Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/225

 listen to him on any topic that he may see fit to take up, but also because he regards the work before us as the end and outcome of all his labors, the object to which all the preceding parts of his systematic elaboration are preparatory. The philosophy of evolution, which he has spent his life in constructing, is here to reach its application to practice. With a view to the popularity of the work, this may seem a disadvantage, as comparatively few of those that are attracted to a book in morals have followed the author through his long precursory series of magna opera; yet the disadvantage is not so great as might be so supposed, for such is the expository clearness gained from long familiarity with the materials, that the work is self-explaining in a remarkable degree.

Although thus disclaiming the purpose of dispensing with the independent perusal of the work, yet without making a general survey of its plan and leading ideas I am unable to criticise any portion intelligibly.

The preliminary question necessarily is the definition or province of ethics. What is meant by conduct, and what by good and bad conduct? Conduct is the adjustment of acts to ends. As to good and bad, we must proceed systematically through the animal series; or trace the "Evolution of Conduct." The lowest creatures are characterized by insufficient adaptation of actions to the ends of existence; they move about at random, and live at the mercy of chance. But proceed upward from the infusorium to the rotifer, and we find the actions better accommodated to the situation, and as a consequence greater chances of preservation. Move still upward to the higher vertebrates, and look at the superiority of an elephant to a cod; go yet further, and compare the civilized with the savage man: we find the same expression to apply—the multiplication of activity in the serving of useful ends, whereby life is increased both in length and in breadth. Turn next to the conservation of the species by the treatment of the young, and we find the same progress; in the lowest creatures only one germ in ten thousand comes to maturity. Lastly, take into account the social situation, where individuals act and react on each other, whether for prey or for assistance. There is here a like progress, shown in the like results; in the lower stages, mutual destruction; in the higher stages, mutual coöperation, with greater security of life and greater amounts of enjoyment.

This survey being premised, let us ascertain the meanings of good and bad. A good action is one that subserves either individual life, or the rearing of offspring, or the interests of the society at large. The relatively good is the relatively more-evolved. The highest conduct of all is what best reconciles all the three ends. Having reached this point, the author asks. Is there any postulate involved in these judgments of conduct? and answers yes, namely, the question. Is life worth living? which question he briefly discusses, making out that