7o 
as the basis of human conduct. It proceeds by immense and 
arbitrary assumptions respecting the scope of human life ; and 
its primary principle is reached by a logical fallacy. This prin- 
ciple, on being worked out, proves so inapplicable that, by the 
author's own confession, “ throughout a large part of con- 
duct ” it must be “ entirely set aside ; ” and we are invited to 
fall back upon those primary intuitions of equity which are 
acknowledged to be everywhere operative and intelligible. 
Such a system will not supersede Revelation; nor is it likely 
to displace the old Data of Ethics, whether Greek, Roman, or 
English. 
The Chairman. — I need scarce ask whether it is the wish of the meeting 
to return thanks to Professor Wace for his exceedingly able and interesting 
paper upon a subject the importance of which it is difficult to overrate. It 
is now open for any one to offer remarks thereon. 
Rev. C. L. Engstrom. — I have made a few remarks on the margin of my copy 
of the paper, and, with your kind permission, will briefly refer to the pages 
thus noted. With regard to what is stated in § 5, as to the argument 
of Aristotle, a thought occurred to me as to the application of the passages 
quoted. I think we are apt to overlook the great value of the writings of 
Aristotle, Plato, and others, and to suppose that they do not come at all 
into the current of Christian thought, that in fact, having the Bible in our 
hands, we may dismiss all such books, and treat them as if they had no 
existence. But the Bible is certainly founded as much on the prin- 
ciples of morality, and as fully presupposes them as it presupposes such 
elementary things as grammar. It appears to me that the great 
principles of morality are, in the Bible, taken for granted, and that therefore 
they are really pre-supposed, just as the Bible pre-supposcs the principles 
of grammar and of ordinary thought. In § G of the paper, Mr. Herbert 
Spencer, who is there quoted, alludes to the doctrine of altruism ; I do not 
know whether he affirms it himself, or whether he does not think that the 
right view is that of complete self-abnegation. Now here I would refer 
to an interesting point in the catechism of the Scotch Established Church, 
which, in going through the last six commandments, lays down the duty we 
owe to ourselves. For instance, in the case of the eighth commandment, the 
notion there given is that the words “ Thou shalt do no murder ” are to be 
understood as including the taking care of our own lives. This, I think, 
shows the high common sense of the Scotch, and the idea certainly is 
found in the Bible, because we are not told to love ourselves less than our 
neighbours, or not at all, but we are all put on an equality, we are to 
love our neighbours as ourselves, and to love God better. This is a point 
which, I think, is very much overlooked, and there are many persons who 
are apt, from their study of the Bible, to hold the extreme doctrine that we 
