, 1880-02-08

| o%GAA ksJoll4tl6ul- in S00rE4 the ufG-pTOh-
len lem Of our day is distinctly a new and rs Yet
unanswered one
MORALITY AND THE PRIZE OF LIFE.
me worth the positive school claim for life is
Opponents explicitly tell u.s. This means that
lie. lie contains some special prize, to which
dTalty Tany T. the only road, and the value Of life
Stuart Mill, George Eliot" and Prof. Huxley
ADMIT that this is a correct way of stating the
eass 4 s 60 vae this e. i stands
Rl1ae IN question is TO be won in this life If any
ssre; 1nd ~nst therefore BE- more les
describable, it cannot be moral end at ALL as q
consideration of the Tutson d'etre Of all moral
must be b positive atns or tne eng R5e he
that that ct all other prizes. Has such a prize any
never yet been answered properly, and, though
Lwo sets OF answers have been given it, neither
Of them is satisfactory. shall deal with these
TWO questions In order
SOCIOLOGY As TEE FOUNDATION oF MORALITY.
The positive theory is that the health Of the
social organism is the real foundation of morals.
hant hnf soca f health M is nothing but the
that make happiness for all. Sill less IS social
be maintained to be SO by supposiug either Tint
all kinds Of happiness are equally high that do
not Interfere with others, or that it is only a
both Of which suppositions arc false. The con,
diions Of social health are a moral end only
when we each feel personal delight in main
9 small portion of the morIl did needed.
But this case is not possible one. There
is, indeed, the natural impulse Of sympathy that
balanced By the corresponding impulse Of sell
t1shness; and this impulse of sympathy itself is
conditions. The conditions Of % general al happi. ac
ness are far too vague to do more than very
slightly excite no enthusiasm. For this purpose
nized positive value, more or less deanit. and,
before 81 things. to be enjoyed by us iudiyid-
lally; Unless this prize be Of great value to be-
what it is do we gain anything by the hope
their the off futarep Tsye naas %ader Il
enthusiasm for the general good. They there
yidual good. Our first inquiry must be, there
fore, what the higher individual good Is.
GOODNESS AS ITS OWN REWARD.
What has been said in the foregoing is really
We can learn explicitly from George Eliot in
'Daniel Deronda,' that the Fundamental moral
nFe f xa9t gya s6 tb xbt the I
ward way. The mornl end is certain inward
suiicient attraction in itself, withoat tt any ~ aid
by humorous EXAMPLES. but al such
may get rid Of religion in its pure
form, there is much that We have not got rid Of
embodied still in the moral end. To test the in
tr1nS1c value OF the end we must sublimnte this
religion out Of it. For this purpose we will con-
slider, first, the three general characteristics of
the moral end, viz: It's inwardness, its inlpor-:
tancc, and its absolute character. Now, al1
these three characteristics can be explained by
religion, and cannot be explained without IL
completely N % divested q of them. % Tho next anes
ton is, Will It be equally attractive then?
LOVE AS TEST OF GOODNESS
The positiyists represent love as q thing whose
a positive and incaleulable @ Worths T But + this Ills
Of love only, and the very oppo,,
other forms. The right form depends @ On the
conformity Of each Of the lovers to u certain in
ward standard, as we can see exemplitted in the
and not the degree OF love is what gives love its
special value, and the selection Of this kind can
pies, as quotations from Th6ophile Gautier viii
show Us, which are supposed BY many to en-
body the true view Of love. According to this
woman, or at any rate no merit. Il love is to be
q moral end, this view must bo absolutely con-
demned. But positivism cannot condemn It,
see by recurring to Prof. Hu1ley's argument,
which will show us that all moral language
else altogether ludcrds. for it is clearly only on
moral grounds that We can give that blame to
vice which is the measure OF the praise we give
religious anticipadons, and does also the
bessedness Of the latter, as We can see in nu-
merous literary expressions Of it. Positivism, BY
destroying these auttcipatlons, changes the
whole character Of the love in question, and pre-
vents love from supplying US with any moral
standard. TIC loss @ sustained Py Gxe WILL 1no1-
LIFE AS ITS OWN REWARD
We must now examine what will be the prac-
tical results life in general Of the loss Just in
dlcated To do this, we will take life as reflected
the world, and this will show us how the moral
Judgment is the chief faculty to which all that
e q6r sa a this # aRRsas in
let.' in '' Antigonc," in Measure for Measure
and in Faust" and also in degraded art just as
mdn nrf sach M Il s as congreses @ and IN
art, such US ..Mademoisello dc Maupin," or
such works rs that Of Meursius, or the worst
Judgment is tho chief thing everywhere. Take !
away this Judgment. and art loses all its strange
and Be- do Evan tie
dui duiler: -. nor viii iii tho y. devotion ,o to
sefagc a Of Of the positivists when in despair; For
this last has no meaning Whntever, except as q |
form Of concrete theism The reverence for
theistic Thus ali the higher resources Of posi-
tysn TIL togotfea and the hshss tsn
present value.
THE SUPERSTITION OF pOs1Hv1sM.
From what we have just seen, the visionary |
Of the positiyist conception of prog
ress becomes evident. Its object is far moro
plainly an illusion than tho Christian Heaven.
AN The objections urged agaist the latter apply |
with fur more force to the former. AS q matter
Of fact, there is no possible object SUI.
cient to start the enthusiasm required
by the posttiyists. To make the
REQUIRED enthusiasm possible, human nature
would have to be completely changed: Two ex-
sting qualities, for instance, would have 70 pe
mncTiflcd to an impossible extent Imagination
and unsclfishncss. If We state the positive
system in terms of common LIE. its VS.
[onarv character becomes evident me exam
pies which have suggested It's posslollty Aie
uuitc misleading. The positive system il really
far more based on superstition than any Ie
[igion. Its appearance Gun only be accountea e..
for by the characters and circumstances OF ~
orirjnators, and consideration Of these VIII
help us more than anything to estimate 1t right
ly and will let US see that its only practical ten
dency is to dcaden nll our present interests, not
to create any new ones.
THE PRACTICAL PROSPECT.
It is not contcnded that the prospect JUST oG-
scribcd will as fact, ever be realized, Dut only
that it will be realized, If certain other pros
poets are realized, which prospects may or may
not be visionary, but the PROGRESS rowaras
,g ich Ia already begun, and also the Othef IT,