422 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



SO there is no end of their derision. They still fall 

 out, but are soon reconciled — otherwise it would spoil 

 their stomachs. 



"They have their little pleasures for the day, and 

 their little pleasures for the night; but they have a 

 regard for health." 



This is the pass that things will come to if the 

 Darwinian - ethical ideals are realised. A " deadly 

 generalness" will dominate the world. Happiness and 

 unhappiness are antitheses, and there should be no 

 antitheses in the scientific world of ideals. Nothing 

 low — but nothing high : no hatred— but no love : no 

 depth — but no altitude: an eternally monotonous life, 

 without struggle and without victory. 



We see, then, that the ideal of a scientific guidance 

 of men means, to everyone who esteems individuality, 

 an intolerable mediocrity. But that is not the only 

 objection to a scientific ethics. It can be shown that 

 it has no right to exist at all. 



Every system of ethics must prescribe something 

 to a man ; it must tell him his duty. That is evident. 

 If moral laws are to be laws of nature, they must, 

 like the latter, have a universal validity. They then 

 show what exists, and must exist, everywhere ; it is 

 the very essence of natural laws that they act 

 necessarily. But if moral laws, being natural laws, 

 must be realised of themselves always and every- 

 where, there is absolutely no purpose in directing a 

 man to act according to them. If a thing is so, it is 

 superfluous to make it a duty for a man to bring it about. 



