VIRTUE AND CRIME 159 



powers of God, fate and hereditary fitness, and we soon arrive 

 at very false concrete maxims. German philosophy of to-day 

 is a striking instance of this, for the maxim that it is a law of 

 nature that God permits all forms of evil that good may come 

 of them, which in the abstract is correct, does not justify the 

 error that this law holds good in the concrete application of 

 it to our individual lives. For moderation, not either form of 

 extremes, constitutes virtue, and although it is well to know 

 the extremes both of vice and virtue, that we may be equally 

 careful to avoid both, for it is possible to have too much of a 

 good thing as well as too much of a bad one, and the height 

 of virtue is to adapt all our acts to the existing circumstances 

 amongst which we have to live, aiming always at the middle 

 course of moderation and avoiding all extreme courses. I will 

 mention some of the striking instances of the evils that arise 

 from putting abstract truths into concrete application, for to 

 apply abstract truths to utility, without evil results, in many 

 cases necessitates divine wisdom, a degree of perfection that 

 God has but man has not, and never will have, so man's falli- 

 bility often turns their truth into falsehood. It is this that 

 gives rise to religious bigotry and scientific pride. 



It is this which is the cause of German atrocities, 

 Zeppelin raids and submarine warfare, and breaches of treaty 

 obligations, by each nation leaving the path of moderation on 

 the plea that national aggrandizement justifies national arro- 

 gance, just as science errs by making the error that special 

 knowledge in special directions gives the right to be dogmatic 

 in assertion, which is no more the right of science than it is 

 of religion, and scientific intolerance, labour intolerance or in- 

 tolerance in demands for liberty and democratic principles 

 deserve to be as severely condemned as do religious intoler- 

 ance, bigotry, scientific arrogance, abuse of power, social con- 

 tempt of inferiors, or lack of social respect to superiors, 

 monopolies to benefit employees or employers (but in this case 

 do not forget that democratic monopolies, such as trades 

 unions, are worse than autocratic ones, for the former benefit 

 the individual to the detriment of the state and community), 

 or social animosity. So we find that the German philosophers, 

 by ignoring God and subjugating the right to grasp and retain 

 all that is come by in accordance with national laws, either in 

 war or commerce, and by forgetting that state, just as much as 



