July 20, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE . 



37 



disastrous than the decay and death of a regulative system 

 no longer fit " (for those we are considering), " before 

 another and litter regulative system has grown up to 

 replace it." 



My purpose in these papers is to show how rules of con- 

 duct may be established on a scientific basis for those who 

 regard the so-called religious basis as unsound.* I shall 

 follow chiefly the teachings of one who has inculcated in 

 their best and purest form the scientific doctrines of 

 morality, and may be regarded as head, if not founder, 

 of that school of philosophy which, on purely scientific 

 grounds, sets happiness as the test of duty — the measure of 

 moral obligation. To Mr. Herbert Spencer we owe, I take 

 it, the fullest and clearest answer to the melancholy ques- 

 tion. Is Life Worth Living? whether asked whiningly, as 

 in the feeble lamentations of such folk as Mr. Mallock, or 

 gloomily and sternly, as in the Promethean groans of 

 Carlyle. The doctrine that happiness is to be sought for 

 oneself (but as a duty to others as well as to self), that the 

 happiness of others is to be sought as a duty (to oneself as 

 well as to them) — happiness as a means, happiness as the 

 chief end — such has been the outcome of the much-maligned 

 philosophy of Mr. Herbert Spencer, such has been the 

 lesson resulting from his pursuance of what he himself 

 describes as his " ultimate purpose, lying behind all proxi- 

 mate purposes," that of " finding for the principles of I'ight 

 and wrong in conduct at large, a scientific basis." 



If I can help to bring this noble and beautiful doctrine — 

 for noble and beautiful even those must admit it to be who 

 deny its truth — before the many who regard Herbert 

 Spencer's teachings with fear and trembling, not knowing 

 what they are, I shall be content. But I would advise all 

 who have time to read the words of the master himself. 

 Apart from the great doctrines which they convey, they 

 are delightful reading, clear and simple in language, grace- 

 ful and dignified in tone, almost as worthy to be studied as 

 examples of force and clearness in exposition as for that 

 which nevertheless constitutes their real value — the pure 

 and beautiful moral doctrines which they offer to those 

 over whom current creeds have lost their influence. 



Let me hope that none will be deterred from following 

 this study, by the inviting aspect of the moral rules ad- 

 vanced by the great modern teacher — even as in past times 

 men were anxious, or even angry, when another teacher 

 showed more consideration for human weaknesses than had 

 seemed right to the men of older times. I will not ask here 

 whether doctrines of repellant aspect are likely to be more 

 desirable than those which are more benignantly advanced. 

 It suffices that with many the former now exert no influ- 

 ence, whether they should do so or not. So that, as far as 

 these (for whom I am chiefly writing) are concerned, all 

 must admit the truth of what Mr. Spencer says respecting 

 the benefits to be derived from presenting moral rule under 

 that attractive aspect which it has when undisturbed by 

 superstition and asceticism. To close these introductory 

 remarks by a quotation from the charming pages of his 

 " Data of Ethics " : — 



" If a father, sternly enforcing numerous commands, 

 some needful and some needless, adds to his severe control 

 a beliaviour wholly unsympathetic — if his children have to 

 take their pleasures by stealth, or, when timidly looking 

 up from their play, ever meet a cold glance, or more 

 frequently a frown, his government will inevitably be dis- 



* I Bay "BO-called," referring rntlicr to the word "religious" 

 than to any ciuestion conceruing the (Hvino origin of current 

 creeds. Strictly speaking, tho word religious may bo as correctly 

 applied to moral rules based on sciontifie considerations, as to those 

 formulated in company witli any of tho diverse creeds prevailing 

 among men. 



liked, if not hated ; and the aim will be to evade it as much 

 as possible. Contrariwise, a father who, equally firm in 

 maintaining restraints needful for the well-being of his 

 children or the well-being of other persons, not only avoids 

 needless restraints, but, giving his sanction to all legiti- 

 mate gratifications, and providing the means for them, 

 looks on at their gambols with an approving smile, can 

 scarcely fail to gain an influence which, no less efficient for 

 the time being, will also be pernjanently efficient. The 

 controls of such two fathers, symbolise the controls of 

 morality as it is and morality as it should be." 



(To be continued.) 



THE BIRTH AND GEOWTH OF MYTH. 



By Edward Clodd. 

 XI. 



THE belief that human beings could change themselves 

 into animals was alluded to in my remarks on witch- 

 craft, but, in view of its large place in the history of 

 illusions, too incidentally, and it is proposed to give it 

 further reference here. 



Superstitions which now excite a smile, or which seem 

 beneath notice, were no sudden phenomena, appearing now 

 and again at the beck and call of wilful deceivers of their 

 kind. That they survive at all, like organisms, atrophied 

 or degenerate, which have seen " better days," is evidence of 

 remote antiquity and persistence. Every seeming vagary 

 of the mind had serious importance, and answered to some 

 real need of man as a sober attempt to read the riddle of 

 the earth and get to its inmost secret. 



So with this belief. It is the outcome of that early 

 thought of man which conceived a common nature and 

 fellowship between himself and brutes, a conception based 

 on rude analogies between his own and other forms of life, 

 as also between himself and things without life, but having 

 motion, be they waterspouts or rivers, trees or clouds, 

 especially these last, when the wind, in violent surging and 

 with howling voice, drove them across the sky. Where he 

 blindly, timidly groped, we walk as in the light, and with 

 love that casts out fear. Where rough resemblances 

 suggested to him like mental states and actions in man 

 and brute, the science of our time has, under the compara- 

 tive method, converted the guess into a certainty ; not to 

 the confirmation of his conclusions, but to the proof of 

 identity of structure and function, to the demonstrating of 

 a common origin, however now impassable the chasm that 

 separates us from the lower animals. 



TJie belief in man's power to change his form and nature 

 is obviously nearly connected with the widespread doctrine 

 of metempsychosis, or the passing of the soul at death 

 into one or a series of animals, generally types of the 

 dead man's character, as where the timid enter the body 

 of a hare, the gluttonous that of a swine or vulture. 



" Fills with fresh energy auother form, 

 And towers an elephant or glides a worm ; 

 Swims as an eagle in the eye of noon, 

 Or wails a screech-owl to tho deaf, cold moon. 

 Or haunts the brakes where serpents hiss and glare, 

 Or hums, a glittering insect, in the air." 



But while in transmigration the soul returns not to the 

 body which it had left, transformation was only for a 

 time, occurring at stated periods, and eflected by the will 

 of thi^ transformed, or by the aid of sorcery and magic, or 



