“ THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS. 
221 
Justice lias already been defined. Beneficence may be thus 
characterised, “ that besides exchange of services under agreement, 
there shall be a rendering of services beyond agreement. The 
requirements of equity must be supplemented by the promptings of 
kindness.” 
Mr. Spencer demonstrates at considerable length the ill effects 
of what he has already shown in his previous ethical works— 
notably, “ Social Statics,” viz., the fostering of the unworthy at 
the expense of the worthy. He says that “ If, by an indiscriminate 
philanthropy,”—and here the key-note of the chapter sounds again— 
“ means of subsistence are forcibly taken from the better for the 
improved maintenance of the worse, the better, most of whom have 
means already insufficient for the good nurture of offspring, must 
have those means made still further deficient; while the offspring 
of the worst, must, to a like extent, be artificially fostered. An 
average deterioration must necessarily thus be caused.” Further, 
“if this policy is persistently pursued it leads on to communism 
and anarchism.” Why? Because, says Mr. Spencer, “If society, 
in its corporate capacity—that is, by government—undertakes 
beneficence as a function, the inferior learn that it is a State Duty, 
not simply to secure them the pursuit of happiness, but to furnish 
them with the means of happiness—then among the least 
deserving comes the fixed belief that if they are not comfortable 
the government only is to blame. Not to their idleness or misdeeds 
is their misery ascribed, but to the badness of society in not doing 
its duty by them.” Nor do they stop here. If social arrangements 
fail to give them equal shares of the products of labour, these 
arrangements must be changed. “All must have equal shares in 
the products of labour, differences of merit shall be abolished.” 
And to use the expression of Ravachol, as quoted by Mr. Spencer: 
“Each man should seize what he likes, and ‘ suppress ’ everyone who 
stands in his way.” “ Then,” says Mr. Spencer, “ comes anarchism 
and a return to the unrestrained struggle for life, as among 
brutes.” 
What I have said above, mainly in Mr. Spencer’s own words, 
indicates the results of a lack of discrimination between Justice and 
October, 1893. 
