

272 77/6? Evolution Hypothesis. 



effective moral guidance. It has no means of devising 

 rules of conduct that might constitute a permanent 

 ethical code. Pursuing the method followed in ac- 

 counting for the innate principles of reason, Mr. 

 Spencer finds in man moral intuitions which are the 

 organized experiences of the race. But just as he 

 cannot on his own principles discover any truth that 

 is universal and necessary, so is it incompetent for him 

 to lay down any moral precept as binding on all men 

 everywhere. No precept derived from the principles 

 of evolution can be a universal and authoritative rule 

 of moral action. The great ethical principle of Mr. 

 Spencer's system is adjustment to environment for 

 the individual and the race, so as to secure the fullest 

 attainable life for each and for all. Moral action is,. 

 then, a process of continuous adaptation a ceaseless 

 changing. No code can be framed, whose precepts 

 will have more than a temporary value. " Eternal 

 and immutable morality " is but a fine phrase. Life 

 being adjustment to conditions, the rule of right-living, 

 true for a time, must fall into desuetude. The ethical 

 code is for ever changing to suit the continuous move- 

 ment towards equilibrium. Designed to be perpetual, 

 the moral law given to Israel was graven on the 

 granite of Sinai; but the precepts delivered to man- 

 under a dispensation of evolution, need to be inscribed 

 on waxen tablets; for the lawgiver must turn his- 

 stylus often and, as conditions alter, amend his work. 

 5. The ethical doctrine of evolution is characterized 



