124 THE REV. H. J. CLARKE ON THE 
Before, however, we can proceed further in testing the 
assumption that the science in question is possible, if for 
“ Expedience” “ Well-being ” be virtually substituted in the 
title, we must be at once distinctly informed whether the 
latter of these two words is to be understood as pointing to 
the interest of the individual, or to that of the race, in the 
event of its being discovered that in some particular or other 
their respective interests do not coincide. A necessary or 
invariable coincidence it would be very rash for a utilitarian 
to take for granted. Throughout organic creation those 
individuals which contribute most largely to perpetuate a 
race are, in so far as it undergoes change, obviously such as 
chiefly determine its characteristics. But the most prolific 
of sentient creatures are not, as a matter of course, best 
qualified to derive enjoyment from thew surroundings, to 
search out and explore its sources, to discover the flowers, as 
it were, which yield it, and to sip the nectar. Moreover, 
although the races which nature chiefly favours in the pro- 
cess of selection are to be seen in swarming multitudes, the 
time allotted for enjoyment to each unit in the countless 
totals which the environment of a fleeting life contains may 
be but momentary. Indeed, if regard be had to duration of 
life among the lower animals, there are noteworthy pheno- 
mena, not a little suge vestive, in which it may be seen that 
the interest of spreading communities and the interest of 
the individuals of which they severally consist, considered 
respectively as such, bear to each other an inverse ratio. 
Certainly nature is restrained by no sympathetic attention to 
individual requirements from abridging life within the 
shortest available periods, if only she can thereby the more 
effectually multiply and diffuse the race. For the race of 
mortal men, in all probability, so long as the globe affords 
room for their multiplication, it must in the long run be most 
advantageous that every individual should adopt such prac- 
tices and acquire such habits as are most favourable to lon- 
gevity ; but it byno means follows that the various sacrifices 
which the larger interest demands will, from the utilitarian 
point of view, be in every case the surest guarantee of 
private happiness and personal well-being. Circumstances 
may easily be conceived under which many persons must 
perish, unless there be one im whom the wish to save them 
overcomes the dread of certain death, is strong enough to 
impel him to make himself, in fact, a vicarious offermg. Such 
circumstances do sometimes occur. Let it be granted, then, 
that inexorable Fate will accept no lower price for the safety 
