vi PREFACE. 



the most accomplished and facile orator of our 

 time, whose indomitable youth is in no matter 

 more manifest than in his penetrating and musical 

 voice. A certain saying about comparisons in- 

 truded itself somewhat importunately. 



And even if I disregarded the weakness of my 

 body in the matter of voice, and that of my mind 

 in the matter of vanity, there remained a third 

 difficulty. For several reasons, my attention, dur- 

 ing a number of years, has been much directed 

 to the bearing of modern scientific thought on the 

 problems of morals and of politics, and I did not 

 care to be diverted from that topic. Moreover, I 

 thought it the most important and the worthiest 

 which, at the present time, could engage the atten- 

 tion even of an ancient and renowned University. 



But it is a condition of the Romanes founda- 

 tion that the lecturer shall abstain from treating 

 of either Religion or Politics; and it appeared to 

 me that, more than most, perhaps, I was bound to 

 act, not merely up to the letter, but in the spirit, 

 of that prohibition. Yet Ethical Science is, on 

 all sides, so entangled with Religion and Politics, 

 that the lecturer who essays to touch the former 

 without coming into contact with either of the 

 latter, needs all the dexterity of an egg-dancer; 

 and may even discover that his sense of clearness 

 and his sense of propriety come into conflict, by 

 no means to the advantage of the former. 



I had little notion of the real magnitude of 



