MR. HERBERT SPENCER’S “PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS.”* 
There is a certain degree of historical and of literary interest, 
apart from the purely moral and philosophical value attaching to 
“ The Principles of Ethics,” the first volume of which, now before 
us, forms the final division of the exposition of the doctrine of 
Evolution, known under the title of “ The Synthetic Philosophy.” 
This aspect was touchingly explained by its distinguished author 
in the “Data of Ethics,” in the preface to which, written in June, 
1879, more than thirteen years ago, when he told us that, although 
the intermediate volumes of the system, i.e., the second and third 
volumes of “ The Principles of Sociology” were then unpublished, 
he had resolved to issue the first part of “ The Principles of 
Morality ”f out of its proper order. The reasons which determined 
this were weighty and unanswerable :—“I have been led (says Mr. 
Herbert Spencer) thus to deviate from the order originally set 
down by the fear that persistence in conforming to it might result 
in leaving the final work of the series unexecuted. Hints, repeated 
of late years with increasing frequency and distinctness, have 
shown me that health may permanently fail, even if life does not 
end, before I reach the last part of the task I have marked out for 
myself. This last part of the task it is, to which I regard all the 
preceding parts as subsidiary.” And he goes on to say in relation 
to the views which he expressed in his first essay, written so far 
back as 1842, on “ The Proper Sphere of Government” :—“ I am 
the more anxious to indicate in outline, if I cannot complete, this 
final work, because the establishment of rules of right conduct on 
a scientific basis is a pressing need. Now that moral injunctions 
are losing the authority given by their supposed sacred origin, the 
secularisation of morals is becoming imperative. Few things can 
* Abstract of an Address by Mr. W. It. Hughes, F.L.S., President of the 
Sociological Section of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical 
Society, given at the first meeting of the Section for the Session 1892-93, held 
at the Mason College, September 29th, 1892. 
fThis was the title of this, the last division of the “ Synthetic Philosophy,” 
in the original Prospectus issued in i860, but, as now published, Mr. Herbert 
Spencer entitles it “ The Principles of Ethics.” 
May, 1893. 
