'^:i

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

ARDEN H. BRAME, JR.

HERPETOLOGICAL LIBRARY

COLLECTED ESSAYS

By T. H. HUXLEY
VOLUME IX

EVOLUTION & ETHICS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

THOMAS H. HUXLEY

EonJion

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1894

Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
london axd bungay.

PREFACE

The discourse on "Evolution and Ethics," re-
printed in the first half of the present volume, was
delivered before the University of Oxford, as the
second of the annual lectures founded by Mr.
Romanes : whose name I may not write without
deploring the untimely death, in the flower of his
age, of a friend endeared to me, as to so many
others, by his kindly nature ; and justly valued by
all his colleagues for his powers of investigation
and his zeal for the advancement of knowledge.
I well remember, when Mr. Romanes' early work
came into my hands, as one of the secretaries
of the Royal Society, how much I rejoiced in
the accession to the ranks of the little army of
workers in science of a recruit so well qualified
to take a high place among us.

It was at my friend's urgent request that I
agreed to undertake the lecture, should I be
honoured with an official proposal to give it, though
I confess not without misgivings, if only on

VI PREFACE

account of the serious fatigue and hoarseness
which pubhc speaking has for some years caused
me ; while I knew that it wouki be my fate to
follow the most accomplished and facile orator of
our time, whose indomitable youth is in no matter
more manifest than in his penetrating and musi-
cal voice. A certain sapng about comparisons
intruded itself somewhat importunately.

And even if I disregarded the weakness of my
body in the matter of voice, and that of my mind
in the matter of vanity, there remained a third
difficulty. For several reasons, my attention,
during a number of years, has been much directed
to the bearing of modern scientific thought on the
problems of morals and of politics, and I did not
care to be diverted from that topic. Moreover, I
thought it the most important and the worthiest
which, at the present time, could engage the atten-
tion even of an ancient and renowned University.

But it is a condition of the Romanes foundation
that the lecturer shall abstain from treating of
either Religion or Politics ; and it appeared to me
that, more than most, perhaps, I was bound to
act, not merely up to the letter, but in the spirit,
of that prohibition. Yet Ethical Science is, on
all sides, so entancrled with Relioion and Politics,
that the lecturer who essays to touch the former
without coming into contact with either of the
latter, needs all the dexterity of an egg-dancer ;
and may even discover that his sense of clearness

PREFACE vii

and his sense of propriety come into conflict, by
no means to the advantage of the former.

I had little notion of the real magnitude of
these difficulties when I set about my task ; but I
am consoled for my pains and anxiety by observing
that none of the multitudinous criticisms with
which I have been favoured and, often, instructed,
find fault with me on the score of having strayed
out of bounds.

Among my critics there are not a few to whom
I feel deeply indebted for the careful attention
which they have given to the exposition thus
hampered ; and further weakened, I am afraid, by
my forgetfulness of a maxim touching lectures of
a popular character, which has descended to me
from that prince of lecturers, Mr. Faraday. He
was once asked by a beginner, called upon to
address a highly select and cultivated audience,
what he might suppose his hearers to know
already. Whereupon the past master of the art of
exposition emphatically replied " Nothing ! "

To my shame as a retired veteran, who has all
his life profited by this great precept of lec-
turing strategy, I forgot all about it just when
it would have been most useful. I was fatuous
enough to imagine that a number of propositions,
which I thought established, and which, in fact, I
had advanced without challenge on former oc-
casions, needed no repetition.

I have 'endeavoured to repair my error by

VIU PREFACE

prefacing the lecture with some matter — chiefly
elementary or recapitulatory — to which I have
given the title of " Prolegomena." I wish I could
have hit upon a heading of less pedantic aspect
which would have served my purpose ; and if it
be urged that the new building looks over large
for the edifice to which it is added, I can only
plead the precedent of the ancient architects,
who always made the adytum the smallest part
of the temple.

If I had attempted to reply in full to the
criticisms to which I have referred, I know not
what extent of ground would have been covered
by my pronaos. All I have endeavoured to do,
at present, is to remove that which seems to
have proved a stumbling-block to many — namely,
the apparent paradox that ethical nature, while
born of cosmic nature, is necessarily at enmity
with its parent. Unless the arguments set forth
in the Prolegomena, in the simplest language at
my command, have some flaw which I am unable
to discern, this seeming paradox is a truth, as
great as it is plain, the recognition of which
is fundamental for the ethical philosojDher.

We cannot do without our inheritance from the
forefathers who were the puppets of the cosmic
process ; the society which renounces it must
be destroyed from without. Still less can we do
with too much of it ; the society in which it
dominates must be destroyed from within.

PREFACE IX

The motive of the drama of human life is
the necessity, laid upon every man who comes
into the world, of discovering the mean between
self-assertion and self-restraint suited to his
character and his circumstances. And the eter-
nally tragic asj)ect of the drama lies in this :
that the problem set before us is one the ele-
ments of which can be but imperfectly known,
and of which even an approximately right solution
rarely presents itself, until that stern critic, aged
experience, has been furnished with ample justifi-
cation for venting his sarcastic humour upon the
irreparable blunders we have already made.

I have reprinted the letters on the " Darkest
England " scheme, published in the " Times " of
December 1890 and January 1891 ; and subse-
quently issued,with additions, as a pamphlet, under
the title of" Social Diseases and Worse Remedies; "
because, although the clever attempt to rush
the country on behalf of that scheme has been
balked, Mr. Booth's standing army remains afoot,
retaining all the capacities for mischief which are
inherent in its constitution. I am desirous that
this fact should be kept steadily in view ; and
that the moderation of the clamour of the drums
and trumpets should not lead us to forget the
existence of a force, which, in bad hands, may, at
any time, be used for bad purposes.

In 1892, a Committee was " formed for the pur-

X PREFACE

pose of investigating the manner in wliicli the
moneys, subscribed in response to the appeal made
in the book entitled ' In Darkest England and the
Way out/ have been expended." The members of
this body were gentlemen in whose competency
and equity every one must have complete con-
fidence ; and in December 1892 they published
a report in which they declare that, " with the
exception of the sums expended on the ' barracks '
at Hadleigh," the moneys in question have been
" devoted only to the objects and expended in the
methods set out in that appeal, and to and in no
others."

Nevertheless, their final conclusion runs as
follows : " (4) That whilst the invested property,
real and personal, resulting from such Appeal is
so vested and controlled by the Trust of the Deed
of January 30th, 1891, that any application of it
to purposes other than those declared in the deed
by any * General ' of the Salvation Army would
amount to a breach of trust, and would subject him
to the proceedings of a civil and criminal character,
before mentioned in the Report, adcqiiatc legal
safeguards do not at present exist to prevent the
niisapptlication of such property."

The passage I have italicised forms part of a
document dated December 19th, 1892. It follows,
that, even after the Deed of January 30th, 1891,
was executed, " adequate legal safeguards " " to
prevent the misapplication of the property " did

PREFACE XI

not exist. What then was the state of things,
up to a week earlier, that is on January 22nd,
1891, when my twelfth and last letter appeared in
the " Times " ? A better justification for what I
have said about the want of adequate security for
the proper administration of the funds intrusted
to Mr. Booth could not be desired, unless it be that
which is to be found in the following passages of
the Report (pp. 36 and 37) :—

" It is possible that a ' General ' may be forget-
ful of his duty, and sell property and appropriate
the proceeds to his own use, or to meeting the
general liabilities of the Salvation Army. As
matters now stand, he, and he alone, would have
control over such a sale. Against such possibilities
it appears to the Committee to be reasonable that
some check should be imposed."

Once more let it be remembered that this
opinion, given under the hand of Sir Henry
James, was expressed by the Committee, with the
Trust Deed of 1891, which has been so sedulously
flaunted before the public, in full view.

The Committee made a suggestion for the
improvement of this very unsatisfactory state of
things ; but the exact value set upon it by the
suggestors should be carefully considered (p. 37).

" The Committee are fully aware that if the
views thus expressed are carried out, the safe-
guards and checks created will not be sufficient
for all purposes absolutely to prevent possible

XU PREFACE

dealing with the property and moneys, inconsistent
with the purposes to which they are intended to
be devoted."

In fact, they are content to express the very
modest hope that " if the suggestion made be
acted upon, some hindrance will thereby be placed
in the way of any one acting dishonestly in
respect of the disposal of the property and
moneys referred to."

I do not know, and, under the circumstances, I
cannot say I much care, whether the suggestions
of the Committee have, or have not, been acted
upon. Whether or not, the fact remains, that an
unscrupulous " General " will have a pretty free
hand, notwithstanding " some " hindrance.

Thus, the judgment of the highly authoritative,
and certainly not hostile. Committee of 1892,
upon the issues with which they concerned them-
selves is hardly such as to inspire enthusiastic
confidence. And it is further to be borne in
mind that they carefully excluded from their
duties " any examination of the principles, govern-
ment, teaching, or methods of the Salvation
Army as a religious organisation, or of its
affairs" except so far as they related to the
administration of the moneys collected by the
" Darkest England " appeal.

Consequently, the most important questions
discussed in my letters were not in any way
touched by the Committee. Even if their report

PREFACE Xlll

had been far more favourable to the " Darkest
England " scheme than it is ; if it had really
assured the contributors that the funds raised
were fully secured against malversation ; the
objections, on social and political grounds, to Mr.
Booth's despotic organization, with its thousands
of docile satellites pledged to blind obedience,
set forth in the letters, would be in no degree
weakened. The " sixpennyworth of good " would
still be outweighed by the " shilling'sworth of
harm " ; if indeed the relative worth, or unworth,
of the latter should not be rated in pounds rather
than in shillings.

What would one not give for the opinion of the
financial members of the Committee about the
famous Bank ; and that of the legal experts about
the proposed " tribunes of the people " ?

HoDESLEA, Eastbourne,
July 1894.

CONTENTS

I

PAGE
EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. PROLEGOMENA [1894] .... 1

n

EVOLUTION AND ETHICS [1893] 46

III
SCIENCE AND MORALS [1886] 117

IV

CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR [1890] 147

V

SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIES [1891] 188

Preface 188

The Struggle for Existence in Human Society .... 195

Letters to the Times 237

Legal Opinions 312

The Articles of War of the Salvation Army 321

I

EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

PROLEGOMENA
[1894]

I

It may be safely assumed that, two thousand
years ago, before Caesar set foot in southern
Britain, the whole country-side visible from the
windows of the room in which I write, was in
what is called " the state of nature." Except, it may
be, by raising a few sepulchral mounds, such as
those which still, here and there, break the flowing
contours of the downs, man's hands had made no
mark upon it ; and the thin veil of vegetation
which overspread the broad-backed heights and
the shelving sides of the coombs was unaffected
by his industry. The native grasses and weeds,
the scattered patches of gorse, contended with one
another for the possession of the scanty surface
soil ; they fought against the droughts of summer,

VOL. IX g£ B

2 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS I

the frosts of winter, and the furious gales which
swept, with unbroken force, now from the Atlantic,
and now from the North Sea, at all times of the
year ; they filled up, as they best might, the gaps
made in their ranks by all sorts of underground
and overground animal ravagers. One year with
another, an average population, the floating balance
of the unceasing struggle for existence among the
indigenous plants, maintained itself. It is as
little to be doubted, that an essentially similar
state of nature prevailed, in this region, for many
thousand years before the coming of Caesar ; and
there is no assignable reason for denying that it
might continue to exist through an equally pro-
longed futurity, except for the intervention of man.

Reckoned by our customary standards of
duration, the native vegetation, like the " ever-
lasting hills " which it clothes, seems a type of
permanence. The little Amarella Gentians, which
abound in some places to-day, are the descendants
of those that were trodden underfoot by the pre-
historic savages who have left their flint' tools about,
here and there ; and they followed ancestors
which, in the climate of the glacial epoch, probably
flourished better than they do now. Compared
with the long past of this humble plant, all the
history of civilized men is but an episode.

Yet nothing is more certain than that, measured
by the liberal scale of time-keeping of the universe,
this present state of nature, however it may seem

I PKOLEGOMENA ^

to have gone and to go on for ever, is but a
fleeting phase of her infinite variety ; merely the
last of the series of changes which the earth's sur-
face has undergone in the course of the millions of
years of its existence. Turn back a square foot of
the thin turf, and the solid foundation of the land,
exposed in cHffs of chalk five hundred feet high on
the adjacent shore, yields full assurance of a time
when the sea covered the site of the " everlasting
hills " ; and when the vegetation of what land lay
nearest, was as different from the present Flora of
the Sussex downs, as that of Central Africa now is.^
No less certain is it that, between the time durino-
which the chalk was formed and that at which the
original turf came into existence, thousands of
centuries elapsed, in the course of which, the state
of nature of the ages during which the chalk was
deposited, passed into that which now is, by
changes so slow that, in the coming and going of
the generations of men, had such witnessed them,
the contemporary conditions would have seemed
to be unchanging and unchangeable.

But it is also certain that, before the deposition
of the chalk, a vastly longer period had elapsed,
throughout which it is easy to follow the traces
of the same process of ceaseless modification and
of the internecine struggle for existence of living
things ; and that even when we can get no further

^ See "On apiece of Chalk" in the preceding volume of these
Essays (vol. viii. p. 1).

B 2

4} EVOLUTION AND ETHICS t

back, it is not because there is any reason to think
we have reached the beginning, but because the
trail of tlie most ancient hfe remains liidden, or
has become obhterated.

Thus that state of nature of the world of plants,
which we began by considering, is far from possess-
ing the attribute of permanence. Rather its very
essence is impermanence. It may have lasted
twenty or thirty thousand years, it may last for
twenty or thirty thousand years more, Avithout
obvious change ; but, as surely as it has followed
upon a very different state, so it will be followed
by an equally different condition. That which
endures is not one or another association of living
forms, but the process of which the cosmos is the
product, and of which these are among the transi-
tory expressions. And in the living world, one of
the most characteristic features of this cosmic pro-
cess is the struggle for existence, the competition
of each with all, the result of which is the selection,
that is to say, the survival of those forms which,
on the whole, are best adapted to the conditions
which at any period obtain ; and which are, there-
fore, in that respect, and only in that respect, the
fittest.^ The acme reached by the cosmic process

^ That every theory of evolution must be consistent not
merely with progressive development, but with indefinite
persistence in the same condition and with retrogressive modifi-
cation, is a point which I have insisted upon repeatedly from
the year 1862 till now. See CoUecfcd Essays, vol. ii. pp. 461-89 ;
vol. iii. 11. 33 ; vol. viii. p. 304. In the address on "Geological

I PROLEGOMENA 5

in tlie vegetation of the downs is seen in the
turf, with its weeds and gorse. Under the con-
ditions, they have come out of the struggle
victorious ; and, by surviving, have proved that
they are the fittest to survive.

That the state of nature, at any time, is a
temporary phase of a process of incessant change,
wliich has been going on for innumerable ages,
appears to me to be a proposition as well estab-
lished as any in modern history. Paleontology
assures us, in addition, that the ancient philo-
sophers who, with less reason, held the same
doctrine, erred in supposing that the phases
formed a cycle, exactly repeating the past, exactly
foreshadowing the future, in their rotations. On
the contrary, it furnishes us with conclusive
reasons for thinking that, if every link in the
ancestry of these humble indigenous plants had
been preserved and were accessible to us, the whole
would present a converging series of forms of
gradually diminishing complexity, until, at some
period in the history of the earth, far more remote
than any of which organic remains have yet been
discovered, they would merge in those low groups
among which the boundaries between animal and
vegetable life become effaced.^

Contemporaneity and Persistent Types" (1862), the paleonto-
logical proofs of this proposition were, I lielieve, first set
forth.

^ '•'On the Border Territory between the Animal and the
Vegetable Kingdoms," Essays, vol. viii. p. 162.

6 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

The word '' evolution," now generally applied to
the cosmic process, has had a singular histor} , and
is used in various senses.^ Taken in its popular
signification it means progressive development,
that is, gradual change from a condition of
relative uniformity to one of relative complexity ;
but its connotation has been widened to include
the phenomena of retrogressive metamorphosis,
that is, of progress from a condition of relative
complexity to one of relative uniformity.

As a natural process, of the same character as
the development of a tree from its seed, or of a
fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and
all other kinds of supernatural intervention. As
the expression of a fixed order, every stage of
which is the effect of causes ojDerating according
to definite rules, the conception of evolution no
less excludes that of chance. It is very desirable
to remember that evolution is not an explanation
of the cosmic process, but merely a generalized
statement of the method and results of that pro-
cess. And, further, that, if there is proof that
the cosmic process was set going by any agent,
then that agent will be the creator of it and of all
its products, although supernatural intervention
may remain strictly excluded from its further
course.

So far as that limited revelation of the nature of
things, which we call scientific knowledge, has
^ See "Evolution in Biology," Essays, vol. ii. p. 187.

I PROLEGOMENA 7

yet gone, it tends, with constantly increasing
emphasis, to the belief that, not merely the
world of plants, but that of animals ; not merely
living things, but the whole fabric of the earth ;
not merely our planet, but the whole solar
system ; not merely our star and its satellites,
but the millions of similar bodies which bear
witness to the order which pervades boundless
space, and has endured through boundless time ;
are all working out their predestined courses of
evolution.

With none of these have I anything to do, at
present, except with that exhibited by the forms
of life which tenant the earth. All plants and
animals exhibit the tendency to vary, the causes
of which have yet to be ascertained ; it is the
tendency of the conditions of life, at any given
time, while favouring the existence of the varia-
tions best adapted to them, to oppose that of the
rest and thus to exercise selection ; and all
living things tend to multiply without limit,
while the means of support are limited ; the
obvious cause of which is the production of
offspring more numerous than their progenitors,
but with equal expectation of life in the actuarial
sense. Without the first tendency there could
be no evolution. Without the second, there
would be no good reason why one variation should
disappear and another take its place ; that is to
say, there would be no selection. Without the

8 EVOL LOTION AND ETHICS i

third, the struggle for existence, the agent of the
selective process in the state of nature, would
vanish.^

Granting the existence of these tendencies, all
the known facts of the history of plants and of
animals may be brought into rational correlation.
And this is more than can be said for any other
hypothesis that I know of Such hypotheses, for
example, as that of the existence of a primitive,
orderless chaos ; of a passive and sluggish eternal
matter moulded, with but jmrtial success, by
archetypal ideas ; of a brand-new world-stuff
suddenly created and swiftly shaped by a super-
natural power; receive no encouragement, but
the contrary, from our present knowledge. That
our earth may once have formed part of a nebu-
lous cosmic magma is certainly possible, indeed
seems highly probable ; but there is no reason to
doubt that order reigned there, as completely as
amidst what we regard as the most finished works
of nature or of man.- The faith which is born of
knowledge, finds its object in an eternal order,
bringing forth ceaseless change, through end-
less time, in endless space ; the manifesta-
tions of the cosmic energy alternating between
phases of potentiality and phases of explication.
It may be that, as Kant suggests,^ every cosmic

xssim.

^ Collected Essays, vol. ii. paf..

- Ibid., vol. iv, p. 138 ; vol, v. pp. 71-73.
3 Ibid., vol. viii. p. 321.

I PROLEGOMENA 9

magma predestined to evolve into a new world,
has been the no less predestined end of a van-
ished predecessor.

II

Three or four years have elapsed since the state
of nature, to which I have referred, was brought
to an end, so far as a small patch of the soil is
concerned, by the intervention of man. The
patch was cut off from the rest by a wall ; within
the area thus protected, the native vegetation was,
as far as possible, extirpated ; while a colony of
strange plants was imported and set down in its
place. In short, it was made into a garden. At
the present time, this artificially treated area
presents an aspect extraordinarily different from
that of so much of the land as remains in the
state of nature, outside the wall. Trees, shrubs,
and herbs, many of them appertaining to the
state of nature of remote parts of the globe,
abound and flourish. Moreover, considerable
quantities of vegetables, fruits, and flowers are
produced, of kinds which neither now exist, nor
have ever existed, except under conditions such as
obtain in the garden ; and which, therefore, are as
much works of the art of man as the frames and
glass-houses in which some of them are raised.
That the "state of Art," thus created in the
state of nature by man, is sustained by
and dependent on him, would at once become

10 EVOLUTIOX AND ETHICS i

apparent, if the watchful supervision of the gar-
dener were withdrawn, and the antagonistic influ-
ences of the general cosmic process were no longer
sedulously warded off, or counteracted. The walls
and gates would decay ; quadrupedal and bipedal
intruders would devour and tread down the useful
and beautiful plants; birds, insects, blight, and
mildew would work their will ; the seeds of the
native plants, carried by winds or other agencies,
would immigrate, and in virtue of their long-
earned special adaptation to the local conditions,
these despised native weeds would soon choke
their choice exotic rivals. A century or two
hence, little beyond the foundations of the wall
and of the houses and frames would be left, in
evidence of the victory of the cosmic powers at
work in the state of nature, over the temporary
obstacles to their suioremacy, set up by the art of
the horticulturist.

It will be admitted that the garden is as much
a work of art,^ or artifice, as anything that can be
mentioned. The energy localised in certain human
bodies, directed by similarly localised intellects,
has produced a collocation of other material bodies
which could not be brought about in the state of
nature. The same proposition is true of all the

1 The .<?ense of the term '"Art" is liecoming narrowed;
"work of Art" to most people means a picture, a statue, or a
piece of hi j outer ie ; by way of compensation "artist" has in-
dudod in its wide embrace cooks and ballet girls, no less than
paintei-s and sculptors.

I PROLEGOMENA 11

works of man's hands, from a flint implement to
a catliedral or a chronometer ; and it is because
it is true, that we call these things artificial,
term them works of art, or artifice, by way of
distinguishing them from the products of the cosmic
process, working outside man, which we call
natural, or works of nature. The distinction thus
drawn between the works of nature and those of
man, is universally recognised ; and it is, as I
conceive, both useful and justifiable.

Ill

No doubt, it may be properly urged that
the operation of human energy and intelligence,
which has brought into existence and maintains
the garden, by what I have called " the horticul-
tural process," is, strictly speaking, part and parcel
of the cosmic process. And no one could more
readily agree to that proposition than I. In fact,
I do not know that any one has taken more
pains than I have, during the last thirty years, to
insist upon the doctrine, so much reviled in the
early part of that period, that man, physical,
intellectual, and moral, is as much a part of
nature, as purely a product of the cosmic process,
as the humblest weed.^

But if, following up this admission, it is urged

^ See " Man's Place in Nature," Collected Essays, vol. vii., and
"On the Struggle for Existence in Human Society "(1888), below.

12 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

that, such being the case, the cosmic process can-
not be in antagonism with that horticultural pro-
cess which is part of itself — I can only reply, that
if the conclusion that the two are antagonistic
is logically absurd, I am sorry for logic, because,
as we have seen, the fact is so. The garden is in
the same position as every other work of man's
art ; it is a result of the cosmic process working
through and by human energy and intelligence ;
and, as is the case with every other artificial
thing set up in the state of nature, the influ-
ences of the latter are constantly tending to break
it down and destroy it. No doubt, the Forth bridge
and an ironclad in the offing, are, in ultimate re-
sort, products of the cosmic process ; as much so as
the river which flows under the one, or the sea-
water on which the other floats. Nevertheless,
every breeze strains the bridge a little, every tide
does something to weaken its foundations ; every
change of temperature alters the adjustment of
its parts, produces friction and consequent wear
and tear. From time to time, the bridge must be
repaired, just as the ironclad must go into dock ;
simply because nature is always tending to re-
claim that which her child, man, has borrowed
from her and lias arranged in combinations which
are not those favoured by the general cosmic
process.

Thus, it is not only true that the cosmic
energy, working through man upon a portion of tlie

I PROLEGOMENA 13

plant world, opposes the same energy as it works
through the state of nature, but a similar an-
tagonism is everywhere manifest between the
artificial and the natural. Even in the state of
nature itself, what is the struggle for existence
but the antagonism of the results of the cosmic
process in the region of life, one to another ? ^

IV

Not only is the state of nature hostile to the
state of art of the garden ; but the principle of
the horticultural process, by w^hich the latter is
created and maintained, is antithetic to that of the
cosmic process. The characteristic feature of the
latter is the intense and unceasing competition of
the struggle for existence. The characteristic of
the former is the elimination of that struggle, by
the removal of the conditions which give rise to
it. The tendency of the cosmic process is to bring
about the adjustment of the forms of plant life
to the current conditions ; the tendency of the
horticultural process is the adjustment of the con-
ditions to the needs of the forms of plant life
which the gardener desires to raise.

The cosmic process uses unrestricted multiplica-

^ Or to put the case still more simply. When a man lays
hold of the two ends of a piece of string and pulls them, with
intent to break it, the right arm is certainly exerted in
antagonism to the left a-rm ; yet both arms derive their energy
from the same original source.

14 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 1

tion as the means whereby hundreds compete for
the place and nourishment adequate for one ; it
emplo3^s frost and drought to cut off the weak
and unfortunate ; to survive, there is need not
only of strength, but of flexibility and of good
fortune.

The gardener, on the other hand, restricts
multiplication ; provides that each plant shall
have sufficient space and nourishment ; protects
from frost and drought ; and, in every other way,
attempts to modify the conditions, in such a
manner as to bring about the survival of those
forms which most nearly approach the standard
of the useful, or the beautiful, which he has in
his mind.

If the fruits and the tubers, the foliage and
the flowers thus obtained, reach, or sufficiently
approach, that ideal, there is no reason why the
status quo attained should not be indefinitely pro-
longed. So long as the state of nature remains
approximately the same, so long will the energy
and intelligence which created the garden suffice to
maintain it. However, the limits within which this
mastery of man over nature can be maintained are
narrow. If the conditions of the cretaceous epoch
returned, I fear the most skilful of gardeners would
have to give up the cultivation of apples and
gooseberries ; while, if those of the glacial period
once again obtained, open asparagus beds would
be superfluous, and the training of fruit trees

I PROLEGOMENA 15

against the most favourable of south walls, a waste
of time and trouble.

But it is extremely important to note that, the
state of nature remaining the same, if the pro-
duce does not satisfy the gardener, it may
be made to approach his ideal more closely.
Although the struggle for existence may be at
end, the possibility of progress remains. In dis-
cussions on these topics, it is often strangely
forgotten that the essential conditions of the
modification, or evolution, of living things are
variation and hereditary transmission. Selection
is the means by which certain variations are
favoured and their progeny preserved. But the
struggle for existence is only one of the means
by which selection may be effected. The endless
varieties of cultivated flowers, fruits, roots, tubers,
and bulbs are not products of selection by means
of the struggle for existence, but of direct selec-
tion, in view of an ideal of utility or beauty.
Amidst a multitude of plants, occupying the same
station and subjected to the same conditions, in
the garden, varieties arise. The varieties tending
in a given direction are preserved, and the rest
are destroyed. And the same process takes place
among the varieties until, for exam^Dle, the wild
kale becomes a cabbage, or the wild Viola tricolor
a prize pansy.

16 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

The process of colonization presents analogies
to the formation of a garden which are highly
instructive. Suppose a shipload of English
colonists sent to form a settlement, in such a
country as Tasmania was in the middle of the last
century. On landing, they find themselves in the
midst of a state of nature, widely different from
that left behind them in everything but the most
general physical conditions. The common plants,
the common birds and quadrupeds, are as totally
distinct as the men from anything to be seen on
the side of the globe from which they come.
The colonists proceed to put an end to this state
of things over as large an area as they desire to
occupy. They clear away the native vegetation,
extirpate or drive out the animal jDopulation, so
far as may be necessary, and take measures to
defend themselves from the re-immigTation of
either. In their place, they introduce English
grain and fruit trees ; English dogs, sheep, cattle,
horses ; and English men ; in fact, they set up a
new Flora and Fauna and a new variety of mankind,
within the old state of nature. Their farms and
pastures represent a garden on a great scale, and
themselves the gardeners Avho have to keep it up,
in w^atchful antagonism to the old rSgimc. Con-
sidered as a w^hole, the colony is a composite unit
introduced into the old state of nature; and,

I PROLEGOMENA 17

thenceforward, a competitor in the struggle for
existence, to conquer or be vanquished.

Under the conditions supposed, there is no
doubt of the result, if the work of the colonists
be carried out energetically and with intelligent
combination of all their forces. On the other
hand, if they are slothful, stupid, and careless ; or
if they waste their energies in contests with one
another, the chances are that the old state of
nature will have the best of it. The native
savage will destroy the immigrant civilized man ;
of the English animals and plants some will be
extirpated by their indigenous rivals, others will
pass into the feral state and themselves become
components of the state of nature. In a few
decades, all other traces of the settlement will
have vanished.

VI

Let us now imagine that some administrative
authority, as far superior in power and intelligence
to men, as men are to their cattle, is set over the
colony, charged to deal with its human elements
in such a manner as to assure the victory of
the settlement over the antagonistic influences of
the state of nature in which it is set down. He
would proceed in the same fashion as that in
which the gardener dealt with his garden. In
the first place, he would, as far as possible, put a

VOL. IX c

18 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

stop to the influence of external competition by
thoroughly extirpating and excluding the native
rivals, whether men, beasts, or plants. And
our administrator would select his human agents,
with a view to his ideal of a successful colony,
just as the gardener selects his plants with a view
to his ideal of useful or beautiful products.

In the second place, in order that no struggle
for the means of existence between these human
agents should weaken the efficiency of the cor-
porate whole in the battle with the state of
nature, he would make arrangements by which
each would be provided with those means ; and
would be relieved from the fear of being deprived
of them by his stronger or more cunning fellows.
Laws, sanctioned by the combined force of the
colony, would restrain the self-assertion of each
man within the limits required for the mainten-
ance of peace. In other Avords, the cosmic struggle
for existence, as between man and man, would be
rigorously suppressed ; and selection, by its means,
would be as completely excluded as it is from
the garden.

At the same time, the obstacles to the full
development of the capacities of the colonists
by other conditions of the state of nature
than those already mentioned, would be re-
moved by the creation of artificial conditions of
existence of a more favourable character. Pro-
tection against extremes of heat and cold would

I PROLEGOMENA 19

be afforded by houses and clothing; drainage
and irrigation works would antagonise the effects
of excessive rain and excessive drought; roads,
bridges, canals, carriages, and ships would over-
come the natural obstacles to locomotion and
transport; mechanical engines would supple-
ment the natural strength of men and of
their draught animals; hygienic precautions
would check, or remove, the natural causes of
disease. With every step of this progress in
civilization, the colonists would become more and
more independent of the state of nature; more
and more, their lives would be conditioned by a
state of art. In order to attain his ends, the ad-
ministrator would have to avail himself of the
courage, industry, and co-operative intelligence of
the settlers ; and it is plain that the interest of
the community would be best served by increas-
ing the proportion of persons who possess such
qualities, and diminishing that of persons devoid
of them. In other words, by selection directed
towards an ideal.

Thus the administrator might look to the
establishment of an earthly paradise, a true
garden of Eden, in which all things should
work together towards the well-being of the
gardeners : within which the cosmic process,
the coarse struggle for existence of the state
of nature, should be abolished; in which that
state should be replaced by a state of art ;

C 2

20 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS I

where every plant and every lower animal should
be adapted to human wants, and would perish if
human supervision and protection were with-
drawn ; where men themselves should have been
selected, with a view to their efficiency as
organs for the performance of the functions of a
perfected society. And this ideal polity would
have been brought about, not by gradually adjust-
ing the men to the conditions around them, but
by creating artificial conditions for them ; not by
allowing the free play of the struggle for existence,
but by excluding that struggle ; and by substitut-
ing selection directed towards the administrator's
ideal for the selection it exercises.

VII

But the Eden would have its serpent, and a
very subtle beast too. Man shares with the rest
of the living world the mighty instinct of repro-
duction and its consequence, the tendency to
multiply with great rapidity. The better the
measures of the administrator achieved their
object, the more completely the destructive
agencies of the state of nature were defeated,
the less would that multiplication be checked.

On the other hand, within the colony, the
enforcement of peace, which deprives every man
of the power to take away the means of existence
from another, simply because he is the stronger,

I PROLEGOMENA 21

would have put an end to the struggle for exist-
ence between the colonists, and the competition for
the commodities of existence, which would alone
remain, is no check upon population.

Thus, as soon as the colonists began to multiply,
the administrator would have to face the tendency
to the reintroduction of the cosmic struggle into
his artificial fabric, in consequence of the competi-
tion, not merely for the commodities, but for the
means of existence. When the colony reached
the limit of possible expansion, the surplus popu-
lation must be disposed of somehow ; or the fierce
struggle for existence must recommence and
destroy that peace, which is the fundamental con-
dition of the maintenance of the state of art
against the state of nature.

Supposing the administrator to be guided by
purely scientific considerations, he would, like the
gardener, meet this most serious difficulty by
systematic extirpation, or exclusion, of the super-
fluous. The hopelessly diseased, the infirm aged,
the weak or deformed in body or in mind, the
excess of infants born, would be put away, as the
gardener pulls up defective and superfluous plants,
or the breeder destroys undesirable cattle. Only
the strong and the healthy, carefully matched, with
a view to the progeny best adapted to the pur-
poses of the administrator, would be permitted to
perpetuate their kind.

22 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

VIII

Of the more thorougligoing of the multitudinous
attempts to apply the principles of cosmic evolu-
tion, or what are supposed to be such, to social
and political problems, which have appeared of late
years, a considerable proportion appear to me to
be based upon the notion that human society is
competent to furnish, from its own resources, an
administrator of the kind I have imagined. The
pigeons, in short, are to be their own Sir John
Sebright.^ A despotic government, whether indi-
vidual or collective, is to be endowed w4th the
preternatural intelligence, and with what, I am
afraid, many will consider the preternatural ruth-
lessness, required for the purpose of carrying out
the principle of improvement by selection, with the
somewhat drastic thoroughness upon which the
success of the method depends. Experience cer-
tainly does not justify us in limiting the ruthless-
ness of individual "saviours of society"; and, on
the well-known grounds of the aphorism which
denies both body and soul to corporations, it seems
probable (indeed the belief is not without support
in history) that a collective despotism, a mob got
to believe in its own divine right by demagogic
missionaries, would be capable of more thorough

^ Not that the conception of such a society i.s necessarily based
upon the idea of evohition. The Platonic state testifies to the
contrary.

I PROLEGOMENA 23

work in this direction than any single tyrant, puffed
up with the same ilhision, has ever achieved.
But intelHgence is another affair. The fact that
" saviours of society " take to that trade is evidence
enough that they have none to spare. And
such as they possess is generally sold to the
capitalists of physical force on whose resources
they depend. However, I doubt whether even
the keenest judge of character, if he had before
him a hundred boys and girls under fourteen, could
pick out, with the least chance of success, those
who should be kept, as certain to be serviceable
members of the polity, and those who should be
chloroformed, as equally sure to be stupid, idle, or
vicious. The "points" of a good or of a bad citi-
zen are really far harder to discern than those of
a puppy or a short-horn calf ; many do not show
themselves before the practical difficulties of life
stimulate manhood to full exertion. And by that
time the mischief is done. The evil stock, if it be
one, has had time to multiply, and selection is
nullified.

IX

I have other reasons for fearing that this
logical ideal of evolutionary regimentation — this
pigeon-fanciers' polity — is unattainable. In the
absence of any such a severely scientific adminis-
trator as we have been dreaming of, human society

24 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

is kept together by bonds of such a singular
character, that the attempt to perfect society after
his fashion would run serious risk of loosening
them.

Social organization is not peculiar to men.
Other societies, such as those constituted by bees
and ants, have also arisen out of the advantage of co-
operation in the struggle for existence ; and their
resemblances to, and their differences from, human
society are alike instructive. The society formed by
the hive bee fulfils the ideal of the communistic
ajDhorism " to each according to his needs, from each
according to his capacity." Within it, the
struggle for existence is strictly limited. Queen,
drones, and workers have each their allotted suffi-
ciency of food; each performs the function
assigned to it in the economy of the hive, and all
contribute to the success of the whole co-operative
society in its competition with rival collectors of
nectar and pollen and with other enemies, in the
state of nature without. In the same sense as
the garden, or the colony, is a work of human
art, the bee polity is a work of apiarian art,
brought about by the cosmic process, working
through the organization of the hymenopterous
type.

Now this society is the direct product of an
organic necessity, impelling every member of
it to a course of action which tends to the good
of the whole. Each bee has its duty and none

I PROLEGOMENA 25

has any rights. Whether bees are susceptible
of feeHng and capable of thought is a question
which cannot be dogmatically answered. As a
pious opinion, I am disposed to deny them more
than the merest rudiments of consciousness.^ But
it is curious to reflect that a thoughtful drone
(workers and queens would have no leisure for
speculation) with a turn for ethical philosophy,
must needs profess himself an intuitive moralist
of the purest w^ater. He would point out, with
perfect justice, that the devotion of the workers to
a life of ceaseless toil for a mere subsistence
wage, cannot be accounted for either by enlight-
ened selfishness, or by any other sort of utilitarian
motives ; since these bees begin to work, without
experience or reflection, as they emerge from the
cell in which they are hatched. Plainly, an eter-
nal and immutable principle, innate in each bee,
can alone account for the phenomena. On the
other hand, the biologist, who traces out all the
extant stages of gradation between solitary and
hive bees, as clearly sees in the latter, simply the
perfection of an automatic mechanism, hammered
out by the blows of the struggle for existence
upon the progeny of the former, during long ages
of constant variation.

^ Collected Essays, vol. i., "Aniiiial Automatism"; vol. v.,
" Prologue," i)p. 45 et seq.

26 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

X

I see no reason to doubt that, at its origin,
human society was as much a product of organic
necessity as that of the bees.^ The human fomily,
to begin with, rested uj^on exactly the same con-
ditions as those which gave rise to similar associ-
ations among animals lower in the scale. Further,
it is easy to see that every increase in the duration
of the family ties, with the resulting co-operation
of a larger and larger number of descendants for
protection and defence, would give the families
in which such modification took place a distinct
advantage over the others. And, as in the hive,
the progressive limitation of the struggle for
existence between the members of the family
would involve increasing efficiency as regards
outside competition.

But there is this vast and fundamental difference
between bee society and human society. In the
former, the members of the society are each organi-
cally predestined to the performance of one particu-
lar class of functions only. If they were endowed
with desires, each could desire to perform none
but those offices for which its organization speci-
ally fits it ; and which, in view of the good of the
whole, it is proper it should do. So long as a new
queen does not make her appearance, rivalries and
competition are absent from the bee polit}^
^ Collected Ensays, vol. v., Prologue, pp. 50-54.

I PROLEGOMENA 27

Among mankind, on the contrary, there is no
such predestination to a sharply defined place in
th^ social organism. However much men may
differ in the quality of their intellects, the in-
tensity of their passions, and the delicacy of their
sensations, it cannot be said that one is fitted by
his organization to be an agricultural labourer and
nothing else, and another to be a landowner and
nothing else. Moreover, with all their enormous
differences in natural endowment, men agree in
one thing, and that is their innate desire to enjoy
the pleasures and to escape the pains of life ; and,
in short, to do nothing but that which it pleases
them to do, without the least reference to the
welfare of the society into which they are born.
That is their inheritance (the reality at the bottom
of the doctrine of original sin) from the long series
of ancestors, human and semi-human and brutal,
in whom the strength of this innate tendency to
self-assertion was the condition of victory in the
struggle for existence. That is the reason of the
aviditas vitcc ' — the insatiable hunger for enjoy-
ment— of all mankind, which is one of the essen-
tial conditions of success in the war with the state
of nature outside ; and yet the sure agent of the
destruction of society if allowed free play within.

The check upon this free play of self-assertion,
or natural liberty, which is the necessary condition
for the origin of human society, is the product
^ See below. Romanes' Lecture, note 7.

28 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 1

of organic necessities of a different kind from
those upon which the constitution of the hive
depends. One of these is the mutual affection
of parent and offspring, intensified by the long
infancy of the human species. But the most
important is the tendency, so strongly
developed in man, to reproduce in himself ac-
tions and feelings similar to, or correlated with,
those of other men. Man is the most con-
summate of all mimics in the animal world ;
none but himself can draw or model ; none comes
near him in the scope, variety, and exactness of
vocal imitation ; none is such a master of gesture ;
while he seems to be impelled thus to imitate
for the pure pleasure of it. And there is
no such another emotional chameleon. By a
purely reflex operation of the mind, we take
the hue of passion of those who are aboitt us,
or, it may be, the complementary colour. It is
not by any conscious " putting one's self in the
place " of a joyful or a suffering person that the
state of mind we call S}Tnpathy usually arises ; ^
indeed, it is often contrary to one's sense of

^ Adam Smith makes the pithy observation that the man
who sympathises with a woman in childbed, cannot be said
to put himself in hev place. ("The Theory of the ;Moral Senti-
ments," Part vii. sec. iii. chap, i.) Perhaps there is more
humour than force in the example ; and, in spite of this
and other observations of the same tenor, I think that the
one defect of the remarkable work in which it occurs is that
it lays too much stress on conscious substitution, too little
on purely reflex sympathy.

I PROLEGOMENA 29

right, and in spite of one's will, that " fellow-
feeling makes us wondrous kind," or the reverse.
However complete may be the indifference to
public opinion, in a cool, intellectual view, of the
traditional sage, it has not yet been my fortune to
meet with any actual sage who took its hostile
manifestations with entire equanimity. Indeed, I
doubt if the philosopher lives, or ever has lived,
who could know himself to be heartily despised by
a street boy without some irritation. And, though
one cannot justify Haman for wishing to hang
Mordecai on such a very high gibbet, yet, really,
the consciousness of the Vizier of Ahasuerus, as
he went in and out of the gate, that this obscure
Jew had no respect for him, must have been very
annoying.^

It is needful only to look around us, to see that
the greatest restrainer of the anti-social tendencies
of men is fear, not of the law, but of the opinion of
their fellows. The conventions of honour bind men
who break legal, moral, and religious bonds ; and,
while people endure the extremity of physical
pain rather than part with life, shame drives the
weakest to suicide.

Every forward step of social progress brings men

^ Esther V. 9-13. "... but when Hainan saw Mordecai in the
king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was
full of indignation against Mordecai. . . . And Haman told
them of the glory of his riches. . . . and all the things
wherein the king had promoted him. . . . Yet all this availeth
me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the
king's gate." What a shrewd exposure of human weakness it is !

30 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

into closer relations with their fellows, and in-
creases the importance of the pleasures and pains
derived from sympathy. We judge the acts of
others by our own s^anpathies, and we judge our
own acts by the s}anpathies of others, every day
and all day long, from childhood upwards, until
associations, as indissoluble as those of language,
are formed between certain acts and the feelings
of approbation or disapprobation. It becomes
impossible to imagine some acts without dis-
approbation, or others without approbation of
the actor, whether he be one's self, or any one else.
We come to think in the acquired dialect of morals.
An artificial personality, the "man within," as
Adam Smith ^ calls conscience, is built up beside
the natural personality. He is the watchman of
society, charged to restrain the anti-social ten-
dencies of the natural man within the limits
required by social welfare.

XI

I have termed this evolution of the feelings
out of which the primitive bonds of human
society are so largely forged, into the organized
and personified sympathy we call conscience,
the ethical process.- So far as it tends to

^ "Theory of the Moral Sentiments," Part iii. chap. 3.
On the influence and authority of conscience.

" Worked out, in its essential features, chiefly hy Hartley and
Adam Smith, long before the modern doctrine of evolution was
thought of. See Note below, \). 45.

I PROLEGOMENA 31

make any human society more efficient in
the %struggle for existence with the state of
nature, or with other societies, it works in har-
monious contrast with the cosmic process. But
it is none the less true that, since law and
morals are restraints upon the struggle for ex-
istence between men in society, the ethical
process is in opposition to the principle of the
cosmic process, and tends to the suppression of the
qualities best fitted for success in that struggle.^

It is further to be observed that, just as the self-
assertion, necessary to the maintenance of society
against the state of nature, will destroy that society
if it is allowed free operation within ; so the self-
restraint, the essence of the ethical process, which
is no less an essential condition of the existence of
every polity, may, by excess, become ruinous to it.

Moralists of all ages and of all faiths, attending
only to the relations of men towards one another
in an ideal society, have agreed upon the
" golden rule," " Do as you would be done by."
In other words, let sympathy be your guide ;
put yourself in the place of the man towards
whom your action is directed ; and do to him
what you would like to have done to yourself
under the circumstances. However much one
may admire the generosity of such a rule of con-

^ See the essay "On the Struggle for Existence in Human
Society " below ; and Collected Essayp, vol. i. p. 2/6, for Kant's
recognition of these facts.

32 EVOLrXION AND ETHICS i

duct ; however confident one may be that average
men may be thoroughly depended upon not to
carry it out to its full logical consequences ; it
is nevertheless desirable to recognise the fact
that these consequences are incompatible with
the existence of a civil state, under any circum-
stances of this world which have obtained, or,
so far as one can see, are, likely to come to
pass.

For I imagine there can be no doubt that the
great desire of every wrongdoer is to escape from
the painful consequences of his actions. If I put
myself in the jDlace of the man who has robbed me,
I find that I am possessed by an exceeding desire
not to be fined or imprisoned ; if in that of the
man who has smitten me on one cheek, I contem-
plate with satisfaction the absence of any worse
result than the turning of the other cheek for like
treatment. Strictly observed, the " golden rule "
involves the negation of law by the refusal to put it
in motion against law-breakers; and, as regards
the external relations of a j)olity, it is the refusal
to continue the struggle for existence. It can be
obeyed, even partially, only under the protection of
a society which repudiates it. Without such
shelter, the followers of the " golden rule " may in-
dulge in hopes of heaven, but they must reckon
with the certainty that other people will be
masters of the earth.

What would become of the garden if the gar-

I PROLEGOMENA 33

dener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds
and trespassers as he would like to be treated, if
he were in their place ?

XII

Under the preceding heads, I have endeavoured
to represent in broad, but I hope faithful, outlines
the essential features of the state of nature and of
that cosmic process of which it is the outcome, so
far as Avas needful for my argument ; I have con-
trasted with the state of nature the state of
art, produced by human intelligence and energy,
as it is exemplified by a garden ; and I have shown
that the state of art, here and elsewhere, can be
maintained only by the constant counteraction
of the hostile influences of the state of nature.
Further, I have pointed out that the " horticultural
process " which thus sets itself against the " cosmic
process " is opposed to the latter in principle, in so
far as it tends to arrest the struf^^sfle for existence,
by restraining the multiplication which is one
of the chief causes of that struggle, and by
creating artificial conditions of life, better adapted
to the cultivated plants than are the conditions of
the state of nature. And I have dwelt upon the
fact that, though the progressive modification,
which is the consequence of the struggle for
existence in the state of nature, is at an ^nd,
such modification may still be effected by that

VOL. IX D

34 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

selection, in view of an ideal of usefulness, or of
pleasantness, to man, of which the state of nature
knows nothing.

I have proceeded to show that a colony, set down
in a country in the state of nature, presents close
analogies with a garden; and I have indicated the
course of action which an administrator, able and
willing to carry out horticultural principles, would
adopt, in order to secure the success of such a
newly formed polity, supposing it to be capable of
indefinite expansion. In the contrary case, I have
shown that difficulties must arise ; that the un-
limited increase of the population over a limited
area must, sooner or later, reintroduce into the
colony that straggle for the means of existence
between the colonists, which it was the primary
object of the administrator to exclude, insomuch
as it is fatal to the mutual peace which is the
prime condition of the union of men in society.

I have briefly described the nature of the only
radical cure, known to me, for the disease which
would thus threaten the existence of the colony ;
and, however regretfully, I have been obliged
to admit that this rigorously scientific method of
appl}dng the principles of evolution to human
society hardly comes within the region of practical
politics ; not for want of will on the part of a great
many people; but because, for one reason, there is no
hope that mere human beings will ever possess
enough intelligence to select the fittest. And I

I PROLEGOMENA 35

have adduced other grounds for arriving at the
same conclusion.

I have pointed out that human society took its
rise in the organic necessities expressed by imita-
tion and by the sympathetic emotions ; and that,
in the struggle for existence with the state of
nature and with other societies, as part of it, those
in which men were thus led to close co-operation
had a great advantage.^ But, since each man
retained more or less of the faculties common to
all the rest, and especially a full share of the
desire for unlimited self-gratification, the struggle
for existence within society could only be gradu-
ally eliminated. So long as any of it remained,
society continued to be an imperfect instrument
of the struggle for existence and, consequently,
was improvable by the selective influence of that
struggle. Other things being alike, the tribe of
savages in which order was best maintained ; in
which there was most security within the tribe
and the most loyal mutual support outside it,
would be the survivors.

I have termed this gradual strengthening of
the social bond, which, though it arrests the
struggle for existence inside society, up to a
certain point improves the chances of society, as
a corporate whole, in the cosmic struggle — the
ethical process. I have endeavoured to show
that, when the ethical process has advanced so
^ Collected Essays, vol. v., Prologue, p. 52.

D 2

36 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

far as to secure every member of the society in
the possession of the means of existence, the
struggle for existence, as between man and man,
within that society is, iiiso facto, at an end. And,
as it is undeniable that the most highly civilized
societies have substantially reached this position,
it follows that, so far as they are concerned, the
struggle for existence can play no important part
Avithin them.^ In other words, the kind of evo-
lution which is brought about in the state of
nature cannot take place.

I have further shown cause for the belief that
direct selection, after the fashion of the horticul-
turist and the breeder, neither has played, nor
can play, any important part in the evolution
of society ; apart from other reasons, because I
do not see how such selection could be practised
without a serious weakening, it may be the destruc-
tion, of the bonds which hold society together.
It strikes me that men who are accustomed to
contemplate the active or passive extirpation of
the weak, the unfortunate, and the superfluous;
who justify that conduct on the ground that it has
the sanction of the cosmic process, and is the only
way of ensuring the progress of the race ; who, if

^ "Wlietlier the struggle for existence ^vitll the state of nature
and with other societies, so far as they stand in the relation of
the state of nature with it, exerts a selective influence u^jon modern
society, and in what direction, are questions not easy to
answer. The problem of the effect of military and industrial
warfare upon those who wage it is very complicated.

I PROLEGOMENA 37

they are consistent, must rank medicine among the
black arts and count the physician a mischievous
preserver of the unfit ; on whose matrimonial un-
dertakings the principles of the stud have the chief
influence ; whose whole lives, therefore, are an
education in the noble art of suppressing natural
affection and sympathy, are not likely to have any
large stock of these commodities left. But, with-
out them, there is no conscience, nor any restraint
on the conduct of men, except the calculation of
self-interest, the balancing of certain present grati-
fications against doubtful future pains; and ex-
perience tells us how much that is worth. Every
day, we see firm believers in the hell of the theo-
logians commit acts by which, as they believe when
cool, they risk eternal punishment; while they
hold back from those which are opposed to the
s}Tiipathies of their associates.

XIII

That progressive modification of civilization
which passes by the name of the " evolution of
society," is, in ftict, a process of an essentially
different character, both from that which brings
about the evolution cf species, in the state of
nature, and from that which gives rise to the evo-
lution of varieties, in the state of art.

There can be no doubt that vast changes have
taken place in English civilization since the reign

38 EVOLUTION AXD ETHICS i

of the Tudors. But I am not aware of a particle
of evidence in favour of the conckision that this
evolutionary process has been accompanied by any
modification of the physical, or the mental,
characters of the men who have been the subjects
of it. I have not met with any grounds for
suspecting that the average Englishmen of to-day
are sensibly different from those that Shakspere
knew and drew. We look into his magic mirror
of the Elizabethan age, and behold, nowise darkly,
the ^presentment of ourselves.

During these three centuries, from the reign of
Elizabeth to that of Victoria, the struggle for
existence between man and man has been so
largely restrained among the great mass of the
population (excej)t for one or two short intervals
of civil war), that it can have had little, or no,
selective operation. As to anything comparable
to direct selection, it has been practised on so
small a scale that it may also be neglected.
The criminal law, in so far as by putting to death,
or by subjecting to long periods of imjmsonment,
those who infringe its provisions, it prevents the
propagation of hereditary criminal tendencies;
and the poor-law, in so far as it separates married
couples, whose destitution arises from hereditary
defects of character, are doubtless selective agents
operating in favour of the non-criminal and the
more effective members of society. But the pro-
portion of the poj^ulation which they influence

I PROLEGOMENA 39

is very small ; and, generally, the hereditary
criminal and the hereditary pauper have propa-
gated their kind before the law affects them.
In a large proportion of cases, crime and pauper-
ism have nothing to do with heredity ; but
are the consequence, partly, of circumstances
and, partly, of the possession of qualities, which,
under different conditions of life, might have
excited esteem and even admiration. It was a
shrewd man of the world who, in discussing sewage
problems, remarked that dirt is riches in the
wrong place ; and that sound aphorism has moral
applications. The benevolence and open-handed
generosity which adorn a rich man, may make a
pauper of a poor one ; the energy and courage to
which the successful soldier owes his rise, the cool
and daring subtlety to which the great financier
owes his fortune, may very easily, under unfavour-
able conditions, lead their possessors to the
gallows, or to the hulks. Moreover, it is fairly
probable that the children of a ' failure ' will re-
ceive from their other parent just that little
modification of character which makes all the
difference. I sometimes wonder whether people,
who talk so freely about extirpating the unfit,
ever dispassionately consider their own history.
Surely, one must be very ' fit,' indeed, not to know
of an occasion, or perhaps two, in one's life, when
it would have been only too easy to qualify for
a place among the ' unfit.'

40 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

In my belief the innate qualities, physical,
intellectual, and moral, of our nation have
remained substantially the same for the last
four or five centuries. If the struggle for exist-
ence has affected us to any serious extent (and I
doubt it) it has been, indirectly, through our mili-
tary and industrial wars with other nations.

XIV

What is often called the struggle for existence
in society (I plead guilty to having used the
term too loosely m3'self), is a contest, not for the
means of existence, but for the means of enjoy-
ment. Those who occupy the first places in this
practical competitive examination are the rich
and the influential ; those who fail, more or less,
occupy the lower places, do^^^l to the squalid
obscurity of the j^auper and the criminal. Upon
the most liberal estimate, I suppose the former
group will not amount to two per cent, of the
population. I doubt if the latter exceeds another
two jDer cent. ; but let it be supjDosed, for the sake
of argument, that it is as great as five per cent.^

As it is only in the latter group that any-
thing comparable to the struggle for existence in
the state of nature can take place ; as it is only

^ Those who read the last Essay in this volume will not
accuse me of wishing to attenuate the evil of the existence of
this group, whether great or small.

I PROLEGOMENA 41

among this twentietli of tlie whole people that
numerous men, women, and children die of rapid
or slow starvation, or of the diseases incidental to
permanently bad conditions of life ; and as there
is nothing to prevent their multiplication before
they are killed off, while, in spite of greater
infant mortality, they increase faster than the
rich ; it seems clear that the struggle for exist-
ence in this class can have no appreciable se-
lective influence upon the other 95 per cent, of
the population.

What sort of a sheep breeder would he be who
should content himself with picking out the worst
fifty out of a thousand, leaving them on a
barren common till the weakest starved, and then
letting the survivors go back to mix with the rest ?
And the parallel is too favourable ; since in a
large number 'of cases, the actual poor and the
convicted criminals are neither the weakest nor
the worst.

In the struggle for the means of enjoyment,
the qualities which ensure success are energy,
industry, intellectual capacity, tenacity of purpose,
and, at least as much sympathy as is necessary
to make a man understand the feelings of his
fellows. Were there none of those artificial ar-
rangements by which fools and knaves are kept at
the top of society instead of sinking to their natural
place at the bottom,^ the struggle for the means of

1 I have elsewhere lamented the absence from society of

42 EVOLUTIOX AND ETHICS i

enjoyment would ensure a constant circulation of
the human units of the social compound, from
the bottom to the top and from the top to the
bottom. The survivors of the contest, those who
continued to form the great bulk of the polity,
would not be those * fittest ' who got to the very
top, but the great body of the moderately " fit,"
whose numbers and superior propagative power,
enable them always to swamp the exceptionally
endowed minority.

I think it must be obvious to every one, that,
whether we consider the internal or the external
interests of society, it is desirable they should be
in the hands of those who are endowed with the
largest share of energy, of industry, of intellectual
capacity, of tenacity of purpose, while they are not
devoid of sympathetic humanity ; and, in so far as
the struggle for the means of enjoyment tends to
place such men in possession of wealth and influ-
ence, it is a process which tends to the good of
society. But the process, as we have seen, has
no real resemblance to that which adapts living
beings to current conditions in the state of nature ;
nor any to the artificial selection of the horti-
culturist.

a machinery for facilitating tlie descent of incapacity, "Ad-
miuistrative Nihilism." Collected Essay fi, vol. i. p. 54.

PROLEGOMENA

XV

To return, once more, to the parallel of horti-
culture. In the modern world, the gardening of
men by themselves is practically restricted to the
performance, not of selection, but of that other
function of the gardener, the creation of condi-
tions more favourable than those of the state of
nature ; to the end of facilitating the free ex-
pansion of the innate faculties of the citizen, so
far as it is consistent with the general good.
And the business of the moral and political
philosopher appears to me to be the ascertainment,
by the same method of observation, experiment,
and ratiocination, as is practised in other kinds
of scientific work, of the course of conduct which
will best conduce to that end.

But, supposing this course of conduct to be
scientifically determined and carefully followed
out, it cannot put an end to the struggle for
existence in the state of nature ; and it will not so
much as tend, in any way, to the adaptation of
man to that state. Even should the whole human
race be absorbed in one vast polity, within which
" absolute political justice " reigns, the struggle
for existence with the state of nature outside it,
and the tendency to the return of the struggle
within, in consequence of over-multiplication, will
remain ; and, unless men's inheritance from the
ancestors who fought a good fight in the state of

44 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS i

nature, their dose of original sin, is rooted out by
some method at present unrevealed, at any rate
to disbelievers in supernaturalism, every child
born into the world will still bring with him the
instinct of unlimited self-assertion. He will have
to learn the lesson of self-restraint and renuncia-
tion. But the practice of self-restraint and re-
nunciation is not happiness, though it may be
something much better.

That man, as a ' political animal,' is sus-
ceptible of a vast amount of improvement, by edu-
cation, by instruction, and by the application of his
intelligence to the adaptation of the conditions
of life to his higher needs, I entertain not the
slightest doubt. But, so long as he remains liable
to error, intellectual or moral ; so long as he is
compelled to be perpetually on guard against the
cosmic forces, whose ends are not his ends, without
and within himself; so long as he is haunted by
inexpugnable memories and hopeless aspirations ;
so lonof as the recoo^nition of his intellectual limita-
tions forces him to acknowledge his incapacity to
penetrate the mystery of existence ; the prospect
of attaining untroubled happiness, or of a state
which can, even remotely, deserve the title of
perfection, appears to me to be as misleading an
illusion as ever was dangled before the eyes of poor
humanity. And there have been many of them.

That which lies before the human race is a
constant struggle to maintain and improve, in

I PROLEGOMENA 45

opposition to the State of Nature, the State of Art
of an organized poHty ; in which, and by which,
man may develop a worthy civiUzation, capable
of maintaining and constantly improving itself,
until the evolution of our globe shall have entered
so far upon its downward course that the cosmic
process resumes its sway; and, once more, the
State of Nature j^revails over the surface of our
planet.

Note (see p. 30). — It seems the fashion nowadays to ignore
Hartley ; though, a century and a half ago, he not only laid
the foundations but built up much of the superstructure of a
true theory of the Evolution of the intellectual and moral
faculties. He speaks of what I have termed the ethical process
as "our Progress from Self-interest to Self-annihilation."
Obsci'vatwns on Man (1749), vol. ii. p. 281.

II

EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

l^Thc Bomanes Lcchtrc, 1893]

Soleo enim et in aliena castra transire, nontanqiiam transfuga
sed tanquam explorator. (L. Ann.ei Seneca Efist. II. 4.)

There is a delightful child's story, known by
the title of " Jack and the Bean-stalk," with
which my contemiDoraries who are present will be
familiar. But so many of our grave and reverend
juniors have been brought up on severer intellec-
tual diet, and, perhaps, have become acquainted
with fairyland only through primers of comparative
mythology, that it may be needful to give an out-
line of the tale. It is a legend of a bean-plant,
which grows and grows until it reaches the high
heavens and there spreads out into a vast canopy
of foliage. The hero, being moved to climb the
stalk, discovers that the leafy expanse supports a
world composed of the same elements as that
below, but yet strangely new ; and his adventures
there, on which I may not dwell, must have com-

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 47

pletely changed his views of the nature of things ;
though the story, not having been composed by,
or for, philosophers, has nothing to say about
views.

My present enterprise has a certain analogy to
that of the daring adventurer. I beg you to
accompany me in an attempt to reach a world
which, to many, is probably strange, by the help
of a bean. It is, as you know, a simple, inert-
looking thing. Yet, if planted under proper con-
ditions, of which sufficient warmth is one of the
most important, it manifests active powers of a
very remarkable kind. A small green seedling
emerges, rises to the surface of the soil, rapidly
increases in size and, at the same time, undergoes
a series of metamorphoses which do not excite our
wonder as much as those w^hich meet us in
legendary history, merely because they are to be
seen every day and all day long.

By insensible steps, the plant builds itself up
into a large and various fabric of root, stem, leaves,
flowers, and fruit, every one moulded within and
without in accordance with an extremely complex
but, at the same time, minutely defined pattern.
In each of these complicated structures, as in their
smallest constituents, there is an immanent energy
which, in harmony with that resident in all the
others, incessantly works towards the maintenance
of the whole and the efficient performance of the
part which it has to play in the economy of nature.

48 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

But no sooner has the edifice, reared with such
exact elaboration, attained completeness, than it
begins to crumble. By degrees, the plant withers
and disappears from view, leaving behind more or
fewer apparently inert and simple bodies, just like
the bean from which it sprang ; and, like it, en-
dowed with the potentiality of giving rise to a
similar cycle of manifestations.

Neither the poetic nor the scientific imagination
is put to much strain in the search after analogies
with this process of going forth and, as it were,
returning to the starting-point. It may be likened
to the ascent and descent of a slung stone, or
the course of an arrow along its trajectory. Or
Ave may say that the living energy takes first an
upward and then a downward road. Or it may
seem preferable to compare the expansion of the
germ into the full-grown plant, to the unfolding
of a fan, or to the rolling forth and widening of a
stream ; and thus to arrive at the conception of
' development,' or ' evolution.' Here as else-
where, names are ' noise and smoke ' ; the im-
portant point is to have a clear and adequate
conception of the fact signified by a name. And,
in this case, the fact is the Sisypha?an j^rocess, in
the course of which, the living and growing plant
passes from the relative simplicity and latent
potentiality of the seed to the full epiphany of a
highly differentiated t}^e, thence to fall back to
simplicity and potentiality.

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 49

The value of a strong intellectual grasp of the
nature of this process lies in the circumstance that
what is true of the bean is true of living things in
general. From very low forms up to the highest
— in the animal no less than in the vegetable
kingdom — the process of life presents the same
appearance ^ of cyclical evolution. Nay, we have
but to cast our eyes over the rest of the world and
cyclical change presents itself on all sides. It
meets us in the water that flows to the sea and
returns to the springs; in the heavenly bodies
that wax and wane, go and return to their places ;
in the inexorable sequence of the ages of man's
life ; in that successive rise, apogee, and fall of
dynasties and of states which is the most pro-
minent topic of civil history.

As no man fording a swift stream can dip his
foot twice into the same water, so no man can,
with exactness, affirm of anything in the sensible
world that it is.'^ As he utters the words, nay,
as he thinks them, the predicate ceases to be
applicable ; the present has become the past ; the
* is ' should be ' was.' And the more we learn of
the nature of things, the more evident is it that
what we call rest is only unperceived activity ;
that seeming peace is silent but strenuous battle.
In every part, at every moment, the state of the
cosmos is the expression of a transitory adjust-
ment of contending forces ; a scene of strife, in
which all the combatants fall in turn. What is

VOL. IX. B

50 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

true of each part, is true of the whole. Natural
knowledge tends more and more to the conclusion
that " all the choir of heaven and furniture of the
earth " aie the transitory forms of parcels of cosmic
substance wending along the road of evolution,
from nebulous potentiality, through endless
growths of sun and planet and satellite ; through
all varieties of matter ; through infinite diversities
of life and thought ; possibly, through modes of
being of which we neither have a conception, nor
are competent to form any, back to the indefin-
able latency from which they arose. Thus the
most obvious attribute of the cosmos is its imper-
manence. It assumes the aspect not so much of
a permanent entity as of a changeful process, in
which naught endures save the flow of energy and
the rational order which pervades it.

We have climbed our bean-stalk and have
reached a wonderland in which the common and
the familiar become things new and strange. In
the exploration of the cosmic process thus
typified, the highest intelligence of man finds
inexhaustible emplo3anent ; giants are subdued to
our service ; and the spiritual affections of the
contemplative philosopher are engaged by beauties
worthy of eternal constancy.

But there is another aspect of the cosmic process,
so perfect as a mechanism, so beautiful as a work
of art. Where the cosmopoietic energy works

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 51

through sentient beings, there arises, among its
other manifestations, that which we call pain or
suffering. This baleful product of evolution in-
creases in quantity and in intensity, with advancing
grades of animal organization, until it attains its
highest level in man. Further, the consumma-
tion is not reached in man, the mere animal ; nor
in man, the whole or half savage ; but only in
man, the member of an organized polity. And
it is a necessary consequence of his attempt to live
in this way ; that is, under those conditions which
are essential to the full development of his noblest
powers.

Man, the animal, in fact, has worked his way
to the headship of the sentient world, and has
become the superb animal which he is, in virtue
of his success in the struggle for existence. The
conditions having been of a certain order, man's
organization has adjusted itself to them better
than that of his competitors in the cosmic strife.
In the case of mankind, the self-assertion, the
unscrupulous seizing upon all that can be grasped,
the tenacious holding of all that can be kept,
Avhich constitute the essence of the struggle for
existence, have answered. For his successful pro-
gress, throughout the savage state, man has been
largely indebted to those qualities which he shares
with the ape and the tiger ; his exceptional
physical organization ; his cunning, his sociability,
his curiosity, and his imitativeness ; his ruthless

E 2

o2 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

and ferocious destructiveness when his anger is
roused by opposition.

But, in proportion as men have passed from
anarchy to social organization, and in proportion
as civilization has grown in worth, these deeply
ingrained serviceable qualities have become de-
fects. After the manner of successful persons,
civilized man would gladly kick down the ladder
by which he has climbed. He would be only too
pleased to see ' the ape and tiger die.' But they
decline to suit his convenience ; and the unwel-
come intrusion of these boon companions of his
hot youth into the ranged existence of civil life
adds jiains and griefs, innumerable and immeasur-
ably great, to those which the cosmic process
necessarily brings on the mere animal. In fact,
civilized man brands all these ape and tiger
promptings with the name of sins ; he punishes
many of the acts which flow from them as crimes ;
and, in extreme cases, he does his best to put an
end to the survival of the fittest of former days
by axe and rope.

I have said that civilized man has reached this
point; the assertion is perhaps too broad and
general ; I had better put it that ethical man has
attained thereto. The science of ethics professes
to furnish us with a reasoned rule of life ; to tell
us what is right action and why it is so. What-
ever differences of opinion may exist among experts,
there is a general consensus that the ape and tiger

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 53

methods of the struggle for existence are not
reconcilable with sound ethical principles.

The hero of our story descended the bean-stalk,
and came back to the common world, where fare
and work were alike hard ; where ugly competitors
were much commoner than beautiful princesses ;
and where the everlasting battle with self was
much less sure to be crowned with victory than a
turn-to with a giant. We have done the like.
Thousands upon thousands of our fellows, thou-
sands of years ago, have preceded us in finding
themselves face to face with the same dread prob-
lem of evil. They also have seen that the cosmic
process is evolution ; that it is full of wonder, full
of beauty, and, at the same time, full of pain.
They have sought to discover the bearing of these
great facts on ethics ; to find out whether there
is, or is not, a sanction for morality in the ways of
the cosmos.

Theories of the universe, in which the conception
of evolution plays a leading part, were extant at
least six centuries before our era. Certain know-
ledge of them, in the fifth century, reaches us
from localities as distant as the valley of the
Ganges and the Asiatic coasts of the ^gean. To
the early philosophers of Hindostan, no less than
to those of Ionia, the salient and characteristic
feature of the phenomenal world was its change-

54 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS II

fulness ; the unresting flow of all things, through
birth to visible being and thence to not being, in
which they could discern no sign of a beginning
and for which they saw no prospect of an ending.
It was no less plain to some of these antique fore-
runners of modern philosophy that suffering is the
badge of all the tribe of sentient things ; that it
is no accidental accompaniment, but an essential
constituent of the cosmic process. The energetic
Greek might find fierce joys in a world in which
' strife is father and king ' ; but the old Aryan
spirit was subdued to quietism in the Indian sage ;
the mist of suffering which spread over humanity
hid everything else from his view ; to him life
was one with suffering and suffering with life.

In Hindostan, as in Ionia, a period of relatively
high and tolerably stable civilization had succeeded
long ages of semi-barbarism and struggle. Out of
wealth and security had come leisure and refine-
ment, and, close at their heels, had followed the
malady of thought. To the struggle for bare
existence, which never ends, though it may be
alleviated and partially disguised for a fortunate
few, succeeded the struggle to make existence
intelligible and to bring the order of things into
harmony with the moral sense of man, which also
never ends, but, for the thinking few, becomes
keener with every increase of knowledge and with
every step towards the realization of a worthy
ideal of life.

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 55

Two thousand five hundred years ago, the value
of civilization was as apparent as it is now ; then,
as now, it was obvious that only in the garden of
an orderly polity can the finest fruits humanity
is capable of bearing be produced. But it had
also become evident that the blessings of culture
were not unmixed. The garden was apt to turn
into a hothouse. The stimulation of the senses,
the pampering of the emotions, endlessly mul-
tiplied the sources of pleasure. The constant
widening of the intellectual field indefinitely
extended the range of that especially human
faculty of looking before and after, which adds
to the fleeting present those old and new worlds
of the past and the future, wherein men dwell the
more the higher their culture. But that very
sharpening of the sense and that subtle refine-
ment of emotion, which brought such a wealth of
pleasures, were fatally attended by a proportional
enlargement of the capacity for suffering ; and
the divine faculty of imagination, while it created
new heavens and new earths, provided them with
the corresponding hells of futile regret for the
past and morbid anxiety for the future.^ Finally,
the inevitable penalty of over-stimulation, ex-
haustion, opened the gates of civilization to its
great enemy, ennui ; the stale and flat weariness
when man delights not, nor woman neither ; when
all things are vanity and vexation ; and life seems
not worth living except to escape the bore of dying.

56 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

Even purely intellectual progress brings about
its revenges. Problems settled in a rough and
ready way by rude men, absorbed in action,
demand renewed attention and show themselves
to be still unread riddles when men have time to
think. The beneficent demon, doubt, whose name
is Legion and who dwells amongst the tombs of
old faiths, enters into mankind and thenceforth
refuses to be cast out. Sacred customs, venerable
dooms of ancestral wisdom, hallowed by tradition
and professing to hold good for all time, are put
to the question. Cultured reflection asks for their
credentials; judges them by its own standards;
finally, gathers those of which it approves into
ethical systems, in which the reasoning is rarely
much more than a decent pretext for the adoption
of foregone conclusions.

One of the oldest and most important elements
in such systems is the conception of justice.
Society is impossible unless those who are asso-
ciated agree to observe certain rules of conduct
towards one another ; its stability depends on the
steadiness with which they abide by that agree-
ment; and, so far as they waver, that mutual
trust which is the bond of society is weakened
or destroyed. Wolves could not hunt in packs
except for the real, though unexpressed, under-
standing that they should not attack one another
during the chase. The most rudimentary pohty
is a pack of men living under the hke tacit,

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 5?

or expressed, understanding; and having made
the very important advance upon wolf society,
that they agree to use the force of the whole body
against individuals who violate it and in favour of
those who observe it. This observance of a com-
mon understanding, with the consequent distribu-
tion of punishments and rewards according to
accepted rules, received the name of justice, while
the contrary was called injustice. Early ethics
did not take much note of the animus of the
violator of the rules. But civilization could not
advance far, without the establishment of a
capital distinction between the case of involun-
tary and that of wilful misdeed ; between a merely
wrong action and a guilty one. And, with increas-
ing refinement of moral appreciation, the problem
of desert, which arises out of this distinction,
acquired more and more theoretical and practical
importance. If life must be given for life, yet it
was recognized that the unintentional slayer did
not altogether deserve death; and, by a sort of
compromise between the public and the private
conception of justice, a sanctuary was provided
in which he might take refuge from the avenger
of blood.

The idea of justice thus underwent a gradual
sublimation from punishment and reward accord-
ing to acts, to punishment and reward according to
desert ; or, in other words, according to motive.
Righteousness, that is, action from right motive,

58 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

not only became synonymous with justice, but the
positive constituent of innocence and the very
heart of goodness.

Now when the ancient sage, whether Indian or
Greek, who had attained to this conception of
goodness, looked the world, and especially human
life, in the face, he found it as hard as we do to
bring the course of evolution into harmony with
even the elementary requirements of the ethical
ideal of the just and the good.

If there is one thing plainer than another, it is
that neither the pleasures nor the pains of life,
in the merely animal world, are distributed accord-
ing to desert ; for it is admittedly impossible for
the lower orders of sentient beings to deserve
either the one or the other. If there is a gene-
ralization from the facts of human life which has
the assent of thoughtful men in every age and
country, it is that the violator of ethical rules
constantly escapes the punishment which he
deserves ; that the wicked flourishes like a gi'een
bay tree, while the righteous begs his bread ;
that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the
children ; that, in the realm of nature, ignorance
is punished just as severely as wilful wrong ; and
that thousands upon thousands of innocent beings
suffer for the crime, or the unintentional trespass,
of one.

Greek and Semite and Indian are agreed upon

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 59

this subject. The book of Job is at one with the
" Works and Da}'s " and the Buddhist Sutras ;
the Psahuist and the Preacher of Israel, with the
Tragic Poets of Greece. What is a more common
motive of the ancient tragedy in fact, than the
unfathomable injustice of the nature of things;
Avhat is more deeply felt to be true than its pre-
sentation of the destruction of the blameless by
the work of his own hands, or by the fatal opera-
tion of the sins of others ? Surely CEdipus was
pure of heart ; it was the natural sequence of
events — the cosmic process — which drove him, in
all innocence, to slay his father and become the
husband of his mother, to the desolation of his
people and his own headlong ruin. Or to step, for
a moment, beyond the chronological limits I have
set myself, what constitutes the sempiternal at-
traction of Hamlet but the appeal to deepest
experience of that history of a no less blameless
dreamer, dragged, in spite of himself, into a world
out of joint ; involved in a tangle of crime and
misery, created by one of the prime agents of the
cosmic jDrocess as it works in and through man ?

Thus, brought before the tribunal of ethics, the
cosmos might well seem to stand condemned.
The conscience of man revolted against the moral
indifference of nature, and the microcosmic atom
should have found the illimitable macrocosm
guilty. But few, or none, ventured to record that
verdict.

60 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

In the great Semitic trial of this issue, Job
takes refuge in silence and submission ; the Indian
and the Greek, less wise perhaps, attempt to re-
concile the irreconcilable and plead for the defend-
ant. To this end, the Greeks invented Theo-
dicies; while the Indians devised what, in its
ultimate form, must rather be termed a Cos-
modicy. For, though Buddhism recognizes gods
many and lords many, they are products of the
cosmic jDrocess ; and transitory, however long en-
during, manifestations of its eternal activity. In
the doctrine of transmigration, whatever its origin,
Brahminical and Buddhist speculation found,
ready to hand,* the means of constructing a
plausible vindication of the ways of the cosmos to
man. If this world is full of pain and sorrow ; if
grief and evil fall, like the rain, upon both the
just and the unjust ; it is because, like the rain,
they are Hnks in the endless chain of natural
causation by which past, present, and future are
indissolubly connected ; and there is no more
injustice in the one case than in the other. Every
sentient being is reaping as it has sown ; if not in
this life, then in one or other of the infinite series
of antecedent existences of which it is the latest
term. The present distribution of good and evil
is, therefore, the algebraical sum of accumulated
positive and negative deserts; or, rather, it
depends on the floating balance of the account.
For it was not thought necessary that a complete

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 61

settlement should ever take place. Arrears might
stand over as a sort of ' hanging gale ' ; a period
of celestial happiness just earned might be suc-
ceeded by ages of torment in a hideous nether
world, the balance still overdue for some remote
ancestral error. ^

Whether the cosmic process looks any more
moral than at first, after such a vindication, may
perhaps be questioned. Yet this plea of justifica-
tion is not less plausible than others ; and none
but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the
ground of inherent absurdity. Like the doctrine
of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its
roots in the world of reality ; and it may claim
such support as the great argument from analogy
is capable of supplying.

Everyday experience familiarizes us with the
facts which are grouped under the name of here-
dity. Every one of us bears upon him obvious
marks of his parentage, perhaps of remoter rela-
tionships. More particularly, the sum of tenden-
cies to act in a certain way, which we call
" character," is often to be traced through a long-
series of progenitors and collaterals. So we may
justly say that this ' character ' — this moral and
intellectual essence of a man — does veritably pass
over from one fleshly tabernacle to another, and
does really transmigrate from generation to
generation. In the new-born infant, the character
of the stock lies latent, and the Ego is little more

62 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

than a bundle of potentialities. But, very early,
these become actualities ; from childhood to age
they manifest themselves in dulness or bright-
ness, weakness or strength, viciousness or up-
rightness; and with each feature modified by
confluence with another character, if by nothing
else, the character passes on to its incarnation in
new bodies.

The Indian philosophers called character, as
thus defined, * karma.' ^ It is this karma which
passed from life to life and linked them in the
chain of transmigrations ; and they held that it is
modified in each life, not merely by confluence of
parentage, but by its own acts. They were, in
fact, strong believers in the theory, so much
disputed just at present, of the hereditary trans-
mission of acquired characters. That the mani-
festation of the tendencies of a character may be
greatly facilitated, or impeded, by conditions, of
which self-discipline, or the absence of it, are
among the most important, is indubitable; but
that the character itself is modified in this way is
by no means so certain ; it is not so sure that the
transmitted character of an evil liver is worse, or
that of a righteous man better, than that which
he received. Indian philosophy, however, did not
admit of any doubt on this subject ; the belief in
the influence of conditions, notably of self-dis-
cipline, on the karma was not merely a necessary
postulate of its theory of retribution, but it pre-

ir EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 03

sented the only way of escape from the endless
round of transmigrations.

The earlier forms of Indian philosophy agreed
with those prevalent in our own times, in suppos-
ing the existence of a permanent reality, or ' sub-
stance,' beneath the shifting series of phenomena,
whether of matter or of mind. The substance of
the cosmos was ' Brahma,' that of the individual
man ' Atman ' ; and the latter was separated from
the former only, if I may so speak, by its pheno-
menal envelope, by the casing of sensations,
thoughts and desires, pleasures and pains, which
make up the illusive phantasmagoria of life. This
the ignorant ■ take for reality ; their ' Atman '
therefore remains eternally imprisoned in delu-
sions, bound by the fetters of desire and scourged
by the whip of misery. But the man who has
attained enlightenment sees that the apparent
reality is mere illusion, or, as was said a couple of
thousand years later, that there is nothing good
nor bad but thinking makes it so. If the cosmos
" is just and of our pleasant vices makes instru-
ments to scourge us," it would seem that the only
way to escape from our heritage of evil is to
destroy that fountain of desire whence our vices
flow ; to refuse any longer to be the instruments
of the evolutionary process, and withdraw from the
struggle for existence. If the karma is modifiable
by self-discipline, if its coarser desires, one after
another, can be extinguished, the ultimate funda-

64 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

mental desire of self-assertion, or the desire to be,
may also be destroyed^ Then the bubble of
illusion will burst, and the freed individual ' At-
man ' will lose itself in the universal ' Brahma.'

Such seems to have been the pre-Buddhistic
conception of salvation, and of the way to be
followed by those Avho would attain thereto. No
more thorough mortification of the flesh has ever
been attempted than that achieved by the Indian
ascetic anchorite; no later monachism has so
nearly succeeded in reducing the human mind to
that condition of impassive quasi-somnambulism,
which, but for its acknowledged holiness, might
run the risk of being confounded with idiocy.

And this salvation, it will be observed, was to
be attained through knowledge, and by action
based on that knowledge ; just as the experi-
menter, who would obtain a certain physical or
chemical result, must have a knowledge of the
natural laws involved and the persistent disciplined
will adequate to carry out all the various opera-
tions required. The supernatural, in our sense of
the term, was entirely excluded. There was no
external power which could affect the sequence of
cause and effect which gives rise to karma ; none
but the will of the subject of the karma which
could put an end to it.

Only one rule of conduct could be based upon
the remarkable theory of which I have endeavoured
to give a reasoned outhne. It was folly to continue

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 6o

to exist when an overplus of pain was certain ;
and the probabilities in fevour of the increase of
misery with the prolongation of existence, were
so overwhelming. Slaying the body only made
matters worse ; there was nothing for it but to
slay the soul by the voluntary arrest of all its
activities. Property, social ties, family affections,
common companionship, must be abandoned ; the
most natural appetites, even that for food, must
be suppressed, or at least minimized ; until all
that remained of a man was the impassive,
extenuated, mendicant monk, self-hypnotised
into cataleptic trances, which the deluded mystic
took for foretastes of the final union with
Brahma.

The founder of Buddhism accepted the chief
postulates demanded by his predecessors. But he
was not satisfied with the practical annihilation
involved in merging the individual existence in
the unconditioned — the Atman in Brahma. It
would seem that the admission of the existence of
any substance whatever — even of the tenuity of
that which has neither quality nor energy and of
Avhich no predicate whatever can be asserted —
appeared to him to be a danger and a snare.
Though reduced to a hypostatized negation,
Brahma was not to be trusted ; so long as entity
was there, it might conceivably resume the weary
round of evolution, with all its train of immeasur-
able miseries. Gautama got rid of even that

VOL. IX F

66 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

shade of a shadow of permanent existence by a
metaph3'sical tmtr deforce of great interest to the
student of johilosophy, seeing that it suppHes the
wanting half of Bishop Berkeley's well-known
idealistic argiiment.

Granting the premises, I am not aware of any
escape from Berkeley's conclusion, that the ' sub-
stance' of matter is a metaphysical unknown
quantity, of the existence of which there is no
proof What Berkeley does not seem to have so
clearly perceived is that the non-existence of a
substance of mind is equally arguable ; and that
the result of the impartial applications of his
reasonings is the reduction of the All to co-
existences and sequences of phenomena, beneath
and beyond which there is nothing cognoscible.
It is a remarkable indication of the subtlety of
Indian speculation that Gautama should have
seen deeper than the gi'eatest of modern idealists ;
though it must be admitted that, if some of
Berkeley's reasonings respecting the nature of
spirit are pushed home, they reach pretty much
the same conclusion.^

Accepting the prevalent Brahminical doctrine
that the whole cosmos, celestial, terrestrial, and
infernal, with its population of gods and other
celestial beings, of sentient animals, of Mara and
his devils, is incessantly shifting through recurring
cycles of production and destruction, in each of
which every human being has his transmigratory

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 07

representative, Gautama proceeded to eliminate
substance altogether; and to reduce the cosmos
to a mere flow of sensations, emotions, volitions,
and thoughts, devoid of any substratum. As, on
the surface of a stream of water, we see ripples
and whirlpools, which last for a while and then
vanish with the causes that gave rise to them, so
what seem individual existences are mere tem-
porary associations of phenomena circling round a
centre, " like a dog tied to a post." In the whole
universe there is nothing permanent, no eternal
substance either of mind or of matter. Person-
ality is a metaphysical fancy ; and in very truth,
not only we, but all things, in the worlds without
end of the cosmic phantasmagoria, are such stuff
as dreams are made of

What then becomes of karma ? Karma re-
mains untouched. As the peculiar form of energy
we call magnetism may be transmitted from a
loadstone to a piece of steel, from the steel to a
piece of nickel, as it may be strengthened or
weakened by the conditions to which it is sub-
jected while resident in each piece, so it seems to
have been conceived that karma might be trans-
mitted from one phenomenal association to another
by a sort of induction. However this may be,
Gautama doubtless had a better guarantee for the
abolition of transmigration, when no wrack of
substance, either of Atman or of Brahma, was
left behind * when, in short, a man had but to

F 2

68 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

dream that he willed not to dream, to put an end
to all dreaming.

This end of life's dream is Nirvana. What
Nirvana is the learned do not agree. But, since
the best original authorities tell us there is neither
desire nor activity, nor any possibility of phenom-
enal reappearance for the sage who has entered
Nirvana, it may be safely said of this acme of
Buddhistic philosophy — " the rest is silence."^

Thus there is no very great practical disagree-
ment between Gautama and his predecessors with
respect to the end of action ; but it is otherwise
as regards the means to that end. With just
insight into human nature, Gautama declared
extreme ascetic practices to be useless and indeed
harmful. The appetites and the passions are not
to be abolished by mere mortification of the body ;
they must, in addition, be attacked on their own
ground and conquered by steady cultivation of
the mental habits which oppose them ; by uni-
versal benevolence ; by the return of good for
evil ; by humility ; by abstinence from evil
thought ; in short, by total renunciation of that
self-assertion which is the essence of the cosmic
process.

Doubtless, it is to these ethical qualities that
Buddhism owes its marvellous success.^^ A system
which knows no God in the western sense ; which
denies a soul to man ; which counts the belief in
immortality a blunder and the hope of it a sin ;

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 69

which refuses any efficacy to prayer and sacrifice ;
which bids men look to nothing but their own
efforts for salvation ; which, in its original purity,
knew nothing of vows of obedience, abhorred in-
tolerance, and never sought the aid of the secular
arm ; yet spread over a considerable moiety of the
Old World with marvellous rapidity, and is still,
with whatever base admixture of foreign super-
stitions, the dominant creed of a large fraction of
mankind.

Let us now set our faces westwards, towards
Asia Minor and Greece and Italy, to view the rise
and progress of another philosophy, apparently
independent, but no less pervaded by the concep-
tion of evolution.^^

The sages of Miletus were pronounced evolu-
tionists ; and, however dark may be some of the
sayings of Heracleitus of Ephesus, who was prob-
ably a contemporary of Gautama, no better ex-
pressions of the essence of the modern doctrine
of evolution can be found than are presented by
some of his pithy aphorisms and striking meta-
phors.^2 Indeed, many of my present auditors
must have observed that, more than once, I have
borrowed from him in the brief exposition of the
theory of evolution with which this discourse
commenced.

But when the focus of Greek intellectual activity
shifted to Athens, the leading minds concentrated

70 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

their attention upon ethical problems. Forsaking
the study of the macrocosm for that of the micro-
cosm, they lost the key to the thought of the
great Ephesian, which, I imagine, is more intelli-
gible to us than it ^vas to Socrates, or to Plato.
Socrates, more especially, set the fashion of a kind
of inverse agnosticism, by teaching that the prob-
lems of i^hysics lie beyond the reach of the
human intellect ; that the attempt to solve them
is essentially vain ; that the one worthy object of
investigation is the problem of ethical life ; and
his example was followed by the Cynics and the
later Stoics. Even the comprehensive knowledge
and the ^penetrating intellect of Aristotle failed to
suggest to him that in holding the eternity of the
world, within its present range of mutation, he was
making a retrogressive step. The scientific herit-
age of Heracleitus passed into the hands neither
of Plato nor of Aristotle, but into those of Demo-
critus. But the world was not yet ready to
receive the great conceptions of the pliilosojDher of
Abdera. It was reserved for the Stoics to return
to the track marked out by the earlier philo-
sophers ; and, professing themselves disciples of
Heracleitus, to develop the idea of evolution
systematically. In doing this, they not only
omitted some characteristic features of their
master's teaching, but they made additions al-
together foreign to it. One of the most influ-
ential ol' these importations was the transcen-

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 71

dental theism which had come into vogue. The
restless, fiery energy, operating according to law,
out of which all things emerge and into which
they return, in the endless successive cycles of
the great year ; which creates and destroys worlds
g,s a wanton child builds up, and anon levels, sand
castles on the seashore ; was metamorphosed into
a material world-soul and decked out with all the
attributes of ideal Divinity ; not merely with in-
finite power and transcendent wisdom, but Avith
absolute goodness.

The consequences of this step were momentous.
For if the cosmos is the effect of an immanent,
omnipotent, and infinitely beneficent cause, the ex-
istence in it of real evil, still less of necessarily
inherent evil, is plainly inadmissible.'^ Yet the
universal experience of mankind testified then, as
now, that, whether we look within us or without
us, evil stares us in the face on all sides ; that if
anything is real, pain and sorrow and Avrong are
realities.

It would be a new thing in history if d priori
philosophers were daunted by the factious oppo-
sition of experience ; and the Stoics were the last
men to allow themselves to be beaten by mere
facts. ' Give me a doctrine and I will find the
reasons for it,' said Chrysippus. So they per-
fected, if they did not invent, that ingenious and
plausible form of pleading, the Theodicy ; for the
purpose of showing firstly, that there is no such

72 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

thing as evil ; secondly, that if there is, it is the
necessary correlate of good ; and, moreover, that it
is either due to our own fault, or inflicted for our
benefit. Theodicies have been very popular in
their time, and I believe that a numerous, though
somewhat dwarfed, progeny of them still survives.
So far as I know, they are all variations of the
theme set forth in those famous six lines of the
" Essay on Man," in which Pope sums up Boling-
broke's reminiscences of stoical and other specu-
lations of this kind —

'"AH nature is but art, unknown to thee ;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see ;
All discord, harmony not understood ;
All partial evil, universal good ;
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite
One truth is clear: whatever is is right."

Yet, surely, if there are few more important
truths than those enunciated in the first triad, the
second is open to very grave objections. That
there is a ' soul of good in things evil ' is un-
questionable ; nor will any wise man deny the
disciplinary value of pain and sorrow. But these
considerations do not help us to see why the im-
mense multitude of irresponsible sentient beings,
which cannot profit by such discipline, should
suffer ; nor why, among the endless possibilities
open to omnipotence — that of sinless, happy exist-
ence among the rest — the actuality in which sin
and misery abound should be that selected.

IT EVOLUTIOX AND ETHICS 73

Surely it is mere cheap rhetoric to call arguments
which have never yet been answered by even the
meekest and the least rational of Optimists, sug-
gestions of the pride of reason. As to the con-
cluding aphorism, its fittest place would be as an
inscription in letters of mud over the portal of
some ' stye of Epicurus ' ; ^* for that is where the
logical application of it to practice would land
men, with every aspiration stifled and every effort
paralyzed. Why try to set right what is right
already ? Why strive to improve the best of all
possible worlds ? Let us eat and drink, for as to-
day all is right, so to-morrow all will be.

But the attemj^t of the Stoics to blind them-
selves to the reality of evil, as a necessary con-
comitant of the cosmic process, had less success
than that of the Indian philosophers to exclude
the reality of good from their purview. Unfor-
tunately, it is much easier to shut one's eyes to
good than to evil. Pain and sorrow knock at our
doors more loudly than pleasure and happiness ;
and the prints of their heavy footsteps are less
easily effaced. Before the grim realities of
practical life the pleasant fictions of optimism
vanished. If this were the best of all possible
worlds, it nevertheless proved itself a very incon-
venient habitation for the ideal sage.

The stoical summary of the whole duty of man,
' Live according to nature,' would seem to imply
that the cosmic process is an exemplar for human

74 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

conduct. Ethics would thus become applied
Natural History. In fixct, a confused employment
of the maxim, in this sense, has done immeasur-
able mischief in later times. It has furnished an
axiomatic foundation for the philosophy of philo-
sophasters and for the moralizing of sentimentalists.
But the Stoics were, at bottom, not merely noble,
but sane, men ; and if we look closely into what
they really meant by this ill-used phrase, it will
be found to present no justification for the mis-
chievous conclusions that have been deduced
from it.

In the language of the Stoa, ' Nature ' was a
word of many meanings. There was the ' Nature '
of the cosmos and the ' Nature ' of man. In the
latter, the animal 'nature,' which man shares
with a moiety of the living part of the cosmos, was
distinguished from a higher 'nature.' Even in
this higher nature there were gTades of rank.
The logical faculty is an instrument v/hich may be
turned to account for any purpose. The passions
and the emotions are so closely tied to the lower
nature that they may be considered to be patho-
logical, rather than normal, i^henomena. The one
supreme, hegemonic, faculty, which constitutes the
essential * nature ' of man, is most nearly repre-
sented by that which, in the language of a later
philosophy, has been called the pure reason. It is
this 'nature' which holds up the ideal of the
supreme good and demands absolute submission of

II

EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 75

the will to its behests. It is this which commands
all men to love one another, to return good for evil, to
regard one another as fellow-citizens of one great
state. Indeed, seeing that the progress towards
perfection of a civilized state, or polity, depends
on the obedience of its members to these com-
mands, the Stoics sometimes termed the pure
reason the ' political ' nature. Unfortunately,
the sense of the adjective has undergone so much
modification, that the application of it to that
which commands the sacrifice of self to the
common good would now sound almost grotesque.^^

But what part is played by the theory of evolu-
tion in this view of ethics ? So far as I can
discern, the ethical system of the Stoics, which is
essentially intuitive, and reverences the categorical
imperative as strongly as that of any later
moralists, might have been just what it was if they
had held any other theory ; whether that of special
creation, on the one side, or that of the eternal
existence of the present order, on the other.^*^ To
the Stoic, the cosmos had no importance for the
conscience, except in so far as he chose to think
it a pedagogue to virtue. The pertinacious opti-
mism of our philosophers hid from them the actual
state of the case. It prevented them from seeing
that cosmic nature is no school of virtue, but the
headquarters of the enemy of ethical nature.
The logic of facts was nec'essaiy to convince them

76 EVOLUTION AXD ETHICS II

that the cosmos works through the lower nature
of man, not for righteousness, but against it. And
it finally drove them to confess that the existence
of their ideal " wise man " was incompatible with
the nature of things ; that even a passable approxi-
mation to that ideal was to be attained only at the
cost of renunciation of the world and mortification,
not merely of the flesh, but of all human affec-
tions. The state of perfection was that ' apa-
theia ' ^^ in which desire, though it may still be
felt, is powerless to move the will, reduced to the
sole function of executing the commands of pure
reason. Even this residuum of activity was to be
regarded as a temporary loan, as an efflux of the
divine world-pervading spirit, chafing at its im-
prisonment in the flesh, until such time as death
enabled it to return to its source in the all-
pervading logos.

I find it difficult to discover any very gi'eat
difference between Apatheia and Nirvana, except
that stoical speculation agi^ees with pre-Buddhistic
philosophy, rather than with the teachings of
Gautama, in so fjir as it postulates a perma-
nent substance equivalent to ' Brahma ' and
'Atman'; and that, in stoical practice, the
adoption of the life of the mendicant cynic was
held to be more a counsel of perfection than an
indispensable condition of the higher life.

Thus the extremes touch. Greek thought and

H EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 77

Indian thought set out from ground common to
both, diverge widely, develop under very different
physical and moral conditions, and finally converge
to practically the same end.

The Vedas and the Homeric epos set before us
a world of rich and vigorous life, full of joyous
fighting men

That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine ....

and who were ready to brave the very Gods them-
selves when their blood was up. A few centuries
pass away, and under the influence of civilization
the descendants of these men are ' sicklied o'er
with the pale cast of thought ' — frank pessimists,
or, at best, make-believe optimists. The courage
of the warlike stock may be as hardly tried as
before, perhaps more hardly, but the enemy is
self The hero has become a monk. The man of
action is replaced by the quietist, whose highest
aspiration is to be the passive instrument of the
divine Keason. By the Tiber, as by the Ganges,
ethical man admits that the cosmos is too strong
for him ; and, destroying every bond which ties
him to it by ascetic discipline, he seeks salvation
in absolute renunciation.^^

Modern thought is making a fresh start from
the base whence Indian and Greek philosophy set
out ; and, the human mind being very much what

78 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

it was six-and-tweuty centuries ago, there is no
ground for wonder if it presents indications of a
tendency to move along the old lines to the same
results.

We are more than sufficiently familiar with
modern pessimism, at least as a speculation ; for I
cannot call to mind that any of its present votaries
have sealed their faith by assuming the rags and
the bowl of the mendicant Bhikku, or the cloak
and the wallet of the Cynic. The obstacles placed
in the way of sturdy vagrancy by an unphiloso-
phical police have, perhaps, proved too formidable
for philosophical consistency. We also know
modern speculative optimism, with its perfectibility
of the species, reign of peace, and lion and lamb
transformation scenes ; but one does not hear so
much of it as one did forty years ago ; indeed, I
imagine it is to be met with more commonly at
the tables of the healthy and wealthy, than in the
congregations of the wise. The majority of us, I
apprehend, profess neither pessimism nor optimism.
We hold that the world is neither so good, nor so
bad, as it conceivably might be ; and, as most of
us have reason, now and again, to discover that it
can be. Those who have lailed to experience the
joys that make life worth living are, probably, in
as small a minority as those who have never
known the griefs that rob existence of its savour
and turn its richest fruits into mere dust and
ashes.

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 79

Further, I think I do not err in assuming that,
however diverse their views on philosophical and
religious matters, most men are agreed that the
proportion of good and evil in life may be very
sensibly affected by human action. I never heard
anybody doubt that the evil may be thus increased,
or diminished ; and it would seem to follow that
good must be similarly susceptible of addition or
subtraction. Finally, to my knoAvledge, nobody
professes to doubt that, so far forth as we possess
a power of bettering things, it is our paramount
duty to use it and to train all our intellect and
energy to this supreme service of our kind.

Hence the pressing interest of the question, to
what extent modern progress in natural know-
ledge, and, more especially, the general outcome
of that progress in the doctrine of evolution, is
competent to help us in the great work of helping
one another ?

The propounders of what are called the " ethics
of evolution," when the ' evolution of ethics '
would usually better express the object of their
speculations, adduce a number of more or less in-
teresting facts and more or less sound arguments,
in fjivour of the origin of the moral sentiments,
in the same way as other natural phenomena, by
a process of evolution. I have little doubt, for my
own part, that they are on the right track ; but as
the immoral sentiments have no less been evolved,
there is, so far, as much natural sanction for the

80 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS li

one as the other. The thief and the murderer
follow nature just as much as the philanthropist.
Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and
the evil tendencies of man may have come about ;
but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any
better reason why what we call good is preferable
to what we call evil than we had before. Some
day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understand-
ing of the evolution of the aesthetic fiiculty ; but
all the understanding in the world will neither
increase nor diminish the force of the intuition
that this is beautiful and that is ugly.

There is another fallacy which appears to me to
pervade the so-called " ethics of evolution." It is
the notion that because, on the Avhole, animals
and plants have advanced in perfection of organ-
ization by means of the struggle for existence and
the consequent ' survival of the fittest ' ; therefore
men in society, men as ethical beings, must look
to the same process to help them towards per-
fection. I suspect that this fallacy has arisen out
of the unfortunate ambiguity of the phrase ' sur-
vival of the fittest.' ' Fittest ' has a connotation of
' best ' ; and about ' best ' there hangs a moral
flavour. In cosmic nature, however, what is
* fittest ' depends upon the conditions. Long since,^^
I ventured to point out that if our hemisphere
were to cool again, the survival of the fittest might
bring about, in the vegetable kingdom, a popula-
tion of more and more stunted and humbler and

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 81

humbler organisms, until the ' fittest ' that sur-
vived might be nothing but lichens, diatoms, and
such microscopic organisms as those which give
red snow its colour ; while, if it became hotter, the
pleasant valleys of the Thames and Isis might be
uninhabitable by any animated beings save those
that flourish in a tropical jungle. They, as the
fittest, the best adapted to the changed conditions,
would survive.

Men in society are undoubtedly subject to the
cosmic process. As among other animals, multi-
plication goes on without cessation, and involves
severe competition for the means of support. The
struggle for existence tends to eliminate those less
fitted to adapt themselves to the circumstances
of their existence. The strongest, the most self-
assertive, tend to tread down the weaker. But
the influence of the cosmic process on the evolu-
tion of society is the greater the more rudimentary
its civilization. Social progress means a checking
of the cosmic process at every step and the sub-
stitution for it of another, which may be called
the ethical process ; the end of which is not the
survival of those who may happen to be the
fittest, in respect of the whole of the conditions
which obtain, but of those who are ethically the
best.20

As I have already urged, the practice of that
which is ethically best — what we call goodness or
virtue — involves a course of conduct which, in all

VOL. IX G

82 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS il

respects, is opposed to tliat which leads to success
in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of
ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint ;
in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all
competitors, it requires that the individual shall
not merely resjDect, but shall help his fellows ; its
influence is directed, not so much to the survival
of the fittest, as to the fitting of as many as pos-
sible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial
theory of existence. It demands that each man
who enters into the enjoyment of the advantages
of a polity shall be mindful of his debt to those
who have laboriously constructed it ; and shall
take heed that no act of his weakens the fabric in
which he has been permitted to live. Laws and
moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing
the cosmic process and reminding the individual
of his duty to the community, to the protection
and influence of which he owes, if not existence
itself, at least the life of something better than a
brutal savage.

It is from neglect of these plain considerations
that the fanatical individualism ^^ of our time
attempts to apply the analogy of cosmic nature to
society. Once more we have a misapplication of
the stoical injunction to follow nature ; the duties
of the individual to the state are forgotten, and his
tendencies to self-assertion are dignified by the
name of rights. It is seriously debated whether
the members of a community are justified in

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 83

using their combined strength to constrain one of
their number to contribute his share to the main-
tenance of it ; or even to prevent him from doing
his best to destroy it. The struggle for existence,
which has done such admirable work in cosmic
nature, must, it appears, be equally beneficent in
the ethical sphere. Yet if that which I have in-
sisted upon is true ; if the cosmic process has no
sort of relation to moral ends ; if the imitation of
it by man is inconsistent with the first principles
of ethics ; what becomes of this surprising theory ?

Let us understand, once for all, that the ethical
progress of society depends, not on imitating the
cosmic process, still less in running away from it,
but in combating it. It may seem an audacious
proposal thus to pit the microcosm against the
macrocosm and to set man to subdue nature to his
higher ends; but I venture to think that the
great intellectual difference between the ancient
times with which we have been occupied and our
day, lies in the solid foundation we have acquired
for the hope that such an enterprise may meet
with a certain measure of success.

The history of civilization details the steps by
which men have succeeded in building up an
artificial world within the cosmos. Fragile reed
as he may be, man, as Pascal says, is a thinking
reed : ^^ there lies within him a fund of energy,
operating intelligently and so far akin to that
which pervades the universe, that it is competent

G 2

84 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

II

to influence and modify the cosmic process. In
virtue of his inteUigence, the dwarf bends the
Titan to his will. In every fomily, in every polity
that has been established, the cosmic process in
man has been restrained and otherwise modified
by law and custom ; in surrounding nature, it has
been similarly influenced b}^ the art of the shep-
herd, the agriculturist, the artisan. As civilization
has advanced, so has the extent of this interfer-
ence increased ; until the organized and highly
developed sciences and arts of the present day
have endowed man with a command over the
course of non-human nature gi^eater than that
once attributed to the magicians. The most im-
pressive, I might say startling, of these changes
have been brought about in the course of the last
two centuries ; while a right comprehension of the
process of life and of the means of influencing
its manifestations is only just dawning upon us.
We do not yet see our way beyond generalities ;
and we are befogged by the obtrusion of false
analogies and crude anticipations. But Astro-
nomy, Physics, Chemistry, have all had to pass
through similar phases, before they reached the
stage at which their influence became an imi^ort-
ant factor in human affairs. Physiology, Psycho-
logy, Ethics, Political Science, must submit to the
same ordeal. Yet it seems to me irrational to
doubt that, at no distant period, they will work as
great a revolution in the sphere of practice.

II EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 85

The theory of evohition encourages no millen-
nial anticipations. If, for millions of years, our
globe has taken the upward road, yet, some time,
the summit will be reached and the downward
route will be commenced. The most daring
imagination will hardly venture upon the sugges-
tion that the power and the intelligence of man
can ever arrest the procession of the great year.

Moreover, the cosmic nature born with us and,
to a large extent, necessary for our maintenance,
is the outcome of millions of years of severe train-
ing, and it would be folly to imagine that a few
centuries will suffice to subdue its masterfulness
to purely ethical ends. Ethical nature may count
upon having to reckon with a tenacious and
powerful enemy as long as the world lasts. But,
on the other hand, I see no limit to the extent to
which intelligence and will, guided by sound prin-
ciples of investigation, and organized in common
effort, may modify the conditions of existence, for
a period longer than that now covered by history.
And much may be done to change the nature of
man himself ^^ The intelligence which has con-
verted the brother of the wolf into the faithful
guardian of the flock ought to be able to do some-
thing towards curbing the instincts of savagery
in civilized men.

But if we may permit ourselves a larger hope
of abatement of the essential evil of the world than
was possible to those who, in the infancy of exact

86 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS li

knowledge, faced the problem of existence more
than a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essen-
tial condition of the realization of that hope that
we should cast aside the notion that the escape
from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.

We have long since emerged from the heroic
childhood of our race, when good and evil could
be met with the same ' frolic welcome ' ; the
attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or
Greek, have ended in flight from the battle-field ;
it remains to us to throw aside the youthful over-
confidence and the no less youthful discourage-
ment of nonage. We are grown men, and must

play the man

strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,

cherishing the good that fells in our way, and
bearing the evil, in and around us, with stout
hearts set on diminishing it. So far, we all may
strive in one faith towards one hope :

It may be that the gulfs will wash ns down,
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

.... but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note may yet be done. {-■^)

NOTES

Note 1 (p. 49).

I HAVE been careful to speak of the " appearance "
of cyclical evolution presented by living things ; for,
on critical examination, it will be found that the
course of vegetable and of animal life is not exactly
represented by the figure of a cycle which returns
into itself. What actually happens, in all but the
lowest organisms, is that one part of the growing
germ {A) gives rise to tissues and organs ; while
another part i^B) remains in its primitive condition,
or is but slightly modified. The moiety A becomes
the body of the adult and, sooner or later, perishes,
while portions of the moiety ^ are detached and, as
offspring, continue the life of the species. Thus, if
we trace back an organism along the direct line of
descent from its remotest ancestor, B, as a whole,
has never suffered death ; portions of it, only, have
been cast off and died in each individual offspring.

Everybody is familiar with the way in which the
'' suckers " of a strawberry plant behave. A thin
cylinder of living tissue keeps on growing at its free
end, until it attains a considerable length. At

88 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

successive intervals, it develops buds which grow into
strawberry plants ; and these become independent by
the death of the parts of the sucker which connect
them. The rest of the sucker, however, may go on
living and growing indefinitely, and, circumstances
remaining favourable, there is no obvious reason why
it should ever die. The living substance B, in a
manner, answ^ers to the sucker. If we could restore
the continuity which was once possessed by the por-
tions of B, contained in all the individuals of a direct
line of descent, they would form a sucker, or stolon, on
which these individuals would be strung, and which
would never have wholly died.

A species remains unchanged so long as the
potentiality of development resident in B remains
unaltered ; so long, e.g., as the buds of the strawberry
sucker tend to become typical straw- berry plants. In
the case of the progressive evolution of a species, the
developmental potentiality of B becomes of a higher
and higher order. In retrogressive evolution, the
contrary would be the case. The phenomena of
atavism seem to show that retrogressive evolution,
that is, the return of a species to one or other of its
earlier forms, is a possibility to be reckoned with.
The simplification of structure, which is so common
in the parasitic members of a group, however, does
not properly come under this head. The worm-like,
limbless Lern<jea has no resemblance to any of the
stages of development of the many-limbed active
animals of the group to w'hich it belongs.

II

NOTES 89

Note 2 (p. 49)

Heracleitus says, IIoTa/^a) yap ovk ecrrt 8is i/xfirjvaL
T(3 avTco ; but, to be strictly accurate, the river
remains, though the water of which it is composed
changes — just as a man retains his identity though
the whole substance of his body is constantly
shifting.

This is put very well by Seneca (Ep. Ivii. i. 20, Ed.
Ruhkopf) : " Corpora nostra rapiuntur fluminum
more, quidquid vides currit cum tempore ; nihil ex
his quae videmus manet. Ego ipse dum loquor mutari
ista, mutatus sum. Hoc est quod ait Heraclitus ' In
idem flumen bis non descendimus.' Manet idem
fluminis nomen, aqua transmissa est. Hoc in amne
manifestius est quam in homine, sed nos quoque non
minus velox cursus prsetervehit."

Note 3 (p. 55).

"Multa bona nostra nobis nocent, timoris enim
tormentum memoria reducit, providentia anticipat.
Nemo tantum prjesentibus miser est." (Seneca, Ed.
V. 7.)

Among the many wise and w^eighty aphorisms of
the Roman Bacon, few sound the realities of life more
deeply than " Multa bona nostra nobis nocent." If
there is a soul of good in things evil, it is at least
equally true that there is a soul of evil in things
good : for things, like men, have " les defauts de leurs
qualites." It is one of the last lessons one learns
from experience, but not the least important, that a

90 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

heavy tax is levied upon all forms of success ; and
that failure is one of the commonest disguises
assumed by blessings.

Kote 4 (p. 60).

"There is within the body of every man a soul
which, at the death of the body, flies away from it
like a bird out of a cage, and enters upon a new
life . . . either in one of the heavens or one of the
hells or on this earth. The only exception is the
rare case of a man having in this life acquired a
true knowledge of God. According to the pre-
Buddhistic theory, the soul of such a man goes along
the path of the Gods to God, and, being united with
Him, enters upon an immortal life in which his
individuality is not extinguished. In the latter theory,
his soul is directly absorbed into the Great Soul, is
lost in it, and has no longer any independent existence.
The souls of all other men enter, after the death of
the body, upon a new existence in one or other of
the many different modes of being. If in heaven or
hell, the soul itself becomes a god or demon without'
entering a body ; all superhuman beings, save the
great gods, being looked upon as not eternal, but
merely temporary creatures. If the soul returns to
earth it may or may not enter a new body ; and this
either of a human being, an animal, a plant, or even
a material object. For all these are possessed of
souls, and there is no essential difference between
these souls and the souls of men — all being alike
mere sparks of the Great Spirit, who is the only real

II NOTES 91

existence." (Rhys Davids, Hihhert Lectures, 1881,
p. 83.)

For what I have said about Indian Philosophy, I
am particularly indebted to the luminous exposition
of primitive Buddhism and its relations to earlier
Hindu thought, which is given by Prof. Phys Davids
in his remarkable Hihhert Lectures for 1881, and
Buddhism (1890). The only apology I can offer for
the freedom with which I have borrowed from him
in these notes, is my desire to leave no doubt as to
my indebtedness. I have also found Dr. Oldenberg's
Buddha (Ed. 2, 1890) very helpful. The origin of
the theory of transmigration stated in the above
extract is an unsolved problem. That it differs
widely from the Egyptian metempsychosis is clear.
In fact, since men usually people the other world
with phantoms of this, the Egyptian doctrine would
seem to presuppose the Indian as a more archaic
belief.

Prof. Phys Davids has fully insisted upon the
ethical importance of the transmigration theory.
" One of the latest speculations now being put forward
among ourselves would seek to explain each man's
character, and even his outward condition in life, by
the character he inherited from his ancestors, a
character gradually formed during a practically
endless series of past existences, modified only by the
conditions into which he was born, those very con-
ditions being also, in like manner, the last result of
a practically endless series of past causes. Gotama's
speculation might be stated in the same words. But
it attempted also to explain, in a way different from

92 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

that which woukl be adopted by the exponents of
the modern theory, that strange problem which it
is also the motive of the wonderful drama of the
book of Job to explain— the fact that the actual
distribution here of good fortune, or misery, is
entirely independent of the moral qualities which
men call good or bad. We cannot wonder that a
teacher, whose whole system was so essentially an
ethical reformation, should have felt it incumbent
upon him to seek an explanation of this apparent
injustice. And all the more so, since the belief he
had inherited, the theory of the transmigration of
souls, had provided a solution perfectly sufficient to
any one who could accept that belief." {Hihhert
Lectures, p. 93.) I should venture to suggest the
substitution of ' largely ' for ' entirely ' in the fore-
going passage. Wliether a ship makes a good or a
bad voyage is largely independent of the conduct of
the captain, but it is largely affected by that con-
duct. Though powerless before a hurricane he may
weather many a bad gale.

Note 5 (p.^61).

The outward condition of the soul is, in each new
birth, determined by its actions in a previous birth ;
but by each action in succession, and not by the
balance struck after the evil has been reckoned off
against the good. A good man who has once uttered
a slander may spend a hundred thousand years as a
god, in consequence of his goodness, and when the
power of his good actions is exhausted, may be born

II

NOTES 93

as a dumb man on account of his transgression ; and
a robber who has once done an act of mercy, may
come to life in a king's body as the result of his
virtue, and then suffer torments for ages in hell or
as a ghost without a body, or be re-born many times
as a slave or an outcast, in consequence of his evil
life.

" There is no escape, according to this theory, from
the result of any act ; though it is only the conse-
quences of its own acts that each soul has to endure.
The force has been set in motion by itself and can
never stop ; and its effect can never be foretold. If evil,
it can never be modified or prevented, for it depends
on a cause already completed, that is now for ever
beyond the soul's control. There is even no continuing
consciousness, no memory of the past that could guide
the soul to any knowledge of its fate. The only
advantage open to it is to add in this life to the sum
of its good actions, that it may bear fruit with the
rest. And even this can only happen in some future
life under essentially the same conditions as the pre-
sent one : subject, like the present one, to old age,
decay, and death ; and affording opportunity, like the
present one, for the commission of errors, ignorances,
or sins, which in their turn must inevitably produce
their due effect of sickness, disability, or woe. Thus
is the soul tossed about from life to life, from billow
to billow in the great ocean of transmigration. And
there is no escape save for the very few, who, during
their birth as men, attain to a right knowledge of the
Great Spirit : and thus enter into immortality, or, as
the later philosophers taught, are absorbed into the

94 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

Divine Essence." (Rhys Davids, Hihbert Lectures, pp.
85, 86.)

The state after death thus imagined by the Hindu
philosophers has a certain analogy to the purgatory
of the Roman Church ; except that escape from it is
dependent, not on a divine decree modified, it may be,
by sacerdotal or saintly intercession, but by the acts
of the individual himself ; and that while ultimate
emergence into heavenly bliss of the good, or well-
prayed for, Catholic is professedly assured, the chances
in favour of the attainment of absorption, or of
Nirvana, by any individual Hindu are extremely
small.

Note 6 (p. 62).

" That part of the then prevalent transmigration
theory which could not be proved false seemed to
meet a deeply felt necessity, seemed to supply a
moral cause which would explain the unequal distri-
bution here of happinesss or woe, so utterly inconsis-
tent with the present characters of men." Gautama
" still therefore talked of men's previous existence,
but by no means in the way that he is generally
represented to have done." What he taught was
"the transmigration of character." He held that
after the death of any being, whether human or
not, there survived nothing at all but that being's
* Karma,' the result, that is, of its mental and bodily
actions. Every individual, whether human or divine,
was the last inheritor and the last result of the
Karma of a long series of past individuals — a series

II

NOTES 95

so long that its beginning is beyond the reach of
calculation, and its end will be coincident with the
destruction of the world." (Rhys Davids, Il'thhert
Lectures, p. 92.)

In the theory of evolution, the tendency of a germ
to develop according to a certain specific type, e.g. of
the kidney bean seed to grow into a plant having all
the characters of Phaseolus vulgaris, is its ' Karma,'
It is the " last inheritor and the last result " of all
the conditions that have affected a line of ancestry
which goes back for many millions of years to the
time when life first appeared on the earth. The
moiety B of the substance of the bean plant (see
Note 1) is the last link in a once continuous chain
extending from the primitive living substance : and
the characters of the successive species to which it
has given rise are the manifestations of its gradually
modified Karma. As Prof. Khys Davids aptly says,
the snowdrop " is a snowdrop and not an oak, and
just that kind of snowdrop, because it is the outcome
of the Karma of an endless series of past existences."
{Hibbert Lectures, p. 114.)

Note 7 (p. 64).

"It is interesting to notice that the very point
which is the weakness of the theory — the supposed
concentration of the effect of the Karma in one new
being — presented itself to the early Buddhists them-
selves as a difficulty. They avoided it, partly by
explaining that it was a particular thirst in the
creature dying (a craving, Tanha, which plays other-

96 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

wise a great part in the Buddhist theory) which
actually caused the birth of the new individual who
was to inherit the Karma of the former one. But,
how this took place, how the craving desire produced
this effect, was acknowledged to be a mystery patent
only to a Buddha." (-Rhys Davids, Hihhert Lectures,
p. 95.)

Among the many parallelisms of Stoicism and
Buddhism, it is curious to find one for this Tanha,
' thirst,' or ' craving desire ' for life. Seneca writes
(Epist. Ixxvi. 18) : "Si enim uUum aliud est bonum
quam honestum, sequetur nos aviditas vitce aviditas
rerum vitam instruentium : quod est intolerabile
infinitum, vagum."

Note 8 (p. 66).

" The distinguishing characteristic of Buddhism
was that it started a new line, that it looked upon
the deepest questions men have to solve from an
entirely different standpoint. It swept away from
the field of its vision the whole of the great soul-
theory which had hitherto so completely filled and
dominated the minds of the superstitious and the
thoughtful alike. For the first time in the history
of the world, it proclaimed a salvation which each
man could gain for himself and by himself, in this
world, during this life, without any the least reference
to God, or to Gods, either great or small. Like the
Upanishads, it placed the first importance on know-
ledge ; but it was no longer a knowledge of God, it
was a clear perception of the real nature, as they

II NOTES 97

supposed it to be, of men and things. And it added
to the necessity of knowledge, the necessity of purity,
of courtesy, of uprightness, of peace and of a universal
love far reaching, grown great and beyond measure."
(Rhys Davids, llibhert Lectures, p. 29.)

The contemporary Greek philosophy takes an
analogous direction. According to Heracleitus, the
universe was made neither by Gods nor men ; but,
from all eternity, has been, and to all eternity,
will be, immortal fire, glowing and fading in
due measure. (Mullach, HeracUti Fragmeida, 27.)
And the part assigned by his successors, the
Stoics, to the knowledge and the volition of the ' wise
man' made their Divinity (for logical thinkers) a
subject for compliments, rather than a power to be
reckoned with. In Hindu speculation the ' Arahat,'
still more the ' Buddha,' becomes the superior of
Brahma ; the stoical ' wise man ' is, at least, the
equal of Zeus.

Berkeley affirms over and over again that no idea can
be formed of a soul or spirit — " If any man shall doubt
of the truth of what is here delivered, let him but
reflect and try if he can form any idea of power or
active being ; and w^hether he hath ideas of two
principal powers marked by the names of will and
understanding distinct from each other, as well as
from a third idea of substance or being in general,
with a relative notion of its supporting or being the
subject of the aforesaid power, which is signified by
the name soid or spirit. This is what some hold :
but, so far as I can see, the words will, soul, spirit,

VOL. IX H

98 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

do not stand for different ideas or, in truth, for any
idea at all, but for something which is very different
from ideas, and which, being an agent, cannot be like
unto or represented by any idea whatever [though it
must be owned at the same time, that we have some
notion of soul, spirit, and the operations of the mind,
such as willing, loving, hating, inasmuch as we know
or understand the meaning of these words "]. {The
Principles of Human Knowledge, Ixxvi. See also
§§ Ixxxix., cxxxv., cxlv.)

It is open to discussion, I think, whether it is
possible to have ' some notion ' of that of which we
can form no ' idea.'

Berkeley attaches several predicates to the
" perceiving active being mind, spirit, soul or myself "
(Parts I. II.) It is said, for example, to be " indi-
visible, incorporeal, unextended, and incorruptible."
The predicate indivisible, though negative in form,
has highly positive consequences. For, if ' perceiving
active being' is strictly indivisible, man's soul must
be one with the Divine spirit : which is good Hindu
or Stoical doctrine, but hardly orthodox Christian
philosophy. If, on the other hand, the ' substance '
of active perceiving ' being ' is actually divided into
the one Divine and innumerable human entities,
how can the predicate ' indivisible ' be rigorously
applicable to iti

Taking the words cited, as they stand, they amount
to the denial of the possibility of any knowledge of
substance. ' Matter ' having been resolved into mere
affections of 'spirit,' 'spirit' melts away into an
admittedly inconceivable and unknowable hypostasis

II NOTES 90

of thought and power — consequently the existence
of anything in the universe beyond a flow of
phenomena is a purely hypothetical assumption.
Indeed a pyrrhonist might raise the objection that if
' esse ' is ' percipi ' spirit itself can have no existence
except as a perception, hypostatized into a ' self,' or
as a perception of some other spirit. In the former
case, objective reality vanishes ; in the latter, there
would seem to be the need of an infinite series of
spirits each perceiving the others.

It is curious to observe how very closely the
phraseology of Berkeley sometimes approaches that
of the Stoics: thus (cxlviii.) "It seems to be a
general 2)retence of the unthinkiiig herd that they

ccvnnot see God But, alas, we need only open our

eyes to see the Sovereign Lord of all things with a
more full and clear view, than we do any of our

fellow-creatures we do at all times and in all

places perceive manifest tokens of the Divinity:
everything we see, hear, feel, or any wise perceive by
sense, being a sign or effect of the power of God "

cxlix. "It is therefore plain, that nothing can

be more evident to any one that is capable of the
least reflection, than the existence of God, or a spirit
who is intimately present to our minds, producing in
them all that variety of ideas or sensations which
continually affect us, on whom we have an absolute
and entire dependence, in short, in whom we live and
move and have our being.'' cl. [But you will say hath
Kature no share in the production of natural things,
and must they be all ascribed to the immediate and

sole operation of God ? if by Nature is meant some

H 2

100 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

being distinct from God, as well as from the laws of
nature and things perceived by sense, I must confess
that word is to me an empty sound, without any
intelligible meaning annexed to it.] Nature in this
acceptation is a vain CJiimoira introduced by those
heathens, who had not just notions of the omni-
presence and infinite perfection of God."

Compare Seneca {De Benejiciis, iv. 7) :

" Natura, inquit, hcBC mihi prtestat. Non intelligis
te, quum hoc dicis, mutare Nomen Deo 1 Quid enim
est aliud ISTatura quam Deus, et divina ratio, toti
mundo et partibus ejus inserta 1 Quoties voles tibi
licet aliter hunc auctorem rerum nostrarum com-
pellare, et Jovem ilium optimum et maximum rite
dices, et tonantem, et statorem : qui non, ut historici
tradiderunt, ex eo quod post votum susceptum acies
Romanorum f ugientum stetit, sed quod stant beneficio
ejus omnia, stator, stabilitorque est: hunc eundem et
f[itum si dixeris, non mentions, nam quum fatum
nihil aliud est, quam series implexa causarum, ille est
prima omnium causa, ea qua creterje pendent." It
would appear, therefore, that the good Bishop is
somewhat hard upon the ^heathen,' of whose words
his own might be a paraphrase.

There is yet another direction in which Berkeley's
philosophy, I will not say agrees with Gautama's, but
at any rate helps to make a fundamental dogma of
Buddhism intelligible.

'* I find I can excite ideas in my mind at pleasure,
and vary and shift the scene as often as I think fit.
It is no more than willing, and straightway this or
that idea arises in my fancy : and by the same power.

II NOTES 101

it is obliterated, and makes way for another. This
making and unmaking of ideas doth very properly
denominate the mind active. This much is certain
and grounded on experience. . . ." {Princijolesy
xxviii.)

A good many of us, I fancy, have reason to think
that experience tells them very much the contrary ;
and are painfully familiar with the obsession of the
mind by ideas which cannot be obliterated by any
effort of the will and steadily refuse to make way for
others. But what I desire to point out is that if
Gautama was equally confident that he could 'make
and unmake ' ideas — then, since he had resolved
self into a group of ideal phantoms — the possibility
of abolishing self by volition naturally followed.

Note 9 (p. 68).

According to Buddhism, the relation of one life to
the next is merely that borne by the flame of one
lamp to the flame of another lamp which is set alight
by it. To the ' Arahat ' or adept " no outward form,
no compound thing, no creature, no creator, no
existence of any kind, must appear to be other than a
temporary collocation of its component parts, fated
inevitably to be dissolved." — (Rhys Davids, Ilibhert
Lectures, p. 211.)

The self is nothing but a group of phenomena held
together by the desire of life ; when that desire shall
have ceased, " the Karma of that particular chain of
lives will cease to influence any longer any distinct
individual, and there will be no more birth j for

102 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS

II

birth, decay, and death, grief, lamentation, and
despair will have come, so far as regards that chain of
lives, for ever to an end."

The state of mind of the Arahat in which the
desire of life has ceased is Nirvana. Dr. Oldenberg
has very acutely and patiently considered the various
interpretations which have been attached to
' Nirvana ' in the work to which I have referred (pp.
285 et seq.). The result of his and other discussions
of the cjuestion may I think be briefly stated thus :

1. Logical deduction from the predicates attached
to the term ' Nirvana ' strips it of all reality, con-
ceivability, or perceivability, whether by Gods or
men. For all practical purposes, therefore, it comes
to exactly the same thing as annihilation.

2. But it is not annihilation in the ordinary sense,
inasmuch as it could take place in the living Arahat
or Buddha.

3. And, since, for the faithful Buddhist, that Avhich
was abolished in the Arahat was the possibility of
further pain, sorrow, or sin ; and that which was
attained was perfect peace ; his mind directed itself
exclusively to this joyful consummation, and personi-
fied the negation of all conceivable existence and of
all pain into a positive bliss. This was all the more
easy, as Gautama refused to give any dogmatic
definition of Nirvana. There is something analogous
in the way in which people commonly talk of the
' happy release ' of a man who has been long suffer-
ing from mortal disease. According to their own
views, it must always be extremely doubtful whether
the man will be any happier after the * release ' than

II NOTES 103

before. But they do not choose to look at the
matter in this light.

The popular notion that, with practical, if not
metaphysical, annihilation in view, Buddhism must
needs be a sad and gloomy faith seems to be incon-
sistent with fact ; on the contrary, the prospect of
Nirvana fills the true believer, not merely with
cheerfulness, but with an ecstatic desire to reach it.

Note 10 (p. 68).

The influence of the picture of the personal quali-
ties of Gautama, afforded by the legendary anecdotes
which rapidly grew into a biography of the Buddha ;
and by the birth stories, which coalesced with the
current folk-lore, and were intelligible to all the
world, doubtless played a great part. Further,
although Gautama appears not to have meddled with
the caste system, he refused to recognize any dis-
tinction, save that of perfection in the way of salva-
tion, among his followers ; and by such teaching, no
less than by the inculcation of love and benevolence
to all sentient beings, he practically levelled every
social, political, and racial barrier. A third im-
portant condition was the organization of the
Buddhists into monastic communities for the stricter
professors, while the laity were permitted a wide
indulgence in practice and were allowed to hope for
accommodation in some of the temporary abodes of
bliss. With a few hundred thousand years of
immediate paradise in sight, the average man could
be content to shut his eyes to what might follow.

104 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

Note 11 (p. 69).

In ancient times it was the fashion, even among
the Greeks themselves, to derive all Greek wisdom
from Eastern sources ; not long ago it was as
generally denied that Greek philosophy had any
connection with Oriental speculation ; it seems
probable, however, that the truth lies between these
extremes.

The Ionian intellectual movement does not stand
alone. It is only one of several sporadic indications
of the working of some powerful mental ferment over
the whole of the area comprised between the ^gean
and Northern Hindostan during the eighth, seventh,
and sixth centuries before our era. In these three
hundred years, prophetism attained its apogee among
the 'Semites of Palestine ; Zoroasterism grew and
became the creed of a conquering race, the Iranic
Aryans ; Buddhism rose and spread with marvellous
rapidity among the Aryans of Hindostan ; while
scientific naturalism took its rise among the Aryans
of Ionia, It would be difficult to find another three
centuries which have given birth to four events of
equal importance. All the principal existing
religions of mankind have grown out of the first
three : while the fourth is the little spring, now
swollen into the great stream of positive science. So
far as physical possibilities go, the prophet Jeremiah
and the oldest Ionian philosopher might have met
and conversed. If they had done so, they would
probably have disagreed a good deal ; and it is in-
teresting to reflect that their discussions might have

II NOTES 105

embraced questions which, at the present day, are
still hotly controverted.

The old Ionian philosophy, then, seems to be only
one of many results of a stirring of the moral and
intellectual life of the Aryan and the Semitic popu-
lations of Western Asia. The conditions of this
general awakening were doubtless manifold ; but
there is one which modern research has brouofht into
great prominence. This is the existence of extremely
ancient and highly advanced societies in the valleys
of the Euphrates and of the Nile.

It is now known that, more than a thousand —
perhaps more than two thousand — years before the
sixth century B.C., civilization had attained a re-
latively high pitch among the Babylonians and the
Egyptians. Not only had painting, sculpture,
architecture, and the industrial arts reached a re-
markable development ; but in Chald^ea, at any rate,
a vast amount of knowledge had been accumulated
and methodized, in the departments of grammar,
mathematics, astronomy, and natural history. Where
such traces of the scientific spirit are visible,
naturalistic speculation is rarely far off, though, so
far as I know, no remains of an Accadian, or
Egyptian, philosophy, properly so called, have yet
been recovered.

Geographically, Chaldsea occupied a central posi-
tion among the oldest seats of civilization. Com-
merce, largely aided by the intervention of those
colossal pedlars, the Phoenicians, had brought Chaldsea
into connection with all of them, for a thousand
years before the epoch at present under consideration.

106 EVOLUTIOX AND ETHICS n

And in the ninth, eighth, and seventh centuries, the
Assyrian, the depositary of Chaldaean civilization, as
the Macedonian and the Koman, at a later date, were
the depositaries of Greek culture, had added irre-
sistible force to the other agencies for the wide dis-
tribution of Chaldsean literature, art, and science.

I confess that I find it difficult to imagine that the
Greek immigrants — who stood in somewhat the same
relation to the Babylonians and the Egyptians as the
later Germanic barbarians to the Romans of the
Empire — should not have been immensely influenced
by the new life with which they became acquainted.
But there is abundant direct evidence of the magni-
tude of this influence in certain spheres. 1 suppose it
is not doubted that the Greek went to school with
the Oriental for his primary instruction in reading,
writing, and arithmetic ; and that Semitic theology
supplied him with some of his mythological lore.
Nor does there now seem to be any question about
the large indebtedness of Greek art to that of
Chaldoea and that of Egypt.

But the manner of that indebtedness is very
instructive. The obligation is clear, but its limits
are no less definite. Nothing better exemplifies the
indomitable originality of the Greeks than the
relations of their art to that of the Orientals. Far
from being subdued into mere imitators by the
technical excellence of their teachers, they lost no
time in bettering the instruction they received, using
their models as mere stepping stones on the way
to those unsurpassed and unsurpassable achievements
which are all their own. The shibboleth of Art is

II

NOTES 107

the human fignre. The ancient Chaldseans and
Egyptians, like the modern Japanese, did wonders in
the representation of birds and quadrupeds ; they
even attained to something more than respectability
in human portraiture. But their utmost efforts never
brought them within range of the best Greek embodi-
ments of the grace of womanhood, or of the severer
beauty of manhood.

It is worth while to consider the probable effect
upon the acute and critical Greek mind of the conflict
of ideas, social, political, and theological, which arose
out of the conditions of life in the Asiatic colonies.
The Ionian polities had passed through the whole
gamut of social and political changes, from patriarchal
and occasionally oppressive kingship to rowdy and
still more burdensome mobship — no doubt with
infinitely eloquent and copious argumentation, on
both sides, at every stage of their progress towards
that arbitrament of force which settles most political
questions. The marvellous speculative faculty,
latent in the Ionian, had come in contact with
Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Phcenician theologies and
cosmogonies ; with the illuminati of Orphism and
the fanatics and dreamers of the Mysteries ; possibly
with Buddhism and Zoroasterism ; possibly even
with Judaism. And it has been observed that the
mutual contradictions of antagonistic supernatural-
isms are apt to play a largo part among the genera-
tive agencies of naturalism.

Thus, various external influences may have con-
tributed to the rise of philosophy among the Ionian
Greeks of the sixth century. But the assimilative

108 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

capacity of the Greek mind — its power of Hellenizing
whatever it touched — has here worked so effectually,
that, so far as I can learn, no indubitable traces of
such extraneous contributions are now allowed to exist
by the most authoritative historians of Philosophy.
Nevertheless, I think it must be admitted that the
coincidences between the Heracleito-stoical doctrines
and those of the older Hindu philosophy are
extremely remarkable. In both, the cosmos pursues
an eternal succession of cyclical changes. The great
year, answering to the Kalpa, covers an entire cycle
from the origin of the universe as a fluid to its
dissolution in fire — " Humor initium, ignis exitus
mundi," as Seneca has it. In both systems, there is
immanent in the cosmos a source of energy, Brahma,
or the Logos, which works according to fixed laws.
The individual soul is an efilux of this world-spirit,
and returns to it. Perfection is attainable only by
individual effort, through ascetic discipline, and is
rather a state of painlessness than of happiness ; if
indeed it can be said to be a state of anything, save
the negation of perturbing emotion. The hatchment
motto " In Coelo Quies " would serve both Hindu and
Stoic ; and absolute quiet is not easily distinguishable
from annihilation.

Zoroasterism, which, geographically, occupies a
position intermediate between Hellenism and
Hinduism, agrees with the latter in recognizing the
essential evil of the cosmos ; but differs from both in
its intensely anthropomorphic personification of the
two antagonistic principles, to the one of which it
ascribes all the good ; and, to the other, all the evil.

11 NOTES 109

In fact, it assumes the existence of two worlds, one
good and one bad ; the latter created by the evil
power for the purpose of damaging the former. The
existing cosmos is a mere mixture of the two, and the
* last judgment ' is a root-and-branch extirpation of
the work of Ahriman.

Note 12 (p. 69).

There is no snare in which the feet of a modern
student of ancient lore are more easily entangled,
than that which is spread by the similarity of the
language of antiquity to modern modes of expression.
I do not presume to interpret the obscurest of Greek
philosophers ; all I wish is to point out, that his
words, in the sense accepted by competent inter-
preters, fit modern ideas singularly well.

8o far as the general theory of evolution goes there
is no difficulty. The aphorism abovit the river ; the
figure of the child playing on the shore ; the kingship
and fatherhood of strife, seem decisive. The 68os aVw
Kara) ixir] expresses, with singular aptness, the cyclical
aspect of the one process of organic evolution in
individual plants and animals : yet it may be a
question whether the Heracleitean strife included
any distinct conception of the struggle for existence.
Again, it is tempting to compare the part played by
the Heracleitean ' fire ' with that ascribed by the
moderns to heat, or rather to that cause of motion of
which heat is one expression ; and a little ingenuity
might find a foreshadowing of the doctrine of the
conservation of energy, in the saying that all the

110 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

things are changed into fire and fire into all things,
as gold into goods and goods into gold.

Note 13 (p. 71).
Popes lines in the Essay on Man (Ep. i. 267-8),

' ' All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul,"

simply paraphrase Seneca's "quern in hoc mimdo
locum deus obtinet, hunc in homine animus : quod
est illic materia, id nobis corpus est." — (Ep. Ixv. 21) ;
which again is a Latin version of the old Stoical
doctrine, ets airav tov koct/xov jxepo^ Sl7]K€l 6 vovs,
KaOoLTrep dc}> rj/xoyv rj ^v^rj.

So far as the testimony for the universality of what
ordinary people call ' evil ' goes, there is nothing
better than the writings of the Stoics themselves.
They might serve as a storehouse for the epigrams of
the ultra-pessimists. Heracleitus {circa 500 B.C.)
says just as hard things about ordinary humanity
as his disciples centuries later ; and there really
seems no need to seek for the causes of this dark
view of life in the circumstances of the time of
Alexander's successors or of the early Emperors of
Home. To the man with an ethical ideal, the world,
including himself, will always seem full of evil.

Note 14 (p. 73).

I use the well-known phrase, but decline respon-
sibility for the libel upon Epicurus, whose doctrines
were far less compatible with existence in a stye

II NOTES 111

than those of the Cynics. If it were steadily borne
in mind that the conception of the ' flesh ' as tlie
source of evil, and the great saying ' Initium est
salutis notitia peccati,' are the property of Epicurus,
fewer illusions about Epicureanism would pass
muster for accepted truth.

iVo^e 15 (p. 75).

The Stoics said that man was a ^wov XoyLKov
ttoXltlkov (fiiXdWrjXov, or a rational, a political, and
an altruistic or philanthropic animal. In their
view, his higher nature tended to develop in these
three directions^ as a plant tends to grow up into
its typical form. Since, without the introduction of
any consideration of pleasure or pain, whatever
thwarted the realization of its type by the plant
might be said to be bad, and whatever helped it good ;
so virtue, in the Stoical sense, as the conduct which
tended to the attainment of the rational, political,
and philanthropic ideal, was good in itself, and
irrespectively of its emotional concomitants.

Man is an " animal sociale communi bono genitum."
The safety of society depends upon practical recog-
nition of the fact. " Salva autem esse societas nisi
custodia et amore partium non possit," says Seneca.
(De. Ira, ii. 31.)

^^ote 16 (p. 75).

The importance of the physical doctrine of the
Stoics lies in its clear recognition of the universality

112 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS n

of the law of causation, with its corollary, the order
of nature : the exact form of that order is an altogether
secondary consideration.

Many ingenious persons now appear to consider that
the incompatibility of pantheism, of materialism, and
of any doubt about the immortality of the soul, with
religion and morality, is to be held as an axiomatic
truth. I confess that I have a certain difficulty in
accepting this dogma. For the Stoics were notoriously
materialists and pantheists of the most extreme
character ; and while no strict Stoic believed in the
eternal duration of the individual soul, some even
denied its persistence after death. Yet it is equally
certain that of all gentile philosophies, Stoicism
exhibits the highest ethical development, is animated
by the most religious spirit, and has exerted the
profoundest influence upon the moral and religious
development not merely of the best men among
the Komans, but among the moderns down to our
own day.

Seneca was claimed as a Christian and placed
among the saints by the fathers of the early Christian
Church ; and the genuineness of a correspondence
between him and the apostle Paul has been hotly
maintained in our own time, by orthodox writers.
That the letters, as we possess them, are worthless
forgeries is obvious ; and writers as wide apart as
Baur and Lightfoot agree that the whole story is
devoid of foundation.

The dissertation of the late Bishop of Durham
{Epistle to the Philippians) is particularly worthy of
study, apart from this question, on account of the

II NOTES 1J3

evidence which it supplies of the nnmeroiis similarities
of thought between Seneca and the writer of the
Pauline epistles. When it is remembered that the
writer of the Acts puts a quotation from Aratus, or
Cleanthes, into tlie mouth of the apostle ; and that
Tarsus was a great seat of philosophical and especially
stoical learning (Chrysippus himself was a native of
the adjacent town of Soli), there is no difficulty in
understanding the origin of these resemblances. See,
on this subject, Sir Alexander Grant's dissertation
in his edition of The Ethics of Aristotle (where
there is an interesting reference to the stoical
character of Bishop Butler's ethics), the concluding
pages of Dr. Weygoldt's instructive little work Die
Philosophie der Stoa, and Aubertin's Seneque et Saint
Paul.

It is surprising that a writer of Dr. Lightfoot's
stamp should speak of Stoicism as a philosophy of
' despair.' Surely, rather, it was a philosophy of
men who, having cast oif all illusions, and the childish-
ness of despair among them, were minded to endure
in patience whatever conditions the cosmic process
might create, so long as those conditions were com-
patible with the progress towards virtue, which alone,
for them, conferred a worthy object on existence.
There is no note of despair in the stoical declaration
that the perfected * wise man ' is the equal of Zeus
in everything but the duration of his existence.
And, in my judgment, there is as little pride about
it, often as it serves for the text of discourses on
stoical arrogance. Grant the stoical postulate that
there is no good except virtue ; grant that the per-

VOL. IK I

114 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

fected wise man is altogether virtuous, in consequence
of being guided in all things by the reason, which is
an effluence of Zeus, and there seems no escape from
the stoical conclusion.

Note 17 (p. 76).

Our "Apathy" carries such a different set of
connotations from its Greek original that I have
ventured on using the latter as a technical term.

Note 18 (p. 77).

Many of the stoical philosophers recommended
their disciples to take an active share in public
affairs ; and in the Roman world, for several
centuries, the best public men were strongly inclined
to Stoicism. Nevertheless, the logical tendency of
Stoicism seems to me to be fulfilled only in such men
as Diogenes and Epictetus.

Note 19 (p. 80).

"Criticisms on the Origin of Species," 1864.
Collected Essays, vol. ii. p. 91. [1894.]

Note 20 (p. 81).

Of course, strictly speaking, social life, and the
ethical process in virtue of which it advances towards
perfection, are part and parcel of the general process
of evolution, just as tlie gregarious habit of in-

II

NOTES 115

numerable plants and animals, which has been of
immense advantage to them, is so. A hive of bees
is an organic polity, a society in which the part
played by each member is determined by organic
necessities. Queens, workers, and drones are, so to
speak, castes, divided from one another by marked
physical barriers. Among birds and mammals,
societies are formed, of which the bond in many cases
seems to be purely psychological ; that is to say, it
appears to depend upon the liking of the individuals
for one another's company. The tendency of
individuals to over self-assertion is kept down by
fighting. Even in these rudimentary forms of society,
love and fear come into play, and enforce a greater
or less renunciation of self-will. To this extent the
general cosmic process begins to be checked by a rudi-
mentary ethical process, which is, strictly speaking,
part of the former, just as the ' governor ' in a steam-
engine is part of the mechanism of the engine.

JVote 21 (p. 82).

See " Government : Anarchy or Regimentation, '*
Collected Essays, vol. i. pp. 413 — 418. It is this
form of political philosophy to which I conceive
the epithet of ' reasoned savagery ' to be strictly
applicable. [1894.]

Note 22 (p. 83).

" L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de
la nature, mais c'est un roseau pensant. 11 ne faut

I 2

116 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS ii

pas que runivers entier s'arme pour I'ecraser. Une
vapeur, une goutte d'eau, suffit pour le tuer. Mais
quand I'univers I'ecraserait, riionime serait encore
plus noble que ce qui le tue, parce qu'il sait qu'il
meurt ; et I'avantage que I'univers a sur lui, I'univers
n'en sait rien." — Pensees de Pascal.

Note 23 (p. 85).

The use of the word " Nature " here may be criti-
cised. Yet the manifestation of the natural tendencies
of men is so profoundly modified by training that it
is hardly too strong. Consider the suppression of
the sexual instinct between near relations.

Note 24 (p. 86).

A great proportion of poetry is addressed by the
young to the young ; only the great masters of the
art are capable of divining, or think it worth while
to enter into, the feelings of retrospective age. The
two great poets whom we have so lately lost, Tennyson
and Browning, have done this, each in his own
inimitable way ; the one in the Ulysses, from wliich
I have borrowed ; the other in that wondei-ful
fragment ' Childe Eoland to the dark Tower came.'

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS

[1886]

In spite of long and, perhaps, not unjustifiable
hesitation, I begin to think that there must be
something in telepathy. For evidence, which I
may not disregard, is furnished by the last number
of the " Fortnightly Review " that among the
hitherto undiscovered endowments of the human
species, there may be a power even more wonder-
ful than the mystic faculty by which the esoteric-
ally Buddhistic sage " upon the farthest mountain
in Cathay " reads the inmost thoughts of a dweller
within the homely circuit of the London postal
district. Great indeed is the insight of such a
seer ; but how much greater is his who combines
the feat of reading, not merely the thoughts of
which the thinker is aware, but those of which
he knows nothing ; who sees him unconsciously
drawing the conclusions which he repudiates and

118 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

supporting the doctrines which he detests. To
reflect upon the confusion which the working of
such a power as this may introduce into one's
ideas of personahty and responsibiUty is perilous
— madness lies that way. But truth is truth, and
I am almost fain to believe in this magical visibi-
lity of the non-existent when the only alternative
is the supposition that the writer of the article on
" Materialism and Morality" in vol. xl. (1886) of
the " Fortnightly Review," in spite of his manifest
ability and honesty, has pledged himself, so far as
I am concerned, to what, if I may trust my own
knowledge of my own thoughts, must be called a
multitude of errors of the first magnitude.

I so much admire Mr. Lilly's outspokenness, I
am so completely satisfied with the uprightness
of his intentions, that it is repugnant to me to
quarrel with anything he may say ; and I sympa-
thise so warmly with his manly scorn of the
vileness of much that passes under the name of
literature in these times, that I would willingly be
silent under his by no means unkindly exposition
of his theory of my own tenets, if I thought that
such j)ersonal abnegation would serve the interest
of the cause we both have at heart. But I cannot
think so. My creed may be an ill-favoured thing,
but it is mine own, as Touchstone says of his lady-
love ; and I have so high an opinion of the solid
virtues of the object of my affections that I cannot
calmly see her personated by a wench who is much

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 119

Uglier and has no virtue worth speaking of. I hope I
should be ready to stand by a falling cause if I had
ever adopted it ; but suffering for a falling cause,
which one has done one's best to bring to the ground,
is a kind of martyrdom for which I have no taste.
In my opinion, the philosophical theory which Mr.
Lilly attributes to me — but which I have over and
over again disclaimed — is untenable and destined
to extinction ; and I not unreasonably demur to
being counted among its defenders.

After the manner of a media3val disputant, Mr.
Lilly posts up three theses, which, as he con-
ceives, embody the chief heresies propagated by
the late Professor Clifford, Mr. Herbert Spencer,
and myself. He says that we agree "(1) in
putting aside, as unverifiable, everything which
the senses cannot verify ; (2) everything beyond
the bounds of physical science; (3) everything
which cannot be brought into a laboratory and
dealt with chemically " (p. 578).

My lamented young friend Clifford, sAveetest of
natures though keenest of disputants, is out of
reach of our little controversies, but his works
speak for him, and those who run may read a
refutation of Mr. Lilly's assertions in them. Mr.
Herbert Spencer, hitherto, has shown no lack
either of ability or of inclination to speak for
himself; and it would be a superfluity, not to say
an impertinence, on my part, to take up the
cudgels for him. But, for myself, if my know-

120 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

ledge of my own consciousness may be assumed to
be adequate (and I make not the least pretension
to acquaintance with what goes on in my " Un-
bewusstsein "), I may be permitted to observe
that the first proposition appears to me to be not
true ; that the second is in the same case ; and
that, if there be gradations in untrueness, the
third is so monstrously untrue that it hovers on
the verge of absurdity, even if it does not actually
flounder in that logical limbo. Thus, to all three
theses, I reply in appropriate fashion, Ncgo — I say
No ; and I proceed to state the grounds of that
negation, which the proprieties do not permit me
to make quite so emphatic as I could desire.

Let me begin with the first assertion, that I
" put aside, as unverifiable, everything Avhich the
senses cannot verif}^" Can such a statement as
this be seriously made in respect of an}' human
being ? But I am not appointed apologist for
mankind in general ; and confining my observa-
tions to myself, I beg leave to point out that, at
this present moment, I entertain an unshakable
conviction that Mr. Lilly is the victim of a patent
and enormous misunderstanding, and that I have
not the slightest intention of putting that con-
viction aside because I cannot " verify " it either
by touch, or taste, or smell, or hearing, or sight,
which (in the absence of any trace of telepathic
faculty) make up the totality of my senses.

Again, I may venture to admire the clear and

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 121

vigorous English in which Mr. Lilly embodies his
views ; but the source of that admiration does not
lie in anything which my five senses enable me to
discover in the pages of his article, and of which
an orang-outang might be just as acutely sensible.
No, it lies in an appreciation of literary form and
logical structure by aesthetic and intellectual
feculties which are not senses, and which are not
unfrequently sadly wanting where the senses are
in full vigour. My poor relation may beat me in
the matter of sensation ; but I am quite confident
that, when style and syllogisms are to be dealt
with, he is nowhere.

If there is anything in the world which I do
firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the
law of causation ; but that universality cannot be
proved by any amount of experience, let alone
that which comes to us through the senses. And
when an effort of volition changes the current of
my thoughts, or when an idea calls up another
associated idea, I have not the slightest doubt
that the process to which the first of the phe-
nomena, in each case, is due stands in the relation
of cause to the second. Yet the attempt to verify
this belief by sensation would be sheer lunacy.
Now I am quite sure that Mr. Lilly does not
doubt my sanity ; and the only alternative seems
to be the admission that his first proposition is
erroneous.

The second thesis charges me with putting

122 SCIENCE AND MORALS

III

aside "as unverifiable" "everything beyond the
bounds of physical science." Again I say, No.
Nobody, I imagine, will credit me with a desire
to limit the empire of physical science, but I really
feel bound to confess that a great many very
familiar and, at the same time, extremely impor-
tant phenomena lie quite beyond its legitimate
limits. I cannot conceive, for examjDle, how the
phenomena of consciousness, as such and apart
from the physical process by which they are
called into existence, are to be brought within
the bounds of physical science. Take the simplest
possible example, the feeling of redness. Physical
science tells us that it commonly arises as a con-
sequence of molecular changes propagated from
the eye to a certain part of the substance of the
brain, when vibrations of the luminiferous ether
of a certain character fall upon the retina. Let
us suppose the process of physical analysis pushed
so far that one could view the last link of this
chain of molecules, watch their movements as if
they were billiard balls, weigh them, measure
them, and know all that is physically knowable
about them. Well, even in that case, we should
be just as far from being able to include the
resulting phenomenon of consciousness, the feeling
of redness, within the bounds of physical science,
as we are at present. It would remain as unlike
the jihenomena we know under the names of
matter and motion as it is now. If there is any

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 123

plain truth upon which I have made it my
business to insist over and over again it is this —
and whether it is a truth or not, my insistence
upon it leaves not a shadow of justification for
Mr. Lilly's assertion.

But I ask in this case also, how is it conceivable
that any man, in possession of all his natural
faculties, should hold such an opinion ? I do not
suppose that I am exceptionally endowed because
I have all my life enjoyed a keen perception of
the beauty offered us by nature and by art. Now
physical science may and probably will, some day,
enable our posterity to set forth the exact physical
concomitants and conditions of the strange rapture
of beauty. But if ever that day arrives, the
rapture will remain, just as it is now, outside and
beyond the physical world ; and, even in the
mental world, something superadded to mere sen-
sation. I do not wish to crow unduly over my
humble cousin the orang, but in the iBSthetic
province, as in that of the intellect, I am afraid
he is nowhere. I doubt not he would detect a
fruit amidst a wilderness of leaves where I could
see nothing ; but I am tolerably confident that he
has never been awestruck, as I have been, by the
dim religious gloom, as of a temple devoted to the
earthgods, of the tropical forests which he in-
habits. Yet I doubt not that our poor long-
armed and short-legged friend, as he sits medita-
tively munching his durian fruit, has something

124' SCIENCE AND MORALS III

behind that sacl Socratic face of his which is
utterly " beyond the bounds of physical science."
Physical science may know all about his clutching
the fruit and munching it and digesting it, and
how the physical titillation of his palate is trans-
mitted to some microscopic cells of the gray
matter of his brain. But the feelings of sweet-
ness and of satisfaction which, for a moment, hang
out their signal lights in his melancholy eyes, are
as utterly outside the bounds of physics as is the
" fine frenzy " of a human rhapsodist.

Does Mr. Lilly really believe that, putting me
aside, there is any man with the feeling of music
in him who disbelieves in the reality of the delight
which he derives from it, because that delight
lies outside the bounds of physical science, not
less than outside the region of the mere sense of
hearing ? But, it may be, that he includes music,
painting, and sculpture under the head of physical
science, and in that case I can only regret I am
unable to follow him in his ennoblement of my
favourite pursuits.

The third thesis runs that I put aside " as un-
verifiable " " everything which cannot be brought
into a laboratory and dealt with chemically " ;
and, once more, I say No. This wondrous
allegation is no novelty; it has not unfrequently
reached me from that region where gentle (or
ungentle) dulness so often holds unchecked
sway — the pulpit. But I marvel to find that a

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 125

writer of Mr. Lilly's intelligence and good faith
is willing to father such a wastrel. If I am to deal
with the thing seriously, I find m3'self met by
one of the two horns of a dilemma. Either some
meaning, as unknown to usage as to the diction-
aries, attaches to "laboratory" and "chemical,"
or the proposition is (what am I to say in my sore
need for a gentle and yet appropriate Avord ?) —
well — unhistorical.

Does Mr. Lilly suppose that I put aside " as
unverifiable " all the truths of mathematics, of
philology, of history? And if I do not, will he
have the great goodness to say how the binomial
theorem is to be dealt with " chemically," even
in the best-appointed " laboratory " ; or where
the balances and crucibles are kept by which the
various theories of the nature of the Basque
language may be tested ; or what reagents
will extract the truth from any given History
of Rome, and leave the errors behind as a
residual calx ?

I really cannot answer these questions, and
unless Mr. Lilly can, I think he would do well
hereafter to think more than twice before
attributing such preposterous notions to his
fellow-men, who, after all, as a learned counsel
said, are vertebrated animals.

The whole thing perj^lexes me much; and
I am sure there must be an explanation which
will leave Mr. Lilly's reputation for common sense

126 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

and fair dealing untouched. Can it be — I put
this forward quite tentatively — that Mr. Lilly is
the victim of a confusion, common enough among
thoughtless people, and into which he has fallen
unawares ? Obviously, it is one thing to say
that the logical methods of physical science are of
universal applicability, and quite another to affirm
that all subjects of thought lie within the pro-
vince of physical science. I have often declared
my conviction that there is only one method by
which intellectual truth can be reached, whether
the subject-matter of investigation belongs to the
world of iDhj'sics or to the world of consciousness ;
and one of the arguments in favour of the use of
ph3^sical science as an instrument of education
v/hich I have oftenest used is that, in my opinion,
it exercises young minds in the appreciation of
inductive evidence better than any other study.
But while I repeat my conviction that the physical
sciences probably furnish the best and most easily
appreciable illustrations of the one and indivisible
mode of ascertaining truth by the use of reason,
I beg leave to add that I have never thought of
suggesting that other branches of knowledge may
not afford the same discipline ; and assuredly I
have never given the slightest ground for the
attribution to me of the ridiculous contention
that there is nothing true outside the bounds of
physical science. Doubtless j)eople who wanted
to say something damaging, without too nice a

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 127

regard to its truth or falsehood, have often
enough misrepresented my plain meaning. But
Mr. Lilly is not one of these folks at whom one
looks and passes by, and I can but sorrowfully
wonder at finding him in such company."

So much for the three theses which Mr. Lilly
has nailed on to the page of this Review. I think
I have shown that the first is inaccurate, that the
second is inaccurate, and that the third is in-
accurate ; and that these three inaccurates con-
stitute one prodigious, though I doubt not unin-
tentional, misrepresentation. If Mr, Lilly and I
were dialectic gladiators, fighting in the arena of
the " Fortnightly," under the eye of an editorial
lanista, for the delectation of the public, my best
tactics would now be to leave the field of battle.
For the question whether I do, or do not, hold
certain opinions is a matter of fact, with regard to
which my evidence is likely to be regarded as
conclusive — at least until such time as the tele-
pathy of the unconscious is more generally recog-
nised.

However, some other assertions are made by
Mr. Lilly which more or less involve matters of
opinion whereof the rights and wrongs are less
easily settled, but in respect of which he seems to
me to err quite as seriously as about the topics
we have been hitherto discussing. And the im-
portance of these subjects leads me to venture upon
saying something about them, even though I am

128 SCIENCE AND MORALS ni

thereby compelled to leave the safe ground of
personal knowledge.

Before launching the three torpedoes which
have so sadly exploded on board his own ship,
Mr. Lilly says that with whatever " rhetorical
ornaments I may gild my teaching," it is
" Materialism." Let me observe, in passing, that
rhetorical ornament is not in my way, and that
gilding refined gold would, to my mind, be less
objectionable than varnishing the fair face of
truth with that pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric. If I
believed that I had any claim to the title of
" Materiahst," as that term is understood in the
language of jDhilosojDhy and not in that of abuse, I
should not attempt to hide it by any sort of gild-
incr. I have not found reason to care much for
hard names in the course of the last thirty years,
and I am too old to develop a new sensitiveness.
But, to repeat what I have more than once taken
pains to say in the most unadorned of plain
language, I repudiate, as philosophical error, the
doctrine of Materialism as I understand it, just as
I repudiate the doctrine of Spiritualism as Mr.
Lilly presents it, and my reason for thus doing is,
in both cases, the same ; namely, that, whatever
their differences, Materialists and Spiritualists
agree in making very positive assertions about
matters of which I am certain I know nothinof,
and about whicli I believe they are, in truth, just
as ignorant. And further, tliat, even when their

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 129

assertions are confined to topics which He within
the range of my faculties, they often appear to
me to be in the wrong. And there is yet another
reason for objecting to be identified with either of
these sects; and that is that each is extremely
fond of attributing to the other, by way of re-
proach, conclusions which are the property of
neither, though they infallibly flow from the
logical development of the first principles of both.
Surely a prudent man is not to be reproached
because he keeps clear of the squabbles of these
philosophical Bianchi and Neri, by refusing to
have anything to do with either ?

I understand the main tenet of Materialism to
be that there is nothing in the universe but
matter and force ; and that all the phenomena of
nature are explicable by deduction from the pro-
perties assignable to these two primitive factors.
That great champion of Materialism whom Mr.
Lilly appears to consider to be an authority in
physical science, Dr. Blichner, embodies this
article of faith on his title-page. Kraft und Stoff
— force and matter — are paraded as the Alpha and
Omega of existence. This I apprehend is the
fundamental article of the faith materialistic;
and whosoever does not hold it is condemned by
the more zealous of the persuasion (as I have
some reason to know) to the Inferno appointed
for fools or hypocrites. But all this I heartily
disbelieve ; and at the risk of being charged with

VOL. IX K

130 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

wearisome repetition of an old story, I will briefly
give my reasons for persisting in my infidelity.
In the first place, as I have already hinted, it
seems to me pretty plain that there is a third
thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness, which,
in the hardness of my heart or head, I cannot see
to be matter, or force, or any conceivable modifica-
tion of either, however intimately the manifesta-
tions of the phenomena of consciousness may be
connected with the phenomena known as matter
and force. In the second place, the arguments
used by Descartes and Berkeley to show that our
certain knowledge does not extend beyond our
states of consciousness, appear to me to be
as irrefragable now as they did when I first
became acquainted with them some half-century
ago. All the materialistic writers I know of who
have tried to bite that file have simply broken
their teeth. But, if this is true, our one certainty
is the existence of the mental world, and that of
Kraft unci Stoff falls into the rank of, at best, a
highly probable h}^othesis.

Thirdly, when I was a mere boy, with a per-
verse tendency to think when I ought to have
been playing, my mind was gi'eatly exercised by
this formidable problem. What would become of
things if they lost their qualities ? As the quahties
had no objective existence, and the thing without
qualities was nothing, the solid world seemed
whittled away — to my great horror. As I grew

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 131

older, and learned to use the terms matter and
force, the boyish problem was revived, mutato
nomine. On the one hand, the notion of matter
without force seemed to resolve the world into a
set of geometrical ghosts, too dead even to jabber.
On the other hand, Boscovich's hypothesis, by
which matter was resolved into centres of force,
was very attractive. But when one tried to think
it out, what in the world became of force con-
sidered as an objective entity ? Force, even the
most materialistic of philosophers will agree with
the most idealistic, is nothing but a name for the
cause of motion. And if, with Boscovich, I
resolved things into centres of force, then matter
vanished altogether and left immaterial entities
in its place. One might as well frankly accept
Idealism and have done with it.

I must make a confession, even if it be humili-
ating. I have never been able to form the
slightest conception of those " forces " which the
Materialists talk about, as if they had samples of
them many years in bottle. They tell me that
matter consists of atoms, which are separated by
mere space devoid of contents ; and that, through
this void, radiate the attractive and repulsive
forces whereby the atoms affect one another. If
anybody can clearly conceive the nature of these
things which not only exist in nothingness, but
pull and push there with great vigour, I envy
him for the possession of an intellect of larger
grasp, not only than mine, but than that of

K 2

132 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

Leibnitz or of Newton> To me the " chimsera,
bombinans in vacuo quia comedit secundas inten-
tiones" of the schoohnen is a familiar and
domestic creature compared with such " forces."
Besides, by the h}^othesis, the forces are not
matter ; and thus all that is of any particular con-
sequence in the world turns out to be not matter
on the Materialist's own showing. Let it not be
supposed that I am casting a doubt upon the
propriety of the employment of the terms " atom "
and " force," as they stand among the working
hypotheses of physical science. As formula3 which
can be applied, with perfect precision and great con-
venience, in the interpretation of nature, their value
is incalculable ; but, as real entities, having an ob-
jective existence, an indivisible particle which never-
theless occupies space is surely inconceivable ; and
with respect to the operation of that atom, where
it is not, by the aid of a " force " resident in
nothingness, I am as little able to imagine it as I
fancy any one else is.

Unless and until anybody will resolve all these
doubts and difficulties for me, I think I have a
right to hold aloof from Materialism. As to
Spiritualism, it lands me in even greater difficul-

^ See the famous Collection of Papers, published by Clarke in
1717, Leibnitz says : " 'Tis also a supernatural tiling that
bodies should attract one another at a distance without any
intermediate means." And Clarke, on behalf of Newton, eaj)S
this as follows : " That one body should attract another without
any intermediate mcaiis is, indeed, not a miracle, but a contra-
diction ; for 'tis supposing something to act where it is not."

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 133

ties when I want to get change for its notes-of-
hand in the solid coin of reality. For the assumed
substantial entity, spirit, which is supposed to
underlie the phenomena of consciousness, as matter
underlies those of physical nature, leaves not even
a geometrical ghost when these phenomena are
abstracted. And, even if we suppose the existence
of such an entity apart from qualities — that is to
say, a bare existence — for mind, how does any-
body know that it differs from that other entity,
apart from qualities, which is the supposed sub-
stratum of matter ? Spiritualism is, after all, little
better than Materialism turned upside down. And
if I try to think of the " spirit " which a man, by
this hypothesis, carries about under his hat, as
something devoid of relation to space, and as
something indivisible, even in thought, while it is,
at the same time, supposed to be in that place and
to be possessed of half a dozen different faculties, I
confess I get quite lost.

As I have said elsewhere, if I were forced to
choose between MateriaHsm and Idealism, I should
elect for the latter ; and I certainly would have
nothing to do with the effete mythology of
Spiritualism. But I am not aware that I am
under any compulsion to choose either the one or
the other. I have always entertained a strong
suspicion that the sage who maintained that man
is the measure of the universe was sadly in the
wrong ; and age and experience have not weakened

134 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

that conviction. In following these Hnes of specu-
lation I am reminded of the quarter-deck walks of
my youth. In taking that form of exercise you
may perambulate through all points of the com-
pass with perfect safety, so long as you keep within
certain limits : forget those limits, in your ardour,
and mere smothering and spluttering, if not worse,
await you. I stick by the deck and throw a life-
buoy now and then to the struggling folk who
have gone overboard; and all I get for my
humanity is the abuse of all whenever they leave
off abusing one another.

Tolerably early in life I discovered that one of
the unpardonable sins, in the eyes of most people,
is for a man to presume to go about unlabelled.
The world regards such a person as the police do
an unmuzzled dog, not under proper control. I
could find no label that would suit me, so, in my
desire to range myself and be respectable, I in-
vented one ; and, as the chief thing I was sure of
was that I did not knoAV a great many things that
the — ists and the — ites about me professed to be
familiar with, I called myself an Agnostic. Surely
no denomination could be more modest or more
appropriate ; and I cannot imagine why I should
be every now and then haled out of my refuge
and declared sometimes to be a Materialist, some-
times an Atheist, sometimes a Positivist ; and
sometimes, alas and alack, a cowardly or reaction-
ary Obscurantist.

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 135

I trust that I have, at last, made my case clear,
and that henceforth I shall be allowed to rest in
peace — at least, after a further explanation or two,
which Mr. Lilly proves to me may be necessary.
It has been seen that my excellent critic has
original ideas respecting the meaning of the
words " laboratory " and " chemical " ; and, as it
appears to me, his definition of " Materialist " is
quite as much peculiar to himself For, unless I
misunderstand him, and I have taken pains not to
do so, he puts me down as a Materialist (over and
above the grounds which I have shown to have
no foundation); firstly, because I have said that
consciousness is a function of the brain ; and,
secondly, because I hold by determinism. With
respect to the first point, I am not aware that
there is any one who doubts that, in the proper
physiological sense of the word function, con-
sciousness, in certain forms at any rate, is a
cerebral function. In physiology we call function
that effect, or series of effects, which results from
the activity of an organ. Thus, it is the function
of muscle to give rise to motion ; and the muscle
gives rise to motion when the nerve which
supplies it is stimulated. If one of the nerve-
bundles in a man's arm is laid bare and a stimulus
is applied to certain of the nervous filaments, the
result will be production of motion in that arm.
If others are stimulated, the result will be the
production of the state of consciousness called

ISG SCIENCE AND MORALS

III

pain. Now, if I trace these last nerve-filaments,
I find them to be ultimately connected with part
of the substance of the brain, just as the others
turn out to be connected with muscular sub-
stance. If the production of motion in the one
case is properly said to be the function of the
muscular substance, why is the production of a
state of consciousness in the other case not to be
called a function of the cerebral substance ? Once
upon a time, it is true, it was supposed that a
certain " animal spirit " resided in muscle and was
the real active agent. But we have done with
that wholly superfluous fiction so far as the
muscular organs are concerned. Why are we to
retain a corresponding fiction for the nervous
organs ?

If it is replied that no physiologist, however
spiritual his leanings, dreams of supposing that
simple sensations require a " spirit " for their
production, then I must point out that we are
all agreed that consciousness is a function of
matter, and that particular tenet must be given
up as a mark of Materialism. Any further argu-
ment will turn upon the question, not whether
consciousness is a function of the brain, but
whether all forms of consciousness are so. Again,
I hold it would be quite correct to say that
material changes are the causes of psychical
phenomena (and, as a consequence, that the
organs in which these changes take place have

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 137

the production of such phenomena lor their
function), even if the spirituaHstic hypothesis had
any foundation. For nobody hesitates to say that
an event A is the cause of an event Z, even if
there are as many intermediate terms, known and
unknown, in the chain of causation as there are
letters between A and Z. The man who pulls
the trigger of a loaded pistol placed close to
another's head certainly is the cause of that
other's death, though, in strictness, he " causes "
nothing but the movement of the finger upon the
trigger. And, in like manner, the molecular
change which is brought about in a certain
portion of the cerebral substance by the stimula-
tion of a remote part of the body would be
properly said to be the cause of the consequent
feeling, whatever unknown terms were interposed
between the physical agent and the actual psychi-
cal product. Therefore, unless Materialism has
the monopoly of the right use of language, I see
nothing materialistic in the phraseology which I
have employed.

The only remaining justification which Mr. Lilly
offers for dubbing me a Materialist, malgrd moi,
arises out of a passage which he quotes, in which I
say that the progress of science means the exten-
sion of the province of what we call matter and
force, and the concomitant gradual banishment
from all regions of human thought of what we call
spirit and spontaneity. I hold that opinion now,

188 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

if anything, more firmly tlian I did when I gave
utterance to it a score of years ago, for it has
been justified by subsequent events. But what
that opinion has to do with Materialism I fail to
discover. In my judgment, it is consistent Avith
the most thorough-going Idealism, and the
grounds of that judgment are really very plain
and simple.

The growth of science, not merely of physical
science, but of all science, means the demonstration
of order and natural causation among phenomena
which had not previously been brought under those
conceptions. Nobody who is acquainted with the
progress of scientific thinking in every department
of human knowledge, in the course of the last two
centuries, will be disposed to deny that immense
provinces have been added to the realm of science ;
or to doubt that the next two centuries will be
witnesses of a vastly greater annexation. More
particularly in the region of the physiology of the
nervous sj^stem is it justifiable to conclude from
the progress that has been made in analysing the
relations between material and psj^hical pheno-
mena, that vast further advances will be made ;
and that, sooner or later, all the so-called spon-
taneous operations of the mind will have, not only
their relations to one another, but their relations
to physical phenomena, connected in natural series
of causes and effects, strictly defined. In other
words, while, at present, we know only the nearer

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 139

moiety of the chain of causes and effects, by which
the phenomena we call material give rise to those
which we call mental ; hereafter, we shall get to
the further end of the series.

In my innocence, I have been in the habit of
supposing that this is merely a statement of facts,
and that the good Bishop Berkeley, if he were
alive, would find such facts fit into his system
without the least difficulty. That Mr. Lilly
should play into the hands of his foes, by declaring
that unmistakable facts make for them, is an
exemplification of ways that are dark, quite un-
intelligible to me. Surely Mr. Lilly does not hold
that the disbelief in spontaneity — which term, if
it has any meaning at all, means uncaused action
— is a mark of the beast Materialism ? If so, he
must be prepared to tackle many of the Cartesians
(if not Descartes himself), Spinoza and Leibnitz
among the philosophers, Augustine, Thomas
Aquinas, Calvin and his followers among theolo-
gians, as Materialists — and that surely is a suffi-
cient redudio ad absurdtim of such a classification.

The truth is, that in his zeal to paint " Material-
ism," in large letters, on everything he dislikes,
Mr. Lilly forgets a very important fact, which,
however, must be patent to every one who has
paid attention to the history of human thought ;
and that fact is, that every one of the specu-
lative difficulties which beset Kant's three prob-
lems, the existence of a Deity, the freedom of the

140 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

will, and immortality, existed ages before any-
thing that can be called physical science, and
would continue to exist if modern jDhysical science
were swept away. All that physical science has
done has been to make, as it were, visible and
tangible some difficulties that formerly were more
hard of apprehension. Moreover, these difficulties
exist just as much on the hypothesis of Idealism
as on that of Materialism.

The student of nature, who starts from the
axiom of the universality of the law of causation,
cannot refuse to admit an eternal existence ; if he
admits the conservation of energy, he cannot
deny the possibility of an eternal energy; if he
admits the existence of immaterial phenomena
in the form of consciousness, he must admit the
possibility, at any rate, of an eternal series of
such phenomena ; and, if his studies have not been
barren of the best fruit of the investigation of
nature, he will have enough sense to see that
when Spinoza says, " Per Deum intelligo ens
absolute infinitum, hoc est substantiam constantem
infinitis attributis," the God so conceived is one
that only a very great fool would deny, even in
his heart. Physical science is as httle Atheistic
as it is Materialistic.

So with respect to immortaUty. As physical
science states this problem, it seems to stand thus :
" Is there any means of knowing whether the
series of states of consciousness, which has been

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 141

casually associated for threescore years and ten
with the arrangement and movements of in-
numerable millions of successively different mate-
rial molecules, can be continued, in like associ-
ation, with some substance which has not the
properties of matter and force ? " As Kant said,
on a like occasion, if anybody can answer that
question, he is just the man I want to see. If he
says that consciousness cannot exist, except in
relation of cause and effect with certain organic
molecules, I must ask how he knows that ; and if
he says it can, I must put the same question.
And I am afraid that, like jesting Pilate, I shall
not think it worth while (having but little time
before me) to wait for an answer.

Lastly, with respect to the old riddle of the
freedom of the will. In the only sense in which
the word freedom is intelligible to me — that is to
say, the absence of any restraint upon doing what
one likes within certain limits — physical science
certainly gives no more ground for doubting it
than the common sense of mankind does. And if
physical science, in strengthening our belief in the
universality of causation and abolishing chance as
an absurdity, leads to the conclusions of deter-
minism, it does no more than follow the track of
consistent and logical thinkers in philosophy and
in theology, before it existed or was thought of
Whoever accepts the universality of the law of
causation as a dogma of philosophy, denies the

142 SCIENCE AND MORALS

III

existence of uncaused jDhenomena. And the
essence of that which is improperly called the
freewill doctrine is that occasionally, at any rate,
human volition is self-caused, that is to say, not
caused at all ; for to cause oneself one must have
anteceded oneself — which is, to say the least of it,
difficult to imagine.

Whoever accejDts the existence of an omniscient
Deity as a dogma of theology, affirms that the
order of things is fixed from eternity to eternity ;
for the fore-knowledge of an occurrence means
that the occurrence will certainly happen; and
the certainty of an event happening is what is
meant by its being fixed or fated.^

1 I may cite, in support of this obvious conclusion of sound
reasoning, two authorities who ^Yill certainly not be regarded
lightly by Mr, Lilly. These are Augustine and Thomas
Aquinas. The former declares that "Fate" is only an ill-
chosen name for Providence.

"Prorsus divina providentia regna constituuntur humana.
Quoe si propterea quisquam fato tribuit, quia ipsam Dei volun-
tatem vel potestatem fati nomine appellat, sententiaia tencaty
linriuam corrigat" (Augustinus Be Civitate Dei, V. c. i.)

The other great doctor of the Catholic Church, " Divus
Thomas," as Suarez calls him, whose marvellous grasp and
subtlety of intellect seem to me to be almost without a parallel,
puts the whole case into a nutshell, when he says that the
ground for doing a thing in the mind of the doer is as it were
the pre-existence of the thing done :

"Ratio autem alicujus fiendi in mente actoris existens est
quredam prse-existentia rei fiendaj in eo" {Summa, Qu. xxiii.
Art. i.)

If this is not enough, I may further ask what " Materialist"
has ever given a better statement of the case for determinism,
on theistic grounds, than is to be found in the following passage
of the Summa, Qu. xiv. Art. xiii.

" Omnia qua; sunt in tempore, sunt Deo ab ajterno pnesentia,
nou solum ea ex ratiouo qua habet ratioues rerum apud se

Ill SCIENCE AND MORALS 143

Whoever asserts the existence of an omnipotent
Deity, that he made and sustains all things, and
is the causa causarum, cannot, without a contra-
diction in terms, assert that there is any cause
independent of him ; and it is a mere subterfuge
to assert that the cause of all things can " permit "
one of these things to be an independent cause.

Whoever asserts the combination of omniscience
and omnipotence as attributes of the Deity, does
implicitly assert predestination. For he who
knowingly makes a thing and places it in circum-
stances the operation of which on that thing he
is perfectly acquainted with, does predestine that
thing to whatever fate may befall it.

Thus, to come, at last, to the really important
part of all this discussion, if the belief in a God
is essential to morality, physical science offers no
obstacle thereto ; if the belief in immortality is
essential to morality, physical science has no more
to say against the probability of that doctrine than
the most ordinary experience has, and it effectually
closes the mouths of those who pretend to refute
it by objections deduced from merely physical

presentes, ut quidam diciint, sed quia ejus intuitus fertur ab
seterno supra omnia, prout sunt in sua praesentialitate. Unde
manifcstum est quod contingcntia infallihiliter a Deo cognos-
cuntur, in quantum subduntur divino conspectui secundum
suam prtesentialitatem ; et tamen sunt futura contingentia, suis
causis proximis comparata."

[As I have not said that Thomas Aquinas is professedly a
determinist, I do not see the bearing of citations from him which
may be more or less inconsistent with the foregoing.]

144 SCIENCE AND MORALS m

data. Finally, if the belief in the uncausedness
of volition is essential to morality, the student of
physical science has no more to say against that
absurdity than the logical philosopher or theo-
logian. Physical science, I rej^eat, did not invent
determinism, and the deterministic doctrine would
stand on just as firm a foundation as it does if
there were no physical science. Let any one who
doubts this read Jonathan Edwards, whose de-
monstrations are derived wholly from j^hilosophy
and theology.

Thus, when Mr. Lilly, like another Solomon
Eagle, goes about proclaiming " Woe to this wicked
city," and denouncing j^hysical science as the evil
genius of modern days — mother of materialism,
and fatalism, and all sorts of other condemnable
isms — I venture to beg him to lay the blame on
the right shoulders ; or, at least, to put in the
dock, along Avith Science, those sinful sisters of
hers. Philosophy and Theology, who, being so
much older, should have known better than the
poor Cinderella of the schools and universities
over which they have so long dominated. No
doubt modern society is diseased enough ; but
then it does not differ from older civilisations in
that respect. Societies of men are fermenting
masses, and, as beer has what the Germans call
" Oberhefe " and " Unterhefe," so every society that
has existed has had its scum at the top and its
dregs at the bottom ; but I doubt if any of the

Ill

SCIENCE AND MORALS 145

" ages of faith " had less scum or less dregs, or even
showed a proportionally gi'eater quantity of sound
wholesome stuff in the vat. I think it would
puzzle Mr. Lilly, or any one else, to adduce con-
vincing evidence that, at any period of the world's
history, there was a more widespread sense of
social duty, or a greater sense of justice, or of the
obligation of mutual help, than in this England of
ours. Ah ! but, says Mr. Lilly, these are all pro-
ducts of our Christian inheritance ; when Christian
dogmas vanish virtue will disappear too, and the
ancestral ape and tiger will have full play. But
there are a good many people who think it obvious
that Christianity also inherited a good deal from
Paganism and from Judaism; and that, if the
Stoics and the Jews revoked their bequest, the
moral property of Christianity would realise very
little. And, if morality has survived the stripping
off of several sets of clothes which have been
found to fit badly, why should it not be able to
get on very well in the light and handy garments
which Science is ready to provide ?

But this by the way. If the diseases of society
consist in the weakness of its faith in the existence
of the God of the theologians, in a future state,
and in uncaused volitions, the indication, as the
doctors say, is to suppress Theology and Philo-
sophy, whose bickerings about things of which
they know nothing have been the prime cause
and continual sustenance of that evil scepticism

VOL. IX L

146 SCIENCE AND MORALS

III

which is the Nemesis of meddling with the un-
knowable.

Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignor-
ance of these high matters. She lights the fire,
sweeps the house, and provides the dinner; and
is rewarded by being told that she is a base
creature, devoted to low and material interests.
But in her garret she has fairy visions out of the
ken of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling
down stairs. She sees the order which pervades
the seeming disorder of the world ; the great
drama of evolution, with its full share of pity
and terror, but also with abundant goodness and
beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes ; and she
learns, in her heart of hearts, the lesson, that the
foundation of morality is to have done, once and
for all, with lying ; to give up pretending to
believe that for which there is no evidence, and
repeating unintelligible propositions about things
beyond the possibilities of knowledge.

She knows that the safety of morality lies
neither in the adoption of this or that philo-
sophical speculation, or this or that theological
creed, but in a real and living belief in that fixed
order of nature which sends social disorganisation
upon the track of immorality, as surely as it
sends physical disease after physical trespasses.
And of that firm and lively faith it is her high
mission to be the priestess.

IV

CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR

AN ECONOMICAL PROBLEM DISCUSSED FROM A
PHYSIOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW

[1890]

The first act of a new-born child is to draw a
deep breath. In fact, it will never draw a deeper,
inasmuch as the passages and chambers of the
lungs, once distended with air, do not empty
themselves again ; it is only a fraction of their
contents which passes in and out with the flow
and the ebb of the respiratory tide. Mechanically,
this act of drawing breath, or inspiration, is of
the same nature as that by which the handles of
a bellows are separated, in order to fill the bellows
with air ; and, in like manner, it involves that
expenditure of energy which we call exertion, or
work, or labour. It is, therefore, no mere metaphor
to say that man is destined to a life of toil : the
work of respiration which began with his first
breath ends only with his last ; nor does one born

L 2

148 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

in the purple get off with a lighter task than the
child who first sees light under a hedge.

How is it that the new-born infant is enabled
to perform this first instalment of the sentence
of life-long labour which no man may escape ?
Whatever else a child may be, in resj^ect of this
particular question, it is a complicated piece of
mechanism, built up out of materials supplied by
its mother; and in the course of such building-
up, provided witli a set of motors — the muscles.
Each of these muscles contains a stock of sub-
stance capable of yielding energy under certain
conditions, one of which is a change of state in
the nerve fibres connected with it. The powder
in a loaded gun is such another stock of substance
capable of yielding energy in consequence of a
change of state in the mechanism of the lock,
which intervenes between the finger of the man
who pulls the trigger and the cartridge. If that
change is brought about, the potential energy of
the powder passes suddenly into actual energy,
and does the work of propelling the bullet. The
powder, therefore, may be appropriately called
worh-stujf, not only because it is stuff which is
easily made to yield work in the physical sense,
but because a good deal of work in the economical
sense has contributed to its production. Labour
was necessary to collect, transport, and purify the
raw sulphur and saltpetre ; to cut wood and con-
vert it into powdered charcoal ; to mix these in-

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 149

gredients in the right proportions; to give the
mixture the projDer grain, and so on. The powder
once formed part of the stock, or capital, of a
powder-maker : and it is not only certain natural
bodies which are collected and stored in the gun-
powder, but the labour bestowed on the operations
mentioned may be figuratively said to be incor-
porated in it.

In principle, the work-stuff stored in the
muscles of the new-born child is comparable to
that stored in the gun-barrel. The infant is
launched into altogether new surroundings ; and
these operate through the mechanism of the
nervous machinery, with the result that the
potential energy of some of the work-stuff in the
muscles which bring about inspiration is suddenly
converted into actual energy ; and this, operating
through the mechanism of the respiratory ap-
paratus, gives rise to an act of inspiration. As
the bullet is propelled by the "going off" of
the powder, as it might be said that the ribs are
raised and the midriff depressed by the " going off"
of certain portions of muscular work-stuff. This
work-stuff is part of a stock or capital of that
commodity stored up in the child's organism
before birth, at the expense of the mother ; and
the mother has made good her expenditure by
drawing upon the capital of food-stuffs which
furnished her daily maintenance.

Under these circumstances, it does not appear

150 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

to me to be open to doubt that the primary act of
outward labour in the series which necessarily
accomjDany the life of man is dependent upon the
pre-existence of a stock of material which is not
only of use to him, but which is disposed in such
a manner as to be utili sable with facility. And
I further imagine that the propriety of the
application of the term ' capital ' to this stock of
useful substance cannot be justly called in
question; inasmuch as it is easy to prove that
the essential constituents of the work-stuff
accumulated in the child's muscles have merely
been transferred from the store of food-stuffs,
which everybody admits to be capital, by means
of the maternal organism to that of the child, in
which they are again deposited to await use.
Every subsequent act of labour, in like manner,
involves an equivalent consumj^tion of the child's
store of work-stuff — its vital capital ; and one of
the main objects of the process of breathing is to
get rid of some of the effects of that consumption.
It follows, then, that, even if no other than the
respiratory work were going on in the organism,
the capital of work-stuff, which the child brought
with it into the world, must sooner or later be used
up, and the movements of breathing must come
to an end ; just as the see-saw of the piston of a
steam-engine stops when the coal in the fireplace
has burnt away.

Milk, however, is a stock of materials which

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 151

essentially consists of savings from the food-stuffs
supplied to the mother. And these savings are
in such a j^hysical and chemical condition that
the organism of the child can easily convert them
into work-stuff. That is to say, by borrowing
directly from the vital capital of the mother,
indirectly from the store in the natural bodies
accessible to her, it can make good the loss of
its own. The operation of borrowing, however,
involves further work ; that is, the labour of
sucking, which is a mechanical operation of much
the same nature as breathing. Tlie child thus
pays for the capital it borrows in labour ; but as
the value in work-stuff of the milk obtained is
very far greater than the value of that labour,
estimated by the consumption of work-stuff it
involves, the operation yields a large profit to the
infant. The overplus of food-stuff suffices to in-
crease the child's capital of work-stuff; and to
supply not only the materials for the enlargement
of the " buildings and machinery " which is ex-
pressed by the child's growth, but also the energy
required to put all these materials together, and
to carry them to their proper places. Thus,
throughout the years of infancy, and so long
thereafter as the youth or man is not thrown
upon his own resources, he lives by consuming
the vital capital provided by others. To use a
terminology which is more common than appro-
priate, whatever work he performs (and he does

152 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

a good deal, if only in mere locomotion) is un-
productive.

Let us now suppose the child come to man's
estate in the condition of a wandering savage,
dependent for his food upon what he can pick
up or catch, after the fashion of the Australian
aborigines. It is plain that the place of mother,
as the supplier of vital capital, is now taken by
the fruits, seeds, and roots of plants and by various
kinds of animals. It is they alone which contain
stocks of those substances which can be converted
within the man's organism into work-stuff; and of
the other matters, except air and water, required
to supply the constant consumption of his capital
and to keep his organic machinery going. In no
way does the savage contribute to the production
of these substances. Whatever labour he bestows
upon such vegetable and animal bodies, on the
contrary, is devoted to their destruction ; and it is
a mere matter of accident whether a little labour
yields him a great deal — as in the case, for
example, of a stranded whale ; or whether much
labour yields next to nothing — as in times of
long-continued drought. The savage, like the
child, borrows the capital he needs, and, at any
rate, intentionally, does nothing towards repay-
ment ; it would plainly be an improper use of the
word " produce " to say that his labour in hunting
for the roots, or the fruits, or the eggs, or the
grubs and snakes, which he finds and eats, " j^ro-

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 153

duces " or contributes to " produce " them. The
same thing is true of more advanced tribes, who
are still merely hunters, such as the Esquimaux.
They may expend more labour and skill ; but it is
spent in destruction.

When we pass from these to men who lead a
purely pastoral Hfe, like the South American
Gauchos, or some Asiatic nomads, there is an
important change. Let us suppose the owner of
a flock of sheep to Hve on the milk, cheese, and
flesh which they yield. It is obvious that the
flock stands to him in the economic relation of
the mother to the child, inasmuch as it suppHes
him with food-stuffs competent to make good the
daily and hourly losses of his capital of work-
stuff. If we imagine our sheep-owner to have
access to extensive pastures and to be troubled
neither by predacious animals nor by rival shep-
herds, the performance of his pastoral functions
will hardly involve the expenditure of any more
labour than is needful to provide him with the
exercise required to maintain health. And this
is true, even if we take into account the trouble
originally devoted to the domestication of the
sheep. It surely would be a most singular pre-
tension for the shepherd to talk of the flock as
the " produce " of his labour in any but a very
limited sense. In truth, his labour would have
been a mere accessory of production of very little
consequence. Under the circumstances supposed,

154 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

a ram and some ewes, left to themselves for a few
years, would probably generate as large a flock ;
and the superadded labour of the shepherd would
have little more effect upon their production than
upon that of the blackberries on the bushes about
the pastures. For the most part the increment
would be thoroughly unearned ; and, if it is a rule
of absolute political ethics that owners have no
claim upon " betterment " brought about inde-
pendently of their own labour, then the shepherd
would have no claim to at least nine-tenths of
the increase of the flock.

But if the shepherd has no real claim to the
title of " producer," who has ? Are the rams and
ewes the true " producers " ? Certainly their title
is better if, borrowing from the old terminology of
chemistry, they only claim to be regarded as the
" proximate principles " of production. And yet,
if strict justice is to be dispensed, even they are
to be regarded rather as collectors and distri-
butors than as " producers." For all that they
really do is to collect, slightly modify, and render
easily accessible, the vital capital which already
exists in the green herbs on which they feed, but
in such a form as to be practically out of the
reach of man.

Thus, from an economic point of view, the
sheep are more comparable to confectioners than
to producers. The usefulness of biscuit lies in
the raw flour of which it is made ; but raw flour

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 155

does not answer as an article of human diet, and
biscuit does. So the usefuhiess of mutton hes
mainly in certain chemical compounds which it
contains : the sheep gets them out of grass ; we
cannot live on grass, but we can on mutton.

Now, herbaceous and all other green plants
stand alone among terrestrial natural bodies, in so
far as, under the influence of light, they possess
the power to build up, out of the carbonic acid
gas in the atmosphere, water and certain nitro-
genous and mineral salts, those substances which
in the animal organism are utilised as work-stuff.
They are the chief and, for practical purposes, the
sole producers of that vital capital which we have
seen to be the necessary antecedent of every act
of labour. Every green plant is a laboratory in
which, so long as the sun shines upon it, materials
furnished by the mineral world, gases, water,
saline compounds, are worked uj) into those food-
stuffs without which animal life cannot be carried
on. And since, up to the present time, synthetic
chemistry has not advanced so far as to achieve
this feat, the green plant may be said to be the
only living worker whose labour directly results
in the production of that vital capital which is
the necessary antecedent of human labour.^ Nor
is this statement a paradox involving perpetual

^ It remains to be seen whether the plants which have no
chlorophyll, and flourish in darkness, such as the Fungi, can
live upon purely mineral food.

156 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

motion, because the energy by which the plant
does its work is supplied by the sun — the prim-
ordial capitalist so far as we are concerned. But
it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
mind that sunshine, air, water, the best soil that
is to be found on the surface of the earth, might
co-exist ; yet without plants, there is no known
agency competent to generate the so-called
" jDrotein compounds," by which alone animal life
can be permanently supported. And not only
are plants thus essential ; but, in respect of par-
ticular kinds of animals, they must be plants of
a particular nature. If there were no terrestrial
green plants but, say, c}^resses and mosses,
pastoral and agricultural life would be alike
impossible; indeed, it is difficult to imagine the
possibility of the existence of any large animal, as
the labour required to get at a sufficiency of the
store of food-stuffs, contained in such plants as
these, could hardly extract from them an equi-
valent for the waste involved in that expenditure
of work.

We are compact of dust and air ; from that we
set out, and to that complexion must we come
at last. The plant either directly, or by some
animal intermediary, lends us the capital which
enables us to carry on the business of life, as we
flit through the upper world, from the one term
of our journey to the other. Popularly, no doubt,
it is permissible to sjDcak of the soil as a " pro-

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 157

ducer," just as we may talk of the daily movement
of the sun. But, as I have elsewhere remarked,
propositions which are to bear any deductive
strain that may be put upon them must run the
risk of seeming pedantic, rather than that of being
inaccurate. And the statement that land, in the
sense of cultivable soil, is a producer, or even one
of the essentials of economic production, is any-
thing but accurate. The process of water-culture,
in which a plant is not " planted " in any soil, but
is merely supported in water containing in solution
the mineral ingredients essential to that plant, is
now thoroughly understood ; and, if it were worth
while, a crop yielding abundant food-stuffs could
be raised on an acre of fresh water, no less than
on an acre of dry land. In the Arctic regions,
again, land has nothing to do with " production "
in the social economy of the Esquimaux, who live
on seals and other marine animals; and might,
like Proteus, shepherd the flocks of Poseidon if
they had a mind for pastoral life. But the seals
and the bears are dependent on other inhabitants
of the sea, until, somewhere in the series, we come
to the minute green plants which float in the
ocean, and are the real " producers " by which the
whole of its vast animal population is supported.^

1 In some remarkable passages of the Botany of Sir James
Ross's Antarctic voyage, which took place half a century ago,
Sir Josejdi Hooker demonstrated the dependence of the animal
life of the sea upon the minute, indeed microscopic, plants
which float in it : a marvellous example of what may be done

158 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

Thus, when we find set. forth as an " absolute "
truth the statement that the essential factors in
economic production are land, capital and labour
— when this is offered as an axiom whence all
sorts of other important truths may be deduced —
it is needful to remember that the assertion is
true only with a qualification. Undoubtedly " vital
capital" is essential; for, as we have seen, no
human work can be done unless it exists, not even
that internal work of the body which is necessary
to passive life. But, with respect to labour (that
is, human labour) I hope to have left no doubt on
the reader's mind that, in regard to production, the
importance of human labour may be so small as to
be almost a vanishing quantity. Moreover, it is
certain that there is no approximation to a fixed
ratio between the expenditure of labour and the
production of that vital capital which is the
foundation of all wealth. For, suppose that we
introduce into our suppositious pastoral paradise
beasts of prey and rival shepherds, the amount of
labour thrown upon the sheep-owner may increase
almost indefinitely, and its importance as a con-
dition of production may be enormously aug-
mented, while the quantity of produce remains
stationary. Compare for a moment the unim-

by water-culture. One might indulge in dreams of cultivating
and improving diatoms, until the domesticated bore the same
relation to the wild forms, as cauliflowers to the primitive
Brassica oleracca, without passing beyond the limits of fair
gcientific speculation.

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 159

portance of the shepherd's labour, under the cir-
cumstances first defined, with its indispensability
in countries in which the water for the sheep has
to be drawn from deep wells, or in which the flock
has to be defended from wolves or from human
depredators. As to land, it has been shown
that, except as affording mere room and standing
ground, the importance of land, great as it may
be, is secondary. The one thing needful for
economic production is the green plant, as the
sole producer of vital capital from natural inorganic
bodies. Men might exist without labour (in the
ordinary sense) and without land ; without plants
they must inevitably perish.

That which is true of the purely pastoral con-
dition is a fortiori true of the purely agricultural ^
condition, in which the existence of the cultivator
is directly dependent on the production of vital
capital by the plants which he cultivates. Here,
again, the condition precedent of the work of each
year is vital capital. Suppose that a man lives
exclusively upon the plants which he cultivates.
It is obvious that he must have food-stufis to live
upon, while he prepares the soil for sowing and
throughout the period which elapses between this
and harvest. These food-stuffs must be yielded
by the stock remaining over from former crops.

^ It is a pity that we have no word that signifies plant-culture
exclusively. But for the present purpose I may restrict
agi'iculture to that sense.

160 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

Tlie result is the same as before — the pre-existence
of vital capital is the necessary antecedent of
labour. Moreover, the amount of labour which
contributes, as an accessory condition, to the pro-
duction of the crop varies as widely in the case of
plant-raising as in that of cattle-raising. With
favourable soil, climate and other conditions, it
may be very small, with unfavourable, very great,
for the same revenue or yield of food-stuflfs.

Thus, I do not think it is possible to dispute the
following proposition : the existence of any man,
or of any number of men, whether organised into a
polity or not, depends on the production of food-
stuffs (that is, vital capital) readily accessible to
man, either directly or indirectly, by plants. But
it follows that the number of men who can exist,
say for one year, on any given area of land, taken
by itself, depends upon the quantity of food-stuffs
produced by such plants growing on the area in
one year. If « is that quantity, and h the minimum

of food-stuffs required for each man, - = n, the

maximum number of men who can exist on the
area. Now the amount of production (a) is limited
by the extent of area occupied ; by the quantity of
sunshine which falls upon the area ; by the range
and distribution of temperature ; by the force of
the winds ; by the supply of water ; by the com-
position and the physical characters of the soil ;
by animal and vegetable competitors and de-

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 161

stroyers. The labour of man neither does, nor
can, produce vital capital ; all that it can do is to
modify, favourably or unfavourably, the conditions
of its production. The most important of these —
namely, sunshine, range of daily and nightly
temperature, wind — are practically out of men's
reach. ^ On the other hand, the supply of water,
the physical and chemical qualities of the soil,
and the influences of competitors and destroyers,
can often, though by no means always, be largely
affected by labour and skill. And there is no
harm in calling the effect of such labour " pro-
duction," if it is clearly understood that " produc-
tion " in this sense is a very different thing from
the " production " of food-stuffs by a plant.

We have been dealing hitherto with suppositions
the materials of which are furnished by everyday
experience, not with mere a iwiori assumptions.
Our hypothetical solitary shepherd with his flock,
or the solitary farmer with his grain field, are
mere bits of such experience, cut out, as it were,
for easy study. Still borrowing from daily ex-
perience, let us suppose that either sheep-owner
or farmer, for any reason that may be imagined,

* I do not forget electric lighting, greenhouses and hothouses,
and the various modes of alFovding slielter against violent winds :
but in regard to productiou of food-stuffs on the large scale tliey
may be neglected. Even if synthetic chemistry should effect
the construction of proteids, tlie Laboratory will hardly enter
into competition with the Farm within any time which the
present generation need trouble itself about.

VOL. IX M

162 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

desires the helj^ of one or more other men ; and
that, in exchange for their labour, he offers so
many sheep, or quarts of milk, or pounds of
cheese, or so many measures of grain, for a year's
service. I fail to discover any a priori " rights of
labour " in virtue of which these men may insist
on being employed, if they are not wanted. But,
on the other hand, I think it is clear that there
is only one condition upon which the persons to
whom the offer of these " wages " is made can
accept it ; and that is that the things offered in
exchange for a year's work shall contain at least
as much vital capital as a man uses up in doing
the year's work. For no rational man could
knowingly and willingly accept conditions which
necessarily involve starvation. Therefore there is
an iiTeducible minimum of wages ; it is such an
amount of vital capital as suffices to replace the
inevitable consumption of the person hired. Now,
surely, it is beyond a doubt that these wages,
whether at or above the irreducible minimum, are
paid out of the capital disposable after the wants
of the owner of the flock or of the crop of grain
are satisfied ; and, from what has been said already,
it follows that there is a limit to the number of
men, whether hired, or brought in in any otlier
way, who can be maintained by the sheepowner
or landowner out of liis own resources. Since no
amount of labour can produce an ounce of food-
stuff beyond the maximum producible by a limited

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 163

number of plants, under the most favourable
circumstances in regard to those conditions whicli
are not affected by labour, it follows that, if the
number of men to be fed increases indefinitely, a
time must come when some will have to starve.
That is the essence of the so-called Malthusian
doctrine ; and it is a truth which, to my mind, is
as plain as the general proposition that a quan-
tity which constantly increases will, some time or
other, exceed any greater quantity the amount of
which is fixed.

The foregoing considerations leave no doubt
about the fundamental condition of the existence
of any polity, or organised society of men, either in
a purely pastoral or purely agricultural state, or
in any mixture of both states. It must possess a
store of vital capital to start with, and the means
of repairing the consumption of that capital which
takes place as a consequence of the work of the
members of the society. And, if the polity occu-
pies a completely isolated area of the earth's
surface, the numerical strength of that polity can
never exceed the quotient of the maximum
quantity of food-stuffs producible by the green
plants on that area, in each year, divided by the
quantity necessary for the maintenance of each
person during the year. But, there is a third
mode of existence possible to a polity ; it may,
conceivably, be neither purely pastoral nor purely
agricultural, but purely manufacturing. Let us

M 2

164 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR

IV

suppose three islands, like Gran Canaria, Teneriffe
and Lanzerote, in the Canaries, to be quite cut off
from the rest of the world. Let Gran Canaria
be inhabited by grain-raisers, Teneriffe by cattle-
breeders ; while the population of Lanzerote
(which we may suppose to be utterly barren)
consists of carpenters, woollen manufacturers, and
shoemakers. Then the facts of daily experience
teach us that the people of Lanzerote could never
have existed unless they came to the island
provided with a stock of food-stuffs ; and that
they could not continue to exist, unless that stock,
as it was consumed, was made up by contributions
from the vital capital of either Gran Canaria, or
Teneriffe, or both. Moreover, the carpenters of
Lanzerote could do nothing, unless they were
provided with wood from the other islands ; nor
could the wool spinners and weavers or the
shoemakers work without wool and skins from the
same sources. The wood and the wool and the
skins are, in fact, the capital without which their
work as manufacturers in their respective trades
is impossible — so that the vital and other capital
supplied by Gran Canaria and Teneriffe is most
indubitably the necessary antecedent of the
industrial labour of Lanzerote. It is perfectly
true that by the time the wood, the wool, and the
skins reached Lanzerote a good deal of labour in
cutting, shearing, skinning, transport, and so on,
would have been spent upon them. But this

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 165

does not alter the fact that the only " production "
which is essential to the existence of the popula-
tion of Teneriffe and Gran Canaria is that effected
by the green plants in both islands ; and that all
the labour spent upon the raw produce useful in
manufacture, directly or indirectly yielded by
them — by the inhabitants of these islands and
by those of Lanzerote into the bargain — will not
provide one sohtary Lanzerotian with a dinner,
unless the Teneriffians and Canariotes happen to
want his goods and to be willing to give some of
their vital capital in exchange for them.

Under the circumstances defined, if Teneriffe
and Gran Canaria disappeared, or if their inhabit-
ants ceased to care for carpentry, clothing, or
shoes, the people of Lanzerote must starve. But
if they wish to buy, then the Lanzerotians, by
" cultivating " the buyers, indirectly favour the
cultivation of the produce of those buyers.

Thus, if the question is asked whether the
labour employed in manufacture in Lanzerote is
" productive " or " unproductive " there can be only
one reply. If anybody will exchange vital capital,
or that which can be exchanged for vital capital,
for Lanzerote goods, it is productive ; if not, it is
unproductive.

In the case of the manuftxcturer, the dependence
of labour upon capital is still more intimate than
in that of the herdsman or agriculturist. When
the latter are once started they can go on, without

IGG CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

troubling themselves about the existence of any
other people. But the manufacturer depends on
pre-existing capital, not only at the beginning, but
at the end of his operations. HoAvever gi'eat the
expenditure of his labour and of his skill, the
result, for the purpose of maintaining his exist-
ence, is just the same as if he had done nothing,
unless there is a customer able and wilHng to
exchange food-stuflfs for that which his labour and
skill have achieved.

There is another point concerning which it is
very necessary to have clear ideas. Suppose a
carpenter in Lanzerote to be engaged in making
chests of drawers. Let us suppose that a, the
timber, and h, the grain and meat needful for the
man's sustenance until he can finish a chest of
drawers, have to be paid for by that chest.
Then the capital with which he starts is repre-
sented by a + 1). He coidd not start at all unless
he had it ; day by day, he must destroy more or
less of the substance and of the general adapta-
bility of a in order to work it up into the special
forms needed to constitute the chest of drawers ;
and, day by day, he must use up at least so much
of l as will replace his loss of vital capital by the
work of that day. Suppose it takes the car-
penter and his workmen ten days to saw up the
timber, to plane the boards, and to give them the
shape and size proper for the various parts of the
chest of drawers. And suppose that he then

lY CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR ICu

offers his heap of boards to the advancer of a + h as
an equivalent for the wood + ten days' supply of
vital capital ? The latter will surely say : " No.
I did not ask for a heap of boards. I asked for a
chest of drawers. Up to this time, so far as I am
concerned, you have done nothing and are as
much in my debt as ever." And if the carpenter
maintained that he had " virtually " created two-
thirds of a chest of drawers, inasmuch as it would
take only five days more to put together the pieces
of wood, and that the heap of boards ought to
be accepted as the equivalent of two-thirds of his
debt, I am afraid the creditor would regard him
as little better than an impudent swindler. It
obviously makes no sort of difference whether the
Canariote or Teneriffian buyer advanced the wood
and the food-stuffs, on which the carpenter had to
maintain himself; or whether the carpenter had a
stock of both, the consumption of which must be
recouped by the exchange of a chest of drawers for
a fresh supply. In the latter case, it is even less
doubtful that, if the carpenter offered his boards
to the man who wanted a chest of drawers, the
latter would laugh in his face. And if he took
the chest of drawers for himself, then so much of
his vital capital would be sunk in it past recovery.
Again, the payment of goods in a lump, for the
chest of drawers, comes to the same thing as the
papnent of daily wages for the fifteen days that

168 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

the carpenter was occupied in making it. If, at
the end of each day, the carpenter chose to say to
himself '' I have ' virtually ' created, by my day's
labour, a fifteenth of what I shall get for the chest
of drawers — therefore my wages are the produce of
my day's labour "' — there is no great harm in such
metaphorical speech, so long as the poor man does
not delude himself into the supposition that it
represents the exact truth. " Virtually " is apt to
cover more intellectual sins than " charity " does
moral delicts. After what has been said, it surely
must be plain enough that each day's work has
involved the consumption of the carpenter's vital
capital, and the fashioning of his timber, at the
expense of more or less consumption of those
forms of capital. Whether the a + & to be ex-
changed for the chest has been advanced as a loan,
or is 23aid daily or weekly as wages, or, at some
later time, as the price of a finished commodity —
the essential element of the transaction, and the
only essential element, is, that it must, at least,
effect the replacement of the vital capital con-
sumed. Neither boards nor chest of drawers are
eatable ; and, so far from the carpenter having
produced the essential part of his wages by each
day's labour, he has merely Avasted that labour,
unless somebody who happens to want a chest of
drawers offers to exchange vital capital, or some-
thing that can procure it, equivalent to the

IV CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 169

amount consumed during the process of manu-
facture.^

That it should be necessary, at this time of day,
to set forth such elementary truths as these may
well seem strange ; but no one who consults that in-
teresting museum of political delusions, " Progress
and Poverty," some of the treasures of which I
have already brought to light, will doubt the
fact, if he bestows proper attention upon the
first book of that widely-read work. At page 15
it is thus written :

The proposition I shall endeavour to prove is : that wages,
instead of being drawn from capital, are, in reality, drawn from
the product of the labour for which they are paid.

Again at page 18 : —

In every case in which labour is exchanged for commodities,
production really precedes enjoyment . . . wages are the
earnings — that is to say, the makings— of labour — not the
advances of capital.

And the proposition which the author en-
deavours to disprove is the hitherto generally
accepted doctrine

that labour is maintained and paid out of existing capital,
before the product which constitutes the ultimate object is
secured (p. 16).

The doctrine respecting the relation of capital
and wages, which is thus opposed in " Progi'ess and

^ See the discussion of this subject further on.

170 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

Poverty," is that illustrated in the foregoing pages ;
the truth of which, I conceive, must be plain to
any one Avho has apprehended the very simple
arguments by which I have endeavoured to
demonstrate it. One conclusion or the other
must be hopelessly wrong ; and, even at the cost of
going once more over some of the ground traversed
in this essay and that on " Natural and Political
Rights," ^ I propose to show that the en'or lies with
" Progress and Poverty" ; in which work, so far as
political science is concerned, the poverty is, to
my eye, much more apparent than the progress.

To begin at the beginning. The author pro-
pounds a definition of wealth : " Nothing which
nature supplies to man without his labour is
wealth " (p. 28). Wealth consists of " natural sub-
stances or products which have been adapted by
human labour to human use or gratification, their
value depending upon the amount of labour which,
upon the average, would be required to produce
things of like kind" (p. 27). The following
examples of wealth are given : —

Buildings, cattle, tools, macliinery, agricultural and mineral
products, manufactured goods, ships, waggons, furniture, and
the like (p. 27).

I take it that native metals, coal and brick

clay, are " mineral products " ; and I quite believe

that they are properly termed " wealth." But

when a seam of coal crops out at the surface, and

^ Collected Essays, vol. i. pp. 359-382.

IV CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 171

lumps of coal arc to be had for the picking up ;
or when native copper lies about in nuggets, or
when brick clay forms a superficial stratum, it
appears to me that these things are supplied to,
nay almost thrust upon, man without his labour.
According to the definition, therefore, they are not
" wealth." According to the enumeration, however,
they are " wealth " : a tolerably fair specimen of a
contradiction in terms. Or does " Progress and
Poverty " really suggest that a coal seam which
crops out at the surface is not wealth ; but that if
somebody breaks off a j)iece and carries it away,
the bestowal of this amount of labour upon that
particular lump makes it wealth ; while the rest
remains " not wealth " ? The notion that the
value of a thing bears any necessary relation to
the amount of labour (average or otherwise) be-
stowed upon it, is a fallacy which needs no further
refutation than it has already received. The average
amount of labour bestowed upon warming-pans
confers no value upon them in the eyes of a Gold-
Coast negro ; nor would an Esquimaux give a slice
of blubber for the most elaborate of ice-machines.
So much for the doctrine of " Progress and
Poverty" touching the nature of wealth. Let
us now consider its teachings respecting capital
as wealth or a part of wealth. Adam Smith's
definition " that part of a man's stock which
he expects to yield him a revenue is called his
capital" is quoted with approval (jx 32); else-

172 CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

where capital is said to be that part of wealth
" which is devoted to the aid of production " (p.
28) ; and yet again it is said to be

wealth in course of exchange,'^ understanding exchange to
include, not merely the passing from hand to hand, hut also
such transmutations as occur Avhcn the reproductive or trans-
forming forces of nature are utilised for the increase of wealth
(p. 32).

But if too much pondering over the possible
senses and scope of these definitions should weary
the reader, he will be relieved by the following
acknowledgment : —

Nor is the definition of capital I have suggested of any
importance (p. 33).

The author informs us, in fact, that he is " not
writing a text-book," thereby intimating his
opinion that it is less important to be clear and
accurate when you are trying to bring about a
political revolution than when a merely academic
interest attaches to the subject treated. But he
is not busy about anything so serious as a text-
book : no, he " is only attempting to discover the
laws which control a great social problem" — a
mode of expression which indicates perhaps the
high-water mark of intellectual muddlement. I
have heard, in my time, of " laws " which control
other *' laws " ; but this is the first occasion on
which " laws " which " control a problem " have
come under my notice. Even the disquisitions " of
^ The italics are the author's.

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 173

those flabby writers who have burdened the press
and darkened counsel by numerous volumes which
are dubbed political economy " (p. 28) could hardly
furnish their critics with a finer specimen of that
which a hero of the " Dunciad," by the one flash of
genius recorded of him, called " clotted nonsense."
Doubtless it is a sign of grace that the author
of these definitions should attach no importance
to any of them; but since, unfortunately, his
whole argument turns upon the tacit assumption
that they are important, I may not pass them
over so lightly. The third I give up. Why any-
thing should be capital when it is " in course of
exchange," and not be capital under other circum-
stances, passes my understanding. We are told
that " that part of a farmer's crop held for sale or
for seed, or to feed his help, in part payment of
wages, would be accounted capital ; that held for
tlie care of his family would not be " (p. 31). But
I fail to discover any ground of reason or authority
for the doctrine that it is only when a crop is
about to be sold or sown, or given as wages, that
it may be called capital. On the contrary, whether
we consider custom or reason, so much of it as is
stored away in ricks and barns during harvest,
and remains there to be used in any of these ways
montlis or years afterwards, is customarily and
rightly termed capita-l. Surely, the meaning of tlie
clumsy phrase that capital is " wealth in the course
of exchange " must be that it is " wealth capable of

174 CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

being exchanged " against labour or anything else.
That, in fact, is the equivalent of tlie second
definition, that capital is "that part of wealth
which is devoted to the aid of production."
Obviously, if you possess that for which men will
give labour, you can aid production by means of
that labour. And, again, it agrees with the first
definition (borrowed from Adam Smith) that
capital is " that part of a man's stock which he
expects to yield him a revenue." For a revenue
is both etymologically and in sense a "return."
A man gives his labour in sowing grain, or in
tending cattle, because he expects a " return " — a
"revenue" — in the shape of the increase of the
grain or of the herd ; and also, in the latter case,
in the shape of their labour and manure which
" aid the production " of such increase. The grain
and cattle of which he is possessed immediately
after harvest is his capital ; and his revenue for the
twelvemonth, until the next harvest, is the surplus
of grain and cattle over and above the amount
with which he started. This is disposable for
any purpose for which he may desire to use it,
leaving him just as well off as he was at the
beginning of the year. Whether the man keeps
the surplus grain for sowing more land, and the
surplus cattle for occupying more pasture ; whether
lie exchanges them for other commodities, such
as the use of the land (as rent); or labour (as
wages); or whether he feeds himself and his

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR l75

family, in no way alters their nature as revenue,
or affects tlie ftict that this revenue is merely
disposable capital.

That (even apart from etymology) cattle are
typical examples of capital cannot be denied
(" Progress and Poverty," p. 25) ; and if we seek
for that particular quality of cattle which makes
them " capital," neither has the author of " Pro-
gress and Poverty" supplied, nor is any one else
very likely to supply, a better account of the
matter than Adam Smith has done. Cattle are
" capital " because they are " stock which yields
revenue." That is to say, they afford to their
owner a supply of that which he desires to pos-
sess. And, in this particular case, the " revenue "
is not only desirable, but of supreme importance,
inasmuch as it is capable of maintaining human
life. The herd yields a revenue of food-stuffs as
milk and meat ; a revenue of skins ; a revenue of
manure ; a revenue of labour ; a revenue of ex-
changeable commodities in the shape of these
things, as well as in that of live cattle. In each
and all of these capacities cattle are capital ; and,
conversely, things which possess any or all of
these capacities are capital.

Therefore what we find at page 25 of " Progress
and Poverty " must be regarded as a welcome
lapse into clearness of apprehension : —

A fertile field, a rich vein of ore, a falling stream which sup-
plies power, may give the possessor advantages equivalent to the

176 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

possession of capital ; Ijut to class such thiugs as capital would
Ise to put an end to the distinction between land and capital.

Just SO. But the fatal truth is that these things
are capital; and that there really is no funda-
mental distinction between land and capital. Is
it denied that a fertile held, a rich vein of ore, or
a falling stream, may form part of a man's stock,
and that, if they do, they are caj^able of yielding
revenue ? Will not somebody pay a share of the
produce in kind, or in money, for the privilege of
cultivating the first ; royalties for that of working
the second; and a like equivalent for that of
erecting a mill on the third ? In what sense, then,
are these things less " capital " than the buildings
and tools which on page 27 of " Progress and
Poverty " are admitted to be capital ? Is it not
plain that if these things confer " advantages
equivalent to the possession of capital," and if the
" advantage " of capital is nothing but the yielding
of revenue, then the denial that they are capital
is merely a roundabout way of self-contradiction ?
All this confused talk about capital, however,
is lucidity itself compared with the exposition of
the remarkable thesis, " Wages not drawn from
capital, but produced by labour," which occupies
the third chapter of " Progress and Poverty."

If, for instance, I devote my labour to gathering birds' eggs
or picking wild berries, the eggs or berries I thus get are my wages.
Surely no one will contend that, in such a case, wages are
diawu from capital. There is no capital in the case (p. 34).

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 177

Nevertheless, those who have followed what has
been said in the first part of this essay surely
neither will, nor can, have any hesitation about
substantially adopting the challenged contention,
though they may possibly have qualms as to the
propriety of the use of the term " wages." ^ They
will have no difficulty in apprehending the fact
that birds' eggs and berries are stores of food-
stuffs, or vital capital ; that the man who devotes
his labour to getting them does so at the expense
of his personal vital capital ; and that, if the eggs
and the berries are " wages" for his work, they are so
because they enable him to restore to his organism
the vital capital which he has consumed in doing
the work of collection. So that there is really a
great deal of " capital in the case."
Our author j)roceeds : —

An absolutely naked man, thrown on an island where no
human being has before trod, may gather birds' eggs or pick
berries (p. 34).

No doubt. But those who have followed my
argument thus far will be aware that a man's
vital capital does not reside in his clothes ; and,
therefore, they will probably fail, as completely as
I do, to discover the relevancy of the statement.

1 Not merely on the grounds stated below, but on the
strength of Mr. George's own definition. Does the gatherer of
eggs, or berries, 2^i'odiicc them by his labour ? If so, what do
the hens and the bushes do 'i

VOL. IX N

178 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

Again : —

Or, if I t<ake a piece of leather and work it up into a pair of
shoes, the shoes are my wages— the reward of my exertion.
Surely they are not drawn from capital— either my capital or
anybody else's capital— but are brought into existence by the
labour of which they became the wages ; and, in obtaining this
pair of shoes as the wages of my labour, capital is not even
momentarily lessened one iota. For if we call in the idea of
capital, my capital at the beginning consists of the piece of
leather, the thread, &c. (p. 34).

It takes away one's breath to have such a con-
catenation of fallacies administered in the space
of half a paragraph. It does not seem to have
occurred to our economical reformer to imagine
whence his " capital at the beginning," the " leather,
thread, &c." came. I venture to suppose that
leather to have been originally cattle-skin ; and
since calves and oxen are not flayed alive, the
existence of the leather implies the lessening of
that form of capital by a very considerable iota.
It is, therefore, as sure as anything can be that,
in the long run, the shoes are drawn from that
which is capital jx«' excellence ; to wit, cattle. It
is further beyond doubt that the operation of
tanning must involve loss of capital in the shape
of bark, to say nothing of other losses ; and that
the use of the awls and knives of the shoemaker
involves loss of capital in the shajDe of the store of
iron ; further, the shoemaker has been enabled to
do his work not only by the vital capital expended
during the time occupied in making the pair of

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 179

shoes, but by that expended from the time of his
birth, up to the time that he earned wages that
would keep him aKve.

" Progress and Poverty " continues : —

As my labour goes on, value is steadily added until, when my
labour results in the finished shoes, I have my capital plus the
difference in value between the material and the shoes. In
obtaining this additional value — my wages — how is capital, at
any time, drawn upon ? (p. 34).

In return we may inquire, how can any one
propound sucii a question ? Capital is drawn
upon all the time. Not only when the shoes are
commenced, but while they are being made, and
until they are either used by the shoemaker him-
self or are purchased by somebody else ; that is,
exchanged for a portion of another man's capital.
In fact (supposing that the shoemaker does not
want shoes himself), it is the existence of vital
capital in the possession of another person and the
willingness of that person to part with more or
less of it in exchange for the shoes — it is these
two conditions, alone, which prevent the shoe-
maker from having consumed his capital unpro-
ductively, just as much as if he had spent his
time in chopping up the leather into minute
fragments.

Thus, the examination of the very case selected
by the advocate of the doctrine that labour be-
stowed upon manufacture, without any interven-
tion of capital, can produce wages, proves to be a

N 2

180 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

delusion of the first magnitude ; even though it
be supported by the dictum of Adam Smith which
is quoted in its favour (p. 34) —

The produce of labour constitutes the natural recompense or
wages of labour. In that original state of things which precedes
both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock,
the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has
neither landlord nor master to share with him (""Wealth of
Nations," ch, viii. ).

But the whole of this passage exhibits the in-
fluence of the French Physiocrats by whom Adam
Smith was inspired, at their worst ; that is to say,
when they most completely forsook the ground of
experience for a 'priori speculation. The confident
reference to " that original state of things " is
quite in the manner of the Essai sur VInigaliU.
Now, the state of men before the " appropriation
of land " and the " accumulation of stock " must
surely have been that of purely savage hunters.
As, by the supposition, nobody would have
possessed land, certainly no man could have had
a landlord ; and, if there was no accumulation of
stock in a transferable form, as surely there could
be no master, in the sense of hirer. But hirer
and hire (that is, wages) are correlative terms,
like mother and child. As "child" implies
" mother," so does " hire " or " wages " imjDly a
•' hirer " or " wage-giver." Therefore, when a man
in " the original state of things " gathered fruit or
killed game for his own sustenance, the fruit or

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 181

the game could be called his " wages " only in a
figurative sense ; as one sees if the term " hire,"
which has a more limited connotation, is substi-
tuted for " wage." If not, it must be assumed
that the savage hired himself to get his own
dinner; whereby we are led to the tolerably
absurd conclusion that, as in the " state of nature "
he was his own employer, the " master " and the
labourer, in that model age, appropriated the pro-
duce in equal shares ! And if this should be not
enough, it has already been seen that, in the
hunting state, man is not even an accessory of
production of vital capital; he merely consumes
what nature produces.

According to the author of " Progress and
Poverty " political economists have been deluded
by a " fallacy which has entangled some of the
most acute minds in a web of their own spinning."

It is in the use of the term capital in two senses. In the
primary proposition that capital is necessary to the exertion of
productive labour, the term " capital " is understood as including
all food, clothing, shelter, &c. ; whereas in the deductions
finally drawn from it, the term is used in its common and
legitimate meaning of wealth devoted, not to the immediate
gratification of desire, but to the procurement of more wealth —
of wealth in the hands of employers as distinguished from
labourers (p. 40).

I am by no means concerned to defend the
political economists who are thus charged with
blundering ; but I shall be surprised to learn that
any have carried tlie art of self-entanglement to

182 CAPITxVL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

the degree of ^^erfection exhibited by this passage.
Who lias ever imagined that ^Yealth Avhich, in tlie
hands of an employer, is capital, ceases to be capital
if it is in the hands of a labom^er? Suppose
a workman to be paid thirty shillings on Saturday
evening for six days' labour, that thirty shillings
comes out of the employer's capital, and receives
the name of " wages " simply because it is ex-
changed for labour. In the workman's pocket,
as he goes home, it is a part of his capital, in
exactly the same sense as, half an hour before, it
was part of the employer's capital ; he is a
capitalist just as much as if he Avere a Rothschild.
Suppose him to be a single man, whose cooking
and household matters are attended to by the
people of the house in which he has a room ;
then the rent which he pays them out of this
capital is, in part, wages for their labour, and he
is, so far, an employer. If he saves one shilling
out of his thirty, he has, to that extent, added to
his capital when the next Saturday comes round.
And if he puts his saved shillings week by week
into the Savings Bank, the difference between him
and the most bloated of bankers is simply one of
degree.

At page 42, we arc confidently told that
" labourers by receiving wages " cannot lessen
" even temporarily " the " capital of the employer,"
while at page 44 it is admitted that in certain
cases the capitalist " pays out cajDital in wages."

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 183

One would think that the " paying out " of
capital is hardly possible without at least a
" temporary " diminution of the capital from which
payment is made. But " Progress and Poverty "
changes all that by a little verbal legerdemain : —

For where wages are paid before the object of the labour is
obtained, or is finished— as in agriculture, where ploughing and
sowing must precede by several months the harvesting of the
crop ; as in the erection of buildings, the construction of ships,
railroads, canals, &c. — it is clear that the owners of the capital
paid in wages cannot expect an immediate return, but, as the
phrase is, nuist "outlay it " or "lie out of it " for a time which
sometimes amounts to many years. And hence, if first princi-
ples are not kept in mind, it is easy to jump to the conclusion
that wages are advanced by capital (p. 44).

Those who have paid attention to the argument
of former j)arts of this paper may not be able to
understand how, if sound " first princij)les are
kept in mind," any other conclusion can be
reached, whether by jumping, or by any other
mode of logical progression. But the first principle
which our author " keeps in mind " 2:>ossesses just
that amount of ambiguity which enables him to
play hocus-pocus Avith it. It is this ; that " the
creation of value does not dej^end upon the fin-
ishing of the product " (p. 44).

There is no doubt that, under certain limitations,
this proposition is correct. It is not true that
" labour always adds to capital by its exertion
before it takes from capital its wages" (p. 44)>

184 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR iv

but it is true that it may, and often does, produce
that effect.

To take one of tlie examples given, the con-
struction of a ship. The shaping of the timbers
undoubtedly gives them a value (for a shipbuilder)
which they did not possess before. When they
are put together to constitute the framework of
the ship, there is a still further addition of value
(for a shipbuilder) ; and when the outside planking
is added, there is another addition (for a ship-
builder). Suppose everything else about the hull
is finished, exce^Dt the one little item of caulking
the seams, there is no doubt that it has still
more value for a shij^builder. But for whom else
has it any value, except perhaps for a fire-wood
merchant ? What price will any one who wants
a shii^ — that is to say, something that will carry a
cargo from one port to another — give for the un-
finished vessel which would take water in at
every seam and go down in half an hour, if she
were launched ? Supjoose the shipbuilder s capital
to fail before the vessel is caulked, and that he
cannot find another shipbuilder who cares to buy
and finish it, what sort of proi:>ortion does the
value created by the labour, for which he has paid
out of his capital, stand to that of his advances ?
Surely no one Avill give him one-tenth of the
capital disbursed in wages, perhaps not so much
even as the prime cost of the raw materials.
Therefore, though the assertion that " the creation

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 185

of value does not depend on the finishing of the
product" may be strictly true under certain cir-
cumstances, it need not be and is not always true.
And, if it is meant to imply or suggest that the
creation of value in a manufactured article does
not depend upon the finishing of that article, a
more serious error could hardly be propounded.

Is there not a prodigious difference in the value
of an uncaulked and in that of a finished ship ;
between the value of a house in which only the
tiles of the roof are wanting and a finished house ;
between that of a clock which only lacks the
escapement and a finished clock ?

As ships, house, and clock, the unfinished
articles have no value whatever — that is to say,
no person who wanted to purchase one of these
things, for immediate use, would give a farthing
for either. The only value they can have, apart
from that of the materials they contain, is
that which they possess for some one who can
finish them, or for some one who can make use
of parts of them for the construction of other
things. A man might buy an unfinished house
for the sake of the bricks ; or he might buy an
incomplete clock to use the works for some other
piece of machinery.

Thus, though every stage of the labour bestowed
on raw material, for the purpose of giving rise to a
certain product, confers some additional value on
that material in the estimation of those who are

186 CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR IV

engaged in manufocturing that product, the
ratio of that accumulated vakie, at any stage of
the process, to the vahie of the finished product
is extremely inconstant, and often small; while,
to other pei-sons, the value of the unfinished pro-
duct may be nothing, or even a minus quantity.
A house-timber merchant, for example, might
consider that wood which had been worked into
the ribs of a ship was spoiled — that is, had less
value than it had as a log.

According to " Progress and Poverty," there wa.s,
really, no advance of capital while the great St.
Gothard tunnel was cut. Suppose that, as the Swiss
and the Italian halves of the tunnel approached
to within half a kilometre, that half-kilometre had
turned out to be composed of practically impene-
trable rock — would anybody have given a centime
for the unfinished tunnel ? And if not, how comes
it that " the creation of value does not depend on
the finishing of the jDroduct '"' ?

I think it may be not too much to say that, of
all the political delusions which are current in this
queer world, the very stupidest are those which
assume that labour and capital are necessarily
antagonistic ; that all capital is produced by labour
and therefore, by natural right, is the property of
the labourer; that the possessor of capital is a robber
who preys on the workman and approi^riates to him-
self that which lie has had no share in producing.

IV CAPITAL — THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 187

On the contrary, capital and labour are,
necessarily, close allies ; capital is never a product
of human labour alone ; it exists apart from
human labour; it is the necessary antecedent of
labour; and it furnishes the materials on which
labour is employed. The only indispensable form
of capital — vital capital — cannot be produced by
human labour. All that man can do is to favour
its formation by the real producers. There is no
intrinsic relation between the amount of labour
bestowed on an article and its value in exchange.
The claim of labour to the total result of operations
which are rendered possible only by capital is
simply an a 'priori iniquity.

SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE
REMEDIES

LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " OX MR. BOOTH'S
SCHEME. WITH A PREFACE AND INTRODUCTORY
ESSAY

[1891]

PREFACE

The letters which are here collected together
were published in the " Times " in the course of
the months of December, 1890, and January,
1891.

The circumstances whicli led me to write the
first letter are sufficiently set forth in its oi^ening
sentences ; and the materials on which I based my
criticisms of Mr. Booth's scheme, in this and in
the second letter, were wholly derived from Mr.
Booth's book. I had some reason to know, how-
evei*, that when anybody allows his sense of duty
so far to prevail over his sense of the blessedness
of peace as to write a letter to the " Times/' on

V SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIES 189

any subject of public interest, his reflections, be-
fore he has done with the business, will be very
like those of Johnny Gilpin, " who little thought,
when he set out, of running such a rig." Such
undoubtedly are mine when I contemj^late these
twelve documents, and call to mind the distinct ad-
dition to the revenue of the Post Office which must
have accrued from the mass of letters and
pamphlets which have been delivered at my
door; to say nothing of the unexpected light
upon my character, motives, and doctrines, which
has been thrown by some of the " Times' " corre-
spondents, and by no end of comments elsewhere.
If self-knowledge is the highest aim of man, I
ought by this time to have little to learn. And
yet, if I am awake, some of my teachers — unable,
perhaps, to control the divine fire of the poetic
imagination which is so closely akin to, if not a
part of, the mythopoeic faculty — have surely
dreamed dreams. So far as my humbler and
essentially prosaic faculties of observation and
comparison go, plain facts are against them. But,
as I may be mistaken, I have thought it well to
prefix to the letters (by way of " Prolegomena ")
an essay which appeared in the " Nineteenth
Century" for January, 1888, in which the prin-
ciples that, to my mind, lie at the bottom of the
" social question " are stated. So far as Indi-
vidualism and Regimental Socialism are con-
cerned, this paper simply emphasizes and expands

190 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

the opinions expressed in an address to the members
of the Midland Institute, dehvered seventeen years
earher, and still more fully developed in several
essays published in the " Nineteenth Century" in
1889, which I hope, before long, to republish.^

The fundamental proposition which runs
through the writings, which thus extend over a
period of twenty years, is, that the common
a 'priori doctrines and methods of reasoning about
political and social questions are essentiall}'
vicious ; and that argumentation on this basis
leads, with equal logical force, to two contradictory
and extremely mischievous systems, the one that
of Anarchic Individualism, the other that of
despotic or Regimental Socialism. Whether I
am right or wrong, I am at least consistent in
opposing both to the best of my ability. Mr.
Booth's system aj)pears to me, and, as I have
shown, is regarded by Socialists themselves, to be
mere autocratic Socialism, masked by its theo-
logical exterior. That the " fantastic " religious
skin will wear away, and the Socialistic reality it
covers will show its real nature, is the expressed
hope of one candid Socialist, and may be fairly
conceived to be the unexpressed belief of the
despotic leader of the new Trades Union, who
has shown his zeal, if not his discretion, in cham-
pioning Mr. Booth's projects. [See Letter VIII.]

1 See Collected Essays, vol. i. p. 290 to end ; and this volume,
p. 147.

V WORSE REMEDIES 191

Yet another word to commentatoi-s upon ni}^
letters. There are some wlio rather chuckle, and
some who sneer, at what they seem to consider
the dexterity of an " old controversial hand,"
exhibited by the contrast which I have drawn
between the methods of conversion depicted in
the New Testament and those pursued by
fanatics of the Salvationist type, whether they
be such as are now exploited by Mr. Booth, or
such as those who, from the time of the Ana-
baptists, to go no further back, have worked upon
similar lines.

Whether such observations were intended to
be flattering or sarcastic, I must respectfully
decline to accept the compliment, or to apply the
sarcasm to myself. I object to obliquity of pro-
cedure and ambiguity of speech in all shapes.
And I confess that I find it difficult to understand
the state of mind which leads any one to suppose,
that deep respect for single-minded devotion to
high aims is incompatible with the unhesitating
conviction that those aims include the jDropagation
of doctrines which are devoid of foundation —
perhaps even mischievous.

The most degrading feature of the narrower
forms of Christianity (of which that professed by
Mr. Booth is a notable example) is their insistence
that the noblest virtues, if displayed by those who
reject their pitiable formula3, are, as their pet
phrase goes, " splendid sins." But there is,

192 SOCIAL DISEASES AXD v

perhaps, one step lower; and that is that men,
who profess freedom of thought, should fail to
see and appreciate that large soul of goodness
which often animates even the fanatical adherents
of such tenets. I am sorry for any man who can
read the epistles to the Galatians and the Corin-
thians without pelding a large meed of admiration
to the fervent humanity of Paul of Tarsus ; who
can study the lives of Francis of Assisi, or of
Catherine of Siena, without wishing that, for the
furtherance of his o^^Tl ideals, he might be even
as they ; or who can contemplate unmoved the
steadfast veracity and true heroism which loom
through the fogs of mystical utterance in George
Fox. In all these gi'eat men and women there
lay the root of the matter ; a burning desire to
amend the condition of their fellow-men, and to
put aside all other things for that end. If, in
spite of all the dogmatic helps or hindrances in
which they were entangled, these people are not
to be held in high honour, who are ?

I have never expressed a doubt — for I have
none — that, when Mr. Booth left the Methodist
connection, and started that organisation of the
Salvation Army upon which, comparatively re-
cently, such ambitious schemes of social reform
have been grafted, he may have deserved some
share of such honour. I do not say that, so far
as his personal desires and intentions go, he may
not still deserve it.

V WORSE REMEDIES 193

But the correlate of despotic authority is
unlimited responsibility. If Mr. Booth is to take
credit for any good that the Army system has
effected, he must be prepared to bear blame for
its inherent evils. As it seems to me, that has
happened to him which sooner or later happens
to all despots : he has become the slave of his
own creation — the prosperity and glory of the
soul-saving machine have become the end, instead
of a means, of soul-saving ; and to maintain these
at the proper pitch, the " General " is led to do
things which the Mr. Booth of twenty years ago
would probably have scorned.

And those who desire, as I most emphatically
desire, to be just to Mr. Booth, however badly
they may think of the working of the organisation
he has founded, will bear in mind that some
astute backers of his probably care little enough
for Salvationist religion ; and, perhaps, are not
very keen about many of Mr. Booth's projects. I
have referred to the rubbing of the hands of the
Socialists over Mr. Booth's success ;^ but, unless I
err greatly, there are politicians of a certain
school to whom it affords still greater satisfaction.
Consider what electioneering agents the captains
of the Salvation Army, scattered through all our
towns, and directed from a political " bureau " in
London, would make ! Think how political
adversaries could be harassed by our local
1 See Letter Fill.

VOL. IX O

194 SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIES v

attorney — " tribune of the people," I mean ; and
how a troublesome man, on the other side, could
be " hunted down " upon any convenient charge,
whether true or false, brought by our Vigilance-
familiar ! ^

I entirely acquit Mr. Booth of any complicity
in far-reaching schemes of this kind ; but I did
not write idly when, in my first letter, I gave no
vague warning of what might grow out of the
organised force, drilled in the habit of unhesitating
obedience, which he has created.

1 See Utter II.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE IN HUMAN
SOCIETY

[1888]

The vast and varied procession of events,
which we call Nature, affords a sublime spectacle
and an inexhaustible wealth of attractive pro-
blems to the speculative observer. If we confine
our attention to that aspect which engages the
attention of the intellect, nature appears a beau-
tiful and harmonious whole, the incarnation of a
faultless logical process, from certain premisses in
the past to an inevitable conclusion in the future.
But if it be regarded from a less elevated, though
more human, point of view ; if our moral sym-
pathies are allowed to influence our judgment,
and we permit ourselves to criticize our great
mother as we criticize one another ; then our
verdict, at least so far as sentient nature is
concerned, can hardly be so favourable.

In sober truth, to those who have made a

o 2

196 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

study of the phenomena of hfe as they are
exhibited by the higher forms of the animal
world, the optimistic dogma, that this is the best
of all possible worlds, will seem little better than
a libel upon possibility. It is really only another
instance to be added to the many extant, of the
audacity of a i^iori speculators who, having
created God in their own image, find no difficulty
in assuming that the Almighty must have been
actuated by the same motives as themselves.
They are quite sure that, had any other course
been practicable. He would no more have made
infinite suffering a necessary ingredient of His
handiwork than a respectable philoso23her Avould
have done the like.

But even the modified optimism of the time-
honoured thesis of physico-theology, that the
sentient world is, on the whole, regulated by
principles of benevolence, does but ill stand the
test of impartial confrontation with the facts of
the case. No doubt it is quite true that sen-
tient nature affords hosts of examples of subtle
contrivances directed towards the production of
pleasure or the avoidance of pain ; and it may be
proper to say that these are evidences of benevo-
lence. But if so, why is it not equally proper to
say of the equally numerous arrangements, the no
less necessary result of which is the production
of pain, that they are evidences of malevolence ?

If a vast amount of that which, in a piece of
human workmanship, we should call skill, is

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 197

visible in those parts of the organization of a
deer to which it owes its abiUty to escape from
beasts of prey, there is at least equal skill
displayed in that bodily mechanism of the wolf
which enables him to track, and sooner or later
to bring down, the deer. Viewed under the dry
light of science, deer and wolf are alike admirable ;
and, if both were non-sentient automata, there
would be nothing to qualify our admiration of
the action of the one on the other. But the fact
that the deer suffers, while the wolf inflicts
suffering, engages our moral sympathies. We
should call men like the deer innocent and good,
men such as the wolf malignant and bad; we
should call those who defended the deer and
aided him to escape brave and compassionate,
and those who helped the wolf in his bloody
work base and cruel. Surely, if we transfer these
judgments to nature outside the world of man at
all, we must do so impartially. In that case, the
goodness of the right hand which helps the deer,
and the wickedness of the left hand which eggs
on the wolf, will neutralize one another : and the
course of nature will appear to be neither moral
nor immoral, but non-moral.

This conclusion is thrust upon us by analogous
facts in every part of the sentient world ; yet, in-
asmuch as it not only jars upon prevalent pre-
judices, but arouses the natural dislike to that
which is painful, much ingenuity has been exercised
in devising an escape from it.

198 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

From the theological side, we are told that this
is a state of probation, and that the seeming-
injustices and immorahties of nature will be com-
pensated by and by. But how this compensation
is to be effected, in the case of the great majority
of sentient things, is not clear. I apprehend that
no one is seriously prepared to maintain that the
ghosts of all the mjTiads of generations of her-
bivorous animals which Hved during the millions
of years of the earth's duration, before the appear-
ance of man, and which have all that time been
tormented and devoured by carnivores, are to be
compensated by a perennial existence in clover;
while the ghosts of carnivores are to go to some
kennel where there is neither a panof Avaternor a
bone with any meat on it. Besides, from the point
of view of morality, the last stage of things would be
worse than the first. For the carnivores, however
brutal and sanguinary, have only done that which,
if there is any evidence of contrivance in the
world, they were expressly constructed to do.
Moreover, carnivores and herbivores alike have been
subject to all the miseries incidental to old age,
disease, and over-multiplication, and both might
well put in a claim for "compensation" on this score.

On the evolutionist side, on the other hand, we
are told to take comfort from the reflection that
the terrible struggle for existence tends to final
good, and that the suffering of the ancestor is paid
for by the increased perfection of the progeny.
There would be something in this argument if, in

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 199

Chinese fashion, the present generation could pay
its debts to its ancestors ; otherwise it is not clear
what compensation the Eohipinis gets for his
sorrows in the fact that, some millions of years
afterwards, one of his descendants wins the Derby.
And, again, it is an error to imagine that evolution
signifies a constant tendency to increased perfec-
tion. That process undoubtedly involves a constant
re-modelling of the organism in adaptation to new
conditions ; but it depends on the nature of those
conditions whether the direction of the modifi-
cations effected shall be upward or downward.
Retrogressive is as practicable as progressive
metamorphosis. If what the physical philosophers
tell us, that our globe has been in a state of fusion,
and, like the sun, is gradually cooling down, is
true ; then the time must come when evolution
will mean adaptation to an universal winter, and
all forms of life will die out, except such low and
simple organisms as the Diatom of the arctic and
antarctic ice and the Protococcus of the red snow.
If our globe is proceeding from a condition in
which it was too hot to support any but the lowest
living thing to a condition in which it will be too
cold to permit of the existence of any others, the
course of life upon its surface must describe a
trajectory like that of a ball fired from a mortar;
and the sinking half of that course is as much a
part of the general process of evolution as the rising.
From the point of view of the moralist the

200 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

animal world is on about the same level as a
gladiator's show. The creatures are fairly Avell
treated, and set to fight — whereby the strongest,
the swiftest, and the cunningest live to fight
another day. The spectator has no need to turn
his thumbs down, as no quarter is given. He
must admit that the skill and training displayed
are wonderful. But he must shut his eyes if he
would not see that more or less enduring suffering
is the meed of both vanquished and victor. And
since the great game is going on in every corner
of the world, thousands of times a minute ; since,
were our ears sharp enough, we need not descend
to the orates of hell to hear —

o

sospiri, pianti, ed alti giiai.

Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle

— it seems to follow that, if this world is governed
by benevolence, it must be a different sort of
benevolence from that of John Howard.

But the old Babylonians wisely symbolized
Nature by their great goddess Istar, who combined
the attributes of Aphrodite with those of Ares.
Her terrible aspect is not to be ignored or covered
up with shams ; but it is not the only one. If
the optimism of Leibnitz is a foolish though
pleasant dream, the pessimism of Schopenhauer is
a nightmare, the more foolish because of its
hideousness. Error which is not pleasant is
surely the worst form of wrong.

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 201

This may not be the best of all possible worlds,
but to say that it is the worst is mere petulant
nonsense. A worn-out voluptuary may find
nothing good under the sun, or a vain and
inexperienced 3^outh, who cannot get the moon he
cries for, may vent his irritation in pessimistic
meanings ; but there can be no doubt in the
mind of any reasonable person that mankind
could, would, and in fact do, get on foirly well
with vastly less happiness and far more misery
than find their way into the lives of nine people
out of ten. If each and all of us had been visited
by an attack of neuralgia, or of extreme mental
depression, for one hour in every twenty-four — a
supposition which many tolerably vigorous people
know, to their cost, is not extravagant — the
burden of life would have been immensely
increased without much practical hindrance to its
general course. Men with any manhood in them
find life quite worth living under worse conditions
than these.

There is another sufficiently obvious fact, which
renders the hypothesis that the course of sentient
nature is dictated by malevolence quite untenable.
A vast multitude of pleasures, and these among
tlie purest and the best, are superfluities, bits
of good which are to all appearance unneces-
sary as inducements to live, and are, so to speak,
thrown into the bargain of life. To those who
experience them, few delights can be more

202 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE y

entrancing than such as are afforded by natural
beauty, or by the arts, and especially by music ;
but they are products of, rather than factors in,
evolution, and it is probable that they are known,
in any considerable degree, to but a very small
proportion of mankind.

The conclusion of the whole matter seems to
be that, if Ormuzd has not had his way in
this world, neither has Ahriman. Pessimism is
as little consonant with the facts of sentient
existence as optimism. If we desire to represent
the course of nature in terms of human thought,
and assume that it was intended to be that which
it is, we must say that its governing principle is
intellectual and not moral ; that it is a material-
ized logical process, accompanied by pleasures and
pains, the incidence of which, in the majority of
cases, has not the slightest reference to moral
desert. That the rain falls alike upon the just
and the unjust, and that those upon whom the
Tower of Siloam fell were no worse than their
neighbours, seem to be Oriental modes of
expressing the same conclusion.

In the strict sense of the word "nature," it
denotes the sum of the phenomenal world, of that
which has been, and is, and will be ; and society,
like art, is therefore a part of nature. But it is
convenient to distinguish those parts of nature in
which man plays the part of immediate cause, as

V IN HITMAN SOCIETY 203

something apart ; and, therefore, society, Hke art,
is usefully to be considered as distinct from
nature. It is the more desirable, and even
necessary, to make this distinction, since society
differs from nature in having a definite moral
object ; whence it comes about that the course
shaped by the ethical man — the member of
society or citizen — necessarily runs counter to
that which the non-ethical man — the primitive
savage, or man as a mere member of the animal
kingdom — tends to adopt. The latter fights out
the struggle for existence to the bitter end, like
any other animal ; the former devotes his best
energies to the object of setting limits to the
struggle.^

In the cycle of phenomena presented by the
life of man, the animal, no more moral end is
discernible than in that presented by the lives of
the wolf and of the deer. However imperfect the
relics of prehistoric men may be, the evidence
which they afford clearly tends to the conclusion
that, for thousands and thousands of years, before
the origin of the oldest known civilizations, men
were savages of a very low type. They strove
with their enemies and their competitors ; they
preyed upon things weaker or less cunning than
themselves ; they were born, multiplied without
stint, and died, for thousands of generations,
alongside the mammoth, the urus, the lion, and

^ [The reader will observe that this is the argument of the
Romanes Lecture, in brief. — 1894.]

204 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

the hyaena, whose Hves were spent in the same
way; and they were no more to be praised or
blamed, on moral grounds, than their less erect
and more hairy compatriots.

As among these, so among primitive men, the
weakest and stupidest went to the wall, while
the toughest and shrewdest, those who were best
fitted to cojDe with their circvimstances, but not
the best in any other sense, survived. Life was a
continual free fight, and beyond the limited and
temporary relations of the family, the Hobbesian
war of each against all was the normal state
of existence. The human species, like others,
plashed and floundered amid the general stream
of evolution, keeping its head above water as it
best might, and thinking neither of whence nor
whither.

The history of civilization — that is, of society —
on the other hand, is the record of the attempts
which the human race has made to escape from
this position. The first men who substituted the
state of mutual peace for that of mutual war,
whatever the motive which impelled them to
take that step, created society. But, in establish-
ing peace, they obviously put a limit upon the
struggle for existence. Between the members of
that society, at any rate, it was not to be
pursued a outran ce. And of all the successive
shapes which society has taken, that most nearly
approaches perfection in which the war of indi-
vidual against individual is most strictly limited.

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 205

The primitive savage, tutored by Istar, appro-
priated whatever took his fancy, and killed
whomsoever opposed him, if he could. On the
contrary, the ideal of the ethical man is to limit
his freedom of action to a sphere in which he
does not interfere with the freedom of others ; he
seeks the common weal as much as his own ; and,
indeed, as an essential part of his own welfare.
Peace is both end and means with him ; and he
founds his life on a more or less complete self-
restraint, which is the negation of the unlimited
struggle for existence. He tries to escape from
his place in the animal kingdom, founded on
the free development of the principle of non-
moral evolution, and to establish a kingdom of
Man, governed upon the principle of moral
evolution. For society not only has a moral
end, but in its perfection, social life, is embodied
morality.

But the effort of ethical man to work towards
a moral end by no means abolished, perhaps has
hardly modified, the deep-seated organic impulses
which impel the natural man to follow his non-
moral course. One of the most essential condi-
tions, if not the chief cause, of the struggle for
existence, is the tendency to multiply without
limit, which man shares with all living things.
It is notable that "increase and multiply" is a
commandment traditionally much older than the
ten ; and that it is, perhaps, the only one which

206 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

has been spontaneously and ex animo obeyed by
the gi'eat majority of the human race. But, in
civilized society, the inevitable result of such
obedience is the re-establishment, in all its inten-
sity, of that struggle for existence — the war of
each against all — the mitigation or abolition of
which was the chief end of social organisation.
It is conceivable that, at some period in the
history of the fabled Atlantis, the production of
food should have been exactly sufficient to meet
the wants of the population, that the makers
of the commodities of the artificer should have
amounted to just the number supportable by
the surplus food of the agriculturists. And, as
there is no harm in adding another monstrous
supposition to the foregoing, let it be imagined
that every man, woman, and child was perfectly
virtuous, and aimed at the good of all as the
highest personal good. In that happy land, the
natural man would have been finally put down
by the ethical man. There would have been
no competition, but the industry of each would
have been serviceable to all ; nobody being vain
and nobody avaricious, there would have been
no rivalries ; the struggle for existence would
have been abolished, and the millennium would
have finally set in. But it is obvious that this
state of things could have been permanent only
with a stationary population. Add ten fresh
mouths ; and as, by the supposition, there was

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 207

only exactly enough before, somebody must go
on short rations. The Atlantis society might
have been a heaven upon earth, the whole nation
might have consisted of just men, needing no
repentance, and yet somebody must starve. Eeck-
less Istar, non-moral Nature, would have riven
the ethical fabric. I was once talking Avith a
very eminent physician^ about the vis mcdicatrix
natuTcc. " Stuff ! " said he ; " nine times out of
ten nature does not want to cure the man : she
wants to put him in his coffin." And Istar-
Nature appears to have equally little sympathy
with the ends of society. " Stuff ! she wants
nothing but a fair field and free play for her
darling the strongest."

Our Atlantis may be an impossible figment,
but the antagonistic tendencies which the fable
adumbrates have existed in every society which
was ever established, and, to all appearance, must
strive for the victory in all that will be. Histor-
ians point to the greed and ambition of rulers,
to the reckless turbulence of the ruled, to the
debasing effects of wealth and luxury, and to
the devastating wars which have formed a great
part of the occupation of mankind, as the causes
of the decay of states and the foundering of
old civilisations, and thereby point their story
with a moral. No doubt immoral motives of
all sorts have figured largely among the minor
1 The late Sir W. GuU.

208 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE y

causes of these events. But beneath all this
superficial turmoil lay the deep-seated impulse
given by unlimited multiplication. In the swarms
of colonies thrown out by Phoenicia and by old
Greece ; in the vcr sacrum of the Latin races ;
in the floods of Gauls and of Teutons which
burst over the frontiers of the old civilisation
of Europe ; in the swaying to and fro of the
vast Mongolian hordes in late times, the popula-
tion problem comes to the front in a very visible
shape. Nor is it less plainly manifest in the
everlasting agrarian questions of ancient Rome
than in the AiTeoi societies of the Polynesian
Islands.

In the ancient world, and in a large part
of that in which we live, the practice of in-
fanticide was, or is, a regular and legal custom ;
famine, pestilence, and war were and are normal
factors in the struggle for existence, and they
have served, in a gross and brutal fashion, to
mitigate the intensity of the effects of its chief
cause.

But, in the more advanced civilisations, the
progress of private and public morality has
steadily tended to remove all these checks. We
declare infanticide murder, and punish it as such ;
we decree, not quite so successfully, that no one
shall die of hunger; we regard death from pre-
ventive causes of other kinds as a sort of construc-
tive murder, and eliminate pestilence to the best

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 209

of our ability; we declaim against the curse of
war, and the wickedness of the military spirit, and
we are never weary of dilating on the blessedness of
peace and the innocent beneficence of Industry.
In their moments of expansion, even statesmen
and men of business go thus far. The finer
spirits look to an ideal civitas Dei ; a state when
every man, having reached the point of absolute
self-negation, and having nothing but moral perfec-
tion to strive after, peace will truly reign, not merely
among nations, but among men, and the struggle
for existence will be at an end.

Whether human nature is competent, under
any circumstances, to reach, or even seriously
advance towards, this ideal condition, is a question
which need not be discussed. It will be admitted
that mankind has not yet reached this stage by a
very long way, and my business is with the pres-
ent. And that which I wish to point out is that,
so long as the natural man increases and multi-
plies without restraint, so long will peace and
industry not only permit, but they will necessi-
tate, a struggle for existence as sharp as any that
ever went on under the regime of war. If Istar
is to reign on the one hand, she will demand her
human sacrifices on the other.

Let us look at home. For seventy years peace
and industry have had their way among us with
less interruption and under more favourable
conditions than in any other country on the

VOL. IX P

210 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

face of the earth. The wealth of Croesus was
nothing to that which we have accumulated, and
our prosperity has filled the world with envy.
But Nemesis did not forget Croesus : has she for-
gotten us ?

I think not. There are now 36,000,000 of
people in our islands, and every year considerably
more than 300,000 are added to our numbers.^
That is to say, about every hundred seconds, or
so, a new claimant to a share in the common stock
of maintenance presents him or herself among us.
At the present time, the produce of the soil does
not suffice to feed half its population. The other
moiety has to be supplied with food which must
be bought from the people of food-producing
countries. That is to say, we have to offer them
the things which they want in exchange for the
things we want. And the things they want and
which we can produce better than they can are
mainly manufactures — industrial j^roducts.

The insolent reproach of the first Napoleon had
a very solid foundation. We not only are, but,
under penalty of starvation, we are bound to be, a
nation of shopkeepers. But other nations also lie
under the same necessity of keeping shop, and
some of them deal in the same goods as ourselves.

1 These numbers are only approximately accurate. In 1881,
our population amounted to 35,241,482, exceeding the number
in 1871 hy 3,396,103. The average annual increase in the
decennial period 1871—1881 is therefore 339,610. The number
of minutes in a calendar year is 525,600.

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 211

Our customers naturally seek to get the most and
the best in exchange for their produce. If our
goods are inferior to those of our competitors, there
is no ground, compatible with the sanity of the
buyers, which can be alleged, why they should not
prefer the latter. And, if that result should ever
take place on a large and general scale, five or six
millions of us would soon have nothing to eat.
We know what the cotton famine was ; and we
can therefore form some notion of what a dearth
of customers would be.

Judged by an ethical standard, nothing can be
less satisfactory than the position in which we find
ourselves. In a real, though incomplete, degree
we have attained the condition of peace which is
the main object of social organization ; and, for
argument's sake, it may be assumed that we
desire nothing but that which is in itself innocent
and praiseworthy — namely, the enjoyment of the
fruits of honest industry. And lo 1 in spite of
ourselves, we are in reality engaged in an inter-
necine struggle for existence with our presumably
no less peaceful and well-meaning neighbours.
We seek peace and we do not ensue it. The
moral nature in us asks for no more than is com-
jiatible with the general good; the non-moral
nature proclaims and acts upon that fine old
Scottish family motto, " Thou shalt starve ere I
want." Let us be under no illusions, then. So
long as unlimited multiplication goes on, no social
organization which has ever been devised, or is

p 2

212 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

likely to be devised, no fiddle-faddling with the
distribution of wealth, will deliver society from
the tendency to be destroyed by the reproduction
within itself, in its intensest form, of that struggle
for existence the limitation of which is the object
of societ}^ And however shocking to the moral
sense this eternal competition of man against man
and of nation against nation may be ; however
revolting may be the accumulation of misery at
the negative pole of society, in contrast with that
of monstrous wealth at the positive pole ; ^ this
state of things must abide, and grow continually
worse, so long as Istar holds her way unchecked.
It is the true riddle of the Sphinx; and every
nation which does not solve it will sooner or later
be devoured by the monster itself has generated.

The practical and pressing question for us, just
now, seems to me to be how to gain time.
" Time brings counsel," as the Teutonic proverb
has it ; and wiser folk among our posterity may
see their way out of that which at present looks
like an impasse.

It would be folly to entertain any ill-feeling
towards those neighbours and rivals who, hke
ourselves, are slaves of Istar ; but, if somebody is
to be starved, the modem world has no Oracle of
Delphi to which the nations can appeal for an
indication of the victim. It is open to us to try

^ [It is hard to say whether the increase of the imemj)loyed
poor, or that of the unemployed rich, is the greater social
evil.— 1894.]

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 213

our fortune ; and, if we avoid impending fate,
there will be a certain ground for believing that
we are the right people to escape. Securus
judicat orhis.

To this end, it is well to look into the necessary
conditions of our salvation by works. They are
two, one plain to all the world and hardly needing
insistence ; the other seemingly not so plain,
since too often it has been theoretically and prac-
tically left out of sight. The obvious condition
is that our produce shall be better than that of
others. There is only one reason why our goods
should be preferred to those of our rivals — our
customers must find them better at the price.
That means that we must use more knowledge,
skill, and industry in producing them, without a
proportionate increase in the cost of production ;
and, as the price of labour constitutes a large
element in that cost, the rate of wages must be
restricted within certain limits. It is perfectly
true that cheap production and cheap labour are
by no means synonymous ; but it is also true that
wages cannot increase beyond a certain proportion
without destroying cheapness. Cheapness, then,
with, as part and parcel of cheapness, a moderate
price of labour, is essential to our success as
competitors in the markets of the world.

The second condition is really quite as plainly
indispensable as the first, if one thinks seriously
about the matter. It is social stability. Society

214 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

is stable, when the wants of its members obtain
as much satisfaction as, Hfe being what it is,
common sense and experience show may be
reasonably expected. Mankind, in general, care
very little for forms of government or ideal
considerations of an}^ sort; and nothing really
stirs the great multitude to break with custom
and incur the manifest perils of revolt excejDt the
belief that misery in this world, or damnation in
the next, or both, are threatened by the continu-
ance of the state of things in which they have
been brought up. But when they do attain that
conviction, society becomes as unstable as a
package of dynamite, and a very small matter
will produce the explosion which sends it back to
the chaos of savager}^

It needs no argument to prove that when the
price of labour sinks below a certain point,
the worker infallibly falls into that condition
which the French emphatically call la misere — a
word for which I do not think there is any exact
EngHsh equivalent. It is a condition in which
the food, warmth, and clothing which are necessary
for the mere maintenance of the functions of the
body in their normal state cannot be obtained ;
in which men, women, and children are forced to
crowd into dens wherein decency is abolished and
the most ordinary conditions of healthful exist-
ence are impossible of attainment ; in which the
pleasures within reach are reduced to bestiality

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 215

and drunkenness ; in wliich the pains accumulate
at compound interest, in the shape of starvation,
disease, stunted development, and moral degrada-
tion ; in which the prospect of even steady and
honest industry is a life of unsuccessful battling
with hunger, rounded by a pauper's grave.

That a certain proportion of the members of
every great aggregation of mankind should con-
stantly tend to establish and populate such a
Slough of Despond as this is inevitable, so long
as some people are by nature idle and vicious,
while others are disabled by sickness or accident,
or thrown upon the world by the death of their
bread-winners. So long as that proportion is
restricted within tolerable limits, it can be dealt
with ; and, so far as it arises only from such
causes, its existence may and must be patiently
borne. But, when the organization of society,
instead of mitigating this tendency, tends to
continue and intensify it ; when a given social
order plainly makes for evil and not for good, men
naturally enough begin to think it high time to
try a fresh experiment. The animal man, finding
that the ethical man has landed him in such a
slough, resumes his ancient sovereignty, and
preaches anarchy ; which is, substantially, a
proposal to reduce the social cosmos to chaos, and
begin the brute struggle for existence once again.

Any one who is acquainted with the state of
the population of all great industrial centres,

216 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

whether in this or other countries, is aware that,
amidst a large and increasing body of that pojm-
lation, la misere reigns supreme. I have no
pretensions to the character of a philanthropist,
and I have a special horror of all sorts of senti-
mental rhetoric ; I am merely trying to deal with
facts, to some extent within my own knowledge,
and further evidenced by abundant testimony, as
a naturalist ; and I take it to be a mere plain
truth that, throughout industrial Europe, there is
not a single large manufacturing city which is
free from a vast mass of people whose condition
is exactly that described ; and from a still greater
mass who, living just on the edge of the social
swamp, are liable to be precipitated into it by any
lack of demand for their produce. And, with
every addition to the population, the multitude
already sunk in the pit and the number of the
host sliding towards it continually increase.

Argumentation can hardly be needful to make
it clear that no society in which the elements of
decomposition are thus swiftly and surely accumu-
lating can hope to win in the race of industries.

Intelligence, knowledge, and skill are undoubt-
edly conditions of success ; but of what avail are
they likely to be unless they are backed up by
honesty, energy, goodwill, and all the physical and
moral faculties that go to the making of manhood,
and unless they are stimulated by hope of such
reward as men may fairly look to ? And what

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 217

dweller in the slough of want, dwarfed in hody
and soul, demoralized, hopeless, can reasonably be
exjDOcted to jDossess these qualities ?

Any full and permanent development of the
productive powers of an industrial population,
then, must be compatible with and, indeed, based
upon a social organization which will secure a fair
amount of physical and moral welfare to that popu-
lation ; which will make for good and not for evil.
Natural science and religious enthusiasm rarely
go hand in hand, but on this matter their concord
is complete; and the least sympathetic of natural-
ists can but admire the insight and the devotion
of such social reformers as the late Lord
Shaftesbury, whose recently i^ublished " Life and
Letters " gives a vivid picture of the condition of
the working classes fifty years ago, and of the pit
which our industry, ignoring these plain truths,
was then digging under its own feet.

There is, perhaps, no more hopeful sign of
progress among us, in the last half-century, than
the steadily increasing devotion which has been
and is directed to measures for promoting physical
and moral welfare among the poorer classes.
Sanitary reformers, like most other reformers
whom I have had the advantage of knowing, seem
to need a good dose of fanaticism, as a sort of
moral coca, to keep them up to the mark, and,
doubtless, they have made many mistakes ; but
that the endeavour to imjjrove the condition under

218 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

which our industrial population live, to amend the
drainage of densely jDeopled streets, to provide
baths, washhouses, and gymnasia, to facilitate
habits of thrift, to furnish some provision for
instruction and amusement in i^ublic libraries and
the like, is not only desirable from a philanthropic
point of view, but an essential condition of safe
industrial development, appears to me to be indis-
putable. It is by such means alone, so far as I
can see, that we can hope to check the constant
gravitation of industrial society towards la misere,
until the general progTess of intelligence and
morality leads men to grapple with the sources of
that tendency. If it is said that the carrying out
of such arrangements as those indicated must
enhance the cost of production, and thus handicap
the producer in the race of competition, I venture,
in the first place, to doubt the fact ; but if it be
so, it results that industrial society has to face
a dilemma, either alternative of which threatens
destruction.

On the one hand, a population the labour of which
is sufficiently remunerated may be physically and
morally healthy and socially stable, but may fail
in industrial competition by reason of the dearness
of its produce. On the other hand, a population
the labour of which is insufficiently remunerated
must become physically and morally unhealthy, and
socially unstable ; and though it may succeed for
a while in industrial competition, by reason of the

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 219

cheapness of its produce, it must in the end fall,
through hideous misery and degradation, to utter
ruin.

Well, if these are the only possible alternatives,
let us for ourselves and our children choose the
former, and, if need be, starve like men. But I do
not believe that a stable society made up of
healthy, vigorous, instructed, and self-ruling people
would ever incur serious risk of that fate. They
are not likely to be troubled with many competi-
tors of the same character, just yet; and they may
be safely trusted to find ways of holding their
own.

Assuming that the physical and moral well-
being and the stable social order, which are the
indispensable conditions of permanent industrial
development, are secured, there remains for
consideration the means of attaining that know-
ledge and skill without Avliich, even then, the
battle of competition cannot be successfully
fought. Let us consider how we stand. A vast
system of elementary education has now been in
operation among us for sixteen years, and has
reached all but a very small fraction of the
population. I do not think that there is any
room for doubt that, on the whole, it has worked
well, and that its indirect no less than its direct
benefits have been immense. But, as might be
expected, it exhibits the defects of all our
educational systems — fashioned as they were to

220 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

meet the wants of a bygone condition of society.
There is a widespread and, I think, well-justified
complaint that it has too much to do with books
and too little to do with things. I am as little
disposed as any one can well be to narrow early
education and to make the primary school a mere
annexe of the shop. And it is not so much in
the interests of industry, as in that of breadth of
culture, that I echo the common complaint against
the bookish and theoretical character of our
primary instruction.

If there were no such things as industrial
]3ursuits, a system of education which does
nothing for the faculties of observation, which
trains neither the eye nor the hand, and is com-
patible with utter ignorance of the commonest
natural truths, might still be reasonably regarded
as strangely imperfect. And when we consider
that the instruction and training which are
lacking are exactly those which are of most
importance for the great mass of our population,
the fault becomes almost a crime, the more that
there is no practical difficulty in making good
these defects. There really is no reason why
drawing should not be universally taught, and it
is an admirable training for both eye and hand.
Artists are born, not made ; but everybody may
be taught to draw elevations, plans, and sections ;
and pots and pans are as good, indeed better,
models for this purpose than the Apollo Belvedere.

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 221

The plant is not expensive ; and there is this
excellent quality about drawing of the kind
indicated, that it can be tested almost as easily
and severely as arithmetic. Such drawings are
either right or wrong, and if they are wrong the
pupil can be made to see that they are wrong.
From the industrial point of view, drawing has
the further merit that there is hardly any trade
in which the power of drawing is not of daily and
hourly utility. In the next place, no good reason,
except the want of capable teachers, can be
assigned why elementary notions of science should
not be an element in general instruction. In
this case, again, no expensive or elaborate ap-
paratus is necessary. The commonest thing —
a candle, a boy's squirt, a piece of chalk — in the
hands of a teacher who knows his business, may
be made the starting-points whence children may
be led into the regions of science as far as their
capacity permits, with efficient exercise of their
observational and reasoning faculties on the road.
If object lessons often prove trivial failures, it is
not the fault of object lessons, but that of the
teacher, who has not found out how much the
power of teaching a little depends on knowing a
great deal, and that thoroughly ; and that he has
not made that discovery is not the fault of the
teachers, but of the detestable system of training
them which is widely prevalent.^
^ Training in the use of simple tools is no doubt very desir-

222 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

As I have said, I do not regard the proposal to
add these to the present subjects of universal
instruction as made merely in the interests of
industry. Elementary science and drawing are
just as needful at Eton (where I am happy to say
both are now parts of the regular course) as in
the lowest primary school. But their importance
in the education of the artisan is enhanced, not
merely by the fact that the knowledge and skill
thus gained — little as they may amount to — will
still be of practical utility to him ; but, further,
because they constitute an introduction to that
special training which is commonly called " tech-
nical education."

I conceive that our wants in this last direction
may be grouped under three heads : (1) In-
struction in the principles of those branches of
science and of art which are peculiarly applicable
to industrial pursuits, which may be called
preliminary scientific education. (2) Instruction
in the special branches of such applied science
and art, as technical education proper. (3)
Instruction of teachers in both these branches.
(4) Capacity-catching machinery.

A great deal has already been done in each of
these directions, but much remains to be done.

able, on all grounds. From the ])ointof view of "culture," the
man whose "fingers are all thumbs" is but a stunted creature.
But the practical difficulties in the way of introducing handi-
work of this kind into elementary schools appear to me to be
considerable.

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 223

If elementary education is amended in the way
that has been suggested, I think that the school-
boards will have quite as much on their hands as
they are capable of doing well. The influences
under which the members of these bodies are
elected do not tend to secure fitness for dealing
with scientific or technical education ; and it is
the less necessary to burden them with an un-
congenial task, as there are other organizations,
not only much better fitted to do the work, but
already actually doing it.

In the matter of preliminary scientific educa-
tion, the chief of these is the Science and Art
Department, which has done more during the
last quarter of a century for the teaching of ele-
mentary science among the masses of the people
than any organization which exists either in this
or in any other country. It has become veritably
a people's university, so far as physical science is
concerned. At the foundation of our old uni-
versities they were freely open to the poorest, but
the poorest must come to them. In the last
quarter of a century, the Science and Art Depart-
ment, by means of its classes spread all over the
country and open to all, has conveyed instruction
to the poorest. The University Extension move-
ment shows that our older learned corporations
have discovered the propriety of following suit.

Technical education, in the strict sense, has
become a necessity for two reasons. The old

224 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

apprenticeship 53^stem has broken down, partly
by reason of the changed conditions of industrial
life, and partly because trades have ceased to
be "crafts," the traditional secrets whereof the
master handed down to his apprentices. Inven-
tion is constantly changing the face of our
industries, so that " use and wont," " rule of
thumb," and the like, are gradually losing their
importance, while that knowledge of principles
which alone can deal successfully with changed
conditions is becoming more and more valuable.
Socially, the " master " of four or five apprentices
is disappearing in favour of the " employer "
of forty, or four hundred, or four thousand,
" hands," and the odds and ends of technical
knowledge, formerly picked up in a shop, are
not, and cannot be, supplied in the factory. The
instruction formerly given by the master must
therefore be more than replaced by the systematic
teaching of the technical school.

Institutions of this kind on var}4ng scales of
magnitude and completeness, from the splendid
edifice set up by the City and Guilds Institute to
the smallest local technical school, to say nothing
of classes, such as those in technology instituted
by the Society of Arts (subsequently taken over
by the City Guilds), have been established in
various parts of the country, and the movement
in favour of their increase and multiplication is
rapidly growing in breadth and intensity. But

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 225

there is much difference of opinion as to the best
way in which the technical instruction, so generally
desired, should be given. Two courses appear
to be practicable : the one is the establishment of
special technical schools with a systematic and
lengthened course of instruction demanding the
employment of the whole time of the pupils. The
other is the setting afoot of technical classes,
especially evening classes, comprising a short
series of lessons on some special topic, which may
be attended by persons already earning wages in
some branch of trade or commerce.

There is no doubt that technical schools, on
the plan indicated under the first head, are
extremely costly; and, so far as the teaching of
artizans is concerned, it is very commonly objected
to them that, as the learners do not work under
trade conditions, they are apt to fall into ama-
teurish habits, which prove of more hindrance
than service in the actual business of life. When
such schools are attached to factories under the
direction of an employer who desires to train up
a supply of intelligent workmen, of course this
objection does not apply ; nor can the usefulness
of such schools for the training of future em-
ployers and for the higher grade of the employed
be doubtful ; but they are clearly out of the
reach of the great mass of the people, who liave
to earn their bread as soon as possible. We nmst
therefore look to the classes, and especially to

VOL. IX Q

226 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

evening classes, as the great instrument for the
technical education of the artizan. The utility of
such classes has now been placed beyond all
doubt ; the only question which remains is to
find the ways and means of extending them.

We are here, as in all other questions of social
organization, met by two diametrically opposed
views. On the one hand, the methods pursued
in foreign countries are held up as our example.
The state is exhorted to take the matter in hand,
and establish a great sj-stem of technical educa-
tion. On the other hand, many economists of
the individualist school exhaust the resources of
language in condemning and repudiating, not
merely the interference of the general government
in such matters, but the application of a farthing
of the funds raised by local taxation to these
purposes. I entertain a strong conviction that,
in this country, at any rate, the State had much
better leave purely technical and trade instruction
alone. But, although my personal leanings are
decidedly towards the individualists, I have ar-
rived at that conclusion on merely practical
grounds. In fact, my individualism is rather of a
sentimental sort, and I sometimes think I should
be stronger in the faith if it were less vehemently
advocated.^ I am unable to see that civil society

' In what follows I am only repeating and emphasizing
opinions which I expressed seventeen years ago, in an Address
to the members of the Midlan<l Institute (republished in Critiques
and Addresses in 1873, and in Vol. i. of these Essays). I have

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 227

is anything but a corporation established for a
moral object — namely, the good of its members —
and therefore that it may take such measures as
seem fitting for the attainment of that which the
general voice decides to be the general good.
That the suffrage of the majority is by no means
a scientific test of social good and evil is un-
fortunately too true; but, in practice, it is the
only test we can apply, and the refusal to abide
by it means anarchy. The purest despotism that
ever existed is as much based upon that will of
the majority (which is usually submission to the
will of a small minority) as the freest republic.
Law is the expression of the opinion of the
majority ; and it is law, and not mere opinion,
because the many are strong enough to enforce
it.

I am as strongly convinced as the most pro-
nounced individualist can be, that it is desirable
that every man should be free to act in every way
which does not limit the corresponding freedom
of his fellow-man. But I fail to connect that
great induction of political science with the
practical corollary which is frequently drawn from
it : that the State — that is, the people in their
corporate capacity — has no business to meddle
with anything but the administration of justice
and external defence. It appears to me that the

seen no reason to modify them, notwithstanding high authority
on the other side.

Q 2

228 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

amount of freedom which incorjDorate society may
fitly leave to its members is not a fixed quantity,
to be determined a 'priori by deduction from the
fiction called " natural rights " ; but that it must
be determined by, and vary with, circumstances.
I conceive it to be demonstrable that the higher
and the more complex the organization of the
social body, the more closely is the life of each
member bound up with that of the whole ; and
the larger becomes the category of acts which
cease to be merely self-regarding, and which in-
terfere with the freedom of others more or less
seriously.

If a squatter, living ten miles away from any
neighbour, chooses to burn his house down to get
rid of vermin, there may be no necessity (in the
absence of insurance offices) that the law should
interfere with his freedom of action ; his act can
hurt nobody but himself But, if the dweller in
a street chooses to do the same thing, the State
very j^roperly makes such a proceeding a crime,
and punishes it as such. He does meddle with
his neighbour's freedom, and that seriously. So
it might, perhaps, be a tenable doctrine, that it
would be needless, and even tyrannous, to make
education compulsory in a sparse agricultural
population, living in abundance on the produce of
its own soil ; but, in a densely populated manu-
facturing country, struggling for existence with
competitors^ every ignorant person tends to

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 229

become a burden upon, and, so far, an infringer of
the liberty of, his fellows, and an obstacle to their
success. Under such circumstances an education
rate is, in fact, a war tax, levied for purposes of
defence.

That State action always has been more or less
misdirected, and always will be so, is, I believe,
perfectly true. But I am not aware that it is
more true of the action of men in their corporate
capacity than it is of the doings of individuals.
The wisest and most dispassionate man in exist-
ence, merely wishing to go from one stile in a
field to the opposite, will not walk quite straight
— he is always going a little wrong, and always
correcting himself; and I can only congratulate
the individualist who is able to say that his
general course of life has been of a less undula-
tory character. To abolish State action, because
its direction is never more than approximately
correct, appears to me to be much the same thing
as abolishing the man at the wheel altogether,
because, do what he will, the ship yaws more or
less. " Why should I be robbed of my property
to pay for teaching another man's children ? " is an
individualist question, which is not unfrequently
put as if it settled the whole business. Perhaps
it does, but I find difficulties in seeing why it
should. The parish in which I live makes me
pay my share for the paving and lighting of a
great many streets that I never pass through;

230 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

and I might plead that I am robbed to smooth the
way and hghten the darkness of other people.
But I am afraid the parochial authorities would
not let me off on this plea ; and I must confess I
do not see why they should.

I cannot speak of my own knowledge, but I
have every reason to believe that I came into this
world a small reddish person, certainly without a
gold spoon in my mouth, and in fact with no dis-
cernible abstract or concrete " rights " or propert}^
of any description. If a foot was not set upon me,
at once, as a squalling nuisance, it was either the
natural affection of those about me, which I cer-
tainly had done nothing to deserve, or the fear of
the law which, ages before my birth, was painfully
built up by the society into which I intruded, that
prevented that catastrophe. If I was nourished,
cared for, taught, saved from the vagabondage of
a wastrel, I certainly am not aware that I did
anything to deserve those advantages. And, if I
possess anything now, it strikes me that, though I
may have fairly earned my day's wages for my
day's work, and may justly call them ni}^ property
— yet, without that organization of society, created
out of the toil and blood of long generations before
my time, T should probably have had nothing but
a flint axe and an indifferent hut to call my own ;
and even those would be mine only so long as no
stronger savage came my way.

So that if society, having, quite gratuitously,

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 281

done all these things for me, asks me in turn to
do something towards its preservation — even if
that something is to contribute to the teaching of
other men's children — I really, in spite of all my
individualist leanino-s, feel rather ashamed to
say no. And if I were not ashamed, I cannot say
that I think that society would be dealing un-
justly with me in converting the moral obligation
into a legal one. There is a manifest unfairness
in letting all the burden be borne by the willing
horse.

It does not appear to me, then, that there is
any valid objection to taxation for purposes of
education ; but, in the case of technical schools
and classes, I think it is practically expedient
that such a taxation should be local. Our in-
dustrial population accumulates in particular
towns and districts ; these districts are those
which immediately profit by technical education ;
and it is only in them that we can find the men
practically engaged in industries, among whom
some may reasonably be expected to be competent
judges of that which is wanted, and of the best
means of meeting the want.

In my belief, all methods of technical training
are at present tentative, and, to be successful,
each must be adapted to the special peculiarities
of its locality. This is a case in which we want
twenty years, not of " strong government," but of
cheerful and hopeful blundering; and we may be

282 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

thankful if we get things straight in that
time.

The principle of the Bill introduced, but dropped,
by the Government last session, appears to me to
be wise, and some of the objections to it I think
are due to a misunderstanding. The Bill pro-
posed in substance to allow localities to tax them-
selves for purposes of technical education — on the
condition that any scheme for such purpose should
be submitted to the Science and Art Department,
and declared by that department to be in accord-
ance with the intention of the Legislature.

A cry was raised that the Bill proposed to throw
technical education into the hands of the Science
and Art Department. But, in reality, no power
of initiation, nor even of meddling with details,
was given to that Department — the sole function
of which was to decide whether any plan proposed
did or did not come within the limits of " tech-
nical education." The necessity for such control,
somewhere, is obvious. No legislature, certainly
not ours, is likely to grant the power of self-taxa-
tion without setting limits to that power in some
way ; and it would neither have been practicable
to devise a legal definition of technical education,
nor commendable to leave the question to the
Auditor-General, to be fought out in the law-courts.
The only alternative was to leave the decision to
an appropriate State authority. If it is asked,
what is the need of such control if the people of

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 283

the localities are the best judges, the obvious
reply is that there are localities and localities,
and that while Manchester, or Liverpool, or
Birmingham, or Glasgow might, perhaps, be
safely left to do as they thought fit, smaller towns,
in which there is less certainty of full discussion
by competent people of different ways of thinking,
might easily fall a prey to crotcheteers.

Supposing our intermediate science teaching
and our technical schools and classes are estab-
lished, there is yet a third need to be supplied,
and that is the want of good teachers. And it is
necessary not only to get them, but to keep them
when you have got them.

It is impossible to insist too strongly upon the
fact that efficient teachers of science and of tech-
nology are not to be made by the processes in
vogue at ordinary training colleges. The memory
loaded with mere bookwork is not the thinof
wanted — is, in fact, rather worse than useless — in
the teacher of scientific subjects. It is absolutely
essential that his mind should be full of know-
ledge and not of mere learning, and that what he
knows should have been learned in the laboratory
rather than in the library. There are happily
already, both in London and in the provinces,
various places in which such training is to be had,
and the main thing at present is to make it in the
first place accessible, and in the next indispensable,
to those who undertake the business of teaching.

234 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE y

But when the well-trained men are supplied, it
must be recollected that the profession of teacher
is not a very lucrative or otherwise temjDting one,
and that it may be advisable to offer special in-
ducements to good men to remain in it. These,
however, are questions of detail into which it is
unnecessary to enter further.

Last, but not least, comes the question of pro-
viding the machinery for enabling those who are
by nature specially qualified to undertake the
higher branches of industrial work, to reach the
position in wdiich they may render that service to
the community. If all our educational expendi-
ture did nothing but pick one man of scientific
or inventive genius, each year, from amidst the
hewers of wood and drawers of w^ater, and give
him the chance of making the best of his inborn
faculties, it w^ould be a very good investment. If
there is one such child among the hundreds of
thousands of our annual increase, it would be
worth any money to drag him either from the
slough of misery, or from the hotbed of wealth,
and teach him to devote himself to the service of
his people. Here, again, we have made a begin-
ning with our scholarships and the like, and
need only follow in the tracks already worn.

The programme of industrial develoiDment
briefly set forth in the preceding pages is not
what Kant calls a " Hirngespinnst," a cobweb
spun in the brain of a Utopian philosopher. More

V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 285

or less of it has taken bodily shape in many parts
of the country, and there are towns of no great
size or wealth in the manufacturing districts
(Keighley, for example) in which almost the whole
of it has, for some time, been carried out, so far as
the means at the disposal of the energetic and
public-spirited men who have taken the matter
in hand permitted. The thing can be done ;
I have endeavoured to show good grounds for the
belief that it must be done, and that speedily,
if we wish to hold our own in the w^ar of indus-
try. I doubt not that it will be done, whenever
its absolute necessity becomes as apparent to all
those who are absorbed in the actual business of
industrial life as it is to some of the lookers on.

[Perhaps it is necessary for me to add that
technical education is not here proposed as a
panacea for social diseases, but simply as a
medicament which will help the patient to pass
through an imminent crisis.

An ophthalmic surgeon may recommend an
operation for cataract in a man who is going blind,
without being supposed to undertake that it will
cure him of gout. And I may pursue the
metaphor so far as to remark, that the surgeon
is justified in pointing out that a diet of jDork-chops
and burgundy will probably kill his patient,
though he may be quite unable to suggest a mode

236 HUMAN SOCIETY STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v

of living which will free him from his constitu-
tional disorder.

Mr. Booth asks me, Why do you not propose
some plan of your own ? Really, that is no answer
to my argument that his treatment will make the
patient very much worse. [Note added in Social
Diseases and Worse Remedies, January, 1891.]

LETTERS TO THE 'TIMES"

ox THE

"DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME

I

The " Tim.cs;' Dcccmhcr 1st, 1890

Sir, — A short time ago a generous and philan-
thropic friend wrote to me, placing at my disposal
a large sum of money for the furtherance of the
vast scheme which the " General " of the Salvation
Army has propounded, if I thought it worthy of
support. The responsibility of advising my bene-
volent correspondent has weighed heavily upon
me, but I felt that it would be cowardly, as well
as ungracious, to refuse to accept it. I have
therefore studied Mr. Booth's book with some care,
for the purpose of separating the essential from
the accessory features of his project, and I have
based my judgment — I am sorry to say an un-
favourable one — upon the data thus obtained.
Before communicating my conclusions to my
friend, however, I am desirous to know what
there may be to be said in arrest of that judg-

238 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

merit ; and the matter is of such vast pubhc
importance that I trust you will aid me by publish-
ing this letter, notwithstanding its length.

There are one or two points upon Avhich I
imagine all thinking men have arrived at the
same convictions as those from which Mr. Booth
starts. It is certain that there is an immense
amount of remediable misery among us ; that, in
addition to the poverty, disease, and degradation
which are the consequences of causes beyond
human control, there is a vast, probably a very
much larger, quantity of misery which is the
result of individual ignorance, or misconduct, and
of faulty social arrangements. Further, I think
it is not to be doubted that, unless this remediable
misery is effectually dealt with, the hordes of vice
and pauperism will destroy modern civilization as
effectually as uncivilized tribes of another kind
destroyed the great social organization which
preceded ours. Moreover, I think all will agree
that no reforms and improvements will go to the
root of the evil unless they attack it in its
ultimate source — namely, the motives of the
individual man. Honest, industrious, and self-
restraining men will make a very bad social
organization prosper ; while vicious, idle, and
reckless citizens will bring to ruin the best that
ever was, or ever will be, invented.

The leading propositions which are peculiar to
Mr. Booth I take to be these : —

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 239

(1) That the only adequate means to such re-
formation of the individual man is the adoption
of that form of somewhat corybantic Christianity
of which the soldiers of the Salvation Army are
the militant missionaries. This implies the
belief that the excitement of the religious
emotions (largely by processes described by their
employers as " rousing " and " convivial ") is a
desirable and trustworthy method of permanently
amending the conduct of mankind.

I demur to these propositions. I am of opinion
that the testimony of history, no less than the
cool observation of that which lies within the
personal experience of many of us, is wholly
adverse to it.

(2) That the appropriate instrument for the
propagation and maintenance of this peculiar
sacramental enthusiasm is the Salvation Army —
a body of devotees, drilled and disciplined as a
military organization, and provided with a num-
erous hierarchy of officers, every one of whom is
pledged to blind and unhesitating obedience to
the " General," who frankly tells us that the first
condition of the service is " implicit, unquestion-
ing obedience." " A telegram from me will send
any of them to the uttermost parts of the earth " ;
every one " has taken service on the express
condition that he or she will obey, without
questioning, or gainsaying, the orders from head-
quarters " ('■ Darkest England," p. 243).

240 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

This proposition seems to me to be indisputable.
History confirms it. Francis of Assisi and
Ignatius Loyola made their great experiments on
the same principle. Nothing is more certain
than that a body of religious enthusiasts (perliaps
we may even say fanatics) pledged to blind
obedience to their chief, is one of the most
efficient instruments for effecting any purpose
that the wit of man has yet succeeded in devising.
And I can but admire the insight into human
nature which has led Mr. Booth to leave his
unquestioning and unhesitating instruments un-
bound by vows. A volunteer slave is worth ten
sworn bondsmen.

(3) That the success of the Salvation Army,
with its present force of 9416 officers " wholly
engaged in the work," its capital of three quarters
of a million, its income of the same amount, its
1375 corps at home, and 1499 in the colonies and
foreign countries (Appendix, pp. 3 and 4), is a
proof that Divine assistance has been vouchsafed
to its efforts.

Here I am not able to agree with the sanguine
Commander-in-chief of the new model, whose
labours in creating it have probably interfered
with his acquisition of information respecting
the fate of previous enterprises of like kind.

It does not appear to me that his success is in
any degree more remarkable than that of Francis
of Assisi or that of Ignatius Loyola, than that

V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 241

of George Fox, or even than that of the Mormons,
in our own time. When I observe the discrep-
ancies of the doctrinal foundations from which
each of these great movements set out, I find it
difficult to suppose that supernatural aid has been
given to all of them ; still more, that Mr. Booth's
smaller measure of success is evidence that it has
been granted to him.

But what became of the Franciscan experi-
ment ^ ? If there was one rule rather than another
on which the founder laid stress, it was that his
army of friars should be absolute mendicants,
keeping themselves sternly apart from all worldly
entanglements. Yet, even before the death of
Francis, in 1226, a strong party, headed by Elias
of Cortona, the deputy of his own appointment,
began to hanker after these very things; and,
within thirty years of that time, the Franciscans
had become one of the most powerful, wealthy, and
worldly corporations in Christendom, with their
fingers in every sink of political and social corrup-
tion, if so be profit for the order could be fished out
of it ; their principal interest being to fight their
rivals, the Dominicans, and to persecute such of
their own brethren as were honest enough to try
to carry out their founder's plainest injunctions.
We also know what has become of Loyola's ex-
periment. For two centuries the Jesuits have
been the hope of the enemies of the Papacy ;
1 See note pp. 245-47.

VOL. IX R

242 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

whenever it becomes too prosperous, they are
sure to bring about a catastrophe by their corrupt
use of the poKtical and social influence which
their organization and their wealth secure.

With these examples of that which may happen
to institutions founded by noble men, with high
aims, in the hands of successors of a different
stamp, armed with despotic authority, before me,
common prudence surely requires that, before ad-
vising the handing over of a large sum of money
to the general of a new order of mendicants, I
should ask what guarantee there is that, thirty
years hence, the " General " who then autocrati-
cally controls the action, say, of 100,000 officers
pledged to blind obedience, distributed through
the whole length and breadth of the poorer
classes, and each with his finger on the trigger of
a mine charged with discontent and religious
fanaticism ; with the absolute control, say, of
eight or ten millions sterling of capital and as
many of income ; with barracks in every town,
with estates scattered over the country, and with
settlements in the colonies — will exercise his
enormous powers, not merely honestly, but wisely ?
What shadow of security is there that the person
who wields this uncontrolled authority over many
thousands of men shall use it solely for those
philanthropic and religious objects which, I do not
doubt, are alone in the mind of Mr. Booth ? Who
is to say that the Salvation Army, in the year

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 243

1920, shall not be a replica of what the Franciscan
order had become in the year 1260 ?

The personal character and the intentions of
the founders of such organizations as we are
considering count for very little in the formation
of a forecast of their future ; and if they did, it is
no disrespect to Mr. Booth to say that he is not
the peer of Francis of Assisi. But if Francis's
judgment of men was so imperfect as to permit
him to appoint an ambitious intriguer of the
stamp of Brother Elias his deputy, we have no
right to be sanguine about the perspicacity of Mr.
Booth in a like matter.

Adding to all these considerations the fact that
Mr. Llewelyn Davies, the warmth of whose
philanthropy is beyond question, and in whose
competency and fairness I, for one, place implicit
reliance, flatly denies the boasted success of the
Salvation Army in its professed mission, I have
arrived at the conclusion that, as at present
advised, I cannot be the instrument of carrying
out my friend's proposal.

Mr. Booth has pithily characterised certain
benevolent schemes as doing sixpennyworth of
good and a shilling's worth of harm. I grieve to
say that, in my opinion, the definition exactly fits
his own project. Few social evils are of greater
magnitude than uninstructed and unchastened
religious fonaticism ; no personal habit more
surely degrades the conscience and the intellect

R 2

244 LETTERS TO THE -TIMES" v

than blind and unhesitating obedience to un-
limited authority. Undoubtedly, harlotry and
intempei*ance are sore evils, and starvation is
hard to bear, or even to know of; but the
prostitution of the mind, the soddening of the
conscience, the dwarfing of manhood are woi-se
calamities. It is a gi-eater evil to have the
intellect of a nation put down by organised
fanaticism; to see its poHtical and industrial
aflfairs at the mercy of a despot whose chief
thought is to make that fanaticism prevail ; to
watch the degradation of men, who should feel
themselves individually responsible for then- own
and then* countiy's fates, to mere brute instiai-
ments, ready to the hand of a master for any use
to which he may put them.

But that is the end to which, in my opinion,
all such organizations as that to which kindly
people, who do not look to the consequences of
their acts, are now giving their thousands, in-
evitably tend. Unless clear proof that I am
wi'ong is furnished, another thousand shall not
be added by my instiiimentality.

I am. Sir. your obedient servant,

T. H. HrxLEY.

"DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 245

NOTE.

An authoritative contemporary historian, Matthew
Paris, writes thus of the Minorite, or Franciscan,
Friars in England in 1235, just nine years after the
death of Francis of Assisi : —

" At this time some of the Minorite brethren, as
well as some of the Order of Preachers, unmindful of
their profession and the restrictions of their order,
impudently entered the territories of some noble
monasteries, under pretence of fulfilling their duties
of preaching, as if intending to depart after preaching
the next day. Under pretence of sickness, or on
some other pretext, however, they remained, and,
constructing an altar of wood, they placed on it a
consecrated stone altar, which they had brought with
them, and clandestinely and in a low voice performed
mass, and even received the confessions of many of
the parishioners, to the prejudice of the priests, . . .
And if by chance they were not satisfied with this,
they broke forth in insults and threats, reviling every
other order except their own, and asserting that all
the rest were doomed to damnation, and that they
would not spare the soles of their feet till they had
exhausted the wealth of their opposers, however great
it might be. The religious men, therefore, gave way
to them in many points, yielding to avoid scandal,
and offending those in power. For they were the
councillors and messengers of the nobles, and even
secretaries of the Pope, and therefore obtained much

246 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

secular favour. Some, however, finding themselves
opposed at the Court of Rome, were restrained by-
obvious reasons, and went away in confusion ; for the
Supreme Pontiff, with a scowling look, said to them,
' What means this, my brethren ? To what lengths
are you going ? Have you not professed voluntary-
poverty, and that you would traverse towns and
castles and distant places, as the case required, bare-
footed and unostentatiously in order to preach the
word of God in all humility"? And do you now
presume to usurp these estates to yourselves against
the will of the lords of these fees? Your religion
appears to be in a great measure dying away, and
your doctrines to be confuted.' "

Under date of 1243, Matthew writes : —
"For three or four hundred years or more the
monastic order did not hasten to destruction so
quickly as their order [Minorites and Preachers] of
whom now the brothers, twenty-four years having
scarcely elapsed, had first built in England dwellings
which rivalled regal palaces in height. These are
they who daily expose to view their inestimable
treasures, in enlarging their sumptuous edifices, and
erecting lofty walls, thereby impudently transgressing
the limits of their original poverty and violating the
basis of their religion, according to the prophecy of
German Hildegarde. When noblemen and rich men
are at the point of death, whom they know to be
possessed of great riches, they, in their love of gain,
diligently urge them, to the injury and loss of the
ordinary pastors, and extort confessions and hidden
wills, lauding themselves and their own order only,

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 247

and placing themselves before all others. So no
faithful man now believes he can be saved, except he
is directed by the counsels of the Preachers and
Minorites." — Matthew Paris's English History.
Translated by the Rev. J. A. Giles, 1889, Vol. I.

II

The " Times;' Dccciiibcr dth, 1890

Sir, — The purpose of my previous letter about
Mr. Booth's scheme was to arouse the contributors
to the military chest of the Salvation Army to a
clear sense of what they are doing. I thought
it desirable that they should be distinctly aware
that they are setting up and endowing a sect, in
many ways analogous to the " Ranters " and
" Revivalists " of undesirable notoriety in former
times ; but with this immensely important differ-
ence, that it possesses a strong, far-reaching,
centralized organization, the disposal of the physi-
cal, moral, and financial strength of which rests
with an irresponsible chief, who, according to his
own account, is assured of the blind obedience of
nearly 10,000 subordinates. I wish them to ask
themselves, Ought prudent men and good citizens
to aid in the establishment of an organization
which, under sundry, by no means improbable,
contingencies, may easily become a worse and

248 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

more dangerous nuisance than the mendicant
friars of the middle ages ? If this is an academic
question, I really do not know what questions
deserve to be called practical. As you divined, I
purposely omitted any consideration of the details
of the Salvationist scheme, and of the principles
which animate those who work it, because I
desired that the public appreciation of the evils,
necessarily inherent in all such plans of despotic
social and religious regimentation should not be
obscured by the raising of points of less compara-
tive, however great absolute, importance.

But it is now time to undertake a more par-
ticular criticism of " Darkest England." At the
outset of my examination of that work, I was
startled to find that Mr. Booth had put forward his
scheme with an almost incredibly imperfect know-
ledge of what had been done and is doing in the
same direction. A simple reader might well imagine
that the author of " Darkest England " posed as
the Columbus, or at any rate the Cortez, of that
region. " Go to Mudie's," he tells us, and you
\vill be surprised to see how few books there are
upon the social problem. That may or may not
be correct ; but if Mr. Booth had gone to a cer-
tain reading-room not far from Mudie's, I under-
take to say that the well-informed and obliging-
staff of the national library in Bloomsbury would
have provided him with more books on this topic,
in almost all European languages, than he would

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 249

read in three months. Has socialism no Htera-
ture ? And what is socialism but an incarnation
of the social question ? Moreover, I am per-
suaded that even " Mudie's " resources could have
furnished Mr. Booth with the " Life of Lord
Shaftesbury " and Carlyle's works. Mr. Booth
seems to have undertaken to instruct the world
without having heard of " Past and Present " or of
" Latter-Day Pamphlets " ; though, somewhat late
in the day, a judicious friend calls his attention
to them. To those of my contemporaries on whom,
as on myself, Carlyle's writings on this topic made
an ineffaceable imiDression forty years ago, who
know that, for all that time, hundreds of able
and devoted men, both clerical and lay, have
worked heart and soul for the permanent amend-
ment of the condition of the poor, Mr. Booth's
"Go to Mudie's" affords an apt measure of the depth
of his preliminary studies. However, I am bound
to admit that these earlier labourers in the field
laboured in such a different fashion, that the origin-
ality of the plan started by Mr. Booth remains
largely unaffected. For them no drums have beat,
no trombones brayed; no sanctified buffoonery, after
the model of the oration of the Friar in Wallen-
stein's camp dear to the readers of Schiller, has
tickled the ears of the groundlings on their behalf.
Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-adver-
tisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem
not to have advanced one whit beyond John the

250 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " y

Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their
notions of the way in which the mctanoia, the
change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought
about. Yet the new model was there, ready for
the imitation of those ancient savers of souls.
The ranting and roaring mystagogues of some of
the most venerable of Greek and Syrian cults also
had their processions and banners, their fifes and
cymbals and holy chants, their hierarchy of officers
to wdiom the art of making collections was not
wholly unknown; and who, as freely as their
modern imitators, promised an Elysian future to
contributory converts. The success of these
antique Salvation armies was enormous. Simon
MagTis was quite as notorious a personage, and
probably had as strong a following as Mr. Booth.
Yet the Apostles, with their old-fashioned ways,
would not accept such a success as a satisfactory
sign of the Divine sanction, nor depart from their
own methods of leading the way to the higher life.
I deem it unessential to verify Mr. Booth's
statistics. The exact strength of the population
of the realm of misery, be it one, two, or three
millions, has nothing to do with the efficacy of
any means proposed for the highly desirable end
of reducing it to a minwnim. The sole question
for consideration at present is whether the scheme,
keeping specially in view the spirit in which it
is to be worked, is likely to do more good than
harm.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 251

Mr. Booth tells us, with commendable frankness,
that " it is primarily and mainly for the sake of
saving tlie soul that I seek the salvation of the
body " (p. 45), which language, being interpreted,
means that the propagation of the special
Salvationist creed comes first, and the promotion
of the physical, intellectual, and purely moral
welfare of mankind second in his estimation.
Men are to be made sober and industrious,
mainly, that, as washed, shorn, and docile sheep,
they may be driven into the narrow theological
fold which Mr. Booth patronises. If they refuse
to enter, for all their moral cleanliness, they will
have to take their place among the goats as
sinners, only less dirty than the rest.

I have been in the habit of thinking (and I
believe the opinion is largely shared by reasonable
men) that self-respect and thrift are the rungs of
the ladder by which men may most surely climb
out of the slough of despond of want ; and I have
regarded them as perhaps the most eminent of
the practical virtues. That is not Mr. Booth's
opinion. For him they are mere varnished sins
— nothing better than " Pride re-baptised " (p.
46). Shutting his eyes to the necessary con-
sequences of the struggle for life, the existence of
which he accepts as fully as any Darwinian,^ Mr.
Booth tells men, whose evil case is one of those
consequences, that envy is a corner-stone of our
1 See p. 100.

252 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

competitive sj'stem. With thrift and self-respect
denounced as sin, with the suffering of starving
men referred to the sins of the capitaUst, the
gospel according to Mr. Booth may save souls,
but it will hardly save society.

In estimating the social and political influence
which the Salvation Army is likely to exert, it
is important to reflect that the officers (pledged
to blind obedience to their " General ") are not
to confine themselves to the functions of mere
deacons and catechists (though, under a " General "
like C}Til, Alexandria knew to her cost what
even they could effect) ; they are to be " tribunes
of the people," who are to act as their gratuitous
legal advisers ; and, when law is not sufficiently
effective, the whole force of the army is to obtain
what the said tribunes may conceive to be justice,
by the practice of ruthless intimidation. Society,
says Mr. Booth, needs " mothering " ; and he sets
forth, with much complacency, a variety of
" cases," by which we may estimate the sort of
" mothering " to be expected at his parental
hands. Those who study the materials thus set
before them will, I think, be driven to the con-
clusion that the " mother " has already proved
herself a most unscrupulous meddler, even if
she has not fallen within reach of the arm of
the law.

Consider this " case." A, asserting herself to
have been seduced twice, " applied to our people.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 253

We hunted up the man, followed him to the
country, threatened him with public exposure,
and forced from him the payment to his victim
of £60 down, an allowance of £1 a week, and an
insurance policy on his life for £450 in her favour "
(p. 222).

Jedburgh justice this. " We " constitute our-
selves prosecutor, judge, jury, sheriff's officer, all
in one ; " we " practise intimidation as deftly as
if we were a branch of another League ; and,
under threat of exposure, " we " extort a tolerably
heavy hush-money in payment of our silence.

Well, really, my poor moral sense is unable to
distinguish these remarkable proceedings of the
new popular tribunate from what, in French, is
called chantage and, in plain English, blackmail-
ing And when we consider that anybody, for
any reason of jealousy, or personal spite, or party
hatred, might be thus " hunted," " followed,"
" threatened," and financially squeezed or ruined,
without a particle of legal investigation, at the
will of a man whom the familiar charged with
the inquisitorial business dare not hesitate to
obey, surely it is not unreasonable to ask how far
does the Salvation Army, in its " tribune of the
people " aspect, differ from a Sicilian Mafia ? I
am no apologist of men guilty of the acts charged
against the person who yet, I think, might be as
fairly called a " victim," in this case, as his partner
in wrong-doing. It is possible that, in so peculiar

254 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

a case, Solomon himself might have been puzzled
to apportion the relative moral delinquency of
the parties. However that may be, the man was
morally and legally bound to support his child,
and any one would have been justified in helping
the woman to her legal rights, and the man to
the legal consequences (in which exposure is
included) of his fault.

The action of the " General " of the Salvation
Army in extorting the heavy fine he chose to
impose as the price of his silence, however
excellent his motives, appears to me to be as
immoral as, I hope, it is illegal.

So much for the Salvation Army as a teacher
of questionable ethics and of eccentric economics,
as the legal adviser who recommends and practises
the extraction of money by intimidation, as the
fairy godmother who i^roposes to " mother "
society, in a fashion which is not to my taste,
however much it may commend itself to some of
Mr. Booth's supporters.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 255

III

The " Times;' Decemher 11th, 1890

Sir, — When I first addressed you on the
subject of the projected operations of the
Salvation Army, all that I knew about that body
was derived from the study of Mr. Booth's book,
from common repute, and from occasional atten-
tion to the sayings and doings of his noisy
squadrons, with which my walks about London,
in past years, have made me familiar. I was
quite unaware of the existence of evidence re-
specting the present administration of the Salva-
tion forces, which would have enabled me to act
upon the sagacious maxim of the American
humourist, " Don't prophesy unless you know."
The letter you were good enough to publish has
brought upon me a swarm of letters and pam-
phlets. Some favour me with abuse ; some
thoughtful correspondents warmly agree with me,
and then proceed to point out how much worthier
certain schemes of their own are of my friend's
support ; some send valuable encouragement, for
which I offer my hearty thanks, and ask them to
excuse any more special acknowledgment. But
that which I find most to the purpose, just now, is
the revelation made by some of the documents
which have reached me, of a fact of which I was

256 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

wholly ignorant — namely, that persons who have
faithfully and zealously served in the Salvation
Army, who express unchanged attachment to its
original principles and practice, and who have
been in close official relations with the " General,"
have publicly declared that the process of de-
gradation of the organization into a mere engine
of fanatical intolerance and personal ambition,
which I declared was inevitable, has already set
in and is making rapid progress.

It is out of the question, Sir, that I should
occupy the columns of the " Times " with a de-
tailed exposition and criticism of these ^nkes
justificatives of my forecast. I say criticism, be-
cause the assertions of persons who have quitted
any society must, in fairness, be taken with the
caution that is required in the case of all ex parte
statements of hostile witnesses. But it is, at any
rate, a notable fact that there are parts of my
first letter, indicating the inherent and necessary
evil consequences of any such organization,
which might serve for abstracts of jDortions of this
evidence, long since printed and published under
the public responsibility of the witnesses.

Let us ask the attention of your readers, in the
first place, to " An ex-Captain's Experience of the
Salvation Army," by J. J. R Redstone, the
genuineness of which is guaranteed by the preface
(dated April 5th, 1888) which the Rev. Dr.
Cunningham Geikie has supplied. Mr. Redstone's

V " DAKKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 257

story is well worth reading on its own account.
Told in simple, direct language such as John
Bunyan might have used, it permits no doubt
of the single-minded sincerity of the man, who
gave up everything to become an officer of the
Salvation Army, but, exhibiting a sad want of
that capacity for unhesitating and blind obedience
on which Mr. Booth lays so much stress, was
thrown aside, penniless — no, I am wrong, with
2s. M. for his last week's salary — to shift, with his
equally devoted wife, as he best might. I wish
I could induce intending contributors to Mr.
Booth's army chest to read Mr. Redstone's story.
I would particularly ask them to contrast the
pure simplicity of his plain tale with the artificial
pietism and slobbering unction of the letters
which Mr. Ballington Booth addresses to his
" dear boy " (a married man apparently older than
himself), so long as the said "dear boy" is facing
brickbats and starvation, as per order.

I confess that my opinion of the chiefs of the
Salvation Army has been so distinctly modified by
the perusal of this pamphlet that I am glad to be
relieved from the necessity of expressing it. It
will be much better that I should cite a few
sentences from the preface written by Dr.
Cunningham Geikie, who expresses warm admir-
ation for the early and uncorrupted work of the
Salvation Army, and cannot possibly be accused
of prejudice against it on religious grounds : —

VOL. IX fi

258 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

(1) " The Salvation Army ' is emphatically a
fiimih' concern. Mr. Booth, senior, is General ;
one son is chief of the staff, and the remaining
sons and daughters engross the other chief
positions. It is Booth all over ; indeed, like the
sun in your eyes, you can see nothing else
wherever 3'ou turn.' And, as Dr. Geikie shrewdly
remarks, ' to be the head of a widely spread sect
carries with it many advantages — not all exclu-
sively spiritual.' "

(2) " Whoever becomes a Salvation officer is
henceforth a slave, helplessly exposed to the
caprice of his superiors."

" Mr. Redstone bore an excellent character both
before he entered the army and when he left it.
To join it, though a married man, he gave up a
situation which he had held for five years, and he
served Mr. Booth two years, working hard in most
difficult posts. His one fault. Major Lawley tells
us, was, that he was ' too straight ' — that is, too
honest, truthful, and manly — or, in other words, too
real a Christian. Yet without trial, without
formulated charges, on the strength of secret
complaints which were never, apjDarently, tested,
he was dismissed with less courtesy than most
people would show a beggar — with 2s. M. for his
last week's salary. If there be any mistake in
this matter, I shall be glad to learn it."

(3) Dr. Geikie confirms, on the ground of in-
formation given confidentially by other officers,

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 259

Mr. Redstone's assertion that they are watched
and reported by spies from headquarters.

(4) Mr. Booth refuses to guarantee his officers
any fixed amount of salary. While he and his
family of high officials live in comfort, if not in
luxury, the pledged slaves whose devotion is the
foundation of any true success the Army has met
with often have " hardly food enough to sustain
life. One good fellow frankly told me that when
he had nothing he just went and begged."

At this point, it is proper that I should inter-
pose an apology for having hastily spoken of such
men as Francis of Assisi, even for purposes of
warning, in connection with Mr. Booth. What-
ever may be thought of the wisdom of the plans
of the founders of the great monastic orders of
the middle ages, they took their full share of
suffering and privation, and never shirked in their
own persons the sacrifices they imposed on their
followers.

I have already expressed the opinion, that
whatever the ostensible purpose of the scheme
under discussion, one of its consequences will be
the setting up and endowment of a new Banter-
Socialist sect. I may now add that another effect
will be — indeed, has been — to set up and endow
the Booth dynasty with unlimited control of the
physical, moral, and financial resources of the sect.
Mr. Booth is already a printer and publisher,
who, it is plainly declared, utilizes the officers of

s 2

260 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

the Army as agents for advertising and selling his
publications ; and some of them are so strongly
impressed with the belief that active pushing of
Mr. Booth's business is the best road to their
master's favour, that when the public obstinately
refuse to purchase his papers they buy them
themselves and send the proceeds to headquarters.
Mr. Booth is also a retail trader on a large scale,
and the Dean of Wells has, most seasonably,
drawn attention to the very notable banking pro-
ject which he is trying to float. Any one who
follows Dean Plumptre's clear exposition of the
principles of this financial operation can have
little doubt that, whether they are, or are not,
adequate to the attainment of the first and second
of Mr. Booth's ostensible objects, they may be
trusted to effect a wide extension of any kingdom
in which worldly possessions are of no value. We
are, in fact, in sight of a financial catastrophe like
that of Law a century ago. Only it is the poor
who will suffer.

I have already occupied too much of your space,
and yet I have drawn upon only one of the
sources of information about the inner working
of the Salvation Ai-my at my disposition. Far
graver charges than any here dealt with are
publicly brought in the others.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 261

P.S. — I have just read Mr. Buchanan's letter in
the Times of to-day. Mr. Buchanan is, I beheve,
an imaginative writer. I am not acquainted with
his works, but nothing in the way of fiction he
has yet achieved can well surpass his account of
my opinions and of the purport of my writings.

IV

The " Times;' Deccmler 20th, 1890

Sir, — In discussing Mr. Booth's projects I have
hitherto left in the background a distinction
which must be kept well in sight by those who
wish to form a fair judgment of the influence, for
good or evil, of the Salvation Army. Salvationism,
the work of " saving souls " by revivalist methods,
is one thing ; Boothism, the utilization of the
workers for the furtherance of Mr. Booth's
peculiar projects, is another. Mr. Booth has
captured, and harnessed with sharp bits and
effectual blinkers, a multitude of ultra-Evange-
lical missionaries of the revivalist school who were
wandering at large. It is this skilfully, if some-
what mercilessly, driven team which has dragged
the " General's " coach-load of projects into their
present position.

262 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

Looking, then, at the host of Salvationists
proper, from the " captains " downwards (to whom,
in my judgment, the family hierarchy stands in
the relation of the Old Man of the Sea to Sinbad ),
as an independent entity, I desire to say that the
evidence before me, whether hostile or friendly to
the General and his schemes, is distinctly favour-
able to them. It exhibits them as, in the main,
poor, uninstructed, not unfrequently fanatical, en-
thusiasts, the purity of whose lives, the sincerity of
whose belief, and the cheerfulness of whose en-
durance of privation and rough usage, in what
they consider a just cause, command sincere
respect. For my part, though I conceive the
corybantic method of soul-saving to be full of
dangers, and though the theological specu-
lations of these good people are to me Avholly
unacceptable, yet I believe that the evils which
must follow in the track of such errors, as of all
other en'ors, will be largely outweighed by the
moral and social improvement of the people
whom they convert. I would no more raise my
voice against them (so long as they abstain from
annoying their neighbours) than I would quarrel
with a man, vigorously sweeping out a stye, on
account of the shape of his broom, or because he
made a great noise over his work. I have always
had a strong faith in the principle of the injunc-
tion, " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn." If a kingdom is worth a Mass, as

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 263

a great ruler said, surely the reign of clean living,
industry, and thrift is worth any quantity of
tambourines and eccentric doctrinal hypotheses.
All that I have hitherto said, and propose further
to say, is directed against Mr. Booth's extremely
clever, audacious, and hitherto successful attempt
to utilize the credit won by all this honest devo-
tion and self-sacrifice for the purposes of his
socialistic autocracy.

I now propose to bring forward a little more
evidence as to how things really stand where Mr.
Booth's system has had a fair trial. I obtain it,
mainly, from a curious pamphlet, the title of
which runs : " The New Papacy. Behind the
Scenes in the Salvation Army," by an ex-Staff
Officer. " Make not my Father's house a house of
merchandise " (John ii. 16). 1889. Published
at Toronto, by A. Britnell. On the cover it is
stated that " This is the book which was burned
by the authorities of the Salvation Army." I
remind the reader, once more, that the statements
which I shall cite must be regarded as ex imrtc ;
all I can vouch for is that, on grounds of internal
evidence and from other concurrent testimony
respecting the ways of the Booth hierarchy, I
feel justified in using them.

This is the picture the writer draws of the army
in the early days of its invasion of the Dominion
of Canada : —

264 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

" Then, it will be remembered, it professed to
be the humble handmaid of the existing churches ;
its professed object was the evangelization of the
masses. It repudiated the idea of building up a
separate religious body, and it denounced the
practice of gathering together wealth and the
accumulation of property. Men and women other
than its own converts gathered around it and
threw themselves heart and soul into the work,
for the simple reason that it offered, as they
supposed, a more extended and widely open
field for evangelical effort. Ministers ever3rwhere
were invited and welcomed to its platforms,
majors and colonels were few and far between,
and the supremacy and power of the General
were things unknown. . . . Care was taken to
avoid anything like proselytism ; its converts were
never coerced into joining its ranks. ... In a
word, the organization occupied the position of
an auxiliary mission and recruiting agency for
the various religious bodies. . . . The meetings
were crowded, people professed conversion by the
score, the public liberally supplied the means to
carry on the work in their respective commu-
nities ; therefore every corps was Vvdiolly self-
supporting, its officers were projjerly, if not
luxuriously, cared for, the local expenditure was
amply provided, and, under the supervision of the
secretary, a local member, and the officer in charge,
the funds were disbursed in the towns where they

y " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 265

were collected, and the spirit of satisfaction and
confidence was mutual all around" (pp. 4, 5).

Such was the army as the green tree. Now
for the dry : —

" Those who have been daily conversant with
the army's machinery are well aware how entirely
and radically the whole system has changed, and
how, from a band of devoted and disinterested
workers, united in the bonds of zeal and charity
for the good of their fellows, it has developed into
a colossal and aggressive agency for the building
up of a system and a sect, bound by rules and
regulations altogether subversive of religious
liberty and antagonistic to every (other ?) branch
of Christian endeavour, and bound hand and foot
to the will of one supreme head and ruler. ... As
the work has spread through the country, and as
the area of its endeavours has enlarged, each
leading position has been filled, one after the
other, by individuals strangers to the country,
totally ignorant of the sentiments and idiosyn-
crasies of the Canadian people, trained in one
school under the teachings and dominance of a
member of the Booth family, and out of whom
every idea has been crushed, except that of
unquestioning obedience to the General, and the
absolute necessity of going forward to his bidding
without hesitation or question " (p. 6).

266 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

" What is the result of all this ? In the first
place, whilst material j^rosperity has undoubtedly
been attained, spirituality has been quenched, and,
as an evangelical agency, the army has become
almost a dead letter. ... In seventj'-five per cent,
of its stations its officers suffer need and privation,
chiefly on account of the heavy taxation that is
placed upon them to maintain an imposing head-
quarters and a large ornamental staff. The whole
financial arrangements are carried on by a S3-stem
of inflation and a hand-to-mouth extravagance and
blindness as to future contingencies. Nearly all of
its original workers and members have disappeared"
(p. 7). " In reference to the religious bodies at
large the army has become entirely antagonistic.
Soldiers are forbidden by its rules to attend other
places of worship without the permission of their
officers. . . . Officers or soldiers Avho may con-
scientiously leave the service or the ranks are
looked upon and often denounced publicly as
backsliders. . . . Means of the most despicable
description have been resorted to in order to
starve them back to the service " (p. 8). " In its
inner workings the army system is identical with
Jesuitism. . . . That 'the end justifies the means,'
if not openly taught, is as tacitly agreed as in that
celebrated order" (p. 9).

Surely a bitter, overcharged, anonymous libel, is
the reflection which will occur to many who read

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 267

these passages, especially the last. Well, I turn
to other evidence which, at any rate, is not anony-
mous. It is contained in a pamphlet entitled
" General Booth, the Family, and the Salvation
Army, showing its Rise, Progress, and Moral and
Spiritual Decline," by S. H. Hodges, LL.B., late
Major in the Army, and formerly private secretary
to General Booth (Manchester, 1890). I recom-
mend potential contributors to Mr. Booth's wealth
to study this little work also. I have learned a
great deal from it. Among other interesting
novelties, it tells me that Mr. Booth has dis-
covered " the necessity of a third step or blessing,
in the work of Salvation. He said to me one day,
' Hodges, you have only two barrels to your gun ;
I have three ' " (p. 31). And if Mr. Hodges's de-
scription of this third barrel is correct — " giving up
your conscience " and, " for God and the army,
stooping to do things which even honouiable
worldly men would not consent to do " (p. 32) — it
is surely calculated to bring down a good many
things, the first principles of morality among
them.

Mr. Hodges gives some remarkable examples of
the army practice with the " General's " new rifle.
But I must refer the curious to his instructive
pamphlet. The position I am about to take up is
a serious one ; and I prefer to fortify it by the help
of evidence which, though some of it may be
anonymous, cannot be sneered away. And I shall

268 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

be believed, when I say that nothing but a sense
of the great social danger of the spread of
Boothism could induce me to revive a scandal,
even though it is barely entitled to the benefit of
the Statute of Limitations.

On the 7th of July, 1883, you. Sir, did the
public a great service by writing a leading article
on the notorious " Eagle " case, from Avhich I take
the following extract : —

" Mr. Justice Kay refused the application, but
he was induced to refuse it by means which, as
Mr. Justice Stephen justly remarked, were highly
discreditable to Mr. Booth. Mr. Booth filed an
affidavit which appears totally to have misled
Mr. Justice Kay, as it would have misled any one
who regarded it as a frank and honest statement
by a professed teacher of religion."

When I addressed my first letter to you I had
never so much as heard of the " Eagle " scandal.
But I am thankful that my perception of the
inevitable tendency of all religious autocracies
towards evil was clear enough to bring about a
provisional condemnation of Mr. Booth's schemes
in my mind. Supposing that I had decided the
other way, with what sort of feeling should I have
faced my friend, when I had to confess that the
money had passed into the absolute control of a
person about the character of whose administra-

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 269

tion this concurrence of damnatory evidence was
already extant ?

I have nothing to say about Mr. Booth person-
ally, for I know nothing. On that subject, as on
several others, I profess myself an agnostic. But,
if he is, a& he may be, a saint actuated by the
purest of motives, he is not the first saint who,
as you have said, has shown himself " in the
ardour of prosecuting a well-meant object" to
be capable of overlooking " the plain maxims of
every-day morality." If I were a Salvationist
soldier, I should cry with Othello, " Cassio, I love
thee ; but never more be officer of mine."

I am. Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

V

The " Times;' Deeemher 2Wi, 1890

Sir, — If I have any strong points, finance is
certainly not one of them. But the financial, or
rather fiscal, operations of the General of the
Salvation Army, as they are set forth and
exemplified in " The New Papacy," possess that
grand simplicity which is the mark of genius ;

270 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " t

and even I can comprehend them — or, to be more
modest, I can portray them in such a manner
that every Uneament, however harsh, and every
shade, however dark, can be verified by pubhshed
evidence.

Suppose there is a thriving, expanding colonial
town, and that, scattered among its artizans and
labourers, there is a sprinkling of Methodists, or
other such ultra-evangelical good people, doing
their best, in a quiet way, to " save souls."
Clearly, this is an outpost which it is desirable to
capture. " We," therefore, take measures to get
up a Salvation " boom " of the ordinary pattern.
Enthusiasm is roused. A score or two of soldiers
are enlisted into the ranks of the Salvation Army.
*' We " select the man who promises to serve our
purposes best, make a " cajDtain " of him, and put
him in command of the "corps." He is very
pleased and grateful ; and indeed he ought to be.
All he has done is that he has given up his trade ;
that he has promised to work at least nine hours
a day in our service (none of your eight-hour
nonsense for us) as collector, bookseller, general
agent, and anything else we may order him to be.
" We," on the other hand, guarantee him nothing
whatever ; to do so might weaken his faith and
substitute worldly for spiritual ties between us.
Knowing that, if he exerts himself in a right
spirit, his labours will surely be blessed, we con-
tent ourselves with telling him that if, after all

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 271

expenses are paid and our demands are satisfied
each week, 25s. remains, he may take it. And, if
nothing remains, he may take that, and stay his
stomach with what the faithful may give him.
With a certain grim playfulness, we add that the
value of these contributions will be reckoned as
so much salary. So long as our " captain " is
successful, therefore, a beneficent spring of cash
trickles unseen into our treasury ; when it begins
to dry up we say, " God bless you, dear boy," turn
him adrift (with or without 2s. 4fd. in his pocket),
and put some other willing horse in the shafts.

The " General," I believe, proposes, among other
things, to do away with " sweating." May he not
as well set a good example by beginning at
home ?

My little sketch, however, looks so like a
monstrous caricature that, after all, I must
produce the original from the pages of my
Canadian authority. He says that a " captain "
"has to pay 10 per cent, of all collections and
donations to the divisional fund for the support of
his divisional officer, who has also the privilege of
arranging for such special meetings as he shall
think fit, the proceeds of which he takes away for
the general needs of the division. Headquarters,
too, has the right to hold such special meetings
at the corps and send around such special at-
tractions as its wisdom sees fit, and to take away
the proceeds for the purposes it decides upon.

272 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

. . . He has to pay the rent of his building,
either to headquarters or a private individual ; he
has to send the whole collection of the afternoon
meeting of the first Sunday in the month to the
' Extension Fund ' at headquarters ; he has to pay
for the heating, lighting, and cleaning of his hall,
together with such necessary repairs as may be
needed ; he has to provide the food, lodging, and
clothing of his cadet, if he has one ; headquarters
taxes him with so many copies of the army papers
each week, for which he has to pay, sold or un-
sold ; and when he has done this, he may take
$6 (or $5, being a woman), or such projDortion of
it as may be left, with which to clothe and feed
himself and to pay the rent and provide for the
heating and lighting of his quarters. If he has a
lieutenant he has to pay liim $6 per week, or
such proportion of it as he himself gets, and share
the house expenses with him. Now, it will be
easily understood that at least 60 per cent, of the
stations in Canada the officer gets no money at
all, and he has to beg specially amongst his people
for his house-rent and food. There are few places
in the Dominion in which the soldiers do not find
their officers in all the food they need ; but it
must be remembered that the value of the food
so received has to be accounted for at headquarters
and entered upon the books of the corps as cash
received, the amount being deducted from any
moneys that the officer is able to take from the

V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 273

week's collections. So that, no matter how much
may be specially given, the officer cannot receive
more than the value of $6 per week. The
officer cannot collect any arrears of salary, as each
week has to pay its own expenses ; and if there
is any surplus cash after all demands are met it
must be sent to the ' war chest ' at headquarters."
—" The New Papacy " (pp. 35, 36).

Evidently, Sir, " headquarters " has taken to
heart the injunction about casting your bread
upon the waters. It casts the crumb of a day or
two's work of an emissary, and gets back any
quantity of loaves of cash, so long as " captains "
present themselves to be used up and replaced by
new victims. What can be said of these devoted
poor fellows except, 0 sanda simplicitas !

But it would be a great mistake to suppose
that the money-gathering efficacy of Mr. Booth's
fiscal agencies is exhausted by the foregoing
enumeration of their regular operations. Con-
sider the following edifying history of the " Rescue
Home " in Toronto : —

" It is a fine building in the heart of the city ;
the lot cost $7,000, and a building was put up at
a cost of $7,000 more, and there is a mortgage on
it amounting to half the cost of the whole. The
land to-day would probably fetch double its
original price, and every year enhances its value
In the first five months of its

VOL. IX T

'J/ 4- LETTERS TO THE "TIMES v

existence this institution received from the pubhc
an income of $1,812 70c. ; out of this $600 was
paid to headquarters for rent, $590 52c. was
spent upon the building in various ways, and the
balance of §622 18c. paid the salaries of the staff
and supported the inmates " (pp. 24, 25).

Said I not truly that Mr. Booth's fisc bears the
stamp of genius ? Who else could have got the
public to buy him a " corner lot," put a building
upon it, pay all its working expenses : and then,
not content with paying him a heavy rent for the
use of the handsome present they had made him,
they say not a word against his mortgaging it to
half its value ? And, so far as any one knows,
there is nothing to stop headquarters from selling
the whole estate to-morrow, and using the money
as the " General " may direct.

Once more listen to the author of " The New
Papacy," who affirms that " out of the funds
given by the Dominion for the evangelization of
the people by means of the Salvation Army, one
sixth had been spent in the extension of the
Kingdom of God, and the other five sixths had
been invested in valuable property, all handed
over to Mr. Booth and his heirs and assigns, as
we have already stated " (p. 26).

And this brings me to the last point upon
which I wish to touch. The answer to all
inquiries as to what has become of the enormous

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 275

personal and real estate which has been given
over to Mr. Booth is that it is held " in trust."
The supporters of Mr. Booth may feel justified
in taking that statement " on trust." I do not.
Anyhow, the more completely satisfactory this
" trust " is, the less can any man who asks the
public to put bhnd faith in his integrity and his
wisdom object to acquaint them exactly with its
provisions. Is the trust drawn up in favour of
the Salvation Army? But what is the legal
status of the Salvation Army ? Have the soldiers
any claim ? Certainly not. Have the officers
any legal interest in the " trust " ? Surely not.
The " General " has taken good care to insist on
their renouncing all claims as a condition of their
appointment. Thus, to all appearance, the army,
as a legal person, is identical with Mr. Booth.
And, in that case, any " trust " ostensibly for the
benefit of the army is — what shall we say that is
at once accurate and polite ?

I conclude with these plain questions — Will
Mr. Booth take counsel's opinion as to whether
there is anything in such legal arrangements as
he has at present made which prevents him from
disposing of the wealth he has accumulated at
his own will and pleasure ? Will anybody be in
a position to set either the civil or the criminal
law in motion against him or his successors if he
or they choose to spend every farthing in ways

T 2

276 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

very diiferent from those couteraplated by the
donors ?

I may add that a careful study of the terms
of a " Declaration of Trust by William Booth in
favour of the Christian Mission,"' made in 187b),
has not enabled persons of much greater com-
petence tlian myself to answer these questions
satisfactorily.^

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

On December 24th a letter appeared in the
"Times" signed "J. S. Trotter," in which the
following passages appear : —

" It seems a pity to put a darnjoer on the
spirits of those who agree witli Professor Huxley
in his denunciation of General Booth and all his
works. May I give a few particulars as to the
' book ' which was published in Canada ? I had
the pleasure of an interview with the author of
a book ^vritten in Canada. The book was printed
at Toronto, and two copies only struck otf by the
printers ; one of these copies was stolen from the
printer, and the quotation sent to you by Professor
Huxley was inserted in the book, and is con-
^ See Preface to this volume, pp. ix — xiii.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 277

sequently a forgery. The book was published
without the consent and against the will of the
author.

'' So the quotation is not only ' a bitter, over-
charged anonymous libel,' as Professor Huxley
intimates, but a forgery as well. As to Mr.
Hodges, it seems to me to be simply trifling with
your readers to bring him in as an authority.
He was turned out of the army, out of kindness
taken on again, and again dismissed. If this had
happened to one of your staff, would his opinion
of the ' Times ' as a newspaper be taken for
gospel ? "

But in the " Times " of December 29th Mr. J.
S. Trotter writes : —

" I find I was mistaken in saying, in my letter
of Wednesday, to the ' Times ' that Mr. Hodges
was dismissed from the service of General Booth,
and regret any inconvenience the statement may
have caused to Mr. Hodges."

And on December 30th the " Times " published
a letter from Mr. Hodges in which he says that
Mr. Trotter's statements as they regard himself
" are the very reverse of truth. I was never
turned out of the Salvation Army. Nor, so far
as I was made acquainted with General Booth's
motives, was I taken on again out of kindness.

278 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

In order to rejoin the Salvation Army, I resigned
the position of manager in a mill where I was in
I'eceipt of a salary of £250 per annum, with house-
rent and one third of the profits. Instead of this
Mr. Booth allowed me £2 per week and house-
rent.

VI

The "Times;' Dceemhcr 26fJi, 1890

Sir, — I am much obliged to Mr. J. S. Trotter
for the letter which you published this morning.
It furnishes evidence, which I much desired to
possess on the following points : —

1. The author of " The New Papacy " is a
responsible, trustworthy person ; otherwise Mr.
Trotter w^ould not sjDeak of having had " the
pleasure of an interview " with him.

2. After this responsible person had taken the
trouble to write a pamphlet of sixty-four closely
I^rinted pages, some influence was brought to bear
upon him, the effect of which was that he refused
his consent to its publication. Mr. Trotter's ex-
cellent information will surely enable him to tell
us what influence that was.

8. How docs Mr. Trotter know that any passage

V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 279

I have quoted is an interpolation ? Does he
jDossess that other copy of the " two " which alone,
as he affirms, were printed ?

4. If so, he will be able to say which of the
passages I have cited is genuine and which is not ;
and whether the tenor of the whole uninterpolated
copy differs in any important respect from that of
the copy I have quoted.

It will be interesting to hear what Mr. J. S.
Trotter has to say upon these points. But the
really important thing which he has done is that
he has testified, of his own knowledge, that the
anonymous author of "The New Papacy" is no
mere irresponsible libeller, but a person of whom
even an ardent Salvationist has to speak with
respect.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

[I may add that the unfortunate Mr. Trotter
did me the further service of eliciting the letter
from Mr. Hodges referred to on p. 277 — which
sufficiently establishes that gentleman's credit,
and leads me to attach full weight to his evidence
about the " third barrel."]

January 1891.

280 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

YII

The ''Times;' December 27th, 1890

Sir, — In making use of the only evidence of
the actual working of Mr. Booth's autocratic
government accessible to me, I was fully aware of
the slippery nature of the ground upon which I
was treading. For, as I joointed out in my first
letter, " no personal habit more surely degrades
the conscience and the intellect than blind and
unhesitating obedience to unlimited authority."
Now we have it, on Mr. Booth's own showing,
that every officer of his has undertaken to " obey
without questioning or gainsaying the orders from
headquarters." And the possible relations of such
orders to honour and veracity are demonstrated
not only by the judicial deliverance on Mr. Booth's
affidavit in the " Eagle " case, which I have
already cited ; not only by Mr. Bramwell Booth's
admission before Mr. Justice Lopes that he had
stated what was " not quite coiTect " because he
had " j^romised Mr. Stead not to divulge " the facts
of the case (the "Times," November 4th, 1885);
but by the following passage in Mr. Hodges's
account of the reasons of his withdrawal from the
Salvation Army : —

" The General and Chief did not and could not

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 281

deny doing these things ; the only question was
this, Was it right to practise this deception?
These points of difference were fully discussed
between myself and the Chief of the Staff
on my withdrawal, especially the Leamington
incident, which was the one that finally drove
me to decision. I had come to the conclusion,
from the first, that they had acted as they
supposed with a single eye to the good of
God's cause, and had persuaded myself that
the things were, as against the devil, right to
be done, that as in battle one party captured
and turned the enemy's own guns upon them,
so, as they were fighting against the devil, it
would be fair to use against him his weapons.
And I wrote to this effect to the General"
(p. 63).

Now, I do not wish to say anything needlessly
harsh, but I ask any prudent man these questions.
Could I, under these circumstances, trust any
uncorroborated statement emanating from head-
quarters, or made by the General's order ? Had
I any reason to doubt the truth of Mr. Hodges's
naive confession of the corrupting influence of
Mr. Booth's system ? And did it not behove me
to pick my way carefully through the mass of
statements before me, many of them due to people
whose moral sense might, by possibility, have been
as much blunted by the army discipline in the

282 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

use of the weapons of the devil as Mr. Hodges
affirms that his was ?

Therefore, in my third letter, I commenced my
illustrations of the practical working of Boothism
with the evidence of Mr. Redstone, fortified and
supplemented by that of a non-Salvationist, Dr.
Cunningham Geikie. That testimony has not
been challenged, and, until it is, I shall assume
that it cannot be. In my fourth letter, I cited a
definite statement by Mr. Hodges in evidence of
the Jesuitical principles of headquarters. What
sort of answer is it to tell us that Mr. Hodges
was dismissed the army ? A child might expect
that some such red herring would be drawn
across the trail ; and, in anticipation of the stale
trick, I added the strong primd facie evidence of
the trustworthiness of my witness, in this par-
ticular, which is afiforded by the " Eagle " case.
It was not until I wrote my fourth letter to you.
Sir — until the exploitation of the " captains " and
the Jesuitry of headquarters could be proved up
to the hilt — that I ventured to have recourse to
" The New Papacy." So far as the pamphlet
itself goes, this is an anonymous work ; and, for
sufficient reasons, I did not choose to go beyond
what was to be found between its covers. To
any one accustomed to deal with the facts of
evolution, the Boothism of" The New Papacy " was
merely the natural and necessary development
of the Boothism of Mr. Redstone's case and of the

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 283

" Eagle " case. Therefore, I felt fully justified in
using it, at the same time carefully warning my
readers that it must be taken with due caution.

Mr. Trotter's useful letter admits that such a
book was written by a person with whom he had
the " pleasure of an interview," and that a version
of it (interpolated, according to his assertion) was
published against the will of the author. Hence
I am justified in believing that there is a founda-
tion of truth in certain statements, some of which
have long been in my possession, but which for
lack of Mr. Trotter's valuable corroboration I have
refrained from using. The time is come when I
can set forth some of the heads of this informa-
tion, with the request that Mr. Trotter, who
knows all about the business, will be so good as
to point out any eiTor that there may be in them.
I am bound to sui:>pose that his sole object, like
mine, is the elucidation of the truth, and to
assume his willingness to help me therein to the
best of his ability.

1. " The author of ' The New Papacy ' is a
Mr. Sumner, a person of perfect respectability, and
greatly esteemed in Toronto, who held a high
position in the Army. When he left, a large
public meeting, presided over by a popular
Methodist minister, 23assed a vote of sympathy
with him."

284 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " y

Is this true or false ?

2. " On Saturday last, about noon, Mr. Sumner,
the author of the book, and Mr. Fred Perry, the
Salvation Army printer, accompanied by a law3"er,
went down to Messrs. Imrie and Graham's estab-
lishment, and asked for all the manuscript, stereo-
t}^e plates, &c., of the book. Mr. Sumner ex-
plained that the book had been sold to the Army,
and, on a cheque for the amount due being given,
the printing material was delivered up."

Did these paragraphs appear in the " Toronto
Telegi-am" of April 24th, 1889, or did they
not ? Are the statements they contain true or
false ?

3. " Public interest in the fate or probable out-
come of that mysterious book called ' The New
Papacy ; or, Behind the Scenes in the Salvation
Army,' continues unabated, though the line of pro-
ceedings by the publisher and his solicitor, Mr.
Smoke, of Watson, Thome, Smoke, and Masten,
has not been altered since yesterday. The book,
no doubt, will be issued in some form. So far as
known, only one complete copy remains, and the
whereabouts of this is a secret which will be
profoundly kept. It is safe to say that if the
Commissioner kept on guessing imtil the next
anniversary, he would not strike the secluded

V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 285

location of the one volume among five thousand
which escaped, when he and his assistant, Mr.
Fred Perry, believed they had cast every vestige
of the forbidden work into the fiery furnace. On
Tuesday last, when the discovery was made that
a copy of ' The New Papacy ' was in existence.
Publisher Britnell, of Yonge Street, was at once
the suspected holder, and in a short time his
book-store was the resort of army agents sent
to reconnoitre " (" Toronto News," April 28th,
1889).

Is this a forgery, or is it not ? Is it in sub-
stance true or false ?

When Mr. Trotter has answered these inquiries
categorically, we may proceed to discuss the ques-
tion of interpolations in Mr. Sumner's book.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

[On the 26th of December a letter, signed J. T.
Cunningham, late Fellow of University College,
Oxford, called forth the following commentary.]

286 LETTERS TO THE " TDIES '"' v

YIII

The " Times;' Deeemler 29th, 1890

Sir, — If Mr. Ounningham doubts the efficacy
of the struggle for existence, as a factor in social
conditions, he should find fault mth Mr. Booth
and not with me.

" I am labouring under no delusion as to the
possibility of inaugurating the millennium by my
social specific. In the struggle of life the weakest
will go to the wall, and there are so many weak.
The fittest in tooth and claw will survive. All
that we can do is to soften the lot of the unfit,
and make their suffering less horrible than it is
at present " (" In Darkest England," p. 44).

That is what Mr. Cunningham would have
found if he had read Mr. Booth's book with
attention. And, if he will bestow equal pains on
my second letter, he will discover that he has
interpolated the word " wilfully " in his statement
of my " argument," which runs thus : " Shutting
his eyes to the necessary consequences of the
struggle for hfe, the existence of which he admits
as fully as any Darwinian, Mr. Booth tells men
whose evil case is one of those consequences that
envy is a corner-stone of our competitive system."

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 287

Mr. Cunningliam's pliysiological studies will have
informed liim that the process of " shutting the
eyes," in the Uteral sense of the words, is not
always wilful ; and I propose to illustrate, by the
crucial instance his own letter furnishes, that the
" shutting of the eyes " of the mind to the obvious
consequences of accepted propositions may also be
involuntary. At least, I hope so.

1. " Sooner or later," says Mr. Cunningham,
" the population jDroblem will block the way once
more." What does this mean, excejDt that multi-
plication, excessive in relation to the contem-
poraneous means of support, will create a severe
competition for those means ? And this seems to
me to be a pretty accurate " reflection of the con-
ceptions of Malthus " and the other poor benighted
folks of a past generation at whom Mr. Cunning-
ham sneers.

2. By way of leaving no doubt upon this sub-
ject, Mr. Cunningham further tells us, " The
struggle for existence is always going on, of
course ; let us thank Darwin for making us realize
it." It is pleasant to meet with a little gratitude
to Darwin among the ejJigoni who are squabbling
over the heritage he conquered for them, but Mr.
Cunningham's personal expression of that feeling
is hasty. For it is obvious that he has not
" realized " the significance of Darwin's teaching
— indeed, I fail to discover in Mr. Cunningham's
letter any sign that he has even " realized " what

288 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

he would be at. If the " struggle for existence is
always going on "' ; and if, as I suppose will be
granted, industrial competition is one phase of
that struggle, I fail to see how my conclusion that
it is sheer wickedness to tell ignorant men that
" envy " is a corner-stone of comjoetition can be
disputed.

Mr. Cunningham has followed the lead of that
polished and instructed person, Mr. Ben Tillett,
in rebuking me for (as the associates say) attack-
ing Mr. Booth's personal character. Of course,
when I was writing, I did not doubt that this
very handy, though not too clean, weapon would
be used by one or other of Mr. Booth's supporters.
And my action was finally decided by the follow-
ing considerations : I happen to be a member of
one of the largest life insurance societies. There
is a vacancy in the directory at jDresent, for which
half a dozen gentlemen are candidates. Now, I
said to myself, supposing that one of these gentle-
men (whose pardon I humbly beg for starting the
hypothesis), say Mr. A., in his administrative
capacity and as a man of business, has been the
subject of such observations as a Judge on the
Bench bestowed upon Mr. Booth, is he a person for
whom I can properly vote ? And, if I find, when
I go to the meeting of the policy-holders, that
most of them know nothing of this and other
evidences of what, by the mildest judgment, must
be termed Mr. A.'s unfitness for administrative

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 289

responsibilities, am I to let them remain in their
ignorance ? I leave the answer and its applica-
tion to men of sense and integrity.

The mention of Mr. Cunningham's ally reminds
me that I have omitted to thank Mr. Tillett for
his very useful and instructive letter; and I
hasten to repair a neglect which I assure Mr.
Tillett was more apparent than real. Mr. Tillett's
letter is dated December 20th. On the 21st
the following pregnant (however unconscious)
commentary upon it appeared in " Reynolds's
Newspaper " : —

" I have always maintained that the Salvation
Army is one of the mightiest Socialistic agencies
in the country ; and now Professor Huxley comes
in to confirm that view. How could it be other-
wise ? The fantastic religious side of Salvationism
will disappear in the course of time, and what
will be left ? A large number of men and women
who have been organized, disciplined, and taught
to look for something better than their present
condition, and who have become public speakers
and not afraid of ridicule. There you have the
raw materials for a Socialist army."

Mr. Ben Tillett evidently knows Latin enough
to construe proxinius ardct.

I trust that the public will not allow themselves
to be led away by the false issues which are

VOL. IX u

200 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

dangled before them. A man really may love
his fellow-men ; cherish any form of Christianity
he pleases; and hold not only that Darwinism
is " tottering to its foil," but, if he pleases, the
equally sane belief that it never existed ; and yet
may feel it his duty to oppose, to the best of his
capacity, despotic Socialism in all its forms, and,
more particularly, in its Boothian disguise.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

[Persons who have not had the advantage of a
classical education might fairly complain of my
use of the Avord cpigoni. To say truth, I had
been reading Droysen's " Geschichte des Hellen-
ismus," and the familiar historical title slipped
out unawares. In replying to me, however, the
late "Fellow of University College," Oxford,
declares he had to look the w^ord out in a
Lexicon. I commend the fact to the notice of
the combatants over the desirability of retaining
the present compulsory modicum of Greek in our
Universities.]

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 291

IX

The " Timrs;' Beccmhcr 30th, 1890

Sir, — I am niucli obliged to Messrs. Ranger,
Burton, and Matthews for their prompt answer to
my questions. I presume it apphes to all money
collected by the agency of the Salvation Army,
though not specifically given for the purposes
of the " Christian Mission " named in the deed
of 1878 ; to all sums raised by mortgage upon
houses and land so given ; and, further, to funds
subscribed for Mr. Booth's various projects, which
have no apparent reference to the objects of
the " Christian Mission/' as defined in the deed.
Otherwise, to use a phrase which has become
classical, " it does not assist us much." But I
must leave these points to persons learned in the
law.

And, indeed, with many thanks to you. Sir, for
the amount of valuable space which you have
allowed me to occupy, I now propose to leave the
whole subject. My sole purjoose in embarking
upon an enterprise which was extremely dis-
tasteful to me was to prevent the skilful
" General," or rather " Generals," who devised
tlie plan of campaign from sweeping all before
them with a rush. I found the pass already held
by such stout defenders as Mr. Loch and the

U 2

292 LETTERS TO THE '' TIMES " v

Dean of Wells, and, with your powerful help, we
have given time for the reinforcements, sure to
be sent by the abundant, though somewhat slowly
acting, common sense of our countrymen, to come
up.

I can no longer be useful, and I return to more
congenial occupations.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

The following letter appeared in the " Times "
of January 2nd, 1891 :—

" Dear Mr. Tillett, — I have not had patience
to read Professor Huxley's letters. The existence
of hunger, nakedness, misery, ' death from in-
sufficient food,' even of starvation, is certain, and
no agency as yet reaches it. How can any man
hinder or discourage the giving of food or help ?
Why is the house called a workhouse ? Because
it is for those who cannot work ? No, because it
was the house to give work or bread. The very
name is an argument. I am very sure what Our
Lord and His Apostles would do if they were in
London. Let us be thankful even to have a will
to do the same.

"Yours faithfully,

" Henry E. Card. Manning."

" DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 293

The ''Times;' Jamiary Srd, 1891

Sir, — In my old favourite, " The Arabian
Nights/' the motive of the whole series of delight-
ful narratives is that the sultan, who refuses to
attend to reason, can be got to listen to a story.
May I try whether Cardinal Manning is to be
reached in the same way ? When I was attend-
ing the meeting of the British Association in
Belfast nearly forty years ago, I had promised to
breakfast with the eminent scholar Dr. Hincks.
Having been up very late the previous night, I
was behind time; so, hailing an outside car, I said
to the driver as I jumped on, " Now drive fast, I
am in a hurry." Whereupon he whipped up his
horse and set off at a hand-gallop. Nearly jerked
off my seat, I shouted, " My good friend, do you
know where I want to go ? " " No, yer honner,"
said the driver, " but, any way, I am driving fast."
I have never forgotten this object-lesson in the
dangers of ill-regulated enthusiasm. We are all in-
vited to jump on to the Salvation Army car, which
Mr. Booth is undoubtedly driving very fast. Some
of us have a firm conviction, not only that he is
taking a very different direction from that in
which we wish to go, but that, before long, car
and driver will come to grief Are we to accept

294 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

the invitation, even at the bidding of the eminent
person who appears to think himself entitled to
pledge the credit of " Our Lord and His Apostles "
in favour of Boothism ?

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

XI

The " Times," January ISth, 1891

Sir, — A letter from Mr. Booth-Clibborn, dated
January 3rd, appeared in the " Times " of yester-
day. This elaborate document occupies three
columns of small print — space enough, assuredly,
for an effectual reply to the seven letters of
mine to which the writer refers, if any such
were forthcoming. Mr. Booth-Clibborn signs
himself " Commissioner of the Salvation Army
for France and Switzerland," but he says that he
accepts my " challenge " without the knowledge
of his chiefs. Considering the self-damaging
character of his letter, it was, perhaps, hardly
necessary to make that statement.

Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn speaks of
my " challenge." I presume that he refers to my

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 295

request for information about the authorship and
fate of " The New Papacy," in the letter published
in the " Times " on December 27th, 1890. The
" Commissioner " deals with this matter in para-
graph No. 4 of his letter ; and I observe, with no
little satisfaction, that he does not venture to con-
trovert any one of the statements of my witnesses.
He tacitly admits that the author of " The New
Papacy" was a person "greatly esteemed in
Toronto," and that he held " a high position in the
army " ; further, that the Canadian " Commis-
sioner " thought it worth while to pay the printer s
bill, in order that the copies already jDrinted off
might be destroyed and the pamphlet effectually
suppressed. Thus the essential facts of the case
are admitted and established beyond question.

How does Mr. Booth -Clibborn try to explain
them away ?

" Mr. Sumner, who wrote the little book in a
hot fit, soon regretted it (as any man would do
whose conscience showed him in a calmer moment,
when his ' respectability ' returned with his repent-
ance, that he had grossly misrepresented), and just
before it appeared offered to order its suppression
if the army would pay the costs already incurred,
and which he was unable to bear."

" The New Papacy " fills sixty closely printed
duodecimo pages. It is carefully written, and for
the most part in studiously moderate language ;

296 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

moreover, it contains many precise details and
figures, the ascertainment of which must have
taken much time and trouble. Yet, forsooth, it
was written in " a hot fit."

I sincerely hope, for the sake of his own credit,
that Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn does
not know as much about this melancholy business
as I do. My hands are unfortunately tied, and I
am not at liberty to use all the information in my
possession. I must content myself with quoting
the following passage from the preface to " The
New Papacy " : —

" It has not been without considerable thought
and a good deal of urging that the following pages
have been given to the public. But though we
would have shnink from a labour so distasteful,
and have gladly avoided a notoriety anything but
pleasant to the feelings, or conducive to our
material welfare, we have felt that in the interests
of the benevolent public, in the interests of religion,
in the interests of a band of devoted men and women
whose personal ends are being defeated, and the fruit
of whose labour is being destroyed, and, above all,
in the interests of that future which lies before the
Salvation Army itself, if purged and purified in its
executive and returned to its original position in
the ranks of Canadian Christian effort, it is no
more than our duty to throw such light as we
are able upon its true inwardness, and with that

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 297

object and for the furtherance of those ends we
offer our pages to the public view."

The preface is dated April 1889. According
to the statement in the " Toronto Telegram,"
which Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn does
not dare to dispute, his Canadian fellow-" Com-
missioner " bought and destroyed the whole edition
of " The New Papacy " about the end of the third
week in April. It is clear that the writer of
the paragraph quoted from the preface was well
out of a " hot fit," if he had ever been in one,
while he had not entered on the stage of re-
pentance within three weeks of that time. Mr.
" Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn's scandalous in-
sinuations that Mr. Sumner was bribed by " a few
sovereigns," and that he was " bought off," in the
face of his own admission that Mr. Sumner " offered
to order its suppression if the army would pay the
costs already incurred, and which he was unable
to bear," is a crucial example of that Jesuitry with
which the officials of the army have been so fre-
quently charged.

Mr. "Commissioner" Boobh-Clibborn says that
when " London headquarters heard of the affair,
it disapproved of the action of the Commissioner."
That circumstance indicates that headquarters is
not wholly devoid of intelligence; but it has
nothing to do with the value of Mr. Sumner's
evidence, which is all I am concerned about.
Very likely London headquarters will disapprove

298 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES '* y

of its French " Commissioner's " j^resent action.
But what then ? The u^Dshot of all this is that
Mr. Booth-Chbborn has made as gi-eat a blunder
as simple Mr. Trotter did. The pair of Balaams
greatly desired to curse, but have been compelled
to bless. They have, between them, completely
justified my reliance on Mr. Sumner as a perfectly
trustworthy witness ; and neither of them has
dared to challenge the accuracy of one solitary
statement made by that worthy gentleman, whose
full story I hope some day or other to see set
before the public. Then the true causes of his
action will be made known.

Paragraph 2 of the " Commissioner's " letter
says many things, but not much about Mr. Hodges.
The columns of the " Times " recently showed
that Mr. Hodges was able to compel an apology
from Mr. Trotter. I leave it to him to deal with
the " Commissioner."

As to the " Eagle " case, treated of in paragi^aph
No. 3, a gentleman well versed in the law, who
was in court during the hearing of the appeal,
has assured me that the argument was purely
technical ; that the facts were very sliglitly gone
into ; and that, so far as he knows, no dissenting
comment was made on the strictures of the Judge
before whom the case first came. Moreover, in
the judgment of the Master of the Rolls, fully re-
corded in the "Times" of February 14th, 1884,
the following passages occur : —

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 299

" The case had been heard by a learned Judge,
who had exercised his discretion upon it, and the
Court would not interfere with his discretion un-
less they could see that he was wrong. The learned
Judge had taken a strong view of the conduct of the
defendant, but nevertheless had said that he would
have given relief if he could have seen how far
protection and compensation could be given. And
if this Court differed from him in that view, and
could give relief without forfeiture, they would be
acting on his own principle in doing so. Certain
suggestions had been made Avith that view, and the
Court had to consider the case under all the cir-
cumstances. . . . He himself (the Master of the
Rolls) considered that it was probable the defend-
ant, with his principles, had intended to destroy
the property as a public-house, and that it was
not right thus to take property under a covenant
to keep it up as a public-house, intending to
destroy it as such. He did not, however, think
this was enough to deprive him of all relief . . .
The defendant could only expect severe terms."

Yet, Sir, Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-Clibborn,
this high official of the Salvation Army, has the
audacity to tell the public that if I had made
inquiries I should have found that " in the Court
of Appeal the Judge reversed the decision of his
predecessor as regards seven eighths of the pro-
perty, and the General was declared to have acted

300 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

all along with straightforwardness and good
faith."

But the nature of Mr. " Commissioner " Booth-
Clibborn's conceptions of straightforwardness and
good faith is so marvellously illustrated by the
portions of his letter with which I have dealt
that I doubt not his statements are quite up to
the level of the " Army " Regulations and Instruc-
tions in regard to those cardinal virtues. As I
pointed out must be the case, the slave is subdued
to that he works in.

For myself, I must confess that the process of
wading through Mr. " Commissioner's " verbose
and clumsy pleadings has given me a " hot fit,"
which, I undertake to say, will be followed by not
so much as a passing shiver of repentance. And
it is under the influence of the genial warmth
diffused through the frame, on one of those rare
occasions when one may be " angry and sin not,"
that I infringe my resolution to ti-ouble you with
no more letters. On reflection, I am convinced
that it is undesirable that the public should be
misled, for even a few days, by misrepresentations
so serious.

I am copiously abused for speaking of the
Jesuitical methods of the superior officials of the
Salvation Army. But the following facts have
not been, and, I believe, cannot be, denied : —

1. Mr. Booth's conduct in the " Eagle " case
has been censured by two of the Judges.

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 301

2. Mr. Bramwell Booth admitted before Mr.
Justice Lopes that he had made an untrue state-
ment because of a promise he had made to Mr.
Stead.i

And I have just proved that Mr. " Commis-
sioner " Booth-Clibborn asserts the exact contrary
of that which your report of the judgment of the
Master of the Rolls tells us that distinguished
judge said.

Under these circumstances, I think that my
politeness in applying no harder adjective than
" Jesuitical " to these proceedings is not properly
appreciated.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

XII

The '' Times;' January 22nd, 1891

Sir, — I think that your readers will be in-
terested in the accompanying opinion, written in
consultation with an eminent Chancery Queen's
Counsel, with which I have been favoured. It
will be observed that this important legal de-

1 This statement has been disputed, but not yet publicly,
(Seep. 305. ")

302 LETTERS TO THE" TIMES " v

liverance justifies much stronger language tlian
any whicli I have apj^Ked to the only security (?)
for the proper administration of the funds in Mr.
Booth's hands which appears to be in existence.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

T. H. Huxley.

1, De, Johnson's Buildings, Temple, E.C,
January 14, 1891.

MR. BOOTHS DECLARATION OF TRUST DEED, 1878.

" I am of opinion, subject to the question
whether there may be any provision in the
Charitable Trusts Acts which can be made avail-
able for enforcing some scheme for the appropria-
tion of the property, and with regard to the real
and leasehold properties whether the conveyances
and leases arc not altogether void, as frauds on
the Mortmain Acts, that nothing can be done to
control or to interfere with Booth in the disposi-
tion or application of the properties or moneys
purported to be affected by the deed.

" As to the properties vested in Booth himself,
it appears to me that such are placed absolutely
under his power and control both as to the dis-
posal and application thereof, and that there are no
trusts for any specific purposes declared which

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME o03

could be enforced, and tliat there are no defined
persons nor classes of persons who can claim to be
entitled to the benefit of them, or at whose in-
stance they could be enforced by any legal process.

" As to the properties (if any) vested in trustees
appointed by Booth, it ajDpears to me that the
only person who has a locus standi to enforce these
trusts is Booth himself, and that he would have
absolute power over the trasts and the property,
and might deal with the property as he pleased,
and that, as in the former case, nothing could be
done in the way of enforcing any trusts against
him.

" As to the moneys contributed or raised by
mortgage for the general purposes of the mission,
it appears to me that Booth may exj^end them as
he pleases, without being subject to any legal
control, and that he cannot even be compelled to
publish any balance-sheets.

" Whether there are any provisions in the
Charitable Trusts Acts which could be made
available for enforcing some scheme for the
application of the property or funds is a question
to which I should require to give a closer con-
sideration should it become necessary to go into
it ; but at present, after perusing these Acts, and
especially 16 and 17 Vict. c. 137 and 18 and 19
Vict. c. 124, I cannot see how they could be
made applicable to the trusts as declared in this
deed.

304 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

" As to the Mortmain Acts, the matter is clearly
charitable, and unless in the conveyances and
leases to Booth, or to the trustees (if any) named
by him, all the provisions of the Acts have been
compKed with, and the deeds have been enrolled
under the Acts, they would be void. It is prob-
able, however, that every conveyance and lease has
been taken without disclosing any charitable trust,
for the purpose of preventing it from being void
on the face of it. It is to be noted that the deed
is a mere deed poll by Booth himself, without any
other party to it, who, as a contracting party,
would have a right to enforce it.

" Whether there are any objects of the trust I
cannot say. If there is, as the recital indicates, a
society of enrolled members called ' The Christian
Mission,' those members would be objects of the
trust, but then, it appears to me, Booth has entire
control and determination of the application.
And, as to the trusts enuring for the benefit of
the * Salvation Army,' I am not aware what is the
constitution of the ' Salvation Army,' but there is
no reference whatever to any such body in the
deed. I have understood the army as being
merely the missionaries, and not the society of
worshippers.

" If there is no Christian Mission Society of
enrolled members, then there are no objects of the
trust. The trusts are purely religious, and trading
is entirely beyond its purposes. Booth can ' give

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 305

away ' the property, simply because there is no one
who has any right to prevent his doing so.

" Ernest Hatton."

It is probably my want of legal knowledge
which prevents me from appreciating the value of
the professed corrections of Mr. Hatton's opinion
contained in the letters of Messrs. Ranger, Burton,
and Matthews, " Times," January 28th and 29th,
1891.

The note on page 801 refers to a correspondence,
incomplete at the time fixed for the publication of
my pamphlet, the nature of which is sufficiently
indicated by the subjoined extracts from Mr.
Stead's letter in the " Times " of January 20th,
and from my reply in the " Times " of January
24th. Referring to the paragraphs numbered 1,
2, at the end of my letter XL, Mr. Stead says : —

*' On reading this, I at once wrote to Professor
Huxley, stating that, as he had mentioned my
name, I was justified in intervening to explain
that, so far as the second count in his indictment
went — for the Eagle dispute is no concern of
mine — he had been misled by an error in the
reports of the case which appeared in the daily

VOL. IX X.

306 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

papers of November 4, 1885. I have his reply
to-day, saying that I had better write to you
direct. May I ask you, then, seeing that my
name has been brought into the affair, to state
that, as I was in the dock when Mr. Bramweli
Booth was in the witness-box, I am in a position
to give the most unquaHfied denial to the state-
ment as to the alleged admission on his part of
falsehood ? Nothing was heard in Court of any
such admission. Neither the prosecuting counsel
nor the Judge who tried the case ever referred to
it, although it would obviously have had a direct
bearing on the credit of the witness; and the
jury, by acquitting Mr. Bramweli Booth, showed
that they believed him to be a witness of truth.
But fortunately the facts can be verified beyond
all gainsaying by a reference to the official short-
hand-writer's report of the evidence. During the
hearing of the case for the prosecution. Inspector
Bonier was interrupted by the Judge, who
said : —

" ' I want to ask you a question. During the
whole of that conversation, did Booth in any way
suggest that that child had been sold ? ' Bomer
repHed : —

" ' Not at that interview, my Lord.'

" It was to this that Mr. Bramweli Booth
referred when, after examination, cross-examina-

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 307

tion, and re-examination, during which no
suggestion had been made that he had ever
made the untrue statement now alleged against
him, he asked and received leave from the Judge
to make the following explanation, which I quote
from the official report : —

" ' Will you allow me to explain a matter men-
tioned yesterday in reference to a question asked
by your Lordship some days ago with respect to
one matter connected with my conduct ? Your
Lordship asked, I think it was Inspector Borner,
whether I had said to him at either of our inter-
views that the child was sold by her parents, and
he repKed " No." That is quite correct ; I did
not say so to him, and what I wish to say now is
that I had been specially requested by Mr. Stead,
and had given him a promise, that I would not
under any circumstances divulge the fact of that
sale to any person which would make it at all
probable that any trouble would be brought upon
the persons who had taken part in this investiga-
tion.' (Central Criminal Court Reports, Vol. CIL,
part 612, pp. 1,035-6.)

" In the daily papers of the following day this
statement was misreported as follows : —

" ' I wish to explain, in regard to your Lord-
ship's condemnation of my having said " No " to

X 2

308 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

Inspector Bonier when he asked me whether the
child had been sold by her parents — the reason
wdiy I stated what was not correct was that I had
promised Mr. Stead not to divulge tlie fact of the
sale to any person which would make it ])robable
that any trouble should be brought on persons
taking part in this proceeding.'

" Hence the mistake into which Professor
Huxley has unwittingly fallen.

" I may add that, so far from the statement
never having been challenged for five years, it
was denounced as ' a remarkably striking lie ' in
the ' War Cry ' of November 14th, and again the
same official organ of the Salvation Army of
November 18th specifically adduced this mis-
report as an instance of 'the most disgraceful
way ' in which the reports of the trial were garbled
by some of the papers. What, then, becomes of
one of the two main pillars of Professor Huxley's
argument ? "

In my reply, I point out that, on the 10th of
January, Mr. Stead addressed to me a letter,
which commences thus : " I see in the ' Times '
of this morning that 3^ou are about to republish
your letters on Booth's book."

I replied to this letter on the 12th of
January : —

V " DARKEST ENGLAND " SCHEME 309

"Dear Mr. Stead,— I charge Mr. Bramwell
Booth with nothing. I simply quote the ' Times '
report, the accuracy of which, so far as I know,
has never been challenged by Mr. Booth. I say
I quote the ' Times ' and not Mr. Hodges,^
because I took some pains about the verification
of Mr. Hodges's citation.

" I should have thought it rather appertained
to Mr. Bramwell Booth to contradict a statement
which refers, not to what you heard, but to what
he said. However, I am the last person to wish
to give circulation to a story which may not be
quite correct ; and I will take care, if 3^ou have no
objection (your letter is marked ' private '), to
make public as much of your letter as relates to
the point to which you have called my attention.

" I am, yours very faithfully,

'' T. H. Huxley."

To this Mr. Stead answered, under date of
January 13th, 1891 :—

*' Dear Professor Huxley, — I thank you for
your letter of the 12fch inst. I am quite sure you
would not wish to do any injustice in this matter.
But, instead of publishing any extract from my
letter, might I ask you to read the passage as it

^ This is a slip of the pen. Mr. Hodges had nothin^^ to do
with the citation of which I made use.

310 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v

appears in the verbatim report of the trial which
was printed day by day, and used by . counsel on
both sides, and by the Judge during the case ?
I had hoped to have got you a copy to-day, but
find that I was too late. I shall have it first
thing to-morrow morning. You will find that it
is quite clear, and conclusively disposes of the
alleged admission of untruthfulness. Again
thanking you for your courtesy,

" I am, yours faithfully,

" W. T. Stead."

Thus it appears that the letter which Mr. Stead
wrote to me on the 13th of January does not
contain one word of that which he says it con-
tains, in the statement which appears in the
" Times " to-day. Moreover, the letter of mine to
which Mr. Stead refers in his first communication
to me is not the letter which appeared on the
13th, as he states, but that which you published
on December 27th, 1890. Therefore, it is not
true that Mr. Stead wrote "at once." On the
contrary, he allowed nearly a fortnight to elapse
before he addressed me on the 10th of January
1891. Furthermore, Mr. Stead suppresses the
fact that, since the 13th of January, he has had
in his possession my offer to publish his version of
the story ; and he leads the reader to suppose that
my only answer was that he " had better write to

V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 311

you direct." All the while, Mr. Stead knows
perfectly well that I was withheld from making
public use of his letter of the 10th by nothing but
my scruples about using a document which was
marked " private " ; and that he did not give me
leave to quote his letter of the 10th of January
until after he had written that which appeared
yesterday.

And I add : —

As to the subject-matter of Mr. Stead's letter,
the point which he wishes to prove appears to be
this — that Mr. Bramwell Booth did not make a
false statement, but that he withheld from the
officers of justice, pursuing a most serious criminal
inquiry, a fact of grave importance, which lay
within his own knowledge. And this because he
had promised Mr. Stead to keep the fact secret.
In short, Mr. Bramwell Booth did not say what
was wrong ; but he did what was wrong.

I will take care to give every weight to the
correction. Most people, I think, will consider
that one of the " main pillars of my argument,"
as Mr. Stead is pleased to call them, has become
very much strengthened.

«S12 LEGAL OPINIONS

LEGAL OPINIONS RESPECTING
"GENERAL" BOOTH'S ACTS.

In referring to the course of action adopted by
"General" Booth and Mr. Bramwell Booth in
respect of their legal obligations to other persons,
or to the criminal and civil law, I have been as
careful as I was bound to be, to put any diffi-
culties suggested by mere lay common-sense in
an interrogative or merely doubtful form ; and to
confine myself, for any positive expressions, to
citations from published declarations of the
judges before whom the acts of "General" Booth
came ; from reports of the Law Courts ; and from
the deliberate opinions of legal experts. I have
now some further remarks to make on these
topics.

I. The observations at p. 305 express, with
due reserve, the impression which the counsel's
opinions, quoted by " General " Booth's solicitors,
made on my mind. They were written and sent
to the printer before I saw the letter from a
" Barrister not Practising on the Common Law
Side," and those from Messrs. Clarke and Calkin
and Mr. George Kebbell, which appeared in the
"Times" of February 3rd and 4th.

These letters fully bear out the conclusion
which I had formed, but which it would have

V LEGAL OriNIONS 313

been presumptuous on my part to express, that
the opinions cited by " General " Booth's soUcitors
Avere like the famous broken tea-cups "wisely
ranged for show " ; and that, as Messrs. Clarke
and Calkin say, they "do not at all meet the
main points on which Mr. Hatton advised." I
do not think that any one who reads attentively
the able letter of " A Barrister not Practising on
the Common Law Side " will arrive at any other
conclusion ; or who will not share the very natural
desire of Mr. Kebbell to be j^rovided with clear
and intelligible answers to the following in-
quiries : —

(1) Does the trust deed by its operation
empower any one legally to call upon Mr. Booth
to account for the application of the funds ?

(2) In the event of the funds not being properly
accounted for, is any one, and, if so, who, in a
position to institute civil or criminal proceedings
against any one, and whom, in respect of such
refusal or neglect to account ?

(3) In the event of the proceedings, civil or
criminal, failing to obtain restitution of misapplied
funds, is or are any other person or persons liable
to make good the loss ?

On December 24th, 1890, a letter of mine
appeared in the " Times " (No. V. above) in which
I put questions of the same import, and asked
Mr. Booth if he would not be so good as to take
counsel's opinion on the " trusts " of which so

314 LEGAL OPINIONS y

much has been heard and so httle seen, not as
they stood in 1878, or in 1888, but as they stand
now ? Six weeks have elapsed, and I wait for a
reply.

It is true that Dr. Greenwood has been author-
ized by Mr. Booth to publish what he calls a
" Rough outline of the intended Trust Deed "
(" General Booth and His Critics," p. 120), but
unfortunately we are especially told that it " does
not ]jrofess to be an ahsolutcly ctcciirate analysis.'*
Under these circumstances I am afraid that
neither lawyers nor laymen of moderate intelli-
gence will pay much attention to the assertion,
that " it gives a fair idea of the general effect of
the draft ^' even although " the vjords in qicotatioii
marhs arc taJicn frorn it vcrhatira!'

These words, which I give in itahcs, (1) define
the purposes of the scheme to be ''for the social
and niorcd regencrcdion ami iiivprovement of persons
needy, destitute, degraded, or crimincd, in some
mann^er indiccded, implied, or suggested in the hook
called ' In Darkest England^ Whence I appre-
hend that, if the whole funds collected are applied
to " mothering society " by the help of speculative
attorney " tribunes of the people," the purposes
of the trust will be unassailably fulfilled. (2)
The name is to be " Darkest England Scheme'' (3)
the General of the Salvation Army is to be
" Director of the Scheme." Truly valuable inform-
ation all this ! But taking it for what it is worth,

V LEGAL OPINIONS 315

the public must not be misled into supposing
that it has the least bearing upon the questions
to which neither I, nor anybody else, has yet been
able to obtain an intelligible answer, and that
is, where are the vast funds which have been
obtained, in one way or another, during the last
dozen years in the name of the Salvation Army ?
Where is the presumably amended Trust Deed of
1888 ? I ask once more : Will Mr. Booth submit
to competent and impartial legal scrutiny the
arrangements by which he and his successors are
prevented from dealing with the funds of the
so-called " army chest " exactly as he or they may
please ?

II. With respect to the " Eagle " case, I am
advised that Dr. Greenwood, whose good faith I
do not question, has been misled into misrepre-
senting it in the appendix to his pamphlet. And
certainly, the evidence of authoritative records
which I have had the opportunity of perusing,
appears to my non-legal mind to be utterly at
variance with the statement to which Dr. Green-
wood stands committed. I may observe, further,
that the excuse alleged on behalf of Mr. Booth,
that he signed the affidavit set before him by his
solicitors without duly considering its contents, is
one which I should not like to have put forward
were the case my own. It may be, and often is,
necessary for a person to sign an affidavit without

316 DR. greenwood's V

being able fully to appreciate the technical
language in which it is couclied. But his
solicitor will alwa3's instruct him as to the effect
of these terms. And, in this particular case,
where the whole matter turns on Mr. Booth's
personal intentions, it was his plainest duty to
inquire, very seriously, whether the legal pln-ase-
ology employed would convey neither more nor
less than such intentions to those who would act
on the affidavit, before he put his name to it.

III. With respect to Mr. Bramwell Booth's
case, I refer the reader to p. 311.

IV". As to Mr. Booth-Clibborn's misrepresenta-
tions, see above, pp. 298, 299.

This much for the legal questions which have
been raised by various persons since the first
edition of the pamphlet was published.

DR. GREENWOOD'S "GENERAL BOOTH
AND HIS CRITICS"

So far as I am concerned, there is little or
nothing in this hrochurc beyond a reproduction of
the vituperative stuff which has been going the
round of those newspapers which favour " General "
Booth for some weeks. Those who do not want
to see the real worth of it all will not read the

V DEFENCE 317

preceding pages ; and those who do will need no
help from me.

I fear, however, that in justice to other people
I must put one of Dr. Greenwood's paragraphs in
the pillory. He says that I have " built up, on
the flimsy foundation of stories told by three or
four deserters from the Army " (p. 114), a sweeping
indictment against General Booth. This is the
sort of thing to which I am well accustomed at
the hands of anonymous newspaper writers. But
in view of the following easily verifiable state-
ments, I do not think that an educated and, I
have no doubt, highly respectable gentleman like
Dr. Greenwood can, in cold blood, contemplate
that assertion with satisfaction.

The persons here alluded to as " three or four
deserters from the army " are : —

(1) Mr. Redstone, for whose character Dr.
Cunningham Geikie is guarantee, and whom it
has been left to Dr. Greenwood to attempt to
besmirch.

(2) Mr. Sumner, who is a gentleman quite as
worthy of respect as Dr. Greenwood, and whose
published evidence not one of the champions of
the Salvation Army has 3'et ventured to impugn.

(3) Mr. Hodges, similarly libelled by that un-
happy meddler Mr. Trotter, who was compelled
to the prompt confession of his error (see p. 277).

(4) Notwithstanding this evidence of Mr.
Trotter's claims to attention, Dr. Greenwood

318 DR. greenwood's V

quotes a statement of his as evidence that a
statement quoted by me from Mr. Sumner's
work is a " forgery." But Dr. Greenwood un-
fortunately forgets to mention that on the 27th
of December 1890 (Letter No. VII. above) Mr.
Trotter was publicly required to produce proof
of his assertion ; and that he has not thought fit
to produce that proof.

If I were disposed to use to Dr. Greenwood
language of the sort he so freely employs to me,
I think that he could not complain of a handsome
scolding. For what is the real state of the case ?
Simply this — that having come to the conclusion,
from the perusal of " In Darkest England," that
" General " Booth's colossal scheme (as apart from
the local action of Salvationists) was bad in
principle and must produce certain evil conse-
quences, and having warned the public to that
effect, I quite unexpectedly found my hands full
of evidence that the exact evils predicted had, in
fact, already shown themselves on a great scale ;
and, carefully warning the public to criticise this
evidence, I produced a small part of it. When
Dr. Greenwood talks about my want of " regard to
the opinion of the nine thousand odd who still
remain among the faithful" (p. 114), he commits
an imprudence. He would obviously be surprised
to learn the extent of the support, encouragement,
and information which I have received from
active and sincere members of the Salvation

V DEFENCE 319

Army — but of which I can make no use, because
of the terroristic discipHne and systematic es-
pionage which my correspondents tell me is en-
forced by its chief. Some of these days, when
nobody can be damaged by their use, a curious
light may be thrown upon the inner workings of
the organization which we are bidden to regard
as a happy family, by these documents.

THE SALVATION ARMY

ARTICLES OF WAR

To he signed by all who wish to he entered on the roll as soldiers

Having received with all my heart the Salvation offered to
me by the tender mercy of Jehovah, I do here and now publicly
acknowledge God to be my Father and King, Jesus Christ to be
my Saviour, and the Holy Spirit to be my Guide, Comforter,
and Strength ; and that I will, by His help, love, serve, worship,
and obey this glorious God through all time and through all
eternity.

Believing solemnly that The Salvation Army has been raised
up by God, and is sustained and directed by Him, I do here
declare my full determination, by God's help, to be a true soldier
of the Army till I die.

I am thoroughly convinced of the truth of the Army's
teaching.

I believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, and conversion by the Holy Spirit, are
necessary to Salvation, and that all men may be saved.

I believe that we are saved by grace, through faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ, and he that believeth hath the
witness of it in himself. I have got it. Thank God !

I believe that the Scriptures were given by inspiration of
God, and that they teach that not only does continu-
ance in the favour of God depend upon continued faith
in, and obedience to, Christ, but that it is possible for
those who have been truly converted to fall away and
be eternally lost.
VOL. IX Y

322 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

I believe that it is the privilege of all God's people to be
"wholly sanctified," aud that "their whole spirit and
soul and body " may " be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. " That is to say, I
believe that after conversion there remain in the heart
of the believer inclinations to evil, or roots of bitter-
ness, which, unless overpowered by Divine grace, pro-
duce actual sin ; but these evil tendencies can be
entirely taken away by the Spirit of God, and the
whole heart thus cleansed from anything contrary to
the will of God, or entirely sanctified, will then produce
the fruit of the Spirit only. And I believe that persons
thus entirely sanctified may, by the power of God, be
kept unblamable and unreprovable before Him.

I believe in the immortality of the soul ; in the resur-
rection of the body ; in the general judgment at the
end of the world ; in the eternal happiness of the
righteous ; and in the everlasting punishment of the
wicked.

ThePwEFORe, I do here, and now, and for ever, renounce the
world with all its sinful pleasures, companionships, treasures,
and objects, and declare my full determination boldly to show
myself a Soldier of Jesus Christ in all places and companies, no
matter what I may have to suffer, do, or lose, by so doing.

I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of
all intoxicating liquors, and also from the habitual use of opium,
laudanum, morphia, and all other baneful drugs, except when
in illness such drugs shall be ordered for me by a doctor.

I do here and now declare that I will abstain from the use of
all low or profane language ; from the taking of the name of
God in vain ; and from all impurity, or from taking part in any
unclean conversation or the reading of any obscene book or
paper at any time, in any company, or in any place.

I do here declare that I will not allow myself in any falsehood,
deceit, misrepresentation, or dishonesty ; neither will I practise
any fraudulent conduct, either in my business, my home, or in
any other relation in which I may stand to my fellow men, but

V WORSE REMEDIES 823

that I will deal truthfully, fairly, honourably, and kindly with
all those who may employ me or whom I may myself employ.

I do here declare that I will never treat any woman, child, or
other person, whose life, comfort, or happiness may be placed
within my power, in an oppressive, cruel, or cowardly manner,
but that I will protect such from evil and danger so far as I can,
and promote, to the utmost of my ability, their present welfare
and eternal salvation,

I do here declare that I will spend all the time, strength,
money, and influence I can in supporting and carrying on this
War, and that I will endeavour to lead my fanjily, friends,
neighbours, and all others whom I can influence, to do the
same, believing that the sure and only way to remedy all the
evils in the world is by bringing men to submit themselves to
the government of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do here declare that I will always obey the lawful orders of
my Ofiicers, and that I will carry out to the utmost of my power
all the Orders and Regulations of The Army ; and further, that
I will be an example of faithfulness to its principles, advance to
the utmost of my ability its operations, and never allow, where
I can prevent it, any injury to its interests or hindrance to its
success.

And I do here and now call upon all present to witness that
I enter into this undertaking and sign these Articles of War of
my own free will, feeling that the love of Christ who died to
save me requires from me this devotion of my life to His service
for the Salvation of the whole world, and therefore wish now to
be enrolled as a Soldier of the Salvation Army.

CORPS 18

Y 2

324 SOCIAL DISEASES AND

Corps.

Division.

18

(single)
FORM OF APPLICATION

FOR AX APPOINTMENT AS AN

OFFICER IX THE SALYATIOX ARMY

Name

Address

1 . What was your AGE last birthday ? What is

the date of your birthday ?

2. AVhat is your height?

3. Are you free from bodily defect or disease ?

4. What serious illnesses have you had, and when ?

5. Have you ever had fits of any kind ? If so

how long ago, and what kind ?

6. Do you consider your health good, and that you are strong

enough for the work of an Officer ? If not,

or if you are doubtful, write a letter and explain the
matter

7. Is your doctor's certificate a full and correct statement so

far as you know ?

8. Are you, or have you ever been married /

V WORSE REMEDIES 325

9. When and where CONVERTED ?

10. What other Religious Societies have you belonged to?

11. Were you ever a Junior Soldier ? If so, how long ?

12. How long have you been enrolled as a SOLDIER ?

and signed Articles of War?

13. If you hold any office in your Corps, say what, and how

long held ?

14. Do you intend to live and die in the ranks of the Salvation

Army?

15. Have you ever been an open BACKSLIDER ? If

so, how long?

16. Why ? Date of your Restoration ?

17. Are you in DEBT? If so, how much ?

Why?

18. How long owing ? What for ?

19. Did you ever use Intoxicating Drink ? If so, how

long is it since you entirely gave up its use ?

20. Did you ever use Tobacco or Snuff ? If so, how

long is it since you gave up using either ?

21. What UNIFORM do you wear?

22. How long have you worn it ?

23. Do you agree to dress in accordance with the direction of

Headquarters ?

24. Can you provide your own uniform and " List of Neces-

saries " before enterincc the Service ?

25. Are you in a Situation ? If so, how long?.

26. Nature of duties, and salary

27. Name and address of employer ?

326 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

28. If out, date of leaving last situation ? How

long there ?

29. Why did you leave?

30. Name and address of last employer ?

31. Can you start the SINGING ?

32, Can you play any musical instrument ? If so, what ?.

33. Is this form filled up by you ? Can you read well

at first sight ?

34. Can you write SHORTHAND? If so, what speed

and system ?

35. Can you speak any language other than English ? If

so, what ?

36. Have you had any experience and success in the JUNIOR

SOLDIERS' WAR?

37. If so, what?

38. Are you willing to sell the ** WAR CRY " on Sundays ? ...

39. Do you engage not to publish any books, songs, or music

except for the benefit of the Salvation Army, and then
only with the consent of Headquarters ?

40. Do you promise not to engage in any trade, profession, or

other money-making occupation, except for the benefit of
the Salvation Army, and then only with the consent of
Headquarters ?

41 . Would you be willing to go ABROAD if required ?

42. Do you promise to do your utmost to help forward the

Junior Soldiers' work if accepted?

43. Do you pledge yourself to spend not less than nine hours

every day in the active service of the Army, of which not
less than three hours of each week-day shall be spent in
VISITATION?

V WORSE REMEDIES 327

44. Do you pledge yourself to fill up and send to Headquarters
forms as to how your day is spent ?

45. Have you read, and do you believe, the DOCTRINES printed

on the other side ?

46. Have you read the "Orders and Regulations for Field

Officers" of the Army?

If you have not got a copy of "Orders and Regulations," get one from
Candidates' Department at once. The price to Candidates is 2s. 6d.

47. Do you pledge yourself to study and carry out and to endea-

vour to train others to carry out all Orders and Regulations
of the Army ?

48. Have you read the Order on page 3 of this Form as to

PRESENTS and TESTIMONIALS, and do you engage
to carry it out ?

49. Do you pledge yourself never to receive any sum in the form

of pay beyond the amount of allowances granted under the
scale which follows ?

Allowances — From the day of arrival at his station, each
officer is entitled to draw the following allowances, pro-
vided the amount remains in hand after meeting all local
expenses, namely : — For Single Men : Lieutenants, 16s.
weekly, and Captains, 185. ; for Single Women : Lieuten-
ants, 125. weekly, and Captains, 155. weekly ; Married
Men, 275. per week, and Is. per week for each child under
14 years of age; in all cases without house-rent.

50. Do you perfectly understand that no salary or allowance is

guaranteed to you, and that you will have no claim
against the Salvation Army, or against any one connected
therewith, on account of salary or allowances not received
by you ? . .

51. Have you ever APPLIED BEFORE? If so,

when?

52. With what result ?

328 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

53. If you have ever lieen in the service of the Salvation Army

in any position, say what?

54. Why did you leave ?

55. Are you willing to come into TRAINING that we may see

whether you have the necessary goodness and ability for
an Officer in the Salvation Army, and should we conclude
that you have not the necessary qualifications, do you
pledge yourself to return home and work in your Corps
without creating any dissatisfaction ?

56. Will you pay your own travelling expenses if we decide to

receive you in Training?

57. How much can you pay for your maintenance while in

Training ?

58. Can you deposit £1 so that we can provide you with a suit

of Uniform when you are Commissioned ?

59. What is the shortest NOTICE you require should we want

you?

60. Are your PARENTS willing that you should become an

Officer?

61. Does any one depend upon you for support ? If so,

who?

62. To whatextent?

63. Give your parents', or nearest living relatives', full address

64. Are you COURTING? If so, give name and

address of the person

65. How long have you been engaged? What is the

person's age ?

66. What is the date of Birthday? How long enrolled

as a SOLDIER?

67. What Uniform does the person wear ? How long

Y WORSE REMEDIES 329

68. What does the person do in the Corps ?

69. Has the person applied for the work 1

70. If not, when does the person intend doing so ?

71. Do the parents agree to the person coming into Train-

ing ?

72. Do you understand that you may not be allowed to marry

until three years after your appointment as an Officer, and
do you engage to abide by this ?

73. If you are not courting, do you pledge yourself to abstain

from anything of the kind during Training and for at
least twelve months after your appointment as a Com-
missioned Field Officer ?

74. Do you pledge yourself not to carry on courtship with any

one at the station to which you are at the time
appointed ?

75. Do you pledge yourself never to commence, or allow to

commence, or break off anything of the sort, without
first informing your Divisional Officer, or Headquarters,
of your intention to do so ?

76. Do you pledge yourself never to marry any one marriage

with whom would take you out of the Army alto-
gether ?

77. Have you read, and do you agree to carry out, the following

Regulations as to Courtship and Marriage ? ,

(a) *' Officers must inform their Divisional Officer or Head-

quarters of their desire to enter into or break off any
engagement, and no Officer is permitted to enter
into or break off an engagement without the consent
of his or her D.O.

(b) '* Officers will not be allowed to carry on any courtship

in the Town in which they are appointed ; nor until
twelve months after the date of their Commission.

330 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

(c) " Headquarters cannot consent to the engagement of

Male Lieutenants, until their Divisional Officer is
prepared to recommend them for command of a
Station as Captain.

(d) ' ' Before Headquartei-s can consent to the marriage of

any Officer, the Divisional Officer must be prepared
to give him three stations as a married man.

(e) "No Officer accepted will be allowed to marry until

he or she has been at least three years in the field,
except in cases of long-standing engagements before
application for the work.

(/) "No Male Officer will, under any circumstances, be
allowed to marry before he is twenty-two yeare of
age, unless required by Headquarters for special
service.

(g) " Headquarters will not agree to the Marriage of any
Male Officer (except under extraordinary circum-
stances) until twelve months after consenting to his
engagement.

(h) " Consent will not be given to the engagement of any
male Officer unless the young woman is likely to
make a suitable wife for an Officer, and (if not already
an Officer) is prepared to come into Training at once.

(i) " Consent will be given to engagements between Female
Officers and Soldiers, on condition that the latter
are suitable for Officers, and are willing to come into
Training if called upon.

(j) "Consent Anil never be given to any engagement or
marriage which would take an Officer out of the
Army.

(k) " Every Officer must sign before marriage the Articles
of Marriage, contained in the Orders and Regulations
for Field Officers."

WORSE REMEDIES 331

PRESENTS AND TESTIMONIALS.

1, Officers are expected to refuse utterly, and to prevent, if
possible, even the i)roposal of any present or testimonial to
them.

2. Of course, an Officer who is receiving no salary, or only
part salary, may accept food or other gifts, such as are needed
to meet his wants ; but it is dishonourable for any one who is
receiving their salaiy to accept gifts of food also.

THE DOCTRINES OF THE SALVATION ARMY.

The principal Doctrines taught in the Army are as follows : —

1. "We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament were given by inspiration of God, and that they only
constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

2. We believe there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect,
the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things.

3. We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead —
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence,
coequal in power and glory, and the only proper object of
religious worship.

4. We believe that, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Divine
and human natures are united, so that He is tnily and properly
God, and truly and properly man.

5. We believe that our first parents were created in a state of
innocency, but by their disobedience they lost their purity and
happiness ; and that, in consequence of their fall, all men have
become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed
to the wrath of God.

6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by His suffering
and death, made an atonement for the whole world, so that
whosoever will may be saved.

7. We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, are necessary
to Salvation.

332 SOCIAL DISEASES AND v

8. We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ, and that he that believeth hath the
witness in liimself.

9. We believe the Scriptures teach that not only does con-
tinuance in the favour of God depend upon continued faith in,
and obedience to, Christ, but that it is possible for those who
have been truly converted to fall away and be eternally lost.

10. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be
•' wholly sanctified," and that "the whole spirit and soul and
body" may "be presei-ved blameless unto the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ." That is to say, we believe that after con-
version there remain in the heart of the believer inclinations to
evil, or roots of bitterness, which, unless overpowered by Divine
grace, produce actual sin ; but that these evil tendencies can be
entirely taken away by the Spirit of God, and the whole heart,
thus cleansed from everything contrary to the will of God, or
entirel)' sanctified, will then produce the fruit of the Spirit only.
And we believe that persons thus entirely sanctified may, by
the power of God, be kept unblamable and unreprovable before
Him.

11. We believe in the immortality of the soul ; in the resur-
rection of the body ; in the general judgment at the end of the
world ; in the eternal happiness of the righteous ; and in the
everlasting punishment of the wicked.

WORSE REMEDIES 333

DECLARATION.

I HEREBY DECLARE that I will never, on any considera-
tion, do anything calculated to injure The Salvation Army, and
especially, that I will never, without first having obtained the
consent of The General, take any part in any religious services
or in carrying on services held in opposition to the Army.

I PLEDGE MYSELF to make true records, daily, on the
forms supplied to me, of what I do, and to confess, as far as I
am concerned, and to report, as far as I may see in others, any
neglect or variation from the orders or directions of The
General,

I FULLY UNDERSTAND that he does not undertake to
employ or to retain in the service of The Army any one who
does not appear to him to be fitted for the work, or faithful and
successful in it ; and I solemnly pledge myself quietly to leave
any Army Station to which I may be sent, without making any
attempt to disturb or annoy The Army in any way, should The
General desire me to do so. And I hereby discharge The Army
and The General from all liability, and pledge myself to make
no claim on account of any situation, property, or interest I may
give up in order to secure an engagement in The Army.

I understand that The General Avill not be responsible in any
way for any loss I may suffer in consequence of being dismissed
from Training ; as I am aware that the Cadets are received into
Training for the very purpose of testing their suitability for the
work of Salvation Army Officers.

I hereby declare that the foregoing answers appear to me to
fully express the truth as to the questions put to me, and that
I know of no other facts which would prevent my jengagement
by The General, if they were known to him.

Candidate to sign here

334 SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIES

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES.

1. All Candidates are expected to fill up and sign this form
themselves, if they can write at all.

2. You are expected to have obtained and read ' ' Ordei-s and
Regulations for Field Officere " before you make this application.

3. flaking this application does NOT imply that we can
receive you as an officer, and you are, therefore, NOT to leave
your home, or give notice to leave your situation, until you hear
again from us.

4. If you are appointed as an Officer, or received into Training,
and it is afterwards discovered that any of the questions in this
form have not been truthfully answered, you will be instantly
dismissed.

5. If you do not understand any question in this form, or if
you do not agi-ee to any of the requirements stated upon it,
return it to Headquarters, and say so in a straightforward
manner.

6. Make the question for this appointment a matter of earnest
prayer, as it is the most important step you have taken since
your conversion.

TFe must have your Photo. Please enclose it with your forms,
and address them " Candidate Department," 101, Queen Victoria
Street, London, E.C

RU'IIARD C'l.AY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY.

Globe Zvo. Cloth, ^s. per volume.
Essays by George Brimley. Third Edition.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Edited by A. W. Pollard. 2 Vols.

Dean Church's Miscellaneous Writings. Collected Edition. 6 Vols.

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS.

DANTE : and other Essays.

ST. ANSELM.

SPENSER.

BACON.

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.— Twelve Years, 1833-1845.
Life of Swift. By Henry Craik, C.B. 2 Vols. New Edition.
Emerson's Collected Works. 6 Vols. With Introduction by John

INIORLEY.

MISCELLANIES. ESSAYS. POEMS.

ENGLISH TRAITS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN.

THE CONDUCT OF LIFE, AND SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.

LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS.

The Letters of Edward FitzGerald. Edited by W. Aldis Wright.

2 Vols. New PMition.

Goethe's Prose Maxims. Translated, with Introductions, by T. Bailey

Saunders.

Thomas Gray's Collected Works in Prose and Verse. Edited by

Edmund Gosse. 4 Vols. Poems, Journals, and Essays. — Letters, 2 Vols.
— Notes on Aristophanes and Plato.

Stray Studies from England and Italy. By John Richard Green.
The Choice of Books, and other Literary Pieces. By Frederic

Harrison.

R. H. Button's Collected Essays.

LITERARY ESSAYS.

THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS.

ESSAYS ON SOME OF THE MODERN GUIDES OF ENGLISH

THOUGHT IN MATTERS OF FAITH.
CRITICISMS ON CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT AND THINKERS.

2 vols.

Thomas Henry Huxley's Collected Works.

I. METHOD AND RESULTS.
II. DARWINIANA.

III. SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.

IV. SCIENCE AND HEI]RE\V TRADITION.
V. SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN TRADITION.

VI. HUME.
VII. MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE.
VIIL DISCOURSES, BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
IX. EVOLUTION AND ETHICS, AND OTHER ESSAYS.

French Poets and Novelists. By Henry James.

Letters of John Keats to his Family and Friends. Edited by
Sydney Colvix.

Charles Kingsley's Novels and Poems.

WESTWARD HO ! 2 Vols. I ALTON LOCKE. 2 Vols.

HYPATL\. 2 Vols. TWO YEARS AGO. 2 Vols.

YEAST. I Vol. I HEREWARD THE WAKE. 2 Vols.

POEMS. 2 Vols.

Charles Lamb's Collected Works. Edited, with Introduction and Notes,

by the Rev. Canon Ainger, M.A. 6 Vols.
THE ESSAYS OF ELL\.

POEMS, PLAYS, AND MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS.
MRS. LEICESTER'S SCHOOL, and other Writings.
TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary Lamb.
THE LETTERS OF CHARLES LAMB. 2 Vols.
LIFE OF CHARLES LAMB. By Canon Aingek.

The Poetical Works of John Milton. Edited, with Memoir, Introduc-
tion, Notes, by David Masson, M.A., LL.D. In 3 Vols.

I. THE MINOR POEMS.
II. PARADISE LOST.
III. PARADISE REGAINED, AND SAMSON AGONISTES.

John Morley's Collected Works. In 1 1 Vols.

VOLTAIRE. I Vol.

ROUSSEAU. 2 Vols.

DIDEROT AND THE ENCYCLOPEDISTS. 2 Vols.

ON COMPROMISE, i Vol.

MISCELLANIES. 2 Vols.

BURKE. I Vol.

STUDIES IN LITERATURE, i Vol.

Science and a Future Life, and other Essays. By F. W. H.
Myers, M.A.

Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Browning. By Anne Thackeray
Ritchie.

Works by James Smetham.

LETTERS. With an Introductory IMemoir. Edited by Sarah Smetham and

William Davies. With a Portrait.
LITERARY WORKS. Edited by Wiliam Davies.

Essays in the History of Religious Thought in the West. By

Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., D.C.L., Lord Bishop of Durham.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

10.4.94.

(^

L 005 307 387 0

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles

lyjp!' jrThis book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

MAY 041989
APR2bm9

Form L9-Series 4939

■.•,,*' M«W.'. y<.,V(»4,,^P^';