PARTIAL CONCILIATION OF THE NEW AND OLD ETHICS. 393 



sacrifice for it ; what faith in its final efficacy ! Let, 

 then, our scientific moralist freely concede to the idealist 

 that man cannot live without ideals, which he trustfully 

 accepts, and, indeed, sometimes blindly and desperately 

 follows, without caring to know their origin, without 

 doubt as to their ultimate beneficial social tendency, 

 although he has not primarily such social good in view, 

 but simply the glorious ideas themselves which he would 

 serve. And even if these sometimes appear to delude 

 and deceive, man will still act again in accordance 

 with them. Their votary refuses to disbelieve them, 

 refuses to see blemishes in the divinity that he loves. 

 Though all others should even see only ugly and repul- 

 sive features, the true believer sees only beauty, and 

 passionately follows his ideal be it Freedom with 

 radiant mien, Justice with front severe, Truth with her 

 fair features, nay, even the dark phantoms of Nihilism 

 and Anarchy with the dagger and torch in hand, all 

 alike exercise a strange and sublime, sometimes a terrible, 

 fascination for the believer. The evolution moralist 

 cannot, indeed, deny the force and reality of such dis- 

 interested sentiments during the past thirty years, from 

 whatever source they derived their mighty energy. And 

 that moral and social energy still exists in modern 

 societies. No part of it is spent or disappears without 

 producing its proper effect. None of it, at least, is lost. 

 If in appearance finally lost or dissipated, it is only 

 momentarily and only in appearance. It is again 

 gathered and recruited, and again applied to the progress 

 and development of humanity, which in the end is 

 always moved by these great sentiments at its heart. 

 And whatever be the origin of these or other sentiments, 

 whether in himself or in the species, whether they first 

 appeared yesterday or ages ago, is immaterial to the 



