I PROLEGOMENA. 37 



they are consistent, must rank medicine among 

 the black arts and count the physician a mischiev- 

 ous preserver of the unfit; on whose matrimonial 

 undertakings the principles of the stud have the 

 chief influence; whose whole lives, therefore, are 

 an education in the noble art of suppressing natu- 

 ral affection and sympathy, are not likely to have 

 any large stock of these commodities left. But, 

 without them, there is no conscience, nor any re- 

 straint on the conduct of men, except the calcula- 

 tion of self-interest, the balancing of certain pres- 

 ent gratifications against doubtful future pains; 

 and experience tells us how much that is worth. 

 Every day, we see firm believers in the hell of the 

 theologians commit acts by which, as they believe 

 when cool, they risk eternal punishment; while 

 they hold back from those which are opposed to 

 the sympathies of their associates. 



XIII. 



That progressive modification of civilization 

 which passes by the name of the " evolution of 

 society," is, in fact, a process of an essentially dif- 

 ferent character, both from that which brings 

 about the evolution of species, in the state of na- 

 ture, and from that which gives rise to the evo- 

 lution of varieties, in the state of art. 



There can be no doubt that vast changes have 

 taken place in English civilization since the reign 



