New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-26
.SCIENCEAND MORALITY.

Cold,cin Smith in The Contemporary Reriep
A heroic physician-we rem mDcr 10 nave come
across the case in some Italian hlstOry-hndlng that
a new and mysterious plague Is IaVagihg MS Guy
devotes himself TO the preservation OF his fellow
citizens. shuts himself up with subject, taxes ms
observations cOnsigus them to writing, and feeling
the poison i'll his own veins, goes calmly 10 the
hospital to die. On the other hand, man, between
whom and great fortune there stands single me-
takes that lite in such way as to escape suspicion
gets possession of the fortune ana instead OF lie
of drndgery to which he would otherwise have been
6oomcd passes his days III the healthy DEVELOPMENT
of all his faculties In the enjoyment OF every pea
sure, intellectual and social, as well as physical
amidst the troops OF friends and grateful dependents
with which his hospitality ana munlhcence sur
round him, and after an existence prolonged by
comfort ease and immunity from care dies unver-
sally honored and lamented. Why Is the first man
happy and the second miserable! Ihelsu, on Its
own hypothesis, has an answer ready. What IS the
answer OF AgnOstic scencef We must prefix an
epithet, because without 1t distinction drawn
betW cen Science and Tnelsm begs the question.
rational Thcist maintains that Iheism IS Science.
We are likely to find the answer, If anywhere in
the " Data of Ethics by Mr.. Herbert Spencer-a
book belonging TO series which has earned Tor It's
author, from Darwin himself, the title of "our
great philosopher: and which everyone, whether
he accepts its general conclusions or not will allow
to exhibit powers of acute criticism, and to be
written in most lucid and attractive style.
Mr. Spencer commences, might have been eX-
pected, not with humanity, but with the moIuscs
aud treats men simply as the last (le says the
highest but we have oGredt TO enter against that
phrase of the Evolutionary series HIS tests OF
right and wrong III the actions OF the most evolved
of animals. as in the of the least evolved, are
pleasure and pan-pleasure denotng that the action
IS favorable pain that it is uniavorablc, to the
vitality of the organism. HIS supreme end Is
| Increased DURATION together, if we understand
his phraseology rightly with increased INTENSITY y
4" of life" An authoritative conscience, duty viz
tue obligation, principle. and rccttude of motive,
no more enter into his definitions, or form parts of
his system than does the religious sanction. OF
that which constitutes moral beauty, he has no
word Actions OF a kind purely pleasant are abso-
lately right The highest instance of right conduct
is mother sucking her child, because there is at
once to the mother qualification, and to the child
satisfaction of appetite satisfaction which accom-
nanies furtherance of life growth. and increasing
eniovmentv That the action is a mere performances
of function of nature, involving the exertiOn OF
high 0nality does not lower its place III the scale.
Conduct. even the noblest and most heroic, which
has apy concomitant of pain or OF painful cOnse-
0uence is to that extent, wrong, and the highest
claim TO be made for snch conduct is that 1t is the
least wrong which under the conditions is possible.
We need not shrink from the hypothesis or even
The conclusion ultimately reached may be that Man
is nothing but the highest mammal and IN that case