THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS. 
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is not achievable under a reign of justice only ; but that there 
must be joined with it a reign of beneficence.” In other words, 
“ the limit of evolution of conduct is not reached until, beyond 
avoidance of direct and indirect injuries to others, there are 
spontaneous efforts to further the welfare of others.” 
The key-note of the first chapter of Part V., on “ Kinds of 
Altruism,” is discrimination —the mental action so named by 
Professor Bain and others, by which, “ in ways too rapid to 
observe, we class the objects and acts around and regulate our 
conduct accordingly.” At some length, and, as usual, after 
surveying the animal kingdom at large, Mr. Spencer points out 
that “Intelligence is, in its every act, carried on by discrimination; 
and has advanced from its lowest stages to its highest, by increas¬ 
ing powers of discrimination. It has done this for the sufficient 
reason that, during the evolution of life under all its forms, increase 
of it has been furthered by practice or habit, as well as by survival 
of the fittest ; since good discrimination has been the means of 
saving life, and lack of it a cause of losing life.” 
The following beautiful illustration, which will be well under¬ 
stood by Naturalists, serves to mark the beginnings of this faculty 
of discrimination. “ Look out ” (says Mr. Spencer) “ towards the 
sky, shut your eyes, and pass your hand before them ; you can 
discriminate between the presence and absence of an opaque object 
in front . . . but cannot say whether it is a small object close 
to, or a larger object further off. This experience exemplifies the 
smallest degree of visual discrimination achieved by low creatures 
possessing nothing more than eye-specks—minute portions of 
sensitive pigment in which light produces some kind of change. 
Evidently a creature having only this nascent vision is at great 
disadvantage ; cannot distinguish between the obscuration caused 
by the moving frond of a weed in the water it inhabits, and the 
obscuration caused by a passing creature ; cannot tell whether it 
results from a small creature near at hand, or a larger one at a 
distance ; cannot tell whether this creature is harmless and may 
serve for prey, or is predacious and must be avoided. Thus one 
October, 1893. 
