mal- adjustments are continually met 

 with, so neither do cases of moral disease invalidate the 

 corollary which inevitably follows from the Doctrine of 

 Evolution, " that pleasures are the incentives to life-support- 

 ing acts, and pains the deterrents from life-destroying acts." 



We are now prepared to deal with the phenomena of Eight 

 and Wrong, and to notice how they become distinguished 

 from the phenomena of Pleasure and Pain. Though the 

 foregoing discussion forms the basis for a general doctrine of 

 morality, it is nevertheless an inadequate basis, until properly 

 supplemented. The existence of a moral sense has purposely 

 been as far as possible unrecognized ; for I believe that in 

 ijealing with these complex subjects, little can be accom- 

 t,lished, save on the plan of separately cornering the various 

 tlements in the problem, and flooring them one by one. Any 

 philosophy of ethics, therefore, which might be founded upon 

 the preceding analysis, could be nothing more than a theory 

 of Hedonism, recognizing no other incentive to proper actios 

 than the pleasing of one's self. By one of the innumerable 



VOL. II. Z 



