Sheldon — The Literature of Ethical Science. 99 



thing manifestly quite different from the question of growth 

 or development. The first may take us into the realm of 

 metaphysics. But the opportunity for co-ordinating the 

 facts so as to set down in plain black and white the stages or 

 steps through which the ethical sense has passed, or the 

 ethical ideals have displayed themselves, is very great. It is 

 in this direction probably where the best work will be done in 

 the next few decades. 



There is, however, as one can see, a change simply of 

 interest or emphasis. In the old days with the ancient world, 

 the interest lay rather in deciding what was the highest good, 

 the summum honum. But to-day owing to this doctrine of 

 evolution, the interest lies rather, not in studying the ethical 

 ideal of the highest good, but in tracing the genesis or 

 development of those processes in consciousness which have 

 led men to adopt certain ideals of the highest good, — in a 

 word, the genesis and growth of conscience. 



This much, therefore, I regard as an immense achievement 

 evinced in the mass of literature from the time of Darwin : 

 on the one hand, the realization of what the problem is, — 

 the conception of conscience not as an organ, but as a phase 

 of the functioning of the soul; and on the other hand, the 

 disposition to study the science from the historic side. 



It must be admitted frankly that the attitude of some of 

 the scholars, even of the greatest, has been rather too bold 

 or audacious. In a science where there is so much at stake, 

 and where the personal element may so easily come in, where 

 the problem is so subtle because of the subjective elements 

 involved, surely there should be an excessive degree of cau- 

 tion and humility lest one venture too far in one's positive 

 assertions. And I fear this humility and caution have not 

 always been there. One sighs here for a little more of the 

 manifestation of that modest hesitancy that was so apparent 

 in the mind of Charles Darwin. It must be candidly con- 

 fessed that some writers in ethics have dealt with the doctrine 

 of evolution as a boy would do with his first jack-knife or 

 hatchet : it has been employed as a weapon to smash things 

 with, or with which to cut things to pieces. And some of 



