30 A THEORY OF LIFE DEDUCED 



and when lie fails to produce any good results, he has no 

 alternative but patiently to let matters take their own 

 course; unless, indeed, the safety of his person or property 

 is endangered, in which event he calls in the police, or appeals 

 to the proper tribunal for protection. And, strange as it 

 may appear, it is nevertheless a fact that this is precisely 

 the course that the Christian himself must pursue; for in 

 spite of the rewards and punishments which Christianity 

 holds out as moral incentives, are there not hosts of wicked 

 men among Christians ? Are there not plenty whom 

 you can neither entice nor frighten into goodness by the 

 fair promises of heavenly bliss or by the eternal fires of 

 hell ? It is no answer to this argument to say that they 

 are not true Christians. I am not attacking Christianity. 

 The point that I make is, what is the Christian going to do 

 with those who will not abandon their evil ways in the face 

 of all imaginable threats and promises to coerce or entice 

 them into morality ; and I make the point to prove that, in 

 taunting the philosophical evolutionist with having no 

 means of awakening moral enthusiasm in the breast of a 

 wicked profligate, the Christian forgets that he may very 

 often be placed in the same predicament himself, in spite of 

 holding an altogether different moral theory. 



So much for ethics.^ We come next to consider the 

 deductions of political science, and incidentally to supple- 

 ment what has already been said on the wider subject of 

 social science. From the philosophical evolutionist's point 

 of view the true purpose of government is to prevent 

 citizens from encroaching on each other's rights. Within these 

 limits the state ought rigidly to enforce obedience ; but 

 interference with personal liberty for any other purpose does 

 not come within the proper sphere of government. Such 

 measures of reform, however, as are commendable in 



