94 
THE DATA OF ETHICS. 
Duty is an abstract sentiment, deriving its authority from 
a sense of the usually superior guidance given by re-repre¬ 
sentative feelings, and its compulsiveness from racial 
experience of the three lower controls, aided by a recognition 
of natural penalties. 
It is, then, already clear that to a certain extent, evolution 
tends to the growth of unselfish motives, and that, broadly 
speaking, “ true self-love and social are the same.” No 
society can exist unless internal aggressions be restrained ; 
unless, further, there be co-operation among its members, in¬ 
volving approximate equity, and performance of contract; 
and it is difficult to imagine the existence of any society with¬ 
out some degree of beneficence or spontaneous effort on the 
part of some of its members to promote the welfare of others. 
All this may happen without any thought being expended on 
universal welfare, or “ the greatest happiness of the greatest 
number,” which must always remain an Ideal rather than a 
definite object of endeavour. Half-blindly, slowly, with no 
set purpose, mankind has already worked out the main con¬ 
ditions of happiness, and embodied them in its moral code— 
Be strong, be just, be kind. Rational utilitarianism takes 
these results ; and aims, not straight at happiness, but at the 
essential conditions of happiness. It endeavours to conform 
“ to certain principles which, in the nature of things, causally 
determine welfare,” and which are generalisations from past 
racial experience, rectified by present intelligence. The law 
of justice, for example, is a statement of the most fundamental 
conditions of happiness. Equity must always be maintained, 
whatever may be the immediate consequences ; because the per¬ 
mission of a seemingly beneficial injustice makes the 
foundations of happiness insecure, while seeming to adorn the 
superstructure. The evolutional moralist must therefore insist 
on conformity to principle as strongly and as sternly as any 
believer in the Categorical Imperative. 
But still, we have not reached a complete reconciliation 
of the claims of egoism and altruism. It is very evident, 
“that a creature must live before it can act,” and that 
“ unless each duly cares for himself, his care for all others is 
ended by death ; and if each thus dies, there remain no 
others to care for.”* Survival of the fittest has been the law 
of evolution, and works for general, as well as for individual 
happiness, by ensuring the survival of the healthiest, and 
therefore of the happiest. It is our duty to be both healthy 
and happy ; for our fitness or unfitness will be transmitted to 
* Ch. XI., § 68. 
