THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS. 
109 
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happen more disastrous than the decay and death of a regulative 
system no longer fit, before another and fitter regulative system 
has grown up to replace it.” 
The members of the Sociological Section, who have for so many 
years derived “light and leading ” from Mr. Herbert Spencer’s 
teaching, and a clearer conception of the beneficent order of the 
Cosmos than could have been derived from any other source, 
remember with pleasure and enthusiasm how we welcomed this 
precious contribution—this key-stone of the arch, this capital of 
the stately pillar erected by the author’s sole and unaided labours 
persistently carried on for more than half a century ! What, in 
brief, was the main conclusion arrived at in this, the first division 
or data of Evolutionary Ethics? It was after an exhaustive 
review of conduct, and the evolution of conduct extending over 
animated nature in general—but obviously excluding purposeless 
actions such as those of an epileptic—that no action however 
minute can be severed from Morality. Physical, biological, psycho¬ 
logical, and sociological evidence was adduced in support. “ The 
behaviour we call good and the behaviour we call bad are included, 
along with the behaviour we call indifferent, under the conception 
of behaviour at large.” “Good conduct, i.e., acts adjusted to 
ends, or the adjustment of acts to ends,” is therefore, “ that 
which tends to the achievement of the greatest totality of life in 
the individual, in the offspring, and in fellow-beings.” Contrari¬ 
wise, that conduct must be defined as bad which tends to the 
diminution or limitation of life in the individual, in the offspring, 
and in fellow-beings. 
A long interval elapsed, and from 1886 until 1890, owing to 
ill-health, little was done by Mr. Spencer towards elaborating the 
Synthetic Philosophy. But in 1891, again in “ the leafy month of 
June,” in his preface to Part IV. of “ The Principles of Ethics,” 
he said :—“ Led by the belief that my remaining energies would 
not carry me through the whole [of the work] I concluded that it 
would be best to begin with the part of most importance. Hence, 
passing over Part II.,‘The Inductions of Ethics,’ and Part III., 
‘ The Ethics of Individual Life,’ I devoted myself to Part IV., 
May, 1893. 
