ISO FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



trolling it. There is, however, a sympathetic instinct 

 the creation of natural selection. And that in- 

 stinct tells us one of the conditions of right conduct ; 

 another of the conditions, however, is dictated by the 

 egoistic instinct. Right action is a resultant of these 

 forces, or a compromise between them. Here, then, 

 our great Darwinian in morals suddenly becomes a 

 Spencerian in morals. And he goes all the way with 

 Mr. Spencer. He looks forward to an age of per- 

 fected balance, when good conduct will be automatic ; 

 when there will presumably be a moral instinct ! 

 Natural selection, steadily killing off the inferior 

 types, will at last produce that " crowning race." 



Now, is this fair ? Truly, it is easy to show that 

 morality is an outgrowth of sympathy if you define 

 what is " moral " as equivalent to what is sympa- 

 thetic ! All the time we are reading Mr. Suther- 

 land's record of moral evolution we suppose that we 

 are being shown the gradual origin of real central 

 goodness, of that spirit which embodies itself in 

 right conduct, and does so willingly. Suddenly we 

 learn that our impression was wrong ; that was not 

 what was being shown ; we were looking on at the 

 production of one constituent of goodness, but the 

 other constituent, which is no less important, is quite 

 a different thing ! Then were the morally advanced 

 Romans, who succumbed before the barbarian in- 

 roads, not really better men, but just more sympa- 

 thetic ? The whole book had need to be rewritten. 

 Mr. Sutherland must not talk of morality if he has in 

 view only one-half of its conditions. Language has 

 its rights, and the truths embodied in language must 

 not be flouted, or they will take their revenge. 



