Sheldon — The Literature of Ethical Science. 141 



Bewusstseins zu ergHozen, und andererseits, die Religion nur dann einem 

 gelauterten sittlichen Bewusstsein genugthun kann, wenn sie die Bezie- 

 hung des Menschen zu Gott im Sinne der Wesensidentitat beider, also 

 unter dem Gesichtspunkt des concreten Monismus (und nicht unter dem 

 des Theismus) auffasst." — " Philnomenologie des sittlichen Bewusstseins,'* 

 by Eduard von Hartmann. 



VII. Miscellaneous. 



•'Action is right, not because God wills it; but God wills the law as 

 •the expression of absolute right." — •' Handbook of Moral Pailosophy," 

 by Henry Calderwood. 



'« On the whole, we find that the progress of society depends less on 

 education and the transmission of acquired characteristics from one gen- 

 eration to the next, than on a steady progress of elimination of inferior 

 strains." — " The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct," by Alexander 

 Sutherland. 



•'If in some distant planet lying were as esssential to human welfare 

 as truthfulness is in this world, falsehood might there be a cardinal 

 virtue." — •' The Science of Ethics," by Leslie Stephen. 



'• Instead of admitting that there is in every case a right and a wrong, 

 it may be contended that in multitudinous cases no right, properly so- 

 called, can be alleged, but only a least wrong; and, further, it may be 

 contended that in many of these cases where there can be alleged only 

 a least wrong, it is not possible to ascertain with any precision which 

 is the least wrong."— '• The Data of Ethics," by Herbert Spencer. 



" There is no scientific short-cut to the ascertainment of the right means 

 to the individual's greatest happiness; every attempt to find a 'high priori 

 road ' to this goal brings us back ultimately to simple empiricism. For 

 instead of a clear principle universally valid, we only get at best a vague 

 and general rule, based on considerations which it is important not to overlook 

 but the relative value of which we can only estimate by careful observation 

 and comparison of individual experiences. Whatever uncertainty besets 

 these processes must necessarily extend to all our reasonings about happi- 

 ness. I have no wish to exaggerate these uncertainties, feeling that we 

 must all continue to seek happiness for ourselves and for others, in what- 

 ever obscurity we may have to grope after it : but there is nothing gained 

 by underrating them, and it is idle to argue as if they did not exist." — 

 •'The Method of Ethics," by Henry Sidgwick. 



'•No doubt or disproof of any existing theory can any more extinguish 

 that self other than myself,iwhich speaks to me in the voice of conscience, 

 than doubt or disproof of the wave- theory of light can put out the noonday 

 sun." — •♦ Lectures and Essays," by William Kingdon Clifford. 



