452 
Natural Science and Morality. 
[July, 
to-be-forgotten speftacle (only a few years since) of the 
Cardinals— men who had passed through Univers ties 
sitting in numbers in solemn Council on the Infallibility of 
the Pope, remains a standing warning that there is no fab e 
however wild and absurd, no superstition, however monstrous 
and incredible, which, under the guise of “ religion will 
not gain masses of adherents ; and therefore this shows, 
with incontrovertible logic, how necessary it is to inquire 
into everything and be on the alert if we would keep clear 
of error. No one could say that this is not a fair illustrative 
case or that the warning it contains in regard to the doc- 
trine’s of Clericalism may not be as applicable to one country 
aS One would "not desire to prohibit speculation on so-called 
“ religious topics,” but let us take especial care that specu- 
lations are not at any time made up into a book and taught 
as truths, and above all let us be on our guard that the 
speculations are not irreconcilable with each other, or 
dmedtly opposed to the attributes of goodness and justice 
that are ascribed to the Deity. , , n 
Let speculations and scientific inductions be carefully 
distinguished from each other. While a relic of bar- 
barous tradition tells the degrading narrative of the 
Fall of Man, indudtive science points to the ennobling 
view of his Rise, thus opening out a praftically limitless 
field for a greater rise in the future, progress in the past 
being the best guarantee and incentive to progress in the 
^Surely there could be no nobler doarine than that incul- 
pated bv the self-interest or individual happiness morality, 
viz., that man’s interests and happiness lie in the prance 
of virtue, or that the path of virtue and that of self-intei est 
are identical with each other. What higher incentive could 
there be to an upright life than this ? Those who oppose 
this do&rine must be prepared to contend [as some superfi- 
ckl people who imagine they are sharp, do] that virtue or 
stridt integrity is not its own reward.* There would seem 
to be a sort of cringing or slavish disposition to some extent 
prevalent which thinks that virtue can only be attached to 
privation and absence of freedom, as if it were thought that 
the Deity took a pleasure in seeing his creatures practise 
• The follower of the morality of self-interest is contented with the re "'^ 
♦hat virtue brings with it ; not looking to an enormous (infinite) reward in the 
rut u re He aho does his best to lead mankind by teaching them that n^ht 
conduct is in accordance with self-interest, not to coerce them by a degrading 
system of terrorism. 
