NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY. Xlll 



Bocial progress, without whicli there can be no successful regula- 

 tion of the affairs of society. Mr. Spencer's mind has long been 

 occupied with these important questions, as the reader will find 

 by referring to his able work upor " Social Statics," published 

 oeveral years ago. 



Lastly, in Part Fifth, Mr. Spencer proposes to consider the 

 Principles of Morality, bringing to bear the truths furnished by 

 Biology, Psychology, and Sociology, to determine the true theoiy 

 of right living. He will show that the true moral ideal and limit 

 of progress is the attainment of an equilibrium betw^een constitu- 

 tion and conditions of existence, and trace those principles of 

 private conduct, physical, intellectual, moral, and religious that 

 follow from the conditions to complete individual life. Those 

 rules of human action which all civilized nations have registered 

 as essential laws — the inductions of morality — will be delineated, 

 and also those mutual limitations of men's actions necessitated by 

 their coexistence as units of society, which constitute the founda- 

 tion of justice. 



It cannot be doubted that the order here indicated, as it cor- 

 responds to the method of nature, is the one which Philosophy 

 must pursue in the future. It combines the precision of science 

 with the harmony and unity of universal truth. The time is past 

 when Biology can be considered with no reference to the laws of 

 Physics ; Mind with no reference to the science Of Life, and So- 

 ciology, without having previously mastered the foregoing ' sub- 

 jects. The progress of knowledge is now toward more definite, 

 systematic, and comprehensive views, while it is the highest func- 

 tion of intellect to coordinate and bind together its isolated and 

 fragmentary parts. In carrying out his great plan, therefore, 

 Mr. Spencer is but embodying the large philosophical tendencies 

 of the age. 



