MR. MALL OCR OK OPTIMISM. 537 



given, and what will be the further stages of the process. But 

 when we once recognize the fact that the problem is being worked 

 out, we see that an answer is actually given in some degree by 

 the very facts before us. That is really the nature of the change 

 in the point of view implied in the acceptance of the evolution 

 theory/' * 



Having thus shown to how large an extent Mr. Mallock has 

 drawn upon his imagination in regard to the importance assigned 

 in modern ethical theories to the idea of progress, it is easy to 

 show that what he has said on the subject of sympathy is equally 

 destitute of foundation. The emancipated modern thinker tries 

 to take stock of human nature as it is : the age for constructing 

 ideals of a purely imaginative kind has passed. We want to as- 

 certain just how much sympathy there is in average human na- 

 ture, so that we may know what we have to depend on. We want 

 to discover also how far the quantity now existing admits of in- 

 crease. Auguste Comte studied this question closely; and, far 

 from unduly magnifying the sympathetic element in human 

 nature, he continually speaks of it as being very weak in com- 

 parison with the egoistic, and therefore requiring all the re-en- 

 forcement we can give it. His whole system is an elaborate effort 

 to draw out sympathy and make it more widely and powerfully 

 operative in human affairs. For this purpose his followers think 

 it right and profitable to dwell much upon the history of the 

 human race, and to bring into strong relief the organic depend- 

 ence of the individual upon society at large. Many who, per- 

 haps, would not care to acknowledge any obligations to Comte, 

 are to-day doing the same thing — so much so that the prominence 

 given to the thought of society as an organic whole, infusing its 

 own larger life into its individual members, may be said to be an 

 especial note of the present age. If it be asked what object there 

 can be in quickening sympathy between a man and his fellows, 

 the answer is, the promotion of more harmonious social action, 

 resulting in economy of force and increase of happiness. Upon 

 this point Mr Mallock seems to be all astray, owing doubtless to 

 the too abstract manner in which he chose to treat the question. 

 He seems to think that the whole effect of sympathy is confined 

 to the mental representation of others' pains and pleasures. He 

 forgets, apparently, that it has its natural outcome in action ; and 

 that, except as a basis for action, there would be no useful pur- 

 pose in cultivating it. This is the true and obvious answer to his 

 paradoxical contention that an increase of sympathy could not 

 make for happiness, seeing that if, on the one hand, it enabled us 

 to enter more heartily into the joys of others, it would, on the 

 other, bring home to us more poignantly their sorrows. We can 



* " Science of Ethics," p. 34. 



