Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/20

16 social phenomena, we come at last to the "Principles of Ethics," which Mr. Spencer regarded as the crown of his system. One can not but be struck by the resemblance in this respect of Herbert Spencer's career to that of Auguste Comte. Both began with a lively interest in what may be called political ethics, an interest which they both continued to feel through life. But both saw, after their early survey of the field, that the world was not ready for their final achievement, and therefore both stopped and devoted twelve or fifteen years of arduous labor to laying a scientific foundation for the magnum opus which was to reform the world. Comte laid special stress on this, and placed as a motto at the head of the first volume of his "Politique Positive" the lines of Alfred de Vigny:

 Qu'est-ce qu'une grande vie? Une pensée de la jeunesse, exécuté par l'âge mûr.

Spencer could not even wait to complete the last of the preparatory works, and stopped in the middle of it to write the final work. So strongly was he impressed by the importance of this last work, and so apprehensive that he might not live to complete it, that he said in the preface to the first part ("Data of Ethics" issued separately):

I am the more anxious to indicate in outline, if I can not complete, this final work, because the establishment of rules of right conduct on a scientific basis is a pressing need. Now that moral injunctions are losing the authority given by their supposed sacred origin, the secularization of morals is becoming imperative. Few things can 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 implication of course is that Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Ethics" will henceforth constitute the Koran of moral doctrine to the exclusion of all other codes! Comte has been pronounced an egotist and a fanatic for proclaiming himself the high priest of the religion of humanity, but he never assumed to be an infallible pope in the domain of moral conduct. The parallelism, however, does not end here. The world has passed judgment upon Comte's career, and while his final work for which he had lived and labored, viz., his "Positive Polity," has been declared a mistaken dream, the preparatory work, his "Positive Philosophy," which he intended to be only the pedestal upon which the monument was to stand, is looked upon by most men as a path-breaking, by many as an epoch-making achievement, and as marking the beginning of scientific philosophy. In Spencer's case it is too early to speak thus definitely, but all things point to the complete rejection of his political ethics as outlined in "Social Statics" and perfected in his "Principles of "Ethics" and "Man Versus the State," while his cosmic philosophy, which he regarded as little more than a