SCIENCE OF RECTITUDE AS DISTINCT FROM EXPEDIENCE. 125 
of the many than the life of some individual whom she has 
pointed out as the atoning victim ; is it advantageous to him 
that he should die? To this question I find as yet no 
auswer in the Science of Expedience. 
Nor is it possible even to attempt an answer until it has 
been settled whether the existence of individual men is to be 
regarded as limited to that of their mortal bodies, or as pro- 
longed under conditions involving at least the persistence of 
personal consciousness. Yet, it 1s quietly taken for granted 
that we can determine what constitutes man’s well- -being, 
while leaving open the question, whether in giving up the 
ghost he becomes extinct, or does but start upon a new 
career, and one perhaps which is to have no end. In the 
name of Science, we may ask, how comes it to have been 
overlooked that in this assumption scientific caution is con- 
spicuous by its absence, and nothing, in fact, is so glaringly 
evident and undeniable as a rashness that amounts to 
audacity ? How could an architect be expected to prepare 
a plan for a building, if we suppose him to have been left in 
ignorance whether he were required to design a temporary 
framework of poles and boards, or a stable and enduring 
structure? Is it only considered as a mortal that man may 
be likened to a building in the erection of which science and 
skill are available, or, bemg encompassed with a mortal 
nature, has he therein but just the scaffolding which is to be 
utilised in the construction of a permanent edifice? So long 
as this question remains unanswered, the would-be builders, 
the framers of precepts for the formation of character and 
the regulation of conduct, cannot even make a plausible 
pretence of knowmg what they are about. 
A person, let us suppose, who has been upholding what he 
believes to be the true interests of his fellow men, is at length 
made aware that, unless he desists, he will suffer death ; and 
yet he neither accounts the good he might do by showing a 
martyr’s courage and constancy of equal value with his own 
life, nor looks for any life to come. Will the professors of 
the Science of Expedience tell us how they would advise 
him to act, and with what arguments they would support 
their counsel and their exhortations? On’ the supposition 
that they are at one with him as regards the truth and the 
importance of the doctrine he has been maintaining, they 
might of course dilate upon the impetus it is likely to receive 
from the steadfast courage of prominent advocates, and upon 
the demoralising effect of a suspicion that the acts and 
speeches of such men are not the fruit of deep convictions, 
