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NATURAL CAUSATION
NATURAL CAUSATION
3Ui (L-ssun in four parts
BY
C. E. PL UMPIRE
AUTHO.R OF "GENERAL SKETCH OK THE HISTORY OF PANTHEISM," ''GIORDANO I5RI/NO, A
TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY," ETC.
" Know, so far as is permitted thee, that Nature is in all things uniform;' 1
— Quoted from the Pythagorean Scriptures by Professor Clifford.
ILoucOn
/ T. FISHER IN WIN
2b, Paternoster Square
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To
the ISlemor)' of
my Father,
who was Unfailing- in his Encouragement and Sympathy,
and in
his Interest in my previous Works,
I dedicate this Volume.
March 29TH, 1888.
430584
PREFATORY NOTE.
I HAVE grouped together the four Essays in this volume
under the one title, " Natural Causation," because they all
pertain to one great subject — Natural haw. But they
were not all written at the same time. • The second Essay,
that on " Philosophical Necessity," has been the longest
written, and originally appeared in the October number of
The Modern Review, 1880. It is reprinted herewith altera-
tions so slight as hardly to require mention. The other
three, though written at some intervals, appear in print
here for the first time.
CONTENTS.
— * —
SECTION PAGE
I. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN, VIEWED FROM THE
STANDPOINT OF EVOLUTION u
II. PHILOSOPHICAL NECESSITV : A DEFENCE ... 40
III. NATURAL GROWTH IN ETHICS 73
IV. NATURAL GROWTH IN CIVILISATION 113
INDEX 193
NATURAL CAUSATION.
I.
THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN AS VIEWED FROM THE STAND-
POINT OF EVOLUTION.
" I seek after Truth, by which no man ever yet was injured."
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
It was, I think, the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno,
who was the first to point to a fact that even now is scarcely
sufficiently recognised ; namely, that what are called the
olden ages, the ancient times, are in reality the early ages,
the youthful times ; and conversely, that what in modern
parlance are spoken of as recent ages, are in reality the
elder ages. The world in this latter part of the nineteenth
century, for instance, is older by three centuries than when
Bruno made the remark; and he, a somewhat violent
opponent of Aristotle, made it because he was rebuked for
his presumption in venturing to question the authority of
one who had lived so many centuries before himself — the
implication of course being that because Aristotle had lived
12 Natural Causation.
so much earlier than Bruno, therefore, and by that cause,
must his opinion be of proportionately greater value.
Now, in reality, the exact converse of this is the case. Other
things equal, a man of the mental calibre of an Aristotle,
born in the nineteenth century, would certainly write now
as he would not have been able to write then : his environ-
ment being different, his writings would be different. I
venture to call attention to this remark of Bruno, because
the fact to which he has pointed belongs to that class of
facts so unquestionably true as to have escaped attention ;
a certain amount of controversy, I think, being required
to enable a fact to be fully impressed upon the mind.
Doubtless, the implications to be drawn from this truth are,
like those from other truths, capable of being abused. I do
not wish to imply that, because a certain theory is the out-
come of a late development, it is to be accepted as neces-
sarily true and requiring no investigation. I only wish to
urge that there is a greater probability that a theory born
in such an age will be truer than one belonging to a cruder
stage in the history of thought.
The doctrine of Design, by which I mean special creation
of natural objects for the benefit of man, does not belong
exclusively to one particular religion, nor to one particular
nation ; but it does belong to a crude and undeveloped
period of man's knowledge. The doctrine of Evolution, on
the other hand, though dimly foreshadowed in some of the
earlier philosophies and religions, may yet rightfully be
called the outcome of the nineteenth century — a century
pre-eminent among other centuries for its scientific dis-
coveries, its scientific instruments, and for the accuracy of
its men of science ; a century, too, in which the means of
77/ c Doctrine of Design. 13
travel have been enormously developed, so that the reli-
gious and scientific theories of various nations can be dealt
with comparatively. And the comparative method —
scarcely possible prior to this century — has shown itself by
its results in all branches of science to be second to none.
It is the purport of the present essay upon Natural
Causation to examine — reverently indeed, but also impar-
tially — into the general arguments for and against the
doctrine of Design. Is man a creature altogether distinct
from other objects in Nature: Was the sun created in order
to provide him with light by day f Were the moon and
stars created solely to light him by night ? Is language
a divine gift ? Was the Christian religion supernaturally
revealed to him, and essentially and altogether distinct from
the religions of other nations r
In this short essay of four brief sections I do not, indeed,
propose to deal with all these questions. In the present section
it is my intention to deal generally with the subject as a
whole, and in the three succeeding sections to limit myself
to those particular aspects of the question that more pro-
foundly influence our future actions and daily life.
The supporters both of the doctrines of Design and Evo-
lution are alike in starting with an Infinite First Existence
that is above finite comprehension. The believer in Design
assumes an External Creator without beginning, without
end ; from whose will alone has sprung the entire creation.
The believer in Evolution starts with the assumption of an
infinite, eternal Matter, also without beginning or end,
constant in its quantity, changing alone its form, and which
is the cause and composition of every natural object.
There are two classes among the acceptors of the doctrine of
Natural C ' ait sat ion.
Evolution. One, which I certainly think is in the minority,
that is materialistic in the atheistic sense of the word,
seeing t in naked matter nothing more than that brute sub-
stance that matter is considered to be in the minds of most
religious people. But the other class, among which I
reckon myself, reverence Matter as something altogether
past finding out, in which is latent not only every form of
body, but every form of mind. In the words of the poet
Goethe, they look upon matter as the " living garment of
God," whose existence is not comprehensible to man. In
the words of Professor Tyndall, confessing their own
ignorance, they say, If you ask whence is this " Matter "
we have no answer. " But if the materialist is confounded
and science rendered dumb, who else is prepared with a
solution r To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed ?
Let us lower our heads and acknowledge our ignorance,
priest and philosopher, one and all." *
But though alike in being obliged to postulate an Infinite
Eternal Existence wholly past finding out as the cause of
all things, here the believers in Design and Evolution part
company. He who believes in a Creator working from
without, creating something out of nothing, bringing by
His command myriads of worlds into existence and launching
them into their several places, commits himself to a series
of inconceivabilities instead of to one alone — the creation
of something out of nothing, when fully realised, being quite
as difficult of comprehension as the existence of the Creator
Himself. Moreover it vouchsafes us no interpretation (save
that of caprice) why some planets and stars should be so
much larger than others ; why some planets should have
* " Fragments of Science," 5th edition, p. 421.
The Doctrine of Design. 15
many moons, and others none ; still further, why certain
portions of the heavens should be crowded with stars and
constellations, and another portion by comparison well-nigh
empty. But the Nebular Hypothesis can, as it seems to
me, in a measure explain these difficulties.
If, as that hypothesis assumes, matter that was once
evenly diffused through space has, in obedience to under-
stood laws, undergone a process of concentration, and
afterwards, through the medium of other laws, broken up
into bodies of various sizes, then those spaces where the
matter in its diffused state had originally extended to, must
after the concentration of the matter be as proportionately
bare of stars as the other portions are crowded.
The doctrine of Evolution, then, unlike the doctrine of
Design, has only to start with its one mystery, viz., the
existence of Matter and its concomitant property Force.
How these came to exist it presumes not to say. But that
they do exist is a fact obvious to all. And, given their
existence, the entire universe, so far as we know it, be-
comes capable of interpretation. Let us take for instance,
as our first illustration, the genesis of the Solar System.
The great principle underlying the law of Evolution is,
that the homogeneous changes by slow and almost imper-
ceptible degrees into the heterogeneous, the simple into the
complex. And if the Nebular Hypothesis be true, that
hypothesis is but one embodiment among many of the
universality of that law. If we go further and ask, why *
* It must be remembered that the Evolution hypothesis presumes not
to discuss the Why in the teleogical sense. It simply relates to the
proximate or immediate causes ; not to the Efficient or First Cause, of
which it knows nothing.
1 6 Natural Causation.
should the simple develop into the complex ? the answer
is that every active force produces more than one change ;
or, in other words, multitudinous effects arise from one
cause.*
In 1755 the great philosopher Kant put forth the doc-
trine that the whole universe inconceivable ages ago
consisted of a gaseous chaos; and this theory was, as is
well known, further developed by Laplace and Herschel.
Well! assuming that the matter of which the sun and
planets consists was once in a diffused form, by the gravi-
tation of its atoms a gradual concentration would result.
But this would not be the only effect. At the same time
would also result contrast in density and temperature
between the interior and exterior of the mass. Rotary
movements would also arise, and their velocities would
vary according to their several distances from the centre.
In this way, it is held, the solar system has been evolved.
No one world has been separately created. And this in-
deed follows as a corollary from a doctrine accepted now
by all men of science, i.e., the Indestructibility of Matter.
Since matter is constant in its quantity and changes only
in its form, it follows that worlds have been moulded into
their present number, their present shape, out of matter
already existing.
The general nature of Laplace's theory is, I suppose
pretty well known, viz., that the solar system originally
consisted of a vast rotating spheroid which extended
beyond the region of Xeptune ; that as, in conformance
* For fuller explanation of this, see Mr. Spencer's admirable essay,
" Progress : its Law and Cause," in his " Essays, Scientific, Political, and
Speculative/' vol. i. Williams and Norgate.
The Doctrine of Design. 17
with known laws, the spheroid contracted, its rate of rota-
tion would be necessarily increased ; that through its cen-
trifugal force rings would be thrown off, which by contrac-
tion would in turn become rotating masses. These in
their turn would throw off other rings, which would in
like manner become rotating spheroids. And thus have
arisen planets and their satellites, while from the central
mass has been evolved the sun.
This a priori reasoning of Laplace has received singular
•confirmation from the practical experiments of Dr. Plateau.
Protecting so far as possible a mass of fluid from external
causes, and making it rotate with sufficient velocity, he
then shows that this mass breaks up naturally into de-
tached rings, which on their part concentrate into spheroids
which will turn on their axes in the same direction with
the central mass.
But Mr. Spencer has called attention to another fact
which upon the hypothesis of Design has no interpretation,
while it is a singular confirmation of the Nebular Hypo-
thesis, viz., that each set of satellites bears in miniature
the same relation to its planet, that the planets bear to the
sun ; thus showing that there must be a physical connection
in their origin.
" On progressing from the outside of the solar system
to its centre," he says,* " we see that there are four large
external planets and four internal ones which are com-
paratively small. A like contrast holds between the outer
and inner satellites in every case. Among the four satel-
lites of Jupiter the parallel is maintained as well as the
* " The Nebular Hypothesis," in the first volume of his "Collected
Essays," pp. 271, 272.
B
1 8 Natural Causation.
comparative smallness of the number allows ; the two
outer ones are the largest, and the two inner ones the
smallest. According to the most recent observations made
by Mr. Lassell, the like is true of the four satellites of
Uranus. In the case of Saturn, who has eight secon-
dary planets revolving around him, the likeness is still
more close in arrangement as in number. The three outer
satellites are large, the inner ones are small ; and the con-
trasts of size are here much greater between the largest,
which is nearly as big as Mars, and the smallest, which is
with difficulty discovered even by the best telescopes."
But the Nebular Hypothesis has another support to
which I should like to draw attention. It has been pointed
out by the writer* of the article on the Nebular Theory in
the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica that the
stupendous daily outpour of heat from the sun at the pre-
sent time is really, when properly studied, a profound
argument in support of the nebular theory. The amount
of the sun's heat has been estimated, and it is found
that our earth receives less than one two-thousand-millionth
part of the whole radiation. Now what supplies this
heat r
" The truth about the sun's heat," says the writer, " ap-
pears to be that the sun is really an incandescent body
losing heat; but that the operation of cooling is immensely
retarded owing to a curious circumstance due jointly to
the stupendous mass of the sun and to a remarkable law of
heat. It is of course well known that if energy disappears
in one form it reappears in another, and this principle
applied to the sun will explain the famous difficulty.
*R. S. Ball, LL.D.
The Doctrine of Design. 1 9
" As the sun loses heat it contracts, and every pair of
particles are nearer each other than they were before. The
energy due to their separation is thus less in the contracted
state than in the original state, and as that energy cannot
be lost it must reappear in heat. The sun is thus slowly
contracting; but as it contracts it gains heat by the opera-
tion of the law just referred to, and thus the further
cooling and further contraction of the sun is protracted,
and the additional heat obtained is radiated away. In
this way we can reconcile the fact that the sun is certainly
losing heat with the fact that the change in the tempera-
ture has not been large enough to be perceived within
historic times.
" It can be shown that the sun is at present contracting, so
that its diameter diminishes four miles every century. This
is of course an inappreciable distance when compared with
the diameter of the sun, which is nearly a million of miles,
but the significance for our present purpose depends upon
the fact that this contraction is always taking place. A
thousand years ago the sun must have had a diameter forty
miles greater than at present, ten thousand years ago that
diameter must have been four hundred miles more than it
is now, and so on. We cannot perhaps assert that the
same rate is to be continued for many centuries, but it is
plain that the further we look into past time the greater
must the sun have been."
But perhaps the most comprehensible and obvious proof
of this theory is that in the case of Saturn ; Laplace
describes the well-known rings of Saturn as "extant wit-
nesses of my hypothesis." Saturn also possesses, what has
only of late years been discovered, a nebulous ring, through
20
Natural Causation.
which his body is beheld as through a mist. We can
imagine with what delight Laplace would have hailed this
discovery.
Now have the supporters of the doctrine of Design any
interpretation of these facts to offer ? If the moon were
created in order to give the inhabitants of the earth light
by night, why (if the other planets are uninhabited) should
they have moons at all r Or say that the supporters of the
doctrine of Design are willing to concede that the other
planets may be inhabited, will they explain why the inner
moons should be the smaller ones r or why Uranus, which
is twice as far away from the sun as Saturn, should have
but half as many moons r Or why Mars, which is consider-
ably farther from the sun than we are, should have no
moons at all ? Upon the mechanical theory of the universe
all these perplexities are capable of solution ; but upon the
mechanical theory alone.
From the Solar System, considered in its general aspect,
let us turn to one of its members, our Earth.
I believe it is conceded now by all geologists — of what-
ever religious opinions — that our earth was at first a mass
either of molten or nebulous matter, probably the latter,
and that it took an immense period of time — in all likeli-
hood millions of years — before it cooled down sufficiently to
allow of life appearing upon it, and that when life did at
first appear, it was in the form of such vegetation as could
only flourish in a climate of very high temperature.
The five great main divisions of the organic history of the
earth are called the primordial, primary, secondary, ter-
tiary, and quaternary epochs. The first and longest is the
primordial epoch, or the era of the Tangle Forests. This
The Doctrine of Design. 2 1
epoch is probably longer than the four others put together.
Three systems of strata belong to this epoch, and the
approximate depth of these strata is computed to amount
to 70,000 feet. The primary epoch, or the era of Fern
Forests, has also three systems of strata belonging to it, and
the thickness of these strata is said to amount to about
42,000 feet. The secondary epoch, or the era of Pine
Forests, is also divided into three great periods, but the
average thickness of these three systems amounts only to
about 15,000 feet. The tertiary epoch, or era of Leafed
Forests, is also divided into three periods, but the thickness
of their strata is only about 3,000 feet, while the quaternary
epoch, or era of civilisation, in comparison with the length
of the four other epochs almost vanishes into nothing ;
though (as Professor Haeckel says), with a comical conceit,
we usually call its record the " history of the world. " *
It is needless to say that, although we can, in our present
state of geological knowledge, apply only relative and not
absolute measurements of time, still enormous thickness of
strata and enormous length of time go together. The time
devoted to the formation of the primordial epoch was
almost certainly longer than the time devoted to the four
succeeding epochs altogether. It seems probable that many
thousand millions of years were required to deposit masses
of strata amounting to 70,000 feet. In the first portion of
this primordial epoch nothing seems to have lived save that
lowest group of plants called Tangles or Algae ; but in the
two later strata belonging to this same primordial epoch
have been found remains of some animals which, like the
tangles, must have lived in water. They are called acrania,
* Haeckel's " History of Creation," vol. ii., p. 17, English edition.
22 Natural Causation.
or skull-less, and from them it is supposed fishes have been
developed.
Upon the hypothesis that the earth was solely made for
man, how can its supporters account for the fact that for
millions of years only the lowest forms of vegetable and
animal life existed ? Were the universe made for man, and
man to praise and glorify the Creator, how was it that for
untold millions of years not only did man not exist, but not
a creature sufficiently endowed with sentient life to be even
capable of happiness ? Regarded from the teleogical point
of view, whether that point of view be the happiness of the
creature or the glory of the Creator, these untold millions
of years must be regarded as gigantic waste.
But upon the hypothesis of Evolution all these seemingly
inexplicable difficulties become capable of solution. If the
nebular hypothesis be true, it follows as an a priori deduc-
tion from it that when this earth broke away from its central
mass, from which afterwards was evolved the sun, it must
have been in a nebulous or molten state ; and what a priori
the nebular hypothesis shows would be the case, geologists
a posteriori have shown has been the case. I believe all
geologists concur in saying that the original state of our
earth was one of incandescence. Again, if it be asked why
should so many years elapse before the earth should be the
habitat of life, the answer is, life could not appear till the
earth had parted with a certain portion of her heat, and
that this internal heat was at first of such an inconceivable
intensity that the counteraction of air and other external
influences were for a time inappreciable. When life at first
did appear it was, as I have said, only under such forms as
belong to a climate of exceedingly high temperature.
The Doctrine of Design. 23
There is still another difficulty quite inexplicable upon
the hypothesis of Design, viz., the alternate Glacial Epochs
in the north and south. In a remarkable paper published
in 1864, largely quoted from by Mr. James Geikie in his
" Great Ice Age," and also alluded to by Darwin in his
" Origin of Species," Mr. Croll has pointed out that glacial
periods, lasting for thousands of years, must have alter-
nated with equally prolonged periods of genial conditions.
The last glacial epoch must have begun some 240,000 years
ago, and terminated about 80,000 years ago, comprising
therefore a period of 1 60,000 years ; the cold being most
intense about thirty or forty thousand years after the
glacial epoch had commenced. Mr. Croll has attempted to
show that this glacial condition of climate is the result of
various physical causes, brought into operation by an
increase in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. But as this
interpretation has not passed beyond the domain of theory,
1 will not dwell further upon it here ; but will content
myself with recommending Mr. Geikie's most interesting
work upon the " Great Ice Age " to any reader anxious for
a closer acquaintance with the subject. But, whatever the
interpretation, of the fact itself there is no doubt. As
Darwin has well said, " We have evidence of almost every
conceivable kind, organic and inorganic, that within a very
recent geological period Central Europe and Xorth America
suffered under an arctic climate. The ruins of a house
burnt by fire do not tell their tale more plainly than do the
mountains of Scotland and Wales, with their scored flanks,
polished surfaces, and perched boulders, of the icy streams
with which their valleys were lately filled." I need scarcely
say that during these alternate glacial epochs of such
24 Natural Causation.
immense duration, the parts affected by them must have
been as desolate, as absolutely devoid of life, as Greenland
is now. Has the hypothesis of Design any interpretation
to offer ?
We see then that the genesis of the solar system and
the formation of the earth are not difficult of explanation
through Natural Causation, while upon the hypothesis of
Design they are absolutely without explanation.
I turn now to a much more difficult, as well as a much
more vexed question : the origin and preservation of Life.
Some ten years ago evolutionists seemed likely to be
divided into two contending parties : the one — consisting
for the most part of the younger and more ardent members —
warmly embracing the belief in spontaneous generation,
and adducing as a ground for their belief that they had
conducted experiments in which life was actually spon-
taneously generated before their eyes. The other, soberer,
and for the most part older members, though willingly
conceding that from the a priori point of view spontaneous
generation fitted in with their general theory of evolution,
yet loving- truth better than mere victory, acknowledged
somewhat sorrowfully that they had discovered no proof of
it. They investigated the experiments of the so-called
discoverers of spontaneous generation, and invariably
found them wanting. Air had never been entirely ex-
cluded ; and with the admission of air had probably been
admitted organic germs from which had been evolved the
minute organisms, too hastily concluded to be spontaneous
generations.
This conflict of opinions, though somewhat fiery while it
lasted, has, I think, nearly died away. Most evolutionists >
Tlic Doctrine of Design. 25
it seems to me, have come round to the conclusion of their
more sober apostles, that there is no present proof of spon-
taneous generation.
But while honestly conceding this to be the case, let me
also say that I think the opponents of evolution have greatly
exaggerated the importance of this concession. In a spirit
the reverse of philosophic, they have confused " non-
proven " with " dts-proven." Never of very great value, a
negative, in the present case, is of even less than average
value, because the changes of temperature through which
the earth has passed have been so enormous that it may
well be held that life, though entirely incapable of being
generated in the present condition of our earth, might
have been generated naturally and without difficulty when
the climate was of enormously higher temperature. Every
chemist knows that certain elements will only combine
under certain conditions ; and it is quite within the limits
of possibility, or even indeed probability, that conditions
which are now wanting, in an earlier stage of the forma-
tion of our earth might have been existing,* and that
from a subtle combination of inorganic elements an
organic cell could have been evolved.
One thing at least is certain, that if the supporters of the
doctrine of the natural evolution of life can only adduce at
present imperfect proofs of it, the supporters of special
* The word " Spontaneous Generation " is not a happy one, spontaneity
implying suddenness and for the most part that which arises without
cause. Such readers as are desirous of learning what very strong pro-
babilities there are in favour of "generation by evolution," as Mr. Spencer
happily terms it, are advised to study a letter Mr. Spencer has added
in the shape of an appendix to the first volume of his " Principles of
Biology."
2 b Natural Causation.
creation can, as has been well said, " adduce no prool at all."
Throughout the entire solar system, so far as our investiga-
tions have gone, there has been no creation, no destruction
of matter — only change of form ; matter disappears in one
place only to reappear in another. From the beginning
of life upon this globe we know of no new life without
antecedent life ; no preservation of life save through the
agency of matter already existing. The vegetable requires
air, earth, and water; the animal requires the vegetable;
the man, the vegetable or animal, or both ; everywhere the
sum of matter is the same ; the death of one form is
the birth of another. Annihilation, or the disappearance
of something into nothing, being as inconceivable as
creation, or the formation of nothing into something.
And can we stop here ? Is not Mind, too, another form,
though at bottom an entirely mysterious form, of this same
wonderful matter ? Are not madness and genius and idiocy
all matters of heredity or environment ? Do we know of
any mind apart from matter ? Must we not admit that our
minds largely depend upon the formation of our brains,
and these again are largely due to ancestry ? Is it not true
that our best mental work is done in maturity, when our
bodies are in a state of physical vigour ; that as old age
comes upon us mental decay comes also ; and that infants
in the first few days of life have absolutely no mind at all ?
If we fast too much we see visions and dream dreams ; if
we eat too much we become languid, and generally inca-
pable of rapid thought. If we drink stimulants in any
excess the effect upon the mental and moral character is
unfortunately too well known. And as matter acts upon
mind, so does mind upon matter. Every physician can
tell when a man has been overworking his brain. Every-
'Ui e Doctrine of Design. 27
where we see transformation ; but no creation — no des-
truction.
In like manner what we have seen to be the case with
Matter applies also to Force. The correlation of the forces,
or Conservation of Energy, as it is sometimes called, is
among the grand discoveries of this century. Heat, light,
electricity, chemical action, as well as nervous and mus-
cular action, are interchangeable ; but not only have they
the power under certain conditions of producing one
another, but it has been discovered beyond controversy, I
believe, that there is exact equivalence in quantity between
the phenomena that have disappeared and those which
have been produced, insomuch that if the process be re-
versed, precisely the same quantity that had disappeared
will reappear. Thus (to cite a much-quoted illustration), the
amount of heat which will raise the temperature of a pound
of water one degree of the thermometer will, if expended,
for example, in the expansion of steam, lift a weight of 772
pounds one foot, or a weight of one pound 772 feet. The
establishment of this comprehensive law has led many
scientific men to believe that it is a misnomer to talk of
forces; for now that it is known that each of these so-called
forces can be changed into the other, it seems probable that
there is but one force, constant in its quantity, changing
only its form. This force it is held is in reality motion.
The conservation or persistence of force is, more probably,
the conservation of motion.*
But now from the doctrines of the Persistence of Force
and Indestructibility of Matter follows a corollary which
I think has not received sufficient attention, viz., that
* See J. S. Mill's chapter on the Law of Causation in the first volume
of his " System of Logic," ninth edition.
28 Natural Causation.
great complexity in quality will be attended with a certain
deficiency in quantity ; that is, as functions become highly
complex they become specialised. And this will account
for a fact that upon the hypothesis of Design is absolutely
without interpretation, i.e., that very low forms of animal
life have much greater power of repairing severe injuries
received than have the higher animals. Mr. Spencer has
called attention to the fact that if that very lowly organised
creature called the Planaria has its body broken up and its
gullet detached, this will for a while continue to perform
its function when called upon just as though it were in its
place : a fragment of the creature's own body placed in the
gullet will be propelled through it or swallowed by it.*
And Professor Huxley has remarked upon the wonderful
power of reproducing lost parts possessed by newts. Cut
off the legs, the tail, the jaws, separately or altogether, and
these parts not only grow again, but the redintegrated
limb is formed on the same type as those which were lost.
The new jaw or leg is a newt s, and never by any accident
more like that of a frog.f
Now, since a child's well-being is presumably of greater
importance than a newt's, will the supporters of Design
explain how it is that if a child by some accident loses his
legs, he will have to remain without legs to the day of his
death, while the newt easily gains fresh ones ? Or let us
suppose that our supporter of the doctrine of Design is in a
railway accident, and has at the same time a portion of his
hair cut off and his arm torn from the elbow. We all know
that his hair will almost certainly grow again, and that his
* Spencer's " Principles of Biology," vol ii., pp. 365, 366.
t Huxley's "Lay Sermons," pp. 261, 262.
The Doctrine of Design. 29
arm most certainly will not. How can we account for this
upon the hypothesis of Design r Whether a man's hair is
an inch or two shorter or longer is a matter almost of
indifference, but, both for his own personal happiness as
well as for the sake of usefulness to his fellows, it is a matter
of great importance that he. shall not go minus an arm for
the rest of his life. Upon the mechanical theory of the
universe this is not difficult of interpretation. The com-
position of an arm being, with its nerves, its muscles, its
blood-vessels, an exceedingly complex thing, therefore an
arm has no power of reproducing itself. The hair being,
relatively, a very simple thing, easily reproduces itself.
I am dwelling more upon the grand principles of the law
of Evolution than upon the details so warmly insisted upon
by its supporters. And I do so advisedly. Interesting as
these details are, it seems to me that if we once grasp the
full meaning of the Indestructibility of Matter, the Persis-
tence of Force, the gradual growth of the homogeneous into
the heterogeneous, the entire dependence of existing life
upon antecedent life, the laws of Heredity, of Variety ;
the details usually cited in support of evolution are by no
means essential to it. Their chief purpose, I think, is
to show the weakness of the Special Creation hypothesis.
Then, indeed, I might ask why the guinea-pig should
have teeth which are shed before it is born ; or why
parasites should number about one-half of the animal
species ; why entozoa, for instance, which can only live
within the bodies of creatures more highly organised than
themselves — including man himself— and therefore more
capable of happiness or misery, should then multiply to
such an enormous extent that they generally kill the
30 Natural Causation.
creature they inhabit and, indirectly, therefore kill them-
selves ? These are questions, indeed, which the hypothesis
of Special Creation is inadequate to meet. But suppose
that there were no parasites on the face of the earth, and
suppose guinea-pigs did not possess fcetal teeth, the
doctrine of Evolution would be unaffected, so long as these
grand principles I have enumerated cannot be disproved.
If, therefore, I do not attach much weight to the positive
details, I need scarcely say that I attach less weight to the
negative details. The fact that certain transitional forms
have not yet been discovered seems to me to have had an
exaggerated importance attached to it, not only by the
opponents of the hypothesis of evolution, but even by some
of the supporters themselves — especially when we consider
that the portions of the earth that have been geologically
investigated are, relatively speaking, insignificant. That
when these transitional forms shall come to the light, as
they almost certainly will, they will doubtless be of the
keenest interest to the scientific mind, I do not deny. But
for all that, he who would disprove the doctrine of evolution
should endeavour to do so, as it appears to me, by attacking
the principles rather than the details.
I must now approach a subject that I fear may be dis-
pleasing to some among my readers ; but yet, to the honest
searcher for truth, a subject too important to be passed by,
viz., if the universe has been naturally evolved and not
supernaturally created, have we any reason to believe that
the laws of nature will be modified in compliance with the
wishes or prayers of man ?
There are two methods of investigating this subject, viz.,
the d priori method, or reasoning from the inherent proba-
TJie Doctrine of Design. 31
bility of the case ; and the a posteriori method, or reasoning
from the actual experimental proofs adduced in confirma-
tion of it. Let us deal with the a priori method first.
We have just seen in the sketch that I have given of the
history of our globe what a recent inhabitant of the earth is
Man. We have seen, too, what a comparatively insignifi-
cant member of the solar system is our earth. But we have
not seen yet how relatively dwarfed becomes that system
itself among the myriads of countless systems of which this
is but one. Well, certainly in that system, and probably
in all the systems, the laws that are in existence at this
moment upon our earth rule there also and have ruled from
all time, so far as we are able to recognise Time. Between
all these systems there seems to be a physical connection ;
and he who would expect a great abeyance of law to take
place in obedience to his wishes should first try to realise
what such an abeyance would really imply. That great
law of gravitation, for instance, if suspended even for a
moment, think what would follow ! Again, let us not
forget that many of the effects that are but now beginning
to press themselves upon our notice have arisen from causes,
some of which perhaps are older than the historic recollec-
tions of man. On a brilliant starlight night let us lift our
eyes and gaze into the heavens. The dark sky above us
seems crowded with orbs of light. Astronomy has made
us familiar with the fact that the radiance of these various
orbs that thrills us with its mystic beauty left its several
habitations many years ago — in some cases hundreds of
years ago, and in others even thousands of years ago. Then
calling to aid that wonderful power of imagination by which
we are able to pass from the seen to the unseen, let us try to
52 Natural Causation.
realise that what we now see is, through the imperfectness
of our vision, but an insignificant portion of what is to be
seen. According to Humboldt, there are certain nebulous
masses only to be viewed through colossal telescopes, so
far distant that a ray of light would probably require
millions of years before it could reach our earth. And yet,
how little we can realise after all ! Not by our most
strenuous concentration, nor by our most impassioned
imagination, can we grasp what no telescope can teach us !
We cannot conceive of that which has no boundary ; but as
little can we conceive of that which is bounded by nothing,
and with nothing beyond. This much only we know : that
this earth is as a drop in a boundless ocean, but not apart
from the ocean. It is of it and because of it. If we fully
realise what is meant by the doctrine of the Indestructi-
bility of Matter, if we open our eyes to the full significance
of the revelations of the spectroscope, we may be at least
certain of this one fact — that our earth is but an infinitesimal
part of one great Whole. Is it likely that a fragment of a
fragment shall direct that Whole from its course ?
So far from it being irreligious or irreverent to disbelieve
that our prayers will modify the laws of the universe, it
seems to me that the truer reverence, the higher religion, is
to recognise our presumption in daring to expect such a
modification.
From the a priori method let us now turn to the a posteriori.
When did the so-called miraculous answers to prayers
most frequently take place r Always in the pre-scientific
ages. When are they still expected to take place among
ourselves. Always in connection with those natural objects
and laws that are not fully understood by us, and that
The Doctrine of Design. $$
therefore may be said to be scientifically imperfect. The
laws of astronomy have arrived at great scientific perfec-
tion ; therefore we no longer pray that an eclipse shall not
take place, nor that a comet may disappear from our sight.
Yet in the fifteenth century, when very little was known of
the bodies existing in space, it was thought to be a bounden
duty to pray that a comet might be removed from our
earth. Dr. Draper has called attention to the fact that in
1456, when Halley's comet appeared, it was considered as
connected with the progress of Mohammed the Second,
who had just then taken Constantinople. From his seat,
invisible to it in Italy, the sovereign pontiff, Calixtus the
Third, issued his ecclesiastical fulminations ; but the comet
in the heavens, like the sultan on the earth, pursued its
course undeterred. In vain was it anathematised : in vain
were prayers put up in all directions to stop it. True to its
time, it punctually returns from the abysses of space un-
influenced by anything save agencies of a material kind.
" A signal lesson," adds Dr. Draper,* " for the meditation
of every religious man." The periodical rising and setting
of the sun and moon are too familiar to us to allow the
most superstitious to believe that they will be diverted
from their course by human prayer. Neither would any,
I think, in our own country and at the present time, expect
that a high tide of the sea would suddenly be changed into
a low one. But we still pray that the sea may be calm
when our beloved ones are on a voyage ; and the Church
commands us to pray for rain and fine weather in order
that our harvests may be plenteous. When the laws ot
the winds and weather have been as fully investigated as
* " Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. ii., pp. 253, 254.
C
34 Natural Causation .
the movements of the sun and moon and the laws of the
tides, we shall as little think that the one will be altered
for our sakes as the other. At our weddings and at other
times we pray that a marriage shall be blessed with children ;
but at our funerals we do not pray that he whom we
mourn shall be raised to life. Yet before the signs of death
were as fully understood as they are now, it was considered
no impossibility that human prayer should restore the dead
to life. When the laws of birth are as fully understood as
the laws ot death, we shall as little think that an heir
shall be sent in answer to our prayers as that those that
we have lost by death shall be once more restored to us.
And if further illustrations were needed, let me cite two
subjects, so closely allied that we have no way for account-
ing for the fact that in the one instance we almost always
expect that our prayers shall have some influence upon it,
while in the other we rarely do, save upon the interpretation
that the one class of subjects has arrived at slightly greater
scientific perfection than the other. The laws of physiology-
are not so well understood as the laws of anatomy; the
science of surgery is measurably in advance of the science
of medicine. We pray, therefore, that those that are dear
to us may be preserved when fevers or various other
diseases assail them ; but if through some accident they
lose a limb, we never think that it will be restored to
them through the agency of human prayer.
We see then that both a priori and a posteriori the
arguments against the doctrine of the modification of
natural laws through human prayer are very strong. And
this is in itself a strong proof among many others of the
truth of the hypothesis of evolution. It seems to me to
Tin: Doctrine of Design. 35
follow as a corollary that if the universe and all that is in
it was supernaturally created by an act of arbitrary will for
the benefit of man, then man may not unreasonably sup-
pose that what has been supernaturally created for his
benefit may be supernaturally modified in obedience to his
wishes. If, on the contrary, these laws have been in exist-
ence, not only inconceivable ages before man was in exist-
ence, but even before his habitation, the earth, was formed,
then it is presumption to expect that laws which were not
made solely for man should be altered because he wishes
them to be so.
Perhaps there are some among my readers who are
thinking, " Well, if prayer can do no good, it is a comfort
to us to pray, and at least it can do no harm." While
willingly granting the immense comfort and subjective
benefit to be received from prayer, let me also express my
conviction that the belief in the modifiability of natural
laws through human prayer has been both directly and
indirectly productive of lamentable harm. Look into any
history of witchcraft, whether dealing with the East or West,
and you will find that the invariable proof of the witch's
guilt or innocence was supposed to lie in the fact that
when thrown into a river, if innocent she would certainly
float, but if guilty she would assuredly sink. Even in our
country the law of Trial by Battle was not formally
abolished till this century ; the implication, of course,
being that God would protect the innocent. That law
had been practically dead some time before it was openly
abolished ; but the formal repudiation must be regarded,
I think, as an open acknowledgment of what had long
been secretly felt — that the victory is with the strong, not
36 Natural Causation.
with the innocent; or in other words, God does not suddenly
endow a naturally feeble person with unwonted strength
in order to prove his innocence. And this is but another
mode of saying that in cases of guilt or innocence, as in all
other cases, this world is governed by natural laws, not by
providential interference. Again, it would be difficult to
estimate by how many centuries the science of medicine
has been retarded by the assumption throughout the entire
world that disease is a providential infliction, not the result
of natural laws that should be studied in order to be com-
prehended and avoided. In our daily actions, we of this
century have outgrown this conception of disease ; though
religious people still retain it as a principle of verbal faith.
It seems to me that belief is little more than lip-worship
unless it have some effect upon our actions. How little is
this the case is shown by what seems to me the strangest
anomaly — among many strange — of this curious age of
transition of ours, that the only sect that logically and
consistently carry out the belief that disease, being provi-
dentially sent as a punishment, can be cured only by
prayer and repentance, are visited by legal penalties, and
for the most part censured as severely by the clergy as by
the laity. I allude of course to the Peculiar People.
I have hitherto confined myself to the practical conse-
quences of a belief in evolution or special creation. But
to every question there is a higher and a lower aspect.
And the higher aspect in the question before us seems to
me to be that of each one asking himself this question :
In the present state of physical science have I any longer a
right to believe in Design or Special Creation for the service
of man : We are all of us aware that it is a duty to be honest
The Doctrine of Design. 37
in word and deed ; but few of us think how imperative a
duty it is to be honest in our belief. Yet considering how
beliefs are transmitted from generation to generation,
what a mighty part they play in influencing character and
actions, it seems to me that there is no subject in which
scrupulous honesty should be so carefully exacted. It is
indeed a difficult and oftentimes a painful matter to part
with beliefs in which not only have we been educated, but
which we have received from many generations of ancestors.
But no one would pretend that it would not be repre-
hensible to speak or act dishonestly in order to save him-
self pain. But is it not equally reprehensible to assume
that to be true which we have not troubled to investigate ;
still more that which every scientific discovery, as well as
the experiences of our everyday life, is showing us to be
contrary to truth ? There seems to me no duty more sacred
to man than that of reverent investigation into the facts of
Nature. No good ever yet came of a man trying to make
himself believe that to be a truth which in spite of himself
he feels to be a falsehood.
For, it cannot be too often insisted upon, the doctrines
of Special Creation and Evolution are so strongly opposed,
so wholly distinct, that it is impossible that they can be
each equally true. We must choose between them. Was
the earth specially created for man ? Are the changes on
the surface of our planet due to a series of inexplicable or
providentially ordered catastrophes as propounded by
Cuvier ? Or are they due to certain natural laws still
existing, still acting out their effects ; such as water, the
continued dropping of which, we all know, is sufficient to
produce striking results, even upon stone ? Again, were
430584
38 Natural Causation.
those gigantic orders of animals known popularly as
antediluvian specially created, specially destroyed merely
in caprice ? Or are they, too, the result of natural laws ?
Still further, is the mind of man a result of ascent from
lower and unintelligent forms of life ; or a descent from
perfect goodness, perfect wisdom ?
These are questions which it behoves every one in the
present day to ask himself. They are questions, be it
remembered, far more pregnant, far more extended in
their results and purpose than the satisfaction of scientific
curiosity. They have a distinct bearing upon all the great
problems of our thinking life ; upon our religion, our
education, above all upon our politics. Has everything
been done for man ; or has a large part been done by man ?
Has he learnt what to eat by practical experiment, and
thus nourished himself? Has he learnt how to avoid
being eaten by others, and thus survived to propagate his
species ? Or has he been supernaturally endowed with a
power to obtain all that he desires through human prayer ;
and are all the lower animals created for his service r in
which case the teachings of experience are needless.
If, as Evolution teaches, the present position of man is
solely due to a subtle combination of those two great
natural laws, Heredity and Adaptation ; if (in the words
of Darwin) "Natural Selection is daily and hourly scruti-
nising throughout the world the slightest variations, reject-
ing those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that
are good ; silently and insensibly working, whenever and
wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each
organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic
conditions of life" ; our theory of ethics must be modified
The Doctrine of Design. 39
accordingly. If (what, after all, has passed into a common-
place) "practice makes perfect" and faculties good and
bad perish by disuse, there must be an elimination of all
that is opposed to natural law in our conceptions of the
method by which this world has come into existence and
continues to exist. We must believe that every effect can
be traced to its own cause. We must disbelieve in
caprice, in chance, even in providential interference. Let
no one think it a matter of indifference whether the faith
he holds be true or false. No faith that is earnestly held
can escape having an influence over our conduct to our-
selves and to our fellows. In this age, perhaps more than
any other, it behoves us to have a reason for the faith that
we hold ; to endeavour, to the utmost of our ability, to
"prove all Ihings," and having done this, to hold fast to
that which we have found to be true. The great practical
bearing of the doctrine of Evolution is that Man has
attained his present position by the working of natural
laws, among which laws that singular power of learning
by experience that man has in common with the higher
animals must be regarded as of primary importance. We
must work out our own salvation, in hope and assurance
that by proper study and comprehension of natural laws it
will not be difficult to attain. But let us not expect that
to be done for us by others that can only be done by our-
selves.
If the doctrine of Evolution be true, let us rule our
conduct according to that. If the theory of Special Inter-
position be true, let us rule it according to that. But we
must choose between them ; we cannot follow both.
II.
PHILOSOPHICAL NECESSITY: A DEFENCE.*
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then
may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. ; ' — Jeremiah xiii. 23.
In the January number of this Review appeared an
earnest and temperate article entitled, " Fervent Atheism,"
directed chiefly against the writings of Professor Clifford,
and dwelling somewhat at length upon the immoral con-
sequences likely to be the result of a belief in the doctrine
of Necessity versus that of Free Will.
The object of this paper, as is obvious from its title, is
to justify upon moral grounds the doctrine of Philosophical
Necessity, and to rescue it from the undeserved odium that
has gathered round it through, as it appears to me, a mis-
conception of its true implication. Before proceeding with
my task, let me observe that while I share the neces-
sitarian doctrines of Professor Clifford, I repudiate all
wish to identify myself with his religious, or rather non-
religious, opinions. Belief in Necessity is no more a
necessary correlative of Atheism than is belief in Free
Will a necessary correlative of Theism. On the contrary,
* Originally printed in " The Modern Review," October, 18S0,
PliilosopJiiceil Necessity : a Defence. 4 1 .
Predestinarianism (which is a form, and as I venture to
think, a very perverted form, of the doctrine of Necessity)
has been supported and propagated, as every one knows,
by our most eminent religious teachers — from St. Paul to
St. Augustine ; from St. Augustine to Calvin ; and from
him again to Jonathan Edwards. But w r hile the doctrine
of Free Will has never had to seek for support exclusively
among religious teachers, it has had, I think, to seek for it
principally (at all events, in our day) among our great
■moral teachers ; among those noble, self-devoted men and
women, who, filled with the "enthusiasm of humanity,"
have sacrificed their time, money, and best energies to the
reclaiming and education of the little waifs and strays of
our larger cities, and upon whom this doctrine of Neces-
sity weighs like an incubus, the open propagation of it
filling them with an indignation that we can scarcely
regard as other than righteous, seeing how well they must
be aware from long experience what a very potent factor
in self-improvement is the earnest endeavour after it on
the part of the subject himself.
The supporters of the doctrine of Necessity, on the
other hand, are to be found, I think, in our own day,
mainly among men and women of cool critical judgment,
honestly anxious for the calm investigation of truth ; who,
after carefully balancing the evidence for and against the
doctrine, have arrived at the conclusion that the evidence
for is greater than the evidence against it, and propagate
their views unflinchingly with little regard to any ulterior
consequences. Great as is my admiration for those persons
who make the pursuit of truth the one object of their lives,
and who brave all personal odium for the sake of dis-
4-2 Natural Causation .
seminating what they believe to be their juster views ; yet
if misery and immorality can be directly traced as results
of their plain speaking, I am almost inclined to side with
those who hold that reticence is to be preferred to too much
openness, that prudence is the better part of valour, and
that on all such doubtful subjects silence is more golden
than speech. But because I do not believe this to be the
case with the question before us ; because, on the contrary,
I feel that until this doctrine of Necessity is rightly under-
stood — until it is universally accepted and placed on a firm
and logical basis, there can be no science of human nature
properly so called, neither can Education be prosecuted in
any truly philosophical spirit ; because I believe that the
entire odium by which this doctrine of Necessity is sur-
rounded can be traced to a misconception of its true
meaning, I venture to open once more this much-vexed
question.
The idea of " Freedom " as attaching to the human will
appears as early as the Stoics. The virtuous man was
said to be free, and the vicious man a slave. The epithets
" free " and " slave," as thus severally applied, occur
largely in the writings of Philo Judseus, through whom
they probably extended to Christian theology. The modern
doctrine of Free Will as opposed to Necessity first assumed
prominence and importance in connection with the doc-
trine of original sin and the Predestinarian views of St.
Augustine. In a later age it was disputed between Armi-
nians and Calvinists, and it is this connection with Predes-
tinarianism, I believe, that has been the origin of much of
the obloquy that has fallen on the doctrine of Philosophical
Necessity. Historically considered, the theological dogma
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 43.
of Predestinarianism is the offspring of a singularly repul-
sive form of Anthropomorphism. Consciously or uncon-
sciously, Predestinarian believers conceive God to be an
omnipotent, tyrannical Being — creator of men and arbiter
of their destinies. Some he predestinates to honour, others
to dishonour ; some to happiness, others to misery ; some
to virtue, others to vice ; and, " try as they may " to escape
their doom, the unhappy victims whom it has been his will
to create evil, can, by no possible aid from themselves or
from others, ever become good.
A greater contrast to the doctrine of Philosophical Neces-
sity cannot be imagined than this anthropomorphic con-
ception of Predestinarianism. Necessity repudiates in toto
the immoral doctrine that a man cannot conquer his evil
tendencies if he so desire, and prove the sincerity of his
desire by strenuous endeavours after improvement and self-
conquest. Indeed, she pronounces this endeavour, this
"try as you may," to be a very potent, if not the most
potent, factor in moral perfection. But whence comes this
factor r Clearly from one of two things. Either from the
disposition of the person himself, in which case it becomes
a factor in the organism, or from the persuasion or teaching
of some friend or adviser, in which case it becomes a factor
in the environment. Predestinarianism, then, consigns a
man, under all circumstances, to the absolute dominion of
his own evil tendencies. Philosophical Necessitarianism,
on the other hand, merely asserts that certain causes under
certain conditions must give rise to certain effects. Put a
certain mental organism, that is to say, into a certain
definite environment, and a corresponding definite character
will as inevitably grow" from it, as from a certain definite
44 Natural Causation.
seed, sown in particular soil, will be developed one kind of
flower and no other. Nature throughout is one and uniform,
and proceeds by rigid Law ; and until we have convinced
ourselves that in Ethics, as elsewhere, there reigns a
Universal Causation, ^there can be no science properly
so called of human nature. Gradually and slowly through-
out the realm of knowledge the conception of Law and
Necessity has taken the place of that of Chance and Spon-
taneity. One by one, each of the sciences as it has ap-
proached to perfection has abandoned the sovereignty of the
latter influences for the former. Even Biology has yielded
at last to their conquest. Psychology and Sociology will as
inevitably succumb. Time was when miracle-cure, relic-
cure, shrine-cure were the sole agencies invoked in relief ol
disease. Time was when it was peremptorily commanded
that if a man had sore eyes he must invoke St. Clara ; il
he had an inflammation elsewhere he must turn to St.
Anthony ; if he had an ague he must pray for the assistance
of St. Pernel.* We have learnt better now, and because
the conception of Law and Necessity has taken the place of
that of Chance and Spontaneity in the realm of Disease, the
sciences of Physiology and Biology have been able to grow
into existence. Slowly, but surely, the like conception will
prevail in the realm of Ethics. Psychology and Socio-
logy will take their proper place as recognised sciences.
There is an exact parity of demonstration between the two.
Given a consumptive, sickly infant, born of consumptive,
sickly parents and grandparents : let his environment be
one of straitened circumstances ; let him, if he live past
infancy (a thing in itself improbable), be put into some
* " Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. ii., p. 122.
Philosophical Necessity: a Defence. 45,
notoriously unhealthy occupation such as that ol mines or
sewage, and it follows from definite laws that he will be
cut off before his prime. Again, let a healthy, sturdy
infant, born of a healthy pedigree, be reared to youth in
competence, and then put into some eminently healthy
occupation such as that of a well-to-do gardener, farmer, or
gamekeeper, and, barring accidents and fevers, he will live
in enjoyment of perfect health to a good old age. The
same causation holds good in the realm of Ethics. Given
a morally deficient child, the offspring of a vicious pedigree ;
let him be indoctrinated in vice from his infancy, shut out
from every influence of good, encouraged in everything that
is bad, and he will inevitably grow to be a scourge to
society. Again, let a morally and mentally healthy child,
the offspring of a virtuous pedigree, be brought up by a
gentle, sympathising mother, by a just and intelligent
father ; let him be such a one, for instance, as Crawfurd
Tait, and it follows by definite laws that his manhood and
old age will be as productive of good as might be expected
from such a childhood and such a youth.
" Thus far," Predestinarianism may reply, "you side with
me. What is the life of Crawfurd Tait but an illustration
of my doctrine that some vessels are born to honour ; what
of the other child you cite but that other vessels are born to
dishonour r " " The cases are not in point," Necessity will
answer. " You imagine your vicious character to be the
product of a certain doom foreordained from time immemo-
rial. I imagine mine to be the product of a certain seed
having been placed in a certain soil. You would deny that
any alteration could take place through the environment or
circumstances that may surround your vicious character. I,
46 Natural Causation.
on the contrary, believe strongly in the modifying influences
•of environment that may surround mine. While I cannot
shut my eyes to the pregnant facts contained in the law of
Heredity; while I am forced to acknowledge with reluctance
and sorrow that a bad organism cannot be changed into a
good one ; while I admit, that is to say, that no organism
can be radically altered, I yet not only hope, but feel per-
fectly sure that, with very few exceptions, every organism
may be materially modified. A stinging-nettle will never be
turned into a rose ; but the fragrance and size of the rose
depend much upon the soil it is in and the amount of water
and sunshine it receives. A good seed put into good soil
will certainly bring forth good fruit ; a bad seed put into bad
soil will with equal certainty bring forth bad fruit. But
how about bad seed put into good soil, and good seed put
into bad soil ? "
The doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, then, is nothing
more than the recognition of the invariable law of Cause
and Effect ; of the great truth that in Ethics as elsewhere
there is no chance or spontaneity ; but that character is the
inevitable product of a certain combination of organism with
environment. Mr. Herbert Spencer has defined Life to be
the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external
relations ; * and, taking it on the whole, this, of many
definitions, is, I think, the best that has been given. In the
majority of cases the action and reaction between the
organism and its environment balance each other. But here
and there exceptions to the rule will be found. In cases of
strong individuality the power of the organism is immensely
in excess of the power of the environment, as will at once
* " Principles of Biology," vol. i., p. 80.
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 47
be seen by recalling to memory such of our great geniuses
as have been " self-made men," and who have had to
struggle to eminence through the most adverse circum-
stances. Again, there are other cases where the indivi-
duality is so slight that the power of the environment is
greatly in excess of the organism, and the character will be
1
entirely at the mercy of the circumstances by which it is
surrounded. But still, in the majority of cases, for all
practical purposes, the assertion that " Life is the con-
tinuous adjustment of internal relations to external rela-
tions," will be found to be correct ; and as an adumbration
of this truth Character may be defined as " Heredity plus
environments."
" But," the supporter of the doctrine of Free Will may
inquire, " if the character of my child is solely the pro-
duct of Heredity and environments, if he have no power to
amend his failings, why should I punish him?" " Accord-
ing to your own doctrine," Necessity might reply, " you
ought not to punish him, since you do not believe in
the universal law of Cause and Effect. Neglect your child
as you may, some happy chance will arrive, some miraculous
answer to your prayer take place, and the little reprobate
become a child of grace. I, on the contrary, who am a
believer in rigid Law, who hold that nothing proceeds
uncaused, punish my child, because I think punishment is a
potent factor in the environment that is slowly modifying
his character." " But has my child no power over him-
self? " Free Will may inquire; " can he not love virtue for
its own sake, and look upon the avoidance of vice as a more
sacred thing than the avoidance of pain?" " Doubtless he
can, subject to two conditions. Either his own moral per-
8 Natural Causation.
ceptions must be sufficiently exalted for him to be able to
recognise the beauty of holiness — which exalted perception
is a factor in the organism ; or he must be under the charge
of those who know how to train him judiciously while he is
yet young and his character pliant, so that from early habit
and association virtue will gradually grow pleasurable to
him and vice distasteful — which judicious training is a factor
in his environment." There are many cases — perhaps the
majority — where encouragement, trust, and the force ot
good example will be found to be greater deterrents from
vice than any amount of punishment ; and it was owing to
this discovery that Dr. Arnold was so singularly successful
in the training of youth. Until parents and teachers recog-
nise the fact that different characters require different treat-
ment, as surely as different seeds require different soil — which
is but another mode of recognising that certain effects can
only proceed from certain causes — there can be no scientific
process of education. Until our eminent novelists recog-
nise the fact that certain conduct can only arise from certain
character, we may have exciting plots or humorous denoue-
ments, but no accurate delineation of human nature as it in
reality is. Perhaps I need scarcely excuse myself on the
score of a digression, if, instead of proceeding with this
essay in the somewhat dry form of philosophical discussion,.
I give expression to my views through the medium of a
comparison between two novelists of equal eminence, equal
repute, but one of whom I believe to be a radically unscien-
tific writer, the other eminently scientific.
There is a wide-spread notion among many critics that
the one thing needful for the creation of an able novel is
that its author be an accurate observer of human idiosyn-
Philosophical A T eccssity : a Defence. 4Q
crasies. That this is a most necessary ingredient in the
writer of fiction no one can deny ; but if he would aspire to
take his place amongst our greatest masters, it is not
enough. It appears to me that the difference between the
careful observer of human idiosyncrasies and one who has
mastered the principles of Psychology, is the difference
between a well-trained nurse and the skilful physician.
The one can deal with special cases which come under her
notice ; the other, in addition to this, knows efficiently the
general laws of health and disease. His medical studies
have taught him that where certain causes exist certain
effects will follow ; and where certain effects have been
observed the causes must be carefully investigated. There
are many medical cases where the careful, well-trained
nurse can supply the place of the wisest physician ; there
are others where, for lack of sufficient technical knowledge,
she does more harm than good. What applies to the in-
vestigator of the laws of the body, equally applies to the
writer who attempts to describe the workings of the human
mind. The good novelist may be likened to the well-trained
nurse; the exceptionally good novelist to the skilled phy-
sician. It is the difference, for instance, between Charles
Dickens and George Eliot. Take Charles Dickens, where
he is describing the idiosyncrasies of his fellow-creatures ;
their tricks of manner, of voice, of gesture ; and he is not
to be surpassed. But take him where he is attempting to
describe the subtler operations of the human mind ; where
mere superficial observation of outward peculiarities is
insufficient, and he treads at once with uncertain step. Nay,
I go even farther than this, and pronounce one or two of
his creations to be absolute impossibilities I am not now
D
50 Natural Causation.
alluding to the oft-repeated charge of the impossible per-
fection with which he so frequently endows his heroes and
heroines. That virtue is rare is unfortunately true ; but
only the pessimist believes it impossible. I do not quarrel
with Dickens because he occasionally draws us the picture
of a perfect rose, but because, without any adequate cause,
he suddenly transforms the most meagre chaff into finest
grain. I do not hesitate to say, for instance, that the
portraiture of Mr. Dombey is an impossibility. Given a
character that is naturally cold, unsympathetic, and egoistic;
let its environment lie in soil specially adapted for the
growth of those qualities ; let every one with whom it
comes in contact bend down and flatter, and let the
subject himself, sometimes unconsciously, but sometimes
also consciously and wilfully, do all he can to thwart his
better, and encourage his worse nature ; let this state of
affairs go on for sixty years, till egoism has grown into
arrogance, and selfishness into positive cruelty, and I
believe it to be an utter impossibility that in a moment of
time the work of sixty years will be undone, and the cold,
arrogant Mr. Dombey be transformed into the docile,
grateful being he is represented to be at the close of the
book. Let us glance for a moment at the leading incidents
of his life.
When the book opens he is forty-eight years of age,
handsome in appearance, stern and pompous in manner,
with but one idea in his life — Dombey and Son. The only
human affection of which he seems capable is love for this
son, born so late in his married life. His daughter, during
her earlier years, excites no other feeling in him than that
of cold indifference. But as the years pass, and little Paul
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 5 1
grows older, this indifference increases into jealous dislike.
Paul loves her better than his father, and in that last bitter
hour of his death it is his sister to whom he clings, not his
father. Still, had Dickens determined to transform Mr.
Dombey's character into one of gentleness and love, the
period of Paul's death would surely have been the most
probable. Death is a mighty softener and humbler ot
mankind. Even the most haughty will crave for sympathy
and pity when under the shadow of its icy touch ; and could
Mr. Dombey be stirred with love to his daughter at all,
now would surely be the time, when Death, the great
reconciler, was in the house, and he had done nothing
worse to her than neglect her ; not ten years afterwards,
when disgrace and downfall — two calamities that will make
many a victim much less proud than Mr. Dombey shrink
from sympathy and condolence — were smiting him, and
when he had upon his conscience ten additional years of
neglect to his daughter, occasionally amounting to unkind-
ness and positive cruelty, these additional years forming
a very potent factor in the growth of his dislike. For it
must not be forgotten, we can never indulg-e in persistent
and undeserved unkindness to any one without getting at
last to dislike our victim. If we will carefully analyse
either our own character or the characters of others, we
shall see that there is a constant tendency in every one to
dislike those they have injured, and love those they have
benefited. Startling as it may seem at first sight, it is
nevertheless true — it is always easier for us to forgive those
who have injured us than those we have injured. I have
often tried to analyse the reason of this, and T think it lies
in the fact that even in the most callous person there is a
52 Natural Causation.
certain poor shred of conscience that will not allow him to
injure the innocent without some stings of remorse. He
therefore persuades himself, as an anodyne to his self-
reproach, that his victim is not innocent, but wholly de-
serving of his behaviour. And if we once try to do this,' if
we wilfully shut our eyes to the many merits of a person
and persistently brood over his few demerits — whether
fancied or real — it is wonderful how vile and unworthy the
noblest character may appear through the distorted medium
of our own perverted fancy. Florence's devotion to his
son was imagined by Mr. Dombey to be wilful stealing of
his heart from his father ; her love for his wife, open re-
bellion against his authority as a husband. All her gentle
and lovable qualities are perverted into so many crimes
against himself, until at last even the tender sympathy she
proffers him when his wife deserts him has only the effect
of enraging him, and in a moment of frenzy he strikes her
a blow that nearly fells her to the ground. She flies his
house ; she has no father — none. Even her love, patient
and long-suffering as it has been, is exhausted. She will
not hate him ; she has no feelings of revenge ; she only
casts him out from her poor, bruised affections. She never
speaks of him ; as far as possible she never thinks of him ;
and by slow degrees he becomes to her as though he had
never been : while he goes on in proud sullenness, betray-
ing no anxiety about her, neither knowing nor caring
where she is until the final crash comes. The house which
has the keeping of his reputation fails ; Dombey and Son
are ruined and disgraced. Then Florence, filled with com-
passion, throws herself at his feet, blaming herself, not him
— begging his forgiveness for having left him.
Philosophical Necessity: a Defence. 53
Now, there is nothing improbable in this self-devotion —
in the injured making the first efforts towards reconcilia-
tion with the injurer. Very loving sympathetic natures,
until they have learnt by hard experience the positive
necessity of self-control, are too often apt to charge them-
selves with sins they never committed, rather bearing all
the blame themselves than utter the faintest reproach
against those who have injured them. There was nothing,
I say, improbable in Florence making the first effort at
reconciliation ; but there is the greatest improbability in
her father accepting it. He who had repelled her sym-
pathy when they were fellow-mourners for little Paul ; he
who had struck her when she longed to comfort him for his
wife's desertion — was it likely that he would do anything
else than spurn her when she intruded upon his privacy
in his sore humiliation ? With his perverted fancy he
would instantly have jumped to the conclusion that she
only came to gloat over his disgrace ; or if, in spite of all,
she had forced him to listen to her passionate, exaggerated
expressions of self-accusation, he would have accepted her
at her own value, claiming it as an additional proof that
he had been right in his evil judgment of her, that he was
the aggrieved party and she the aggressor. It is only the
generous who can comprehend extreme g'enerosity ; and
had Mr. Dombey been capable of appreciating his
daughter's magnanimity, most assuredly he would have
been incapable of those long years of neglect, dislike, and
cruelty. Whenever characters such as Mr. Dombey's are
capable of turning in a moment of time from the height of
haughtiness and arrogance to the extreme of gentleness
54 Natural Causation.
and love, then, indeed, may we expect figs to come from
thistles and grapes from thorns.
It is when depicting the subtler operations of the human
mind that George Eliot, as it appears to me, surpasses not
only Charles Dickens, but almost all the great writers of
her time. She alone, of all our novelists, has, through her
wide acquaintance with philosophy and psychology, been
able to perceive that in the human mind, as elsewhere,
certain seed can only be followed by certain fruit through
the irrevocable law of cause and effect. In her earliest
as in her latest works this principle is scrupulously fol-
lowed ; and it is for this reason that I am unable to agree
with the opinion pronounced by so many critics, that
George Eliot, through the learning and philosophy she
had acquired of late years, was beginning to lose the
freshness of her earlier style. Such critics forget that,
before she brought out her first novel, this distinguished
woman was the accomplished translator of Strauss and
Feuerbach. In all her novels alike she so deals with the
characters she creates that they appear to be gradually un-
folded as the development of a flower from its minutest
seed ; and she never yields to the temptation, for the sake ot
a happy conclusion to her story, of twisting her characters
into forms it would have been impossible for them in
nature to assume. It is for this reason, notwithstanding
the almost unparalleled circulation of her novels, that I
believe George Eliot is a writer whose works are almost
thrown away on the ordinary reader of the circulating
library type. She has, no doubt, the all-essential art of
making her plot interesting ; and it is to this art she owes
her commercial success. But she has much more than this
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 55
art. Iier creations are psychological studies. She will
be admired by the many, appreciated by the few. She is
eminently a writer to be comprehended by the matured
reader more than by the young ; by the masculine mind
more than by the feminine. Take the character of Hetty
Sorrel, for instance. Who amongst us that was young-
when " Adam Bede " was published was not half angry
with the author for making Hetty so cold and obstinately
hard almost to the end ? Sweet little Hetty ! with her
exquisite form, her childish beauty, her ignorant little
nature ! How unlikely that she would not melt at the
sight of all the suffering she had so unwittingly caused.
Surely, had she died of a broken heart, it would have been
much more natural — certainly much more touching ! It is
only when we have found out by hard experience that we
must not expect to find deeds of love or speeches of
affection from persons whose natures are utterly devoid of
all affection, that we begin to perceive how finely and
accurately drawn is tne character of Hetty Sorrel. " For,
from our first introduction to her until our final farewell,
the author never lets us lose sight of the fact that she is
incapable of any exalted aims ; though at the beginning
of our acquaintance with her she is depicted as free from,
any absolute vice, we are never allowed to forget that she
is devoid of any virtue. She has no affection, no con-
science, no gratitude. Her young heart is stirred by none
of the innocent day-dreams of sweet girlhood. She thinks
of no loving husband whom she will worship and cherish
— no little children for whom she will slave and deny
herself. Her whole thoughts are occupied with the fine
house she will have, the dresses she will wear, the jewels
56 Natural Causation.
with which she will decorate herself, and, above all, with
the less fortunate who will envy her. .
" Does any sweet or sad memory mingle with this dream of the future
—any loving thought of her second parents — of the children she had
helped to tend — of any youthful companion, any pet animal, any relic of
her own chilhood even ? Not one. There are some plants that have
hardly any roots ; you may tear them from their native nook of rock or
wall, and just lay them over your ornamental flower-pot, and they blossom
none the worse. Hetty could have cast all her past life behind her, and
never cared to be reminded of it again. I think she had no feeling at all
towards the old house, and did not like the Jacob's Ladder and the long
row of hollyhocks in the garden better than other flowers — perhaps not
so well. It was wonderful how little she seemed to care about waiting on
her uncle, who had been a good father to her ; she hardly ever remem-
bered to reach him his pipe at the right time without being told, unless a
visitor happened to be there, who would have a better opportunity of
seeing her as she walked across the hearth. Hetty did not understand
how any one could be very fond of middle-aged people. And as for
those tiresome children, Marty and Tommy and Totty, they had been
the very nuisance of her life Hetty would have been glad to
hear that she should never see a child again ; they were worse than the
nasty little lambs that the shepherd was always bringing in to be taken
special care of in lambing time ; for the lambs were got rid of, sooner
or later. As for the young chickens and turkeys, Hetty would have
hated the very word ' hatching,' if her aunt had not bribed her to attend
to the young poultry by promising her the proceeds of one out of every
brood. The round, downy chicks peeping out from under their mother's
wing never touched Hetty with any pleasure ; that was not the sort of
prettiness she cared about, but she did care about the prettiness of the
new things she would buy for herself at Treddleston Fair with the money
they fetched." — Adam Bede.
Such is the portraiture of Hetty Sorrel at the commence-
ment of the tale ; and the character is developed rigidly,
truthfully to the end — I was well-nigh saying sternly, save
that the author seems to pause at times as if filled with an
infinite compassion for her own creation. This little
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 57
Hetty — this petted, pampered little being, with whom
every one — man and woman alike — is more than half in
love, why should it be that her future must be so unlike
her past r This distracting, kitten-like maiden, with not
much more conscience and intelligence than a dog, and far
less affection — why should it be that her only mental cha-
racteristic of humanity is her infinite capacity for human
suffering ? But in spite of her compassion, the author
proceeds with her task unfalteringly. There has been no
affection or gratitude in Hetty in the days of her prosperity ;
there will be no compunction or self-forgetful distress in
the days of her adversity. How can that come out which
has never been in ? And there has never been affection or
love in Hetty save for herself. When she flies from Adam
and her uncle and aunt to seek a refuge from her shame
with Arthur, there is not even the faintest movement
within her of any compunction for the strong, faithful man
whom she has so terribly wronged, for her tender relatives
upon whom she is bringing such calamity and shame.
Her whole compassion is for herself. Even Arthur she
flies to as a last resort. She does not love him now ; she
hates him — for is it not he who has brought upon her all
this misery r She does, indeed, exhibit some little feeling
— half remorse, half superstitious horror — after the murder
of her child. This, too, is portrayed with rigid regard to
probability. At seventeen or eighteen a woman cannot
be matured in perfect wickedness. The poisonous tree is
little more than a sapling. But had Hetty lived twenty
or thirty years longer instead of dying ere her sentence
was completed, she would, despite her beauty and despite
her fascination, have been among the hardened criminals
58 Natural Causation.
of her day. How can we expect fruit where there has been
no seed r And in Hetty Sorrel's nature there has never
been the faintest seed of duty or affection.
Now let us turn to Rosamond Vincy, in " Middle-
march," a character which, notwithstanding the striking-
divergence in their outward circumstances, I cannot but
think greatly resembles that of Hetty Sorrel, although, in
all probability, the self-satisfied Miss Vincy would be very
loth to admit any similarity. Nevertheless, if we look into
the secret workings of their two small souls, we shall find
that there is very little to choose between them. They are
alike in their selfishness, their absence of affection, their
lack of any high moral ideal. Rosamond's love for
Lydgate is very much in the same ratio as Hetty's for
Arthur — that is to say, with the exception of herself > she loves
him better than anything else ; but this exception is
enormous, and the consciousness that Lydgate was " a
baronet's cousin, and almost in the county set," was as
necessary an ingredient in her love for him as was the
hope of jewels and dresses in Hetty's for Arthur. Nay,
somehow little Hetty Sorrel presents to me a more attrac-
tive figure than Miss Vincy. Perhaps it is that vanity and
frivolity are less distasteful in an ignorant little village
maid of seventeen than in a self-satisfied young lady of the
pattern boarding-school type, in the full maturity ol
twenty-two. Somehow the little, round, childish being,
strutting in pigeon-like stateliness in her poor room,
attired in comical odds and ends, presents to me a more
picturesque figure than the self-possessed damsel with the
long neck and correct deportment, faultlessly attired in
her favourite blue. No fear is there of Miss Vincy yielding
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 59
to seduction, as little as to a mesalliance: for is she not the
highly decorous and pattern pupil at Mrs. Lemon's finish-
ing school r And do not such young ladies invariably fail
to see any temptation in vices that are unprofitable ?
External rewards and punishments depend more upon
environment than upon organism. Selfishness and vanity
in Hetty Sorrel, a poor little rustic of seventeen, lead to
seduction, child-murder, and retribution. The same
qualities in Rosamond Vihcy, a matured young lady of
twenty-two, and the daughter of a well-to-do manufac-
turer, lead to a carriage and pair, and a rich old husband
for her second marriage. Providence, in the shape ot
worldly prosperity, does not always adapt itself to our
moral deserts. We are children of a large family ; and
our busy mother Nature seems to have too much to do to
mete out rigidly a just proportion of reward or punish-
ment. But though the ultimate destiny of a poisonous
plant is uncertain — though here it may be thrown upon a
dunghill, and there carefully treasured as a valuable aid
in medicine — nothing will prevent a poisonous seed
growing to a poisonous plant. Rosamond Yincy's
character is as accurately traced to the end as Hetty
Sorrel's. She had no love in her girlhood for her
brothers and sisters ; no gratitude and affection for her
tender parents. What was wanting in her girlhood was
equally wanting in her wifehood. As soon as her
husband falls into poverty she begins to dislike him.
She would willingly leave him to bear his sorrows by
himself, and return to her parents, were it not that she is
afraid of some slur being cast upon herself for doing so.
She had married him because he was in a station higher
■6o Natural Causation.
than herself, and a baronet's cousin ; and when he falls
into undeserved disgrace, it is herself alone that she com-
passionates. She is touched with no memory of his tender
care and love for her ; she is filled with no ardent longings
generously to defend him now he is under the ban of dis-
grace. She only thinks it very hard that the match, of
which she had been so proud, should have so wofully
disappointed her expectations. And when in the end he
dies, still in his prime, after having weakly yielded all
his nobler aims to her shallow judgment, she quickly
comforts herself for his loss by taking, as his successor, a
far more wealthy husband.
But finely drawn as are the characters of Hetty Sorrel
and Rosamond Vincy, they do not equal, in my opinion,
the really marvellous creation of Tito Melemma in
" Romola," which is unique, not only in George Eliot's
own works, but almost in the entire fiction of our country.
His character, also, has this advantage over that of Hetty
or Rosamond, that it is of a more usual type ; and, con-
sequently, the lesson to be learnt from it is of wider and
more general application. Fortunately for the world at
large, characters so utterly devoid of all good feeling as
Hetty's and Rosamond's are not of frequent occurrence.
The majority of people are not black nor white, but various
shades of grey ; and although, it must be admitted, Tito's
character is a somewhat dark shade of grey, it is by nature
far removed from absolute black. When we are first intro-
duced to him, he is by no means without redeeming
qualities. He is very sweet-tempered ; he cannot bear to
be the witness of pain or misery in his fellow-creatures ;
and he will even undergo voluntarily a little trouble and
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 61
inconvenience for the sake of alleviating the sufferings of
those whom he compassionates. Even when he had sunk
to his lowest, he was still capable of feeling true affection
for Tessa and her children. At the beginning of the book
he is gentle and kind to all alike ; " but because he tried to
slip away from everything that was unpleasant, and cared
for nothing else so much as his own safety, he came at last
to commit some of the basest deeds — -such as make men
infamous. He denied his father, and left him to misery;
he betrayed every trust that was reposed in him, that he
might keep himself safe and get rich and prosperous."
The all-important lesson set forth in this work is the
terrible reproductive power of wrong-doing, the inevitable
propagation of one sin from another, until at last the good
fruit is entirely overgrown and thrust out by the rapid
inroads of pernicious weeds. Our deeds are such mighty
begetters and so fatally prolific. Every time we yield to
temptation makes us easier preys to fresh temptation.
Every time we refuse to obey the impulses of our better
nature makes it more difficult for us in future to obey them.
Habit is second nature, and, whether it be good or bad, the
practice we dislike at the beginning because it is difficult,
becomes pleasant to us in the end because it is facile. In
every act, in every phase of our lives, the beginning is hall
of the whole. " Our lives make a moral tradition for our
individual selves, as the life of mankind at large makes a
moral tradition for the race; and to have once acted greatly
seems a reason why we should always be noble;" and when
we have once acted wickedly there is a fatal tendency to
repeat the wickedness. In all her works alike George Eliot
impresses the importance of this doctrine upon us : " Our
62 Natural Causation.
deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds ;
and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar
combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes
a man's critical actions, it will be better not to think our-
selves wise about his character. There is a terrible coercion
in our deeds which may first turn the honest man into a
deceiver, and then reconcile him to the change ; for this
reason — that the second wrong presents itself to him as the
only practicable right." ("Adam Bede.") And again, "Our
deeds are like children that are born to us ; they live and
act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be
strangled, but deeds never : they have an indestructible
life both in and out of our consciousness." (" Romola.")
And if it be said : Such a doctrine is immoral and
dangerous ; let a person once believe it is impossible or
even only difficult to free himself from the sin that is
enthralling him, and he will despair instead of trying to
improve ; the answer is, the doctrine is not immoral if it be
true. On the contrary, the real immorality lies in our con-
cealing- a doctrine so important. We do not think it wicked
to warn the incipient drunkard that, if he give way to
drunkenness for years, he will find it more difficult to con-
quer the evil habit in the end than he would in the be-
ginning. But even drunkenness, horrible as it is, is not so
pernicious as more insidious sins, because it never ceases to
appear to the subject himself other than horrible. Its evil
effects are so obvious — the bloated face, the shattered frame,
the dissipated income — that though the drunkard may never
cease to love his wine and spirit, he seldom learns to love
the sin of drunkenness itself. But with the more insidious
sins of vanity, selfishness, and the neg-ation of all virtue, the
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 63
danger lies in the fact of the slow, gradual loss of sensibility
in the subject, so that deeds of baseness which he performs
in the beginning with the greatest reluctance, he commits
at last, through force of repetition, with the greatest ease.
Sin has reached its most fatal depths when it is no longer
regarded as sin. " The Hazaels of our world, who are
pushed on quickly against their preconceived confidence in
themselves to do dog-like actions by the sudden suggestions
of a wicked ambition, are much fewer than those who are
led on through the years by the gradual demands of a
selfishness which has spread its fibres far and wide through
the intricate vanities and sordid cares of an every-day
existence." ("Felix Holt."} Tell this gentle, not unconscien-
tious, though somewhat selfish, unloving girl of eighteen,
for instance, that if she persistently indulge in her selfish-
ness and hardness she will, by the time she is five-and-
thirty, not only have alienated through her coldness and
want of sympathy nearly every friend she formerly pos-
sessed, but will, by such indulgence, be the means of in-
creasing upon herself the very sins that are the cause of the
alienation ; prophesy to her that her whole moral tone will
be so gradually lowered that she will come to think it not
in the least undutiful to neglect her parents, to disobey her
husband, sometimes positively to ill-treat her little child
for no other reason than that she is devoid of all child-love
— as she is, alas! devoid of all love save for herself; tell her
all this, prophesy to her, now she is eighteen, what she will
be at hve-and-thirty, and she will exclaim with not un-
righteous indignation, " Is thy servant a dog that she
should do this thing ? " Yet when the hve-and- thirty years
shall have been attained, when all these prophecies are fnl-
64 Natural Causation.
filled, she will no longer have sufficient moral perception
left to render her aghast at what she has become. Un-
checked egoism through nearly twenty years will have done
its work too well. It will have penetrated every fibre of
her moral constitution till all healthy perception has been
deadened. She will not perceive that she is to blame. She
will only wonder, with plaintive self-pity, why people should
so studiously avoid her ; why persons who are on all sides
credited with exceptional amiability and charm of manner,
should appear to her so wofully unamiable and deficient in
charm. She will not know that the fault lies in herself.
She will be ignorant that by her wholesale censure and
discontent, she is affording the more thoughtful observer a
striking illustration of the doctrine of automorphism ; for
she is creating every person in the likeness of herself, and
naturally dislikes the result. Of all this she will be un-
conscious. She will only be aware of a lurking, scarcely
acknowledged sensation that notwithstanding perfect health
and ample competence, she is far removed from being
happy, and will leap to the conclusion that others are the
aggressors, not herself. It is so natural and easy for us
to feel ourselves the aggrieved party when we only take
into account the duties others owe to us, and are totally
oblivious of the claims those others in their turn have
upon us.
Yet if the naturally selfish person had only been ac-
quainted, while yet in his youth, with the irrevocable
law of Cause and Effect in human nature as elsewhere, he
might have been able to prevent his selfishness from in-
creasing to such dimensions. Although we must never
expect to find the full perfection of good in persons as.
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 65
wholly devoid of right tendencies as Hetty or Rosamond,
we must yet remember that evil tendencies, as other things,
perish by lack of use ; and that in characters made up of
a mixture of good and evil, such as Tito Melemma's, the
good may be so increased by what it feeds on, the evil so
dwarfed by lack of food, that the character will be so
materially modified as to appear to the general observer
radically altered. Every blacksmith and every ballet-girl
testify to the fact that by practice the muscles of the arms
and legs may be increased to more than their normal size.
Every plodding scholar, who is not otherwise unusually
gifted, is a positive proof of what the brain can be trained
to do by industry and patience. So every character, un-
less it be born with some radical defect in it, has the
power of modifying itself into less good or less bad than
it is by nature. Faults which are easy to conquer at
eighteen are immensely more difficult to conquer at five-
and-thirty ; at sixty, practically impossible. As well
might we believe that a voice that is naturally harsh and
croaking, and about which there has been no attempt at
development or training, will suddenly, at the age of
sixty years, transform itself into that of an Adelina Patti;
as well might we believe that a naturally feeble intellect,
which has never attempted to exercise itself upon any-
thing more difficult of comprehension than a fifth-rate
novel, will at the age of sixty years suddenly become
capable of the conceptions of a Newton ; as believe that
a man possessing the arrogance and sternness of Mr.
Dombey will suddenly become endowed at the age of sixty
years with the extreme gentleness and tenderness which
E
66 Natural Causation.
Dickens represents his hero to possess at the close of the
book.
The great lesson, then, to be learnt from George Eliot is,
in the first place, the recognition that in human nature, as
elsewhere, certain fruit can only be the product of certain
seed ; and in the second that Vice and Virtue are in-
creased by performance. Like so many other things in
nature, they exhibit a tendency to grow by what they feed
on. She does not therefore — as so many moralists —
frighten away her readers from sin by the ignoble fear of
punishment either in this world or the next, but by the
nobler dread of moral self-deterioration.
" But," may argue the supporter of Free Will, " is not
this just what I contend for? Is not your whole com-
parison between the scientific and the unscientific novelist
a proof that every individual can modify his character if
he but try while there is yet time ? And does it not prove
my theory that every person is endowed with that myste-
rious, uncaused power which I name Free Will, because it
enables its possessor to reject the evil or accept the good,
according to his own volition ?" To which criticism I can
but repeat what was said in the earlier portion of this
paper : doubtless he can modify himself subject to the two
conditions of his qpun organism and his own environment.
He must either loathe sin through his own innate love of
purity ; or he must gradually learn to loathe it because
of his growing acquaintance with its inevitable conse-
quences. There are few greater preventives to vice than
an adequate knowledge in early youth of its logical
consequents.
We are most of us familiar with the fable of the two
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 67
knights, who quarrelled about the self-same shield because
each of them saw one side of it alone. It appears to me,
so far as the morality of the question goes, that the dis-
putants of the Free Will and Necessity controversy are
somewhat in the same position. It is not a little singular
how even the ablest supporters of the doctrine of Free
Will, when arguing in favour of it, concede by implica-
tion all that Necessity demands. Even Dr. Carpenter, as
it appears to me, falls into the trap.
In the Preface to the fourth edition of his " Mental Phy-
siology," in commenting upon the baneful and immoral
consequences likely to be the result of a belief in the
doctrine of Necessity, he says : —
" I can imagine nothing more paralysing to every virtuous effort, more
withering to every noble aspiration, than that our children should be
brought up in the belief that their characters are entirely formed for
them by ' heredity ' and ' environments ; ' that they must do whatever
their respective characters impel them to do ; that they have no other
power of resisting temptations to evil than such as may spontaneously
arise from the knowledge they have acquired of what they ought or
ought not to do," &c.
What does all this mean, but that discouragement ot
attempts at self-improvement is a very potent factor for
evil in the " environment " of a child, as encouragement is
an equally potent factor for good ?
Again, in the first chapter of the same work he says : —
"A being entirely governed by the lower passions and instincts, whose
higher moral sense has been repressed from its earliest dawn by the
degrading influence of the conditions in which he is placed, who has
never learnt to exercise any kind of self-restraint, who has never heard
of a God,. of Immortality, or of the worth of his Soul, . . . can surely
be no more morally responsible for his actions than the lunatic."
68 Natural Causation.
What is all this but conceding to the Necessitarian that
a bad organism put into a bad environment cannot help
being bad ? Still further, when, with evident reference to
his sister, he speaks " of the benevolent individuals who
know how to find out the holy spot in every child's heart,"
does he not really imply that the noble sister, of whom he
is so justly proud, was a most potent factor for good in the
" environment " of every child who was fortunate enough
to come under her benign influence ?
But while the difference between the real moral aims ol
the supporters of Free Will and Necessity is little more than
verbal, the retention of the term Free Will is altogether
vicious. It is a metaphysical entity which cannot be too
soon abandoned. If by " Free " is meant that which is
uncaused or subject to no laws (and I imagine it must have
this meaning or none), then a belief in Free Will is as
much a remnant of ignorance as is belief in incantations
or shrine-cures. Early ideas concerning thought and
feeling ignored everything like Cause, as much as still
earlier ideas concerning health and disease ignored every-
thing like Cause. Until it was discovered that health
and sickness did not arise spontaneously, but could in-
variably be traced to some antecedent cause ; until it
was observed they did not disappear miraculously in
answer to prayers or incantations, but always as the
result of some particular mode of treatment, there could
be no science of medicine, properly so called. There is
a like analogy in the realm of Ethics. Until the fact
is recognised that there is a scientific basis for Morals,
there can be no science of Education in the full sense of the
word. Until the conceptions of chance and spontaneity are
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 69
eliminated from Psychology equally with Biology or
Astronomy, we can have no adequate acquaintance with
the laws of human nature. I fully agree with Professor
Clifford that " moral reprobation and responsibility cannot
exist unless we assume the efficacy of certain special means
of influencing character." * Once admit that there is in
each of us a metaphysical entity, independent of cause, and
subject to no conditions, named Free Will, and it follows
that though the "Will" may be "free," we ourselves are
the helpless slaves of that Will. If it be subject to no con-
ditions ; if, that is to say, indulgence in past vices acts as
no deteriorating influence from future virtues ; if long
indulgence in indolence does not make it difficult to be
industrious, or long indulgence in frivolous pursuits does
not predispose us to dislike sensible ones ; if, in a word,
this mighty mysterious uncaused entity, Free Will, has the
power to make us what we will at any moment of our
lives, without any reference to our past habits, to our
restraint or absence of restraint, to whether we are old
and hardened or young and pliant ; then, indeed, we have
no right to punish for crime or reward for virtue. What
effect can rewards or punishments have upon this uncaused
entity, superior to all conditions ?
I do not believe that there is a single scientific supporter
of the doctrine of Philosophical Necessity who would deny
that we have volitions. All he would assert is that those
volitions are the product of heredity, strongly modified by
environment ; in a word, that our volitions are not indepen-
dent of conditions. They are subject to definite laws; they
live and grow and beget volitions like unto themselves.
* Lectures and Essays, vol. ii., p. 120.
70 Natural Causation.
Thus each man's early life has a most potent influence upon
his later life.
" Our deeds still travel with us from afar,
And what we have been makes us what we are."
Surely there is nothing in this doctrine that need excite
the moral indignation of those noble souls who are devoted
to the service of their fellows. Surely the open recognition
of it must tend to good and not to evil. It cannot be called
irreligious, since even in its perverted form it has been
preached by eminent religionists. It cannot be called
immoral, since the full acceptance of it leads to the highest
morality. For it should make such as are conscious of
being more free from vice than their fellows humble and
grateful instead of puffed up ; since it teaches them how
much they owe to the judicious training of those about
them, how much more, perhaps, to the inherited virtues of
their ancestors. It should make them lenient and tender
to such as are ignoble and vicious — even though for their
own sakes they will not refrain from punishing them —
knowing full well their disadvantages both of heredity and
environment. And, lastly, it should make them regard it
as a positive duty to succour and . assist their weakly
brethren, who without their aid might perish on the thorny
road towards perfection. It is a grave, almost an awful
responsibility, from which, nevertheless, we may not turn
away our eyes, that each one of us now living can be a
potent factor for good or evil in the environment of those
with whom we have to do. Still greater responsibility is
it to be made aware of the fact that through the necessary
laws of heredity we must transmit with increased vigour
Philosophical Necessity : a Defence. 7 1
our virtues and vices equally with our health and disease
to our unborn offspring. Surely the humane man can have
no greater deterrent from vice than the knowledge that it
largely depends upon himself, upon his own restraint or
absence of restraint, whether his posterity be happy or
miserable.
If this be so — if each one of us can be a potent factor for
good or evil in the environment of his fellows ; if mental,
moral, and physical qualities are inheritable by posterity —
a doctrine every psychologist and physiologist will attest —
surely we should not keep our children in ignorance of
knowledge of such paramount importance. It should be
taught them by their parents — it should be preached to
them from the pulpit. When they arrive at a marriageable
age they should be told to pause before they unthinkingly
ally themselves with a family that has been for generations
physically, mentally, and morally deteriorating. Lastly,
we should teach them that by early application and
restraint they may be largely creators of their own future ;
not from the spontaneous interference of an uncaused
entity — Free Will — but from the necessary law of cause and
effect. Throughout the realm of Nature this law runs :
Like begets Like. The reward of the practice of virtue is
increased easiness in virtue till gradually vice becomes
impossible. The penalty of indolence or baseness is
increased indolence and baseness till virtue becomes
impossible. To conclude with a passage from Spinoza : —
" The necessity of things which I contend for abrogates neither divine
nor human laws ; the moral precepts, whether they have or have not the
shape of commandments from God, are still divine and salutary ; and
the good that flows from virtue and godly love, whether it be derived
72 Natural Causation.
from God as a ruler and law-giver, or proceed from the constitution, that
is, the necessity of the Divine nature, is not on this account less desir-
able. On the other hand, the evils that arise from wickedness are not
the less to be dreaded and deplored because they necessarily follow the
actions done."*
* Spinoza : His Life, Correspondence, and Ethics. By R. Willis,
M.D., p. 355.
III.
NATURAL GROWTH IN ETHICS.
" He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best."
—P. J. Bailey.
In the preceding essay I have devoted some space to the
consideration of Philosophical Necessity, and endeavoured
to show in what lay its superiority, both logical and moral,
over Free Will. Such readers as dissented from that essay
will equally dissent from this, since it is based upon it, or
rather stands to it in the relation of a part to its whole.
Obviously, if man's entire nature — physical, mental, and
moral — proceeds not by rigid law, one portion alone, the
moral, cannot so proceed. And my present purpose is to
show that morality is intrinsic, not extrinsic ; that it
originates in no supernatural revelation of God's making,
nor penal codes of man's (though these may be important
aids to it), but proceeds, like everything else in nature, from
inherent uniformity ; there being no indissoluble union
between religion and morality, since though frequently seen
together, they have been still more often seen apart. The
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for instance, were periods
when religious feeling was in a state of exaltation, and
74 Natural Causation.
morality in one of depression, while the lives of most of the
philosophers of our own day present a condition exactly the
reverse.
By Religion I understand that which pertains to man's
duties and relations towards God ; by Morality that which
deals with his relations and duties towards his fellows. But
before proceeding further there is another term necessary
to be defined, though much more difficult of concise defini-
tion, viz., Superstition ; and, if I appear to devote undue
length to a discussion of the nature of Superstition, this
difficulty must be my apology.
The witty distinction drawn between orthodoxy and
heterodoxy — " Orthodoxy is my doxy, heterodoxy is your
doxy '•' — is not without parallel, I think, in the distinction
drawn by most religious people between their own religion
and that of others, the latter being, in their opinion, super-
stition. Nay, even philosophers, like Hobbes, seem to
think this distinction a sufficient one. In his "Leviathan" he
thus defines the two : " Fear of power invisible, feigned by
the mind, or imagined from tales publicly allowed, Religion;
not allowed, Superstition." * Such is not the way the word
will be employed here. The superstitious spirit discloses
itself equally, I think, in religion, morality, history, even in
medicine.
The beginnings of things are very wonderful. How came
the theory even to be broached that if thirteen sit down to
dinner one will shortly die ; that it is unlucky to commence
any enterprise on a Friday ; that if a cow die suddenly, its
death may be traced to the malignity of some old woman
living miles away? "Coincidences are mistaken for causes"
* Hobbes' Collected Works, edited by Sir W. Molesworth, vol. iii., p. 45.
Natural Growth in Ethics. 75
is sometimes said in explanation. "Judiciously ignore
every case that does not tally with a beloved belief, and
carefully register each that does ; and there will be no
theory, however wild, that may not assume a quasi proba-
bility." What is sufficient to support is not sufficient to
create. It is scarcely conceivable that one death amongst
thirteen diners, for instance, should have occurred so fre-
quently as to impress men (were their minds not already in
a state of anticipation) with the relation of cause and
effect.
I have sometimes thought that most of the aberrations of
human nature, that seem to baffle all interpretation from
their extraordinary baselessness, may be traced to the ten-
dency that there is in the undisciplined mind to endorse
any error rather than acknowledge itself to be in the
wrong. Though it be a matter of supreme indifference —
whether a person did or did not call, or was dressed in
black or in brown — the thing has been asserted, and it
shall be reasserted. Nay, even a chance word, an obvious
slip of the tongue, which would have no ill consequences
were the word quickly recalled and replaced by a better,
becomes of grave importance if obstinately persisted in.
Falsehood by dint of repetition assumes in the minds ol
thoughtless hearers a semblance of truth. " If I have heard
him say it once I have heard him say it a dozen times," is
sometimes uttered in a tone that shows that no further
proof is thought necessary. Great matters arise from
minute causes. A mass of chalk, a thousand feet in thick-
ness, geologists tell us, is entirely formed by the skeletons
of animalcules of a hundredth of an inch in diameter. Even
this transformation is not more marvellous than the growth
76 Natural Causation.
of a belief from an oft-repeated inaccuracy or scarcely
conscious misrepresentation. The tendency to support a
side, without the least investigation into its merits, is very
wonderful. Embraced by accident though it be, directly it
is embraced it assumes in the mind of its supporter a
fictitious value; and the desire to find it meritorious quickly
turns into a discovery that it is so. Most of us must have
met with persons who will accept or deny a statement
before they have even heard it properly set forth. Dickens,
who had a quick eye for anything of this sort, has
humorously taken it off: —
"'Louisa,' said Mr. Dombey, after a short pause, 'it is
not to be supposed '
" ' Certainly not,' cried Mrs. Chick, hastening to antici-
pate a refusal [the last thing Mr. Dombey intended], ' I
never thought it was.'
" Mr. Dombey looked at her impatiently, and resumed :
' It is not to be supposed, I say '
<< <
'And I say,' murmured Mrs. Chick, ' that I never
thought it was.'
" ' Good heavens ! Louisa,' said Mr. Dombey.
" 'No, my dear Paul,' she remonstrated, with tearful
dignity, ' I must really be allowed to speak. I am not so
clever, or so reasoning, or so eloquent, or so anything as
you are. I know that very well. So much the worse for
me. But if they were the last words I had to utter — and
last words should be very solemn to you and me, Paul, after
poor dear Fanny — I would still say I never thought it was.
And what is more,' added Mrs. Chick, with increased
dignity, as if she had held her crushing argument till the
last, ' I never did think it was.'
Natural Grarvt/i in Ethics. 77
"Mr. Dombeywalked to the window and back again. ' It
is not to be supposed, Louisa ' he said.
" Mrs. Chick had nailed her colours to the mast, and
repeated ' I know it isn't.' "
Now this is scarcely a caricature. Most of us have pro-
bably heard persons of small mental capacity say
triumphantly, " I may be right, or I may be wrong ; but I
have said it, and I will stick to it." And they do stick to
it — with the pertinacity of a small mind. A complacent
look of conscious virtue steals over their features as they
boast of their adhesive propensities. The last thing to
strike them is that constancy in error is no wisdom. And
though at the time of the boast the admission, " I may be
wrong," shows a consciousness of the possibility of a mis-
take, at the end of a few weeks all such consciousness is
lost. " Whatever I told you at the time must be right," is
said with an air of finality, " since it stands to reason I
could not have dreamt it."
What characteristic does such an expression betray r
Non-recognition of the extreme liability there is in every
one to be inaccurate. "Examine your words well," says
George Eliot, " and you will find that even when you have
no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the
exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings —
much harder than to say something fine about them, which
is not the exact truth." But even without this anxiety to
be fine, with every wish to be exact, the possibility of accu-
racy is very rare. For consider what it involves : a power
to repeat correctly, to perceive and listen correctly, and a
knowledge of how to sift evidence. For even grant that
my informant has a rare gift of verbal accuracy, and is of
78 Natural Causation.
unusually clear mental perception, I have still to ask, Is
his knowledge first-hand or second-hand ? And if second-
hand what are his proofs that it is reliable ? The reason-
able man, knowing the great rarity of accuracy, questions
every fact that appears capable of doubt ; is not offended
to be asked for proofs of any statement he may volunteer ;
is not surprised, though he may be greatly distressed, to
find himself convicted of inaccuracy, and endeavours to the
utmost to remedy any harm he may have caused through
his misrepresentations. The superstitious man questions
nothing that agrees with his own preconceived theories,
and is greatly offended at being asked, however courteously,
for the authority upon which he bases his various state-
ments.
How then shall we define the superstitious spirit r As
the tendency to embrace a statement zvith little or no investiga-
tion, and having embraced it to endow it with a spurious
infallibility . The Catholic is not the only mind to whom
the doctrine of infallibility offers a keen attraction. Doubts
are so perplexing, certainty is so soothing, that he who
presumes to question a long-received axiom is considered a
meddler, a busybody, a trampler upon authority. Especially
is this the case with Morality. Morality, it is said, must be
upheld by authority of some sort. Whether it be based
upon revelation, or letter of the law, or will of the sovereign,
some authority it must have. Withdraw all external con-
trol, and it will fall to the ground. It is this feeling, I
believe, which is at the bottom of a good deal of the Sab-
batarianism still lingering among us. " If a man does
not think it wrong to break one commandment," is some-
times said, "what proof is there that he may not break all?"
Natural Groivtli in Ethics. 79
And to those who hold that revealed religion is the sole
basis for morality, such an argument is unanswerable.
This idea of the inextricable union between morality and
a particular form of religion gives rise to another effect —
the dread to find any flaw in the title-deeds of the religion,
lest it should bring about a social revolution. Many earnest
thinkers have stifled their scientific doubts for fear of the
moral results.
Familiar though I am with the writings of persons who
reprehend all investigation into received dogmas, whether
religious or moral, I was not prepared to find the following
sentence penned by a writer of such repute as Mr. Froude.
In the January number of " Good Words," 1881, he says : *
" To raise a doubt about a creed established by general
acceptance is a direct injury to the general welfare. Dis-
cussion about it is out of place, for only bad men wish to
question the rule of life which religion commands"^ An
astounding assertion truly ! Does Mr. Froude really think
that he who first presumed to question the lawfulness of a
Hindoo widow immolating herself on her husband's pile
was a " bad man " ? Yet that was a rule of life emphati-
cally commanded by her religion. Or, if he wishes to
confine himself to his own country and the Christian
religion, is he prepared to denounce as a " bad man " he
who first doubted the humanity of burning for witchcraft r
Yet, until the last two centuries persecution for witchcraft
was a "rule of life" preached and accepted by every form
of Christianity. Not alone by the Catholic, as is some-
times imagined, but also by the Protestant. "I would have
no compassion on these witches," exclaims Luther. " 1
* Page 19. t The italics are my own.
80 Natural Causation.
would burn them all ! " Would it not be more true to say
that only the exceptionally disinterested and courageous
would brave the odium to reputation, the danger to life and
property, brought about by venturing to question any "rule
of life " commanded by religion ? If a commandment is
capable of reasonable obedience, why should it shrink
from intelligent investigation ? If it exact superstitious
obedience, let us denounce it with our whole strength.
There is scarcely a crime or degradation that has not
obtained the sanction of some religion or other. Let it not
be thought that I lightly pass by or despise the weight ot
Authority. That authority which has courted and stood
the ordeal of free and fearless investigation has nothing
but reverence from me. Is it not the outcome of the regis-
tered experiences of the best and wisest of our forerunners ?
It is not authority, but the superstitious petrifaction of
authority that I condemn ; that spirit which aspires to
infallibility ; that imagines that an immutable law can be
made for a mutable race ; that forgets that as we are
inheritors of the Past, so are we destined to become the
progenitors of the Future.
This prohibition of investigation not only injures by
supporting a bad cause, but by weakening the support a
good cause might otherwise have. In the words of Mr.
Mill : " The peculiar evil of silencing an opinion is that it
is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing
generation ; those who dissent from the opinion, still more
than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are
deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth ;
if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the
Natural Graivtli in EtJiics. 81
clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced
by its collision with error."*
If we examine into the cause of this dread of religious
and moral investigation, I think we shall be able to trace
it to a scarcely conscious belief that morality is non-
natural, requiring much extraneous propping, and not a
growth or evolution of natural law. The great work of
this century has been to extend the domain of Law
throughout the whole of nature ; and morality, we are
slowly being taught, is no exception to the rule. Those
who teach that morality is right because it is right to
conform to the laws, mistake an effect for a cause. Laws
would not have been instituted until it had been found by
experience that is is good for man to be moral. In many
cases Nature has written her commands so plainly that
neither divine nor human lawgivers have thought it
necessary to endorse them. There is, or perhaps I ought
to say there was, no need. Civilisation, though she cannot
radically alter, can so materially modify Nature's dealings
that it is well to be reminded sometimes what her man-
dates are. Let me explain what I mean.
I have just now defined Morality as that which deals
with man's duties towards his fellows. I should have said
duties towards self and fellows ; since, as Mr. Spencer has
recently pointed out, egoistic duties must always take a
slight priority over altruistic, because (if for no other
reason) neglect of the former makes us unable to perform
the latter. To use his own words, " A creature must live
before it can act." " Unless each duly cares for himself,
his care for all others is ended by death ; and if each thus
* " Liberty," p. 33.
F
82 Natural Causation.
dies there remain no others to be cared for."* Morality,
then, being that which treats of duties each owes to self
and fellows, it follows that the ideally moral man is he
who does most to further the welfare of self and fellows,
and those virtues must be placed highest as they have
tended to this end.
What, then, is that virtue which has done most for
human welfare ? Industry. Only by trying to bring
before ourselves in imagination what the world would have
been without industry, can we arrive at any proximate
notion of the important part it has played in civilisation.
Without it humanity would not now be ; for without it
the savage procured neither food, fuel, nor shelter, but
perished of inanition. Those alone who laboured pros-
pered, and left progeny with a like facility for work.
Without it none of the amenities of life — decencies, refine-
ments, arts, science — could either have existed, or, when
existing, been fostered. And without the restraining and
guiding influence of Industry, not one of those higher
qualities which we have been taught to look upon dis-
tinctively as virtues, but exhibits a tendency to degenerate
into vice. We have heard, perhaps, overmuch of late of
the harm arising from what is vaguely termed " giving to
the poor." I say overmuch, because I think the doctrine
has shown itself capable of perversion. There are persons
whose customary pittance to the poor has been doled out
from no higher spirit than that of "other worldliness," who
have gladly caught up the assertion that " giving " is
pernicious, and twisted it into an excuse for withholding
all assistance. Had they sought for accurate information
* "Data of Ethics," p. 187.
Natural Gromth in Ethics. 83
they would have discovered that it is not " giving," but
"idle giving," that does harm — giving unaccompanied by-
industry ; that oftentimes, where a donation of money is
unadvisable, bestowal of time and thought is invaluable.
Again patience, unaccompanied by industry, degenerates
into apathy ; with industry it becomes endurance. Even
magnanimity, that exalted quality comprising tenderness,
forgiveness, repayal of enmity by love, requires industrious
thought and observation. If by returning a soft answer
we can divert wrath, by all means let us do so, but in the
majority of cases so to act only invites aggression, and
directly encourages ill-temper. Perfect morality can only
be attained by industry. In a word, we must, as the
Apostle told us long ago, " labour to do good ; " for verily,
without labour, the best intentions lead to bad results.
Yet, mighty as has been the part this virtue has played
in civilisation, being indeed from the earliest times its
vivifying principle, a commandment to be industrious finds
no place in the Decalogue ;* neither do human lawgivers
seem to have greatly troubled themselves about it. There
was no need. Nature had an all-sufficient antidote for
indolence in those rough times — extermination. Nor is
her punishment less sure now. It is only less direct. Or
it might be more true to say that civilisation has rendered
her operations less apparent. Through long accumulation
of inherited capital, it is not always the least worthy who
suffer most want. Yet Nature is inexorable in her penal-
ties. As in the more savage days she taught by depriva-
tion of food the necessary lesson that if a man will not
* Unless, indeed, we take the earlier passages of the Fourth Command-
ment as an injunction to work : " Six days shalt thou work."
84 Natural Causation.
work neither shall he eat ; so now she teaches it by
deprivation of appetite, not alone for food, but for all the
higher pleasures of life. The capacity for enjoyment —
especially mental enjoyment — dies out if never exercised.
"Next to selfishness," says Mr. Mill,* "the principal
cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental
cultivation." Few sights impress me more sadly than
that of persons verging towards old age, after lives ot
great worldly prosperity, unable to find satisfaction in one
of the luxuries surrounding them, because of the apathy
that has grown to be so great that they cannot even take
the trouble to be amused. If, as we have seen, the ideally
moral are those who do most to further the welfare of selt
and fellows, the extremely indolent are the ideally im-
moral, since not only have they done nothing to further
the welfare of their fellows, but have made their own lives
a source of misery to themselves and all with whom they
come in contact.
The virtue second in importance to industry for the
welfare of the species, is the duty of parents to offspring.
This likewise finds no place in the Decalogue. Again there
was no need. He alone who carefully tended his offspring,
preserved it, and left descendants of like nature to himself;
till through the principle of Heredity parental love has
grown to be innate. The parent who is without it being
regarded by the psychologist as by the anatomist are the
deformed — anomalies and exceptions to an otherwise inva-
riable order.
See then what I mean — that the wisest among our early
lawgivers have never weakened their authority by super-
* " Utilitarianism," p. 20.
Natural Growth zn Ethics. 85
fluous insistance upon duties Nature had already rendered
sufficiently imperative. Those moral duties that have
occupied the attention of lawgivers of all time have been
not those towards self and offspring - , but towards fellows,
who by the uncivilised are regarded more or less as enemies.
The cause is not far to seek. He who could only judge of
proximate and not ultimate results saw nothing but benefit
arise from aggression. The murderer gratified his feelings
of revenge ; the thief appropriated his victim's property.
Only those who were of comparatively large brain foresaw
the great dangers arising from insecurity to life and pro-
perty ; perceived the immense advantage co-operation
had over antagonism. The inculcation of justice and
benevolence therefore has been the aim of all great moral
teachers. These qualifications are " rules of life " that
shrink from no investigation, either from good or bad men.
The experience of the wisest of our forerunners has laid it
down as a law that it is good for man to be just and bene-
ficent, and no amount of questioning will weaken their
authority to posterity, though possibly the notion of what
true beneficence consists may be somewhat altered. Yet
it is just possible, far off as it seems now, that even the
inculcation of justice and benevolence may grow to be
superfluous ; that in future generations they will, through
heredity, be engraven upon the mind as parental love is
already engraven ; they will be innate. Even now, many
of us must have met with persons who shrink instinctively
from actions that are cruel, unjust or mean ; to whom the
inculcation of justice and benevolence would be super-
fluous. Different ages require different ethical lessons ;
and the moral teacher who is reasonable and not supersti-
86 Natural Causation.
tious — in other words, he who has in view the welfare of
his fellows instead of acting in slavish submission to tradi-
tion — alters the character of his teaching" according to the
circumstances to be dealt with. Judicial Law, for instance,
modifying Natural Law, has rendered the punishment for
murder and theft so direct as to make it almost superfluous
to dilate upon it. Civilised life, on the contrary, has ren-
dered the punishment for indolence so indirect that it is
very necessary attention should be drawn to it. It would
be superfluous indeed for the clergyman to impress upon
the fine lady of his congregation the commandment, Thou
shalt not steal. It would be beneficial if he would prove
to her that her lassitude, hysteria, broodings over imagi-
nary grievances, and all the numerous ills of modern well-
to-do womanhood are the penalties she has brought upon
herself by the breach of that first of Nature's laws, Thou
shalt be industrious.*
Upon the more morally evolved the chief lesson to be
impressed is, it appears to me, not to shrink from acknow-
ledging facts which stare them in the face. In other words,
the great ethical requisite of the higher natures among us
is that of investigating truths for themselves. Few actions
have been proved by their melancholy results to be more
absolutely fatal than deliberately closing the eyes to facts
which are patent. Foolish besides, since a fact does not
become less a fact because we refuse to look at it. Little
as he may think it, the man who refuses to investigate a
* I believe it is Martin Luther who said, " The mind is like a mill that
cannot stop working ; give it something to grind and it will grind that.
If it has nothing to grind, it grinds on still ; but it is itself it grinds and
wears away."
Natural Growth in Ethics. 87
doctrine because he is afraid it may turn out to be true
betrays a preference for falsehood which he imagines will
comfort him, to truth which he fears may cause him dis-
comfort. Wherein he shows his folly. No falsehood can
confer other than transitory relief. Good cannot proceed
from evil, nor light from darkness. So falsehood begets
misery. All History (if treated in a philosophical spirit)
discloses the immense amount of suffering that has been
caused through lack of fearless though reverent investiga-
tion of every doctrine before it is accepted.*
* In the present day this moral and religious cowardice is a fault
belonging in a much greater degree to women than to men. I quote
the following admirable passage from the final chapter in Mr. Lecky's
"History of Morals": — "While a multitude of scientific discoveries,
critical and historical researches, and educational reforms have brought
thinking men face to face with religious problems of extreme importance,
women have been almost absolutely excluded from their influence. . . .
Contracted knowledge and imperfect sympathy are not the sole fruits of
this education. It has always been the peculiarity of a certain kind of
theological teaching that it inverts all the normal principles of judgment,
and absolutely destroys intellectual diffidence. On other subjects we
find, if not a respect for honest conviction, at least some sense of the
amount of knowledge that is requisite to entitle men to express an opinion
on grave controversies. . . . But on theological questions this has
never been so. . . . Many men and most women, though completely
ignorant of the very rudiments of biblical criticism, historical research,
or scientific discoveries, . . . wdl nevertheless adjudicate with
the utmost confidence upon every polemical question ; denounce, hate,
pity or pray for the conversion of all who dissent from what they have
been taught; assume, as a matter beyond the faintest possibility of doubt,
that the opinions they have received without inquiry must be true, and
that the opinions which others have arrived at by inquiry must be false,
and make it a main object of their lives to assail what they call heresy in
every way in their power, except by examining the grounds on which it
rests. . . . Innumerable pulpits support this tone of thought, and repre-
sent, with a fervid rhetoric well fitted to excite the nerves and imaginations
88 Natural Causation.
Though we have outgrown many superstitions, there is
a fatal one existing among us to which sufficient attention .
has not been drawn. It is that anthropomorphic concep-
tion of Nature which makes men think it a virtue to cheat
themselves into the belief that her laws and method are
what they think they ought to be, instead of learning by
patient investigation what they really are. Because man
shrinks from the injustice of making the innocent suffer for
the guilty, he conceives Nature must do so likewise. Yet
to believe this is to disbelieve the doctrine of Heredity.
" That all sin is avenged upon earth," says Dr. Maudesley,
" is true ; but it is not true that a man cannot escape the
consequences of his ill-doing ; it would be more true to say
that a man cannot escape the consequences of a man's ill-
doing." * Nay, it does not require the nineteenth century
to teach us this. The great thinkers of old were never
weary of pointing out that "The fathers eat sour grapes and
the children's teeth are set on edge;" that "the sins of the
fathers shall be visited upon the children to the third and
fourth generation."
A habit of investigation at once raises and alters our
conception of our various duties. It sets before us a higher
motive for industry than mere pursuit of self-gratification.
It is unhappily a too patent fact that man can degenerate
of women, the deplorable condition of all who deviate from a certain type
of opinions or emotions ; a blind propagandism or a secret wretchedness
penetrates into countless households, poisoning the peace of families,
chilling the mutual confidence of husband and wife, adding immeasurably
to the difficulties which every searcher into truth has to encounter, and
diffusing far and wide intellectual timidity, disingenuousness and hypo-
crisy."
* " Responsibility in Mental Disease," p. 306.
Natural Growth in Ethics. 89
as well as develop, and unless he cultivate his faculties to
the utmost they will inevitably be passed on to his children
in a state of decadence. It supplements the inculcation of
indiscriminate charity by leading " men to see that true
beneficence is that which helps a man to do the work he is
most fitted for, not that which keeps and encourages him
in idleness ; and that to neglect this distinction in the
present is to prepare pauperism and misery for the future." *
It teaches that a parent's duty does not consist alone in
kindness or in discipline ; nor even, as is so often taught
by example now, in laying up great wealth for the future ;
but in so living that he shall be enabled to confer, upon his
offspring the inestimable benefit of a physically and
mentally healthy constitution. As Mr. Spencer has well
remarked — " Of all bequests of parents to children the most
valuable is a sound constitution. Though a man's body is
not a property that can be inherited, yet his constitution
may fitly be compared to an entailed estate ; and if he
rightly understand his duty to posterity he will see that he
is bound to pass on that estate uninjured, if not
improved." f
We are so conversant with the difficulty of attaining
virtue that we are apt to think more of the means than the
end — apt to give greater honour to the difficulty to be
conquered than to the virtue to be attained. And in a
measure this is right. Our resolution to conquer our evil
tendencies receives a keen support from the encouragement
of those we most revere, who, as a rule, proportion their
praise in ratio with our difficulty. Only let us never forget
* Clifford's " Lectures and Essays," vol. ii., p. 202.
t "Data of Ethics," p. 192.
go Natural Causation.
that this difficulty is a sign of our imperfection, not of our
perfection. The athlete who delights in his exploits is a
finer walker than the child who can barely run. The
musician who delights in his effusions gives us keener
pleasure than the girl painfully stumbling over her scales.
So the man who has received the inestimable advantage of
a fine intellect and kind heart will be a source of greater
welfare to his fellows than one whose life is a perpetual
warfare between his anxiety to do what he knows to be
right and the almost irresistible promptings of an innately
wicked organism. I like Dr. Maudesley's comparison of
Healthiness to Holiness.* He who is so physically healthy
as to find industry a necessity to him ; he who is so morally
healthy as to find benevolence a delight to him ; he who is
so mentally healthy as to find the higher pleasures of the
intellect alone attractive to him, is the ideally moral man ;
will lead the ideally moral life ; will be a source of much
greater happiness to himself and his fellows than if he had
inherited much wealth with a weakly body or unhealthy
mind. We have already seen that industry is the first
commandment laid upon man ; but in the majority of cases
the inheritance of wealth removes that great incentive to
industry — Dread of Want.
Not only is that diffused sense of well-being that comes
from a nature that is throughout healthful a joy to its
possessor, but it is a joy that is in greater or less degree
imparted to all who are brought into contact with it. There
are few virtues more thoroughly diffusive than that Cheer-
fulness which is for the most part confined to the thoroughly
healthy man or woman. Like most other virtues, it acts
* "Responsibility in Mental Disease," p. 286.
Natural Growtli in Ethics. 91
and reacts upon itself, blessing him that takes and him that
receives ; and though it arises for the most part from
health, it must also be remembered that a habit of cheer-
fulness will, in no small degree, administer to health.
In no religious system that I am acquainted with are the
benefits of cheerfulness sufficiently insisted upon, and in
very few philosophical. There are two notable instances
among the latter, however, which I will cite. Let us take
the earlier philosopher first, Spinoza. In the 41st proposi-
tion of the Fourth Part of his " Ethics," Spinoza says :
" Gaiety [lactitia) is not directly evil, but is good ; grief or
sadness, on the contrary, is directly evil." And he demon-
strates the proposition thus — " Gaiety is an affection
whereby the power of the body to act is aided or increased.
Grief, on the contrary, is one wmereby this power is
lessened or repressed ; and so is gaiety directly good, griel
directly bad."
In the 42nd proposition he almost repeats himself. He
says : — " Cheerfulness, contentment (hilaritas), can have
nothing of excess about it ; melancholy, discontent
[melancholia), on the other hand, is always evil." And this
proposition Spinoza defined almost as the preceding one :
" Cheerfulness is joy, which referred to the body consists in
this — that all its parts are affected alike and in like
measure ; that is, that the power of the body to act is
increased or assisted, and in such wise that all its parts
acquire reciprocally motion and rest in the same ratio. It
is in this way that hilarity or cheerfulness is always good,
and cannot be excessive. Melancholy, on the other hand,
is grief, which as referred to the body consists in this —
92 Natural Causation.
that its power of action is lessened or absolutely abrogated,
so that the emotion is always bad."
In the second scholium to the 45th proposition Spinoza
develops this at greater length. He says, " I acknow-
ledge a great difference between mockery, which I have
but just characterised as bad, and laughter or jest. For
laughter and jest also are a kind of gladness, and so, it
they have nothing of excess about them, are good.
Nothing, indeed, but a sour and gloomy superstition
forbids us to enjoy ourselves. Why should it be held more
seemly to satisfy the cravings of hunger and thirst than
to drive away melancholy r These are my views ; these
my sentiments. No divinity, none but an envious being,
could take pleasure in my helplessness and suffering ; nor
do tears, and sobs, and fear, and other affections of the
sort, which are but evidences of an abject and feeble spirit,
ever lead to virtuous conduct ; the more joyfully we feel,
on the contrary, to the higher grade of perfection do we
rise ; in other words, the more do we necessarily partake
of the Divine nature. To use the good things of life,
therefore, and to enjoy ourselves, in so far as this may be
done short of satiety and disgust — for here excess were
not enjoyment — is true wisdom. It is wisdom, I say, in
man to refresh and recreate himself by moderate indul-
gence in pleasant meats and drinks, to take delight in
sweet odours, to admire the beauties of plants and flowers,
to dress becomingly, to join in manly and athletic sports
and games, to frequent the theatre and other places of the
sort, all of which may be done without injury to others.
For the human frame is compacted of many parts of
diverse nature, which continually crave fresh and varied
Natural Growth in EtJiics. 93
aliment in order that the whole body may be alike fit for
everything - whereof by its nature it is capable, and conse-
quently that the mind also may be in a state to take interest
in and understand the greatest possible variety of sub-
jects." And the concluding proposition in his " Ethics "
runs thus : " Beatitude is not the reward of virtue, but
virtue itself; nor do we enjoy true happiness because we
restrain our lusts. On the contrary, it is because we enjoy
true happiness that we are able to restrain our lusts."*
The other philosopher who insists upon the beneficial
results of cheerfulness is Herbert Spencer. The similarity
of his teaching on this wise is so close as to be somewhat
striking, especially as it is evidently quite unconscious.
" Every power," he says, " bodily and mental, is in-
creased by ' good spirits,' which is our name for a general
emotional satisfaction. The truth that the fundamental
vital actions — those of nutrition — are furthered by laug-hter-
moving conversations, or rather by the pleasurable feeling
causing laughter, is one of old standing, and every
dyspeptic knows that, in exhilarating company, a large
and varied dinner, including not very digestible things,
may be eaten with impunity, and, indeed, with benefit,
while a small, carefully-chosen dinner of simple things,
eaten in solitude, will be followed by indigestion. This
striking effect on the alimentary system is accompanied by
effects, equally certain though less manifest, on the circu-
lation and the respiration. Again, one who, released from
* In these extracts from Spinoza's "Ethics" I have availed myself of
Dr. Willis's translation. Dr. Willis is not, for the most part, considered to
be a very accurate translator, but if the English reader will compare
the above passage with pp. 263, 264 of Mr. Pollock's masterly work on
Spinoza, he will see that in this case the essential meaning is accurately
preserved.
94 Natural Causation.
daily labours and anxieties, receives delight from fine
scenery, or is enlivened by the novelties he sees abroad,
comes back showing by toned-up face and vivacious
manner the greater energy with which he is prepared to
pursue his avocation. Invalids, especially, on whose
narrowed margin of vitality the influence of conditions is
most visible, habitually show the benefits derived from
agreeable states of feeling. A lively social circle, the call
of an old friend, or even removal to a brighter room, will,
by the induced cheerfulness, much improve the physical
state. In brief, as every medical man knows, there is no
such tonic as happiness." *
And again he says : " Bounding out of bed after an
unbroken sleep, singing or whistling as he dresses, coming
down with beaming face, ready to laugh on the smallest
provocation, the healthy man of high powers, conscious of
past successes, and, by his energy, quickness, and re-
source, made confident of the future, enters on the day's
business, not with repugnance, but with gladness, and
from hour to hour experiencing satisfaction from work
effectually done, comes home with an abundant surplus of
energy remaining for hours of relaxation He
who carries self-regard far enough to keep himself in good
health and high spirits, in the first place thereby becomes
an immediate source of happiness to those around, and in
the second place maintains the ability to increase their
happiness by altruistic actions In estimating
conduct we must remember that there are those who by
their joyousness beget joy in others, and that there are
those who by their melancholy cast a gloom on every
* "Data of Ethics," pp. 90, 91.
Natural Growth in Ethics. 95
circle they enter. And we must remember that by display
of overflowing happiness a man of the one kind may add
to the happiness of others more than by positive efforts to
benefit them ; and that a man of the other kind may
decrease their happiness more by his presence than he
increases it by his actions. Full of vivacity, the one is
ever welcome. For his wife he has smiles and jocose
speeches ; for his children, stores of fun and play ; for his
friends, pleasant talk interspersed with sallies of wit that
come from buoyancy. Contrariwise, the other is shunned.
The irritability, resulting now from ailments, now from
failures caused by feebleness, his family has daily to bear.
Lacking adequate energy for joining in them, he has at
best but a tepid interest in the amusements of his children,
and he is called a wet blanket by his friends. Little
account as our ethical reasonings take note of it, yet is the
fact obvious, that, since happiness and misery are infec-
tious, such regard for self as conduces to health and high
spirits is a benefaction to others, and such disregard of
self as brings on suffering, bodily or mental, is a malefac-
tion to others. The duty of making one's self agreeable
by seeming to be pleased is indeed often urged, and thus
to gratify friends is applauded so long as self-sacrificing
effort is implied. But though display of real happiness
gratifies friends far more than display of sham happiness,
and has no drawback in the shape either of hypocrisies or
strain, yet it is not thought a duty to fulfil the conditions
which favour the display of real happiness. Nevertheless,
if quantity of happiness produced be the real measure, the
last is more imperative than the first." *
* " Data of Ethics," pp. 190, 193, 194.
96 Natural Causation.
Cheerfulness, as a virtue, is so little insisted on that I
have thought it right to quote the above passages from two
philosophers who, as I venture to think, rank second to
none. Yet it must be remembered that even our greatest
thinkers can but modify the order of nature. By insistance
upon duties that are not obvious to the unthinking they
can accelerate, but they cannot radically alter her results.
Take this habit of Cheerfulness, for instance ; if, in the
words of Richter, "cheerfulness or joyfulness is the atmo-
sphere under which all things thrive " ; if a habit of Cheer-
fulness conduces to health, and if healthy people are more
likely to leave healthy offspring, does not it follow that the
time will come when melancholy persons will be in the
minority — perhaps, indeed, have disappeared altogether ?
The moral quality most difficult to account for upon
natural causation is, as it seems to me, that sublime quality
which goes by the name of Conscientiousness. It is this diffi-
culty, I believe, that has made many men — not otherwise
prone to believe in supernatural interference — imagine that
the Conscience is a Divine gift, higher even than the
Reason, belonging not only to the mind but to the soul.
This conscientiousness, it is argued, is alone sufficient to
show that man differs from the brute not only in degree,
but altogether ; that is to say, in kind.
I am not able to agree with those who argue in this wise.
If the Conscience is a Divine gift implanted in man by a
merciful Creator to point the way to the right and to lead
him away from the wrong, why has it so often repre-
sented as virtue that which we all now recognise as
hideous vice ? That it has done this is, I think, un-
questionable. Mr. Lecky has hardly exaggerated when he
Natural Growth in Ethics. 97
asserts as an instance that " Philip II. and Isabella the
Catholic inflicted more suffering in obedience to their con-
sciences than Nero and Domitian in obedience to their
lusts." Moreover if it were thus providentially bestowed
upon man as an unerring guide through life, surely it
should be impartially bestowed upon all in equal
division ; yet it is obvious that this quality of con-
scientiousness is as unequally distributed among different
individuals as are other mental qualities. Even children
•of the same family, and brought up under the same
influences, differ greatly in sensitiveness of conscience.
At the same time it is not altogether easy to account for
the imperativeness of this quality when it does exist, upon
the interpretation that it has always played a paramount
part in the production of the welfare of the species. Though
there are many cases where it has certainly conduced to
this end, there are many, I think, where neither egoistically
nor altruistically can it be said to have been of much avail.
Sensitively conscientious little lads, born of Calvinistic
ancestry and brought up by Calvinistic parents, or born of
High Church ancestry and surrounded with High Church
influences, suffer keenly when suddenly transported to the
atmosphere of a Public School. If they are healthy
children, their instincts are strongly prompting them to do
what nevertheless their consciences will not let them do ;
that is, in the one case to laugh or to whistle on a Sunday,
in the other to eat meat on a Friday. To refrain from such
actions is certainly not beneficial to the boys ; in a slight
degree it is rather hurtful, and it does not conduce to the
welfare of their schoolfellows, in whom are very often
excited feelings of mockery and cruelty. If the child suffers
98 Natural Causation.
egoistically from his abstention from play or food, he
probably suffers still more, altruistically, from the dislike he
excites in his fellows. It may, perhaps, be said that the
child is impelled to obey his conscience by the fear of
future reward or punishment. It may be so in some cases,
but certainly not in all. At least, speaking personally,
when I was a young child I was often impelled to refrain
from actions that I now know to be perfectly innocent.
So far as I remember, the idea of future rewards and
punishments seldom, if ever, occurred to me. I was simply
impelled to obey my conscience by some uncontrollable
inward prompting. Yet, though the part this faculty of
conscience has played has not been entirely productive of
good ; though at times, in addition to making men
refrain from innocent joys, it has, as in the days of per-
secution, prompted them to deeds of atrocity, still on the
whole, I think, its influence has been high and holy ; and,
like most high and holy things, of delicate growth and
'.•asily killed. In little children especially it is to be en-
couraged rather than thwarted. When a child is old enough
to be able to exercise reason and judgment, then, indeed,
it is permissible to show that such and such actions are
innocent ; but while it is too young to be able to judge for
itself, most persons, I think, will agree that he who would
tempt a child, either by mockery or more open punishment,
to do what his conscience forbade him to do, would be
gravely reprehensible. Of such an one we might almost
say, " It were better that a mill-stone were hanged about
his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend
one of these little ones."
But to assert the power of conscience is not to describe
Natural Growth in Ethics. 99
it, or to account for it. In a variety of ways it has been
described and accounted for. Let us examine into a few of
them. Dr. Whewell, for instance, as quoted by Professor
Bain,* asserts, that " as the object of reason is to determine
what is true, so the object of conscience is to determine what
is right." Now this seems to me a very inadequate descrip-
tion. Surely the object of reason is to determine what is
true as well as what is right, and having done this, then
conscience steps in and forces the man to do what his
reason has proved to him to be the true and the right ;
"true" and "right" being indeed almost synonymous
terms ; though, perhaps, the latter term is more generally
applied to conduct than the former.
Professor Bain himself, in an exhaustive analysis of
Conscience, f writes thus : —
" I have purposely deferred the consideration of Con-
science as a distinct attribute or faculty, from a conviction
that this portion of our constitution is moulded upon ex-
ternal authority as its type. I entirely dissent from
Dugald Stewart, and the great majority of writers on the
Theory of Morals, who represent Conscience as a primitive
and independent faculty of the mind, which would be
developed in us although we never had any experience of
external authority. On the contrary, I maintain that Con-
science is an imitation within ourselves of the government
without us ; and even when differing in what it describes
from the current morality, the mode of its action is still
parallel to the archetype. . . . All that we understand by
the authority of conscience — the sentiment of obligation,
the feeling of right, the sting of remorse — can be nothing -
* " Emotions and the Will," p. 260, second edition,
t Ibid., pp. 283 — 287, second edition.
ioo Natural Causation.
else than so many modes of expressing the acquired aver-
sion and dread towards certain actions associated in the
mind with such consequences as have now been described.
Trace out as we may the great variety of forms assumed
by the sentiment, the essential nature of it is still what we
have said. The dread of anticipated evil operating to
restrain before the fact, and the pain, realised after the act
has been performed, are perfectly intelligible products of
the education of the mind under a system of authority and
of an experience had of the good and evil consequences of
actions."
Now, although (with the exception of a few original
thinkers) the morality of every individual is undoubtedly
the current morality of his age and country — it requiring
no great amount of historical knowledge to show that many
actions judged to be immoral in one nation and century
were regarded as more or less innocent in another — it seems
to me that the deterring power of " external authority "
and the deterring power of conscience are quite distinct
deterrents. Actions that are committed inadvertently will
bring about great dread of punishment, though the
conscience is perfectly easy. Suppose, by way of illustra-
tion, that I go to a jeweller's shop where neither I nor my
family name are known. Suppose, by some unhappy
inadvertence, a ring of great price that is on the counter
becomes attached to my sleeve. The shopman, seeing this
and not knowing me, promptly calls a policeman. Well,
my conscience is perfectly free, but the dread of punish-
ment is, for all that, strong within me. I like by no means
the prospect of spending the night in a police-cell. There
is the far greater apprehension that I shall not be able to
Natural Growth in Ethics. 101
prove my innocence, and shall leave an indelible stain upon
my name. There is the anxiety that my non-arrival at home
will cause alarm to those who are dear to me. The antici-
pated punishment, indeed, is felt so keenly by me that I
would willingly give half my fortune to be relieved from
the fear of it. Yet all this time I do not suffer at all
through my conscience. Now, on the other side, suppose
I have been indulging in suspicions of my friend that I
subsequently find to be wholly unfounded. Here there will
be no dread of punishment, since my thoughts have never
grown to actions nor even to words. Yet my conscience
will probably prick me severely. Indeed, not only do fear
of conscience and fear of external authority seem to me
distinct, but at times absolutely opposed. To escape the
one we will often court the other. Sensitively conscientious
persons who have been betrayed by passion or resentment
into horrible crimes will often deliver themselves up to
justice to escape the agony of their conscience. Constance
Kent, the Road murderess, is a case in point.
Professor Clifford has a different interpretation to offer.
He describes conscience as " Self-judgment in the name of
the tribe." * Yet even this definition — much better though
it is than the two others we have been considering — does
not seem altogether borne out by the facts. " Self-judg-
ment in the name of the tribe " seems to me to be the germ
of general sympathy or fellow-feeling rather than of that
hidden monitor, the Conscience. Sympathy, though it may
often lead to the same results, is, I think, in its essence
quite distinct from Conscience. It is the basis of all our
altruistic feelings, and as I shall endeavour subsequently
* "Lectures and Essays,'' vol. ii., p. 114.
102 Natural Causation.
to show, is a more fundamental, and will be a more lasting
element in our moral nature. If we try to decompose this
quality, " fellow-feeling in the name of the tribe," into its
component parts, we shall find, I think, that they consist of
" sympathy " and two other qualities that are somewhat
dissimilar. In "the name of the tribe " may mean fear of
the tribe, which is a particular form of the general fear of
" external authority," or it may mean (and probably
Professor Clifford did mean this) loyalty or fidelity to the
tribe. No doubt Conscience has a good deal to do with
keeping men faithful to their tribe ; but it is the motive
power at work, not the thing itself. In almost every
religion there are cases on record of reformers, apostles,
enthusiasts, and converts being compelled by their
consciences to leave not only father and mother but tribe
also. Again, Conscience has so often prompted men to
suppress " fellow-feeling " that I do not see how it can be
identified with it, however qualified.
The late Rev. F. D. Maurice, in his very suggestive work
on the Conscience, seems to me truer in his diagnosis than
any of the authors we have been considering. There is
much to be said, I think, for the connection he traces
between "consciousness of wrong or right" and the
"conscience." His definition of the conscientious man as
" one who is always considering what he ought or ought
not to do," and of the "conscience " as " that in me which
says, ' I ought or ought not,' " seems to me sustained by
all our experience of it ; and his criticism upon Mr. Bain's
identification of the Conscience with fear of external
authority is so admirable that I will quote it : — " If the
child is taught to have a dread of him [i.e., the teacher] as
Natural Growth in Ethics. 103
one who is an inflicter of pain, not to have a reverence for
him as one who cares for it and is seeking to save it from
its own folly — if the child is instructed to separate carefully
the pain which rises out of its own acts from the pain which
the parent inflicts, so that it may associate the pain with
him rather than with them — then all has been done which
human art can do to make it grow up a contemptible
coward, crouching to every majoritv which threatens it
with the punishments that it has learnt to regard as the
greatest and only evils ; one who may at last, ' in the
maturity of a well-disposed mind,' become the spontaneous
agent of a majority in trampling out in others the freedom
which has been so assiduously trampled out in itself. A
parent or a teacher who pursues this object is of all the
ministers of a community the one whom it should regard
with the greatest abhorrence, seeing tnat he is bringing up
for it not citizens but slaves." *
It seems to me that Conscience is that power within us
which forces us to do what we believe to be right. This
may not always be the actually right. A proper compre-
hension of true morality, a nice discrimination between
what is right and what is wrong, pertains to the judgment
or to the experience of self or others. But having once
satisfied oneself as to what is the right course to pursue,
Conscience is that power which imperatively forces us to
follow it. Can we account for its strength and comparative
universality ? It is difficult ; yet I think we may attempt
to do so. Is it not possible that the theory of Evolution
may bridge over the gap between the extremes of Experi-
ence and Intuition, and that in the " inherited experiences
* Page 58.
104 Natural Causation.
of ancestors " we may find the solution and true meaning
of Conscience r For after all, if we set aside those prohi-
bitions, the mere utterances of priestcraft, and all other
traditions and authorities that " shrink from reasonable
investigation," we shall find that the moral instincts of
various races differ only in degree, not in kind. Though
in one country polygamy may be enjoined and in another
not tolerated, yet nowhere is purity without reverence and
esteem. Though in one country personal revenge be
supplemented by legal penalty, yet nowhere is uncalled-for
cruelty admirable, while ingratitude to benefactors is con-
demned fully as much by the savage as by the civilised man.
No doubt the association of pain with wrong-doing may
have originated our shrinking from wrong-doing ; but the
fear of external authority, or of being "found out," and the
instinctive shrinking from vice, are, I believe, in their spirit
utterly distinct. Indeed, that indescribable, though tor-
turing, sense of moral disquietude afflicts us more, I think,
when we have done our neighbour secret wrong than when
we have done that which will come under the penalty of
external authority — so long, that is to say, as the wrong-
doing is intentional. I do not think that w T e suffer the stings
of conscience when we are innocent in intention. If we are
the innocent cause of our neighbour's losing some good or
incurring some evil, we suffer then from a subtle intermix-
ture of compunction and sympathy. But though this
feeling has a certain resemblance in its effects to a guilty
conscience, in its essential nature I believe it to be wholly
distinct.
But surely this power, which forces us to do actions we
hold to be right, whether because the contrary action would
Natural Growth in Ethics. 105
be against the teaching of some Divine Exemplar, or a blot
upon that high moral ideal we have formed for ourselves,
based upon a consciousness of the grand possibilities there
are in a truly moral life, a delicate, sensitive conscience
must in the long run be of benefit to the race. External
authority punishes open vice; a tender conscience punishes
the spirit that precedes and leads to vice. External autho-
rity punishes libel, theft, murder ; a tender conscience
punishes censoriousness, covetousness, cruelty ; and as
nothing can come out of a man that has not been previously
in him, vice is prevented at a much less expenditure of
energy (chiefly in the form of misery) to self and fellows
than by exercise of external authority.*
Nevertheless, powerful as has been the part Conscience
has played in the formation of character, it seems to me
quite conceivable that the time may come when Conscience,
being no longer required, will cease to exist. Consider
what are its functions. To rebuke us when we commit
actions or give way to thoughts that we hold to be wrong.
These thoughts and actions may arise from our lower
nature having greater power over us than our higher, in
which case they are actually wrong; or they may be simply
disobedience of some superstitious beliefs, in which case
* To guard against obscurity let me add that those inherited experiences
of our ancestors, which make us instinctively shrink from vice from the
fear of any evil consequences to ourselves, should be regarded as innate
or instinctive prudence. The same instinctive shrinking from fear of
evil consequences to our victims, or from dread of wounding or offend-
ing a Divine Teacher, or from dislike of doing anything unworthy of the
dignity of man, or of any high moral ideal we may have formed, is instinc-
tive conscience. Injury to self provokes prudential remorse ; injury to
others conscientious remorse.
io6 Natural Causation.
they are only imaginatively wrong. But it must be obvious
to all that we are by degrees shaking ourselves free from
superstitious beliefs ; and among the more educated, at all
events, we may reasonably hope that it will not be very
long before they are discarded altogether. In that case it
will be those actions alone that are actually wrong that will
draw down the stings of conscience. Well, is it not just
possible that in the course of many generations our lower
instincts will have dwindled away before the power of the
higher ones ? A consummation such as this seems indeed
so far off at present that I can imagine a smile of scepticism
being raised before a prophecy so optimistic. But if we
compare even now the civilised man with the uncivilised,
and note that vices in the latter have become instinctively
impossible in the former, my conception will not seem so
absurd. It requires, for instance, no exercise of conscience
to restrain the refined lady from committing immodest
actions, simply because such actions would be impossi-
bilities to her. It requires no exercise of conscience to
prevent the refined gentleman from running away with his
neighbour's silver spoons, simply because such a notion
would never enter into his head.* Well, it seems to me that
* It is only, however, the commoner forms o honesty and decency that
have as yet become instinctive in the average man or woman. The large
supply of objectionable novels, created presumably by the demand for
them, too sufficiently shows that, though there may be instinctive shrink-
ing from indelicate actions, there is at present no instinctive repugnance
to the presentation of indelicate scenes or suggestions. In like manner
the finer sense of honesty is still very far from being perfectly developed
in the average man or woman. Think how thoughtlessly a fine lady will
run up a milliner's bill that she may or may not be able to pay ; or think
what a constant habit it is with editors of magazines to accept
and faithfully promise to insert articles, and then, if something of more
Natural Growth in Ethics. 107
the time may come, far off as it is now, that justice, and
benevolence, and industry will, through heredity, have
become as instinctive in us as are the commoner forms oi
topical interest comes in, return them at the eleventh hour to the author.
The time I hope will come when "getting into debt" and "breach of
contract " will become as instinctively impossible as are now the grosser
forms of stealing. The great moral development of this century seems to
me to lie rather in the growth of the sympathies than in decency or
honesty. A century ago women were flogged in public for trifling offences ;
young lads, and even girls, were hanged for stealing a sovereign ; and
worse than all, these degraded punishments seemed to excite a degraded
feeling of enjoyment in witnessing them, even in the educated. It was no
uncommon thing for a fine lady to pay ten pounds for a window from
which she might witness an execution. 1 very much question whether the
most absolutely frivolous and worthless fine lady would not pay ten pounds
down in these days to escape such a sight. How much more fully
developed as yet are the sympathetic feelings than the decent ones is
shown I think by the way that men, and even, I regret to say, women,
will gloat over the objectionable revelations of the Divorce Court ; but it
is certainly with feelings of repugnance and pain rather than enjoyment
that we read any tale of abominable cruelty — from a captain at sea, for
instance, to a poor little cabin-boy. Novels after the style of " Never
Too Late to Mend," if published now would give far more pain, I think,
than pleasure. Thoughtful persons, anxious for prison reform, will read
them much as students of the Renaissance and Middle Ages will wade
through the harrowing details of the Inquisition. But it is only duty that
compels them to do so. To them, and also to the uncultivated (with
a few morbid exceptions), the perusal certainly does the reverse ot
amuse or give enjoyment. Quite recently, almost within the last ten or
fifteen years, there seems also to be a great growth in fellow-feeling with
the sufferings of animals. More than one friend has told me it gives
no pleasure to them now to kill a rabbit. If rabbits overrun their pio-
perty they kill them from necessity, but from no delight in the act of
killing. And to bee thirty or forty dogs set upon a fox is repugnant
to them rather than pleasurable. It seems to me probable that
before the next century is very far advanced hunting and shooting will
have altogether ceased as sports, as nc" have bull-fights and gladiator
exhibitions.
108 Natural Causation.
decency and honesty in the educated; or as the promptings
of self-preservation and love of offspring are, in the
educated and uneducated alike. In a word, when that time
comes — if it should — we shall be so mentally and morally
healthy that we shall not -require physic in the shape of an
accusing conscience. And since all faculties die out when
no longer used, so it seems to me conceivable that a time
will come when Conscience, having ceased for some time to
be required, will at last die out for lack of exercise.
" But," it may be said, " if morality is intrinsic, not ex-
trinsic — if it be true that, in the words of the Preacher,* 'As
righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil pur-
sueth it to his own death ' — why trouble ourselves at all
about the inculcation of morality ? Why not leave it all to
the ' Universal Plan,' knowing that evil must eventually
disappear and the righteous alone inherit the earth r"
Because by fearless investigation of the laws of Nature
we may in a measure become fellow-workers with her.
Because her unsupported efforts, though sure, are exceed-
ingly slow, and always at the expense of much dissemina-
tion of misery, which, were we to co-operate with her, would
be perfectly preventible. Take the crime of drunkenness,
for instance. It is an acknowledged dictum of medical
science that drunkenness in parents, especially that form
known as dipsomania, may become the occasion of slight
mental derangement in the child ; if the latter continue in
the drunken ways of his father, of insanity in the grand-
child, which, increasing from generation to generation, will
end finally in the extreme degeneration of idiocy, accom-
panied with extinction of family.
* Proverbs xi. 19.
Natural Growth in Ethics. 109
See, then, the immense amount of misery that must
propagate itself before Nature, by her unassisted efforts,
will cause the seed of the drunkard to disappear from the
earth. That superstition which takes the form of anthro-
pomorphic conception of providential interposition has
much to answer for, in the misery man has brought upon
himself. He will never learn self-control till he has freed
himself from it ; till he has convinced himself that all
wrong-doing is irrevocable ; that he is not an isolated
exception in the realms of law, above it and beyond it,
but a part and product of Nature, as dependent upon her
laws as are the planets and tides. " Is there any funda-
mental difference," asks Dr. Maudesley, " between the
savage coming to destruction through ignorance of the
law of gravitation, and the civilised European coming to
madness through ignorance of the laws of his own
nature, and of the laws of the nature of things and men
around him r " Teach him honestly that consequences are
inexorable ; and that whatever effect prayer and death-
bed repentance may have upon his own soul, they are
powerless to prevent the evil of his drunken life being
visited on his innocent child. That child, indeed, may do
much under proper guidance to neutralise the bad effects
of his organism ; yet the effort required in such a case is
tremendous, being " no less than a continued struggle to
oppose the strong bent of his being." It is of little avail
to denounce the doctrine of the stringency of law in moral
as well as physical nature as materialistic or worse.
Nature works on as sublimely indifferent to opprobrium as
to ridicule. Did the stars dissolve into nothingness be-
no Natural Causation.
cause Galileo's contemporaries refused to gaze at them
through his telescope : *
* Mr. Lecky's noble, and in all other respects admirable chapter on
the Natural History of Morals, is, I think, a little vitiated by his non-
recognition of the immense part Heredity has played, and in all probabi-
lity will always play, in the welfare of the Species. Arguing against the
utilitarian theory of morals, he says ("History of European Morals,"
vol. i., p. 59), "If happiness in any of its forms be the supreme
object of life, moderation is the most emphatic counsel of our being ;
but moderation is as much opposed to heroism as to vice. There is
no form of intellectual ' or moral excellence which has not a general
tendency to produce happiness if cultivated in moderation. There
are very few which, if cultivated to great perfection, have not a
tendency directly the reverse. Thus a mind that is sufficiently enlarged
to range abroad amid the pleasures of intellect has no doubt secured a
fund of inexhaustible enjoyment ; but he who inferred from this that the
highest intellectual eminence was the condition most favourable to happi-
ness would be lamentably deceived. The diseased nervous sensibility
that accompanies intense mental exertion, the weary, waiting sense of
ignorance and vanity, the disenchantment and disintegration that com-
monly follow a profound research, have filled literature with mournful
echoes of the words of the royal sage: ' In much wisdom is much grief,
and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.' The lives of men
of genius have been for the most part a conscious and deliberate realisa-
tion of the ancient myth — The tree of knowledge and the tree of life
stood sije by side, and they chose the tree of knowledge rather than the
tree of life. 1 '
Now, however much we may admire men and women who have so
devoted themselves to the moral or mental improvement of their
fellows, as to have wrought themselves into a state of diseased
nervous sensibility, it is only in unmarried or childless married persons
1 hat such conduct is admirable, or indeed even justifiable. There is no
duty to our fellows in general that can for a moment compare to that a
man owes to the beings he has endowed with existence ; and to work so
immoderately as to bring himself, and probably in an intensified degree
his posterity, into a state of "diseased nervous sensibility," is an extreme
cruelty. Moreover, it must be remembered that by working well and
moderately for his own generation, and bringing into existence healthy
posterity capable and willing to work for their generation, a man will
Natural Growth tn E fines. 1 1 i
No religious person, I believe, need fear that investi-
gation of the " rules of life ' laid down in the latter part of
the Decalogue will lower his reverence for their wisdom.
It will lead him to obey the spirit ; not disobey the letter.
We cannot conceive the time when murder will cease to
be considered reprehensible in the vast majority of cases.
It is never wise to attempt to frame universal precepts
applicable to every imaginary case. We may, indeed,
hope that the sixth Commandment will eventually lead to
abstention from all wars of aggression ; but whether it will
grow into abolition of capital punishment, or whether
posterity will consider it a paramount duty to preserve the
lives of hopeless and congenital idiots, is not so easy to
say. Yet we may safely prophesy that more sacred than
the preservation of a wicked or a worthless life will be
deemed the duty of not allowing a life that might be
worthy to degenerate into worthlessness. It may be that
"Thou shalt do no murder" will be extended to "Thou
shalt not suffer thy life to become ignoble." The sacred-
ness of property implied by the prohibition of theft will
always be endorsed ; yet more stress will be laid upon the
evil of being a consumer and not a producer. Drones will
grow to be regarded as true robbers. The seventh Com-
probably do more for the welfare of the species at large, than in so work-
ing as to bring himself ar.d his posterity into a state perilously approach-
ing madness. The great work of our generation has been to show how
the qualities of ancestry are passed on in an intensified degree to pos-
terity, and no theory of morals can be conclusive which ignores it.
Utilitarianism in its narrow sense undoubtedly preaches only duties to
self ; but in the wider sense it sets before us as our highest aim the
welfare of the species, but especially that part of it for which we are
directly responsible, viz., our own offspring, and among the chief factors
in that welfare is undoubtedly the influence of Heredity.
ii2 Natural Causation.
mandment, instituted for the sanctity of home and happi-
ness of offspring, will develop, I believe, into a greater
sense of the responsibility of marriage itself. It may be
that as morality grows to be reasonable and ceases to be
superstitious, this Commandment will be extended into
" Thou shalt not entail upon thine offspring the curse of
inherited moral or physical disease."
IV.
NATURAL GROWTH IN CIVILISATION.
"All superstitions die hard, and we fear that this belief in government-
omnipotence will form no exception."
Essay on Over- Legislation by H. Spencer.
Natural Law then, we have seen, has been the agency at
work in the formation of the Solar System, so far as we
know it, including of course our Globe. Natural Law has
been the agency at work in the formation of Character,
and in the growth of the Ethical Sense generally. And it
is the purport of the present essay to show that Natural
Law has been also the agency at work in the develop-
ment of that highly complex thing that goes by the name
of Civilisation.
That such a theory will meet with but small agreement
I am well aware. What supernatural interposition is held
to be in the realm of Nature, arbitrary legislation is held
to be in the realm of Sociology. " Civilisation," it will be
argued, has no connection with natural law. The " civi-
lised " man and the " natural " man are antithetical terms.
The savage is eminently a "child of nature," and being a
child of nature he is therefore " uncivilised."
The " civilised man " and the " natural man " are no
K
ii4 Natural Causation.
more antithetical terms than are "child" and "man."
"Man" is not the negation of "child"; it is only the
development and outgrowth of "child." For a boy to
grow into a healthy man it is first necessary that he shall
have a healthy organisation — and this largely depends
upon his ancestry — and afterwards that he shall have
plenty of food and ample exercise. It is also needful that
he shall be protected from unfair aggression ; aggression,
that is to say, of numbers of boys setting upon himself
alone. If he be deprived of exercise, and allowed only
food enough to keep life within him, he will grow up
stunted and possibly deformed. If numbers are allowed
to attack him, he will be killed or at least maimed for life.
There is one other factor in the growth of a healthy boy that
must not be lost sight of. He must be not only discouraged
from unprovoked aggression ; he must be encouraged in
necessary and fully provoked self-defence. The pampered
boy does not grow up so entirely stunted and diseased as
the cruelly treated boy ; but it is hardly necessary to point
out that a lad who is encouraged to "run to his nurse"
upon every slight attack from another of his own size, or
when he has met with an accident through his own care-
lessness, will grow up enfeebled and contemptible.
With two exceptions there is a like analogy in the deve-
lopment of the savage into the civilised man. The first
exception is that what in the one case takes barely twenty
years, in the other takes generations. The other exception
is that owing to the differences of climate all savage races
cannot develop alike with the same average uninterrupted
growth. The inhabitants of cold, sterile countries, or of
those dwelling in the region of earthquakes, have greater
Natural GrowtJi in Civilisation. 115
difficulties of environment to struggle against than the
more favoured inhabitants of a temperate climate, and
their rate of development will consequently be slower;
but dismissing exceptional details, the broad general prin-
ciple will be found to be true. There are certain savage
races that seem as if they can never have any other than
a transitory existence ; so indolent that nothing short of
starvation will make them work; such liars that no amount
of forbearance or of punishment will teach them to be
truthful. These are morally unhealthy: they may be fitly
compared to the child of unhealthy ancestry ; and in the
long struggle for existence, they, or at all events their
descendants, are sure to fail. But given the normal savage
with no more than the normal virtues and vices of the
average undisciplined nature, two things alone are neces-
sary for him to develop slowly and naturally into the civi-
lised man. These two things are Free Trade in Industry,
or in other words, that he shall be permitted to enjoy the
fruits of his own labour ; and that he shall be protected
from aggression ; which protection, as the social organism
reaches a certain development, must be supplemented by
protection from breach of contract.
" But," I can fancy politicians of all schools will answer,
" the history of a race is for the most part the history of
its governments. No nation can progress unless its
government be a good one." Negatively this is true ; but
only negatively. By perpetual intermeddling with the
industry of its citizens, by repressive measures of greater
or less stringency, the growth of civilisation may be
terribly hampered. Undue taxation, by taking away an
undue portion of a labourer's earnings, is in reality en-
1 1 6 Natural Causation.
forced starvation ; and the citizens so taxed must grow
as stunted as the half-starved lad we have been consider-
ing. Superstitious or secular intermeddling with a free
exercise of his intellectual faculty will have as cramping
and distorting an effect upon the citizen as prohibition to
exercise his limbs freely will have upon the lad ; and pro-
tecting the citizen from the consequences of his own folly
will be fully as deteriorating as pampering and spoiling
the child.
"But," I imagine critics objecting, " if only such a minute
amount of legislation as is necessary for the prevention ot
aggression, and for the performance of contracts, be suffi-
cient for the development and maintenance of Civilisation,
what has been the advantage of our numerous legal codes,
of our Acts of Parliament, of our different forms of govern-
ment r And why, as amongst ourselves for instance, should
so many of the wisest and best among us devote their time
and energies, freely and without payment, to the service ot
their country r " Save in a negative sense, or, in other
words, save for the purpose of undoing the mischievous
intermeddling of their predecessors, I am afraid the
answer must be, " Very little advantage at all," though I
scarcely expect politicians to agree with me.*
* " In a paper read to the Statistical Society, in May, 1873, Mr. Janson,
Vice-President of the Law Society, stated, that from the Statute of Merton
(20 Henry III.) to the end of 1872, there had been passed 18,110 public
Acts ; of which he estimated that four-fifths had been wholly or partially
repealed. He also stated that the number of public Acts repealed wholly
or in part, or amended, during the three years 1870-71-72 had been 3,532,
of which 2,759 had been totally repealed. To see whether this rate of
repeal has continued, I have referred to the annually-issued volumes
of " The Public General Statutes " for the three last Sessions. Saying
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 117
It is a trite remark that the looker-on at a drama,
whether that drama be in real life or on the stage, sees
more of the performance than the players themselves.
And so in the ardent game of Politics, politicians, hot and
vehement in their partisanship, are not those to whom I
should go for a comprehensive study of the Science ot
Politics. The solitary thinker, the political economist, the
historian who has some deeper insight into his duties than
to believe that he should be merely a retailer of bloodthirsty
battles or of the amours of sovereigns, above all the
philosopher — these, devoted to the pursuit of Truth, rather
than politicians, blinded and vehement in their search for
Victory — are those I think to whom we should go for
guidance in any comprehensive study of the history of
civilisation.
I need scarcely point out that the great apostle of what
I will call Self-help, against State help, is Herbert Spencer.
His "Man versus the State," originally published a few years
ago in a widely circulated Review, and subsequently repub-
lished at a popular price, has doubtless been widely read.
Yet it must not be forgotten that the opinions put forth
in this lately published book, are precisely those that
Mr. Spencer has been consistently and persistently teach-
ing for over thirty years. Forcibly put forth as are his views
nothing of the numerous amended Acts, the result is that in the last
three Sessions there have been totally repealed, separately or in groups,
650 Acts, belonging to the present reign, besides many of the preceding
reigns. This, of course, is greatly above the average rate ; for there has of
late been an active purgation of the Statute-book. But making every
allowance, we must infer that within our own time, repeals have mounted
some distance into the thousands." — " The Man versus the State," by 11.
Spencer, p. 50.
1 1 8 Natural Causation.
in " Man versus the State," it seems to me that in those early
essays of his, "Over-Legislation," "The Social Organism,"
" State Tamperings with Money and Banks," " Represen-
tative Government," &c, he has expressed even more
forcibly his conviction, that " the whole of our industrial
organisation, from its main outlines, down to its minutest
details, has become what it is, not simply without legisla-
tive guidance, but, to a considerable extent, in spite of
legislative hindrances. It has arisen under the pressure
of human wants and activities." *
" But," perhaps will be retorted, " philosophers are
dreamers, mere doctrinaires, lovers of theories, despisers of
facts ; whereas, with the average Englishman, above all
with the politician, one ounce of fact more than balances a
pound of theory."
Knowing this love of Englishmen for facts, I intend to
proceed with this essay somewhat differently from what I
might otherwise have done. Instead of discussing the
subject first from the a priori point of view — instead, that
is to say, of arguing that when the State undertakes to do
for its citizens what should be only done by the . citizens
themselves, the probabilities are that the work will be less
well done by the .State than by the individuals prompted
to undertake it by the natural law of supply and demand,
and afterwards proving a posteriori that this has always
been the case — I will reverse this more usual method of
treatment. I will show first by manifold details that, save
for the prevention of aggression and for the insistance of
performance of contract, all those other duties undertaken
by the State, have been equally well performed by indi-
* "Essays Scientific, Political and Speculative," vol. i., p. 389.
Natural Grozvth in Civilisation. 119
viduals, and for the most part very much better ; and I will
afterwards show the general law underlying these facts —
facts, as it seems to me, not admitting disproof. So far as
possible I shall limit my attention to those classes of facts
not very fully dealt with by Mr. Spencer, referring my
readers anxious to have a wide acquaintance with the sub-
ject to those of his essays already mentioned by me.*
Let any average citizen — a merchant, a private gentle-
man, or one employed in some non-governmental position —
rapidly think over the general circumstances of his average
daily life, and afterwards ask himself how much of his
general happiness and comfort depends upon individual
effort, and how much upon State legislation.
He wakes, we will say, at half-past six in the morning,
and hears his servants steal down quietly, for fear of dis-
turbing him, to the commencement of their daily duties —
servants that have voluntarily come to be hired, and that
have voluntarily been engaged either by him or by his wife.
The first bell he hears in the morning will probably be
that of the milkman, who never fails to come at the proper
time. Should, however, the milkman grow careless or un-
punctual, our supposed citizen knows that he has but to
dismiss him, and another milkman will promptly solicit his
custom. There will be no difficulty in filling his place,
simply through the natural law of supply and demand.
Well, our citizen rises and commences to put on his clothes
— clothes that were made at his own request, and requir-
ing no State command — though had he lived some centuries
• I recommend also to all readers interested in this subject, the fifth
chapter in the first volume of Buckle's "History of Civilisation," in which
the question of Protection is admirably discussed.
120 Natural Causation.
earlier, the State certainly would not have allowed him to
dress as he liked. He comes down to the breakfast-room.
He sees his slippers by the cheerful fire, his "Times" on
the table, his letters on the mantelpiece. Having finished
his breakfast, and having read his paper — that newspaper
containing parliamentary reports of the business of the
previous evening ; containing telegrams from abroad ;
full information of the Stocks and Money Market ; law
reports, and if there has been any important decision, a
leading article upon the case — he goes out, for a ride on
his horse perhaps if he is a private gentleman, or to his
place of business if he is a merchant. He lunches at the
nearest restaurant ; on his homeward way he stops at
Mudie's library, to bring* home a particular book that he is
anxious to read, but which does not owe its existence to
any command of the State. He returns home to find his
dinner ready for him ; after enjoying which, he reads his
book over his quiet pipe, and then prepares to start for the
theatre or concert. One day is very much like another
with him, and if, perhaps, we except the theatre and con-
cert, his Sundays and his annual holiday, we may describe
this one day in his life as a fair example of all.
Now, in this enumeration of his comforts and enjoy-
ments how much has he owed to the State ? Not an article
of food has owed its existence to the direct instigation of
the State, though perhaps some of those articles have been
taxed, and so made his acquisition of them slightly more
difficult ; his house was not built at the instigation of the
State, though he has to pay a tax upon it. I am not now
denying the necessity of a certain amount of taxation,
though I think it quite open to discussion whether such
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 1 2 1
absolute necessities as houses and food should be among
the articles taxed. I am only asking the average citizen
to consider whether if Parliament should not sit for a dozen
years, and if there were only enough legislative supervision
to ensure that he shall not be murdered or robbed, and to
insist that he shall scrupulously pay for the things that he
has ordered, would one of those articles we have enume-
rated among his luxuries and comforts be lacking to him ?
" Yes," I think I hear some of my readers exclaim, "his
letters. In addition to his breakfast, his bright fire, and
his ' Times,' you said that when he came down in the
morning he would find his letters awaiting him. x\nd the
Post Office is entirely under the supervision of the State."
The postman does not call more regularly than the milk-
man, or the butcher, and difficult as is no doubt the orga-
nisation of the Post Office, I do not think that it is so difficult
as the organisation of a great newspaper such as the
" Times," which owes nothing to State interference. Still,
the Post Office is wonderfully well managed; indeed of late
years almost perfectly managed ; and as this is the only
thing under State supervision that is, as it seems to me,
perfectly managed, I have been at some pains to collect
data for a slight and necessarily very brief sketch of the
history of the Post Office.
The germ of the postal system is probably to be traced
to the necessity of some kind of epistolary intercourse
between sovereigns and governments of various countries,
and this intercourse would naturally spread by degrees to
persons of greater or less importance. Couriers, or per
haps what we should call in these days Queen's Mes-
sengers, would fulfil, though of course in a crude way, the
122 Natural Causation.
office of postmasters. In the postal system of Spain and
Germany, there is express record of permission to carry
letters between individuals, though subject to very ham-
pering restrictions and regulations ; and there is one
particular record of such a permission in April, 1544;
which about fifteen years later grew into a legalised mo-
nopoly from which the Counts of Taxis drew parts of the
profits as Postmasters-General. In France this sort of
rudimentary post-office had even an earlier beginning. So
far back as the early part of the thirteenth century a post-
office was organised by the University of Paris. The first
English Postmaster of whom there is any distinct account,
does not seem to have lived before the earlier half of the
sixteenth century. His name was Sir Brian Tuke, and in
the year 1533 he is described in the Records as " Magister
Nimciorum, Cursorum, sive Postarum, both in England and
in other parts of the King's Dominions beyond the Seas."
In 1607 the King granted to James Stanhope, first Lord
Stanhope, the Postmastership of England, under the title
of " Master of the Posts and Messengers," with a fee of
100 marks a year. In 161 9 a separate office of " Postmaster-
General of England for Foreign Parts " was created by new
letters patent in favour of one called Matthew de Quester.
But the new office was regarded by Lord Stanhope as an
infringement of his own patent, and a long dispute ensued
in the King's Bench and before the Lords of the Council.
But now the various quarrels between interested parties*
coupled with confusion and irregularity in management,
led a private individual — one John Hill, an attorney, to
see if his own unassisted efforts could not bring about a
certain reform. In or about 1650 he placed relays of post-
Natural Growth in Civilisation.
12.3
->
horses between York and London, and undertook the
delivery of letters and parcels tit half the former rate of
charge. Even at this early date — just the middle of the
seventeenth century — this enterprising attorney aimed at
establishing a penny post for England, a twopenny post
for Scotland, and a fourpenny one for Ireland. But the
State, influenced by jealousy of its own interests, was too
powerful for a single-handed attorney. The State then was
under the Government of Cromwell ; but I have yet to
learn that the jealousy and selfishness of a Commonwealth
is very much less than the jealousy and selfishness of a
Monarchy. By each alike the Post Office was looked upon,
not as a means of communication between citizens, and
indirectly as a source of social and professional improve-
ment, but first as a means of State revenue, and afterwards
as useful, or indeed necessary, for purposes of political
espionage. Cromwell's soldiers trampled down the new
letter-carriers, and Hill himself narrowly escaped severe
punishment. For some years the State control of the Post
Office proceeded without further interruption, until, under
the Government of the Restoration, Charles II., by Act of
Parliament, settled all the profits of the Post Office on
H.R.H. the Duke of York and his heirs male."
Roused probably by this, and disregarding the fate of
John Hill, William Dockwra, a searcher at the Customs
House, assisted by one William Murray, a clerk at the
Excise Office, were prompted to see if they could not do
something to facilitate the delivery of letters. In 1680
Dockwra established a penny post in London. For one
penny he undertook to carry, register, and insure all letters
and parcels up to a pound in weight and £\o in value.
I2 4
Natural Causation.
He established hourly collections, with a maximum ol ten
deliveries daily for the central part of the city, and a
minimum of six for the suburbs. His management seems
to have been admirable ; but he was forced, through the
jealousy of the State, to desist. Suits were laid against
him in the Court of King's Bench for infringing on the
Duke of York's Patent. Dockwra, however, more fortunate
than his predecessor John Hill, escaped without any actual
punishment. On the contrary, he received in compensation
for his losses an annual pension, for a limited number of
years, of ^500 from the State Post Office revenues. Too
much, however, must not be made of this generosity. By
the following Table will be seen the rate of pensions paid
down by these revenues to Court favourites, in comparison
with that paid to the man who had worked so arduously
and intelligently at postal reform : —
£
Earl of Rochester . . . . . . 4,000
Duchess of Cleveland
Duke of Leeds . .
Earl of Bath
Lord Keeper
William Dockwra
4,700
3,500
2,500
2,000
500*
The first enduring impulse to the development of the
Post Office owes its origin to another private individual,
one John Palmer, a manager of the Bath Theatre. In or
about 17S2, his attention (very likely through unhappy
personal experience) having been drawn to the numerous
* For this table, and for my facts generally, I am indebted to an interest-
ing article upon the Post Office in the new edition^of the " Encyclopaedia
Britannica" by E. Edwards and W. B. Cooley.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 125
robberies of the post, which were so habitual that they had
grown to be looked upon by the State in the light of more
or less " necessary evils," suggested that by building mail
coaches of a construction expressly adapted to run at a
good speed, and by attaching an armed guard to each
coach, the public would be greatly benefited and the reve-
nue increased. The State, of course, resenting interference
as an implied doubt of her infallibility, haughtily refused
his advice, maintaining that the existing system was as
perfect as under the necessities of the case it could expect
to be. Lord Camden, however, brought the matter under
the personal notice of Pitt, who, at once perceiving its
merits, insisted upon its being tried. The experiment was
made in 1784 ; and its success exceeded the most sanguine
expectation. Nearly a million was added to the revenue.
The State, true to herself — jealous, that is to say, of her own
authority, and above all indignant at having been proved
to be in the wrong — placed every obstruction in the way of
Palmer gaining his deserved reward. Pitt, however, in-
sisted that he should be made Comptroller-General of the
Postal Revenues ; but the place was made so exceedingly
unpleasant for him by those jealous of merits that they
could no longer deny to themselves, however they might
openly deride them, that it was impossible for him to hold
it. Ultimately, after various vicissitudes, he obtained a
pension of ^3,000 a year.
The improvements by Sir Rowland Hill, and the general
history of the Penny Postage, belonging as they do to this
century, are much better known than the earlier history of
the Post Office. Still they are not known so fully to the
general public, I think, as to make it necessary for me to
126 Natural Causation.
offer any apology for devoting a few pages to a description
of its origin and growth. Before doing this let me point
out that, just as the State postponed by her short-sighted
jealousy the establishment of the penny post, so she did her
best to hinder Sir Rowland Hill. By the public generally,
and especially the trading public, his scheme was received
with enthusiasm. If, without breach of the law, he could
have tried it simply as a private individual establishing
any other branch of trade, he would have begun it there
and then, and its success would have probably been imme-
diate ; but it seems never to have occurred to him to act
apart from the State. He merely desired to improve the
then existing system through suggestions, and these
suggestions were considered impracticable if not mad.
In the words of the Earl of Lichfield, then Postmaster-
General, " With respect to the plan set forth by Mr. Hill,
of all the wild and visionary schemes which I have ever
heard or read of, this is the most extraordinary." *
Let those believers in the perfection of State manage-
ment compare the working of the Post Office as conceived
and worked out by John Hill, or Dockwra, with what it
was at the beginning of this century, when it was entirely
in the hands of the State.
" If, when residing at Birmingham," says Sir Rowland
Hill, in his "History of the Penny Postage," "we received
a letter from London, the lowest charge was ninepence,
while the slightest enclosure raised it to eighteenpence,
and a second enclosure to two shillings and threepence,
though the whole missive might not weigh a quarter
of an ounce. We had relatives at Haddington ; the lowest
* " Life of Sir Rowland Hill," by G. B. Hill, vol. i., p. 279.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 127
rate thence was thirteenpence-halfpenny. . . . The
captain of a ship arriving at Deal had posted for London
a packet weighing thirty-two ounces, which came to the
person to whom it was addressed, charged with a postage,
not of five shillings and sixpence, according to the rate
proposed by me, but of upwards of six pounds, 'being,' as
my informant observed, ' four times as much as the charge
for an inside place by the mail.' So that had the captain,
instead of posting the letter, sent a special messenger with
it up to London, allowing him to travel inside both ways,
and paying him handsomely for his time, as well as
indemnifying him for his travelling expenses, the result
would have been a considerable saving."*
But it was not only the price that was exorbitant, it was
the mismanagement in every way, the waste of time as
well as waste of money, that so peremptorily called for
reform. And this continued even after a few improve-
ments recommended by Rowland Hill and his able
coadjutor and predecessor, Mr. Wallace, had been adopted.
To mention a few of those inconveniences.
"As the day mails were so few," says Sir Rowland Hill,
" most of the letters arriving in London by the morning
mails on their way to other towns had to lie all day at the
General Post Office ; so that places corresponding through
London, even if very near to one another, were, in postal
distance, kept as far asunder as London and Durham ; and
when a blank post-day intervened, the delay was even
more remarkable. Thus, a letter written at Uxbridge
after the close of the post office on Friday night was not
* Ibid., pp. 238, 276.
128 Natural Causation.
delivered at Gravesend, a distance of less than forty miles,
until Tuesday morning.
" If two letters were put in the proper district receiving
offices in London between five and six in the morning,
one addressed to Highgate, the other to Wolverhampton
(which lies one hundred and twenty miles on the same
road), the Highgate letter was delivered last. The postage
of a letter from Wolverhampton to Brierley Hill, conveyed
by a cross-post passing through Dudley, was only one
penny ; whereas if the letter stopped short at Dudley, thus
saving some miles in conveyance, the charge rose to
fourpence.
"The absurd rule of charging by the number of en-
closures instead of by weight, often caused great irrita-
tion, especially when any one of the enclosures was very
diminutive. Thus, in an instance reported to me at the
time, a certain letter from London to Wolverhampton,
which now would be conveyed for one penny, came
charged with a postage of two shillings and sixpence, viz.,
tenpence for the letter, tenpence for a returned bill of
exchange enclosed therein, and tenpence for a small scrap
of paper attached to this letter at the notary's office.
" On the poorer classes the inconveniences fell with
special weight, for as letters almost always arrived unpaid,,
while the postage was often too heavy to be met at the
moment, letters were sometimes withheld for days, or even
weeks, until the means of discharge could be raised.
" The necessity for ascertaining the number of enclosures
compelled the examination of every doubtful letter by
the light of a lamp or candle placed behind it ; and this
inspection leading to the discovery of bank-notes, &c>
Nat i inil Growth in Civilisation. 129
which otherwise might have escaped remark, exposed the
clerks to needless temptation, led to many acts of dis-
honesty, and brought much loss to correspondents.
" In addition to the dishonesty thus directly injurious
to individuals, there were other frauds which materially
affected the revenue. Such was the complication of
accounts, that the deputy-postmasters could not be held
to effectual responsibility as respects the amounts due from
them to the General Office ; and as many instances of
deficit came at times to light, sometimes following each
other week after week in the same office, there can be no
doubt that the total annual loss must have reached a
serious amount."*
To which frauds we must not forget to add the well-
known abuse of the franking system, by which the well-to-
do classes constantly evaded the legal postage. " It was
found that the yearly number of franked missives was
about seven millions ; that those franked by Members of
Parliament (somewhat less than five millions in number)
might be counted nearly as double letters, the official
franks (about two millions in number) as eight-fold letters,
and the copies of the statutes, distributed by public
authority (about seventy-seven thousand in number)
thirteen-fold letters." f
But perhaps what nerved Mr. Rowland Hill to continue
his reform in spite of all obstacles, more than anything
else, was his conviction of the terrible cruelty a high rate
of postage was to the poor. The poor, least able to pay
the postage, were also least able to escape payment by the
means of the franking system, for only such as were
* Sir R. Hill's Life, pp. 281 — 2S3. f Ibid., pp. 321, 322.
I
130 Natural Causation.
acquaintances or relatives of the aristocracy could obtain
these privileges. Again and again, as Mr. Hill's pro-
jected reform became widely known, were reports sent to
him from philanthropists or from local postmasters detail-
ing the misery accruing to the poor from the high rate of
postage, which made it well-nigh an impossibility to take
letters in. Very touching are some of these reports.
Poor people in anxiety about relatives, offering various
small articles of personal property for the privilege of
opening a letter, because they had not the money to pay
for the postage. Indirectly the evils w r ere even greater ;
for the impossibility of correspondence kept working men
in ignorance of the state of wages in different parts of the
country ; and thus they would often travel about the
neighbouring - towns and villages, hoping to improve their
position, only to find this hope totally without founda-
tion ; whereas if the postage had but been within their
means they would have written first to make inquiries, and
thus saved themselves from the miseries of baffled hopes
and unprofitable labour. Young, ignorant girls in employ-
ment fifty miles away from their parents, were, for all
practical purposes, as far removed from parental guidance
as if they had been at the Antipodes, and this want of
communication often led to vice and profligacy, which
might otherwise have been prevented.
So strong did the feeling gradually grow concerning the
evils inflicted on society by postal mismanagement that
there was some danger of philanthropists going too far.
Shocked by the cruelties inflicted through an exorbitant
charge for letters, they began to teach the unwise and
dangerous doctrine that people should pay nothing for the
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 131
postage of their own letters, but that the State should
undertake the carriage quite gratuitously. Happily Row-
land Hill did not share these mischievous doctrines. He
fought manfully in his determination that there should be
no exorbitant charge for what in itself cost little ; but he
did not desire either the poor or rich to expect that benefits
should be received by them which other people were to
pay for. Carefully looking into the accounts, he found
that the actual cost of a letter was under a penny ; that a
penny therefore would cover the cost, leaving a certain
portion over for the Revenue ; and if, as he thought pro-
bable, the greater cheapness of postage would immensely
multiply the number of letters, then the State, instead of
being a loser, would in reality be a gainer ; while the con-
venience to the public would be almost indescribable.
There is no need for me to detain the reader further
upon this subject. We all know that that project of Sir
R. Hill that was at first denounced as so " wild and vision-
ary " has proved to be an enormous financial success ; and
that the Penny Postage, partly because it was so ably
worked out and fairly launched by Rowland Hill, partly
because, by some fortunate accident, all our Postmasters-
General have been men of singular intelligence and recti-
tude, is admirably managed, notwithstanding that it is
under the direction of the State. Yet I have thought it
right to recall to the reader the principal circumstances in
the history of the Post Office, so that he may be able to
see for himself that notwithstanding the undoubted present
good management of the Post Office by the State, it would
have been equally well managed, nearly two centuries
earlier, had John Hill or Dockwra been allowed free trade
132 Natural Causation.
in their undertaking, and two centuries of fraud and per-
fectly preventible misery might have been spared. " But
what would have become of the enormous revenue the Post
Office brings to the State, had individuals such as Dockwra
or John Hill been allowed its monopoly r " I fancy some
reader exclaiming. Well, I am not urging, nor do I
think it practicable at this late hour, that there should be
any alteration in the direction and proprietorship of the
Post Office ; only it must be remembered that when
Dockwra began his enterprising scheme, the revenue of
the Post Office was utilised for no larger purpose than to
enrich the Duke of York or the favourites of Charles the
Second. Moreover, considered in the light of abstract
justice, I cannot see that the State had a greater right to
prohibit or to seize upon the proprietorship of the Post
Office, because it promised to be an enormous financial
success, than it has now to seize upon the proprietorship of
the " Times " because that has proved to be a great financial
success. Besides, it is not likely that Dockwra would have
enjoyed the entire monopoly. Success always provokes
competition. As other and cheaper newspapers compete
with the " Times," so other letter-carriers would probably
have competed with Dockwra. And, notwithstanding
some serious drawbacks, the discipline of competition is
on the whole a healthy one.
But I am afraid that the Post Office is the only office
that with any justice can be acknowledged to be adminis-
tered as w T ell by the State as by individuals. I am afraid
that in all the other instances I shall cite, the adminis-
tration and interference of the State must be pronounced
to be nothing less than mischievous ; that citizens have
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 133
been hampered in their various pursuits by its sense-
less and unnecessary restrictions ; and that until by long
endeavour they had won for themselves Free Trade in their
various industries, then and not till then could they perform
their duties properly. Take, for instance, by way of our
next illustration, the comparatively unimportant matter of
Theatres.
In Appendix A. to his interesting work, "A New History
of the English Stage,"* Mr. Percy Fitzgerald has pointed
out how completely the management of the stage, almost
to our own time, has depended upon the will of the Lord
Chamberlain. That the Chamberlain's authority pro-
ceeded from the Sovereign alone is clear, from the fact that
no Act of Parliament previous to the 10 George II. c. 28
(passed in 1737) alludes to his licensing powers, though he
was constantly exercising them. The office records prove
that between 1628 (when they commence) and 1660 the
Lord Chamberlain licensed and closed theatres, interfered
in the copyright of plays, and had complete control over
managers and theatres. In 1662 and 1663 King Charles
the Second granted the two well-known patents to Thomas
Killigrew and Sir William Davenant for all kinds of stage
entertainments as therein named, and by these two patents
all other companies in London and Westminster were
silenced. In 1682 the two patents were united by inden-
ture. In 1695 William the Third granted a licence to
Pxtterton to set up another theatre. In 1731 the Hay-
market came into existence, then known as " Foote's
Theatre," and in or about 1809 the Lyceum and Adelphi.
But now, within the short period of twenty years
* Vol. ii., pp. 4.36, 437.
134 Natural Causation.
occurring at the close of the last century and beginning of
this, took place the well-known " burning of the theatres."
Those (and they were many) who favoured " free trade " in
theatres now felt that here was an opportunity not to be
lost for making a serious attempt at enlarging the number
of play-houses ; and a Bill for this purpose was brought
before Parliament. In its parental desire to protect the
interests of its children, the State did its best to point out
the folly of increasing the number of theatres, urging (not
altogether unreasonably) that since the only great theatre
that was then in existence was never full, was it likely
that managers would be able to fill others ? Was not the
speculation likely to be an unprofitable one ? And was it
not the duty of the State to protect her citizens from foolish
speculations ?
But now, mark the simple but very pertinent interpreta-
tion given by one of the defenders of free trade in theatres
of this undeniable fact that the only large theatre was
seldom full : —
" The houses are empty from the natural incommodious-
ness of them. They may be occasionally and accidentally
filled by the representation of a new play, or the perform-
ance of a favourite actor, but in general they will be
deserted from want of accommodation. Unless these
houses be totally altered, we shall not take persons away
from them. In their present state they are certainly more
fit for a Spanish bull-fight than for theatrical performances.
If curiosity ever induced any of your lordships to visit the
places appropriated for the accommodation of the humbler
classes you would find that, looking down from the height
through the vast concave, the actors appear like the
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 135
inhabitants of Lilliput. Not a feature of the face can be
distinguished, far less the variations and flexibility of
muscles, the turn of the eye, and graceful action. It is
impossible to exert the human voice to that extent as to
be heard in those places, and still to retain the power
of modulating its tones." *
Well, in our own day managers have succeeded in
securing, at all events, comparative Free Trade in theatres.
And what is the consequence ? Peremptorily urged thereto
by the wholesome discipline of competition, managers vie
with each other in making their theatres attractive to the
eye, and conducive to the comfort, of the playgoers. The
number of theatres has been . greatly increased, and yet
they are all more or less well filled. Occupation is thus
found for hundreds, recreation provided for thousands, and
managers are allowed to enjoy the profits of their own
industry freely. Doubtless some of their speculations have
been foolish. But the difference in the consequences of a
private foolish speculation and a State-originated foolish
speculation is that in the former the individual guilty of
the folly is forced by the necessities of the case to repair
his folly, or if he cannot do that, at least to see that it goes
no further. Thus, if a theatre turn out badly, the manager
immediately sets about some fresh arrangement ; he alters
the prices, or gets different actors, and so on. But if this
does not succeed then he shuts up the theatre. That is to
say, the misery brought about by his unsuccessful specula-
tion (for all large speculations that have failed bring more
or less misery) is of a strictly limited description, and falls
* Quoted by Mr. Fitzgerald in his " New History of the English
Stage," vol. ii., p. 381.
1 36 Natural Causation.
principally upon himself. But the misery brought about
by foolish Acts of Parliament is well-nigh unlimited. The
State never repairs her mistakes immediately ; and refuses
tacitly to acknowledge that she lias been in the wrong, by
repealing her Acts, till she is forced to do so by persistent
importunity. The misery thus caused is greater than
meets the eye. In the first place, there is always a vast
amount of suffering, conscious or unconscious, long before
citizens are fully awakened to the realisation of their own
misery, before they are prompted to rouse themselves to
inquire into its cause and origin. With private indi-
viduals the discovery of the cause of an evil goes a long
way towards discovering the remedy. But it is not so
with the State. Session after session, year after year, will
there be a petition that such and such a foolish Act may
be repealed. Session after session, year after year, will
the petition be refused. Take the history of the Anti-Corn
Law agitation, for instance ; a history, I am well aware, that
is fairly well known ; but yet in these days, when among
interested parties a demand for what is called Fair Trade
is growing, not so well known as to make it undesirable
for me to recall to my readers some of its principal facts.
First, as to the origin of the Corn-Laws themselves.
In the time of Napoleon, England and France were en-
gaged in a war that lasted several years. During that
period, the English, in addition to being greatly impove-
rished by the increase in taxation brought about by that
war, were also unable to receive foreign corn into their
ports. To add to the wretchedness resulting from these
two causes must be added a third — one natural and inevi-
table — in the shape of a succession of bad harvests. The
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 137
English landlords, having the monopoly of corn in their
hands, imposed upon the buyers a fancy price, and the
poorer part of the population was well-nigh in a state of
famine. But the war came to an end in 18 15 ; taxation
was less ; foreign corn could again be admitted ; the whole-
country grew more prosperous ; all classes were in a state
of comparative content, save one — the landlord class.
Under the wholesome discipline of competition, the land-
lords could no longer maintain a fancy price for their
produce. They brought in a Bill, therefore, for Protection,
and, in a Parliament consisting chiefly of landlords, the
Bill was passed with little or no difficulty. And thus
arose the Corn-Law of 18 15, by which all foreign grain was
excluded save under a rate of duty that was practically
prohibitory, until the market price had reached the sum of
eighty shillings a quarter. Thus, too, the population
found themselves plunged into almost a repetition of the
famine they had scarcely recovered from, incidental to the
French war.
Now I do not desire to identify this system of Protection
solely with the Tories, though I think it chiefly belongs to
them. Mr. John Morley, in his " Life of Richard Cobclen,"
has properly pointed out that " there was no essential bond
between the maintenance of agricultural protection and
Conservative policy." Burke, the most magnificent genius
that the Conservative spirit has ever attracted, was one of
the earliest assailants of legislative interference in the
corn trade, and the important Corn Act of 1773 was
inspired by his maxims. " There is no such thing," Burke
said, " as the landed interest separate from the trading
interest ; and he who separates the interest of the
138 Natural Causation.
consumer from the interest of the grower, starves the
country."*
But though the Corn Law Act of 18 15 was founded
upon a misconception of the truths of Political Economy,
I am afraid that the motive of the law was one purely of
class-interest. Doubtless plausible excuses were pleaded,
possibly — who can tell ? since the human conscience is
adroit at finding excuses for its own wickedness — believed
in; but that class-interest alone was at the bottom of the
law cannot, I think, be denied by any one who has im-
partially studied the facts of the case. As was well
pointed out by one of the more unselfish among the peers,
Earl Radnor, "The whole object of the Corn Law was to
uphold rent. It was said that the object was to employ
labour in the cultivation of land. Now, if that was the
case, why was the produce of grass as well as arable land
protected ? There was a tax upon the importation of
horses, and also upon the importation of asses. The im-
portation of horned cattle was prohibited, and so were
sheep and swine. Turkeys, fowls, eggs, milk, and cheese
were taxed. There was not an article of food of any de-
scription which was not taxed. What could be the object
of that but to put money into the pockets of the landlords ?
Not only the produce of the land, but that of the sea was
also taxed. Now this latter was said to be done for the
purpose of protecting the fisheries and encouraging a race
of seamen. How was the fact ? What fish was most
highly taxed r Why, salmon — the fishing of which had
nothing to do with educating seamen. Several noble
lords derived from this tax as much as ^4,000 to ^5,000 a
' ; ' Life of Richard Cobden," by John Morley, vol. i., p. 167.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 139
year from their salmon fisheries. But what fish did their
lordships think was exempt from taxation r They would
suppose it was some ignoble fish ; but it was no such
thing It d was turbot. Yes, there was another fish
which was not taxed. Was that a poor man's fish ? No,
indeed, it was a lobster, that their lordships might have
sauce for their turbot Hundreds of thousands of
their countrymen were starving around them, whilst every
animal upon the earth, and every fish of the sea, and every
bird of the air, was taxed to prevent its coming to those
famished people."*
It has, I think, been proved conclusively that even
selfishly this Act was the reverse of beneficial. But sup-
pose, for the sake of argument, that it were not so, was it
morally right to tax all classes for the sake of one class ?
It seems to me that those who argue thus should remember
that if this principle were logically carried out doctors
might insist that there should be no good drainage, no
knowledge of sanitary laws, because if all become healthy
what will become of the doctors? Or lawyers might
demand, that there should be no instruction, no religion,
because if all become moral what will become of the
lawyers ? That as the world grows morally and physically
more healthy there will be less demand for doctors and
lawyers seems to me certain. But what of that ? These
will simply have to invest their talent and capital else-
where. Cessation of demand invariably necessitates cessa-
tion in supply. The effect of this Corn Law was to spread
misery all round. Before it, the labourer received from
twelve to eighteen shilling's a week. After it, from eight
* Quoted by Mr. Ashworth, in his " Cobden and the League," pp. 74, 75,
second edition.
14° Natural Causation.
to ten. The farmers did not prosper. Thus the whole
question resolved itself into one of rent. But after a few
years the landlords themselves began to suffer, because the
rents could not be paid. But the difference between the
labourers and landlords was this : that in the one case the
family of a nobleman paid to the bread tax about one half-
penny on every hundred pounds of income, while the
labouring man paid twenty per cent. Thus it came to pass
(to quote the words of a witness of the wretchedness) "that
anything like the squalid misery ; the slow, mouldering,
putrefying death by which the weak and the feeble of the
working classes are perishing here, it never befel my eyes
to behold, nor my imagination to conceive. And the
creatures seem to have no idea of resisting or even re-
pining-. They sit down with Oriental submission, as if it
was God, and not the landlord, that was laying his
hand upon them." *
Yet Nature had nothing to do with it. Had there been
a famine, or a pestilence, or a great hurricane, the effects
would have been terrible, yet the)^ would have been short.
But here for more than thirty years was there starvation
throughout the land, that was artificially created, artificially
continued. Thousands of barrels of flour were decaying
in the United States for want of mouths to eat thereof;
thousands of persons were starving in England for want of
bread to eat. As Cobden succinctly pointed out in one of
his speeches f : — " Suppose, now, that it were but the
Thames, instead of the Atlantic, which separated the two
countries ; suppose that the people on one side were
* Quoted by Mr Ashvvorth in his " Cobden and the League," p. 37.
t Morley's "Life of Cobden," vol. i., p. 186.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 141
mechanics and artisans, capable by their industry of pro-
ducing a vast supply of manufactures ; and that the people
on the other side were agriculturists, producing infinitely
more than they could themselves consume of corn, pork,
and beef; fancy these two peoples anxious and willing to
exchange with each other the produce of their common
industries, and fancy a demon rising from the middle of
the river — for I cannot imagine anything human in such
a position and performing such an office — fancy a demon
rising from the river, and holding in his hand an Act of
Parliament, and saying, 'You shall not supply each other's
wants ' ; and then, in addition to that, let it be supposed
that this demon said to his victims, with an affected smile,
' This is for your benefit ; I do it entirely for your protec-
tion ! ' Where was the difference between the Thames and
the Atlantic r "
In 1846, after a duration of thirty-one years, the Corn
Laws were repealed. And it may be added that, though
the population has increased about 18 per cent, since that
time, the extent of pauperism has been diminished by
upwards of 25 per cent. Previous to the repeal of the Corn
Laws, our imports of wheat and flour would average about
three millions of quarters per year; at the present time they
are from ten to sixteen millions. The importation of foreign
cattle has now reached 200,000 head, besides 1,300 tons of
beef, 800,000 sheep and lambs, and 140 tons of hams and
bacon annually; and yet, in spite of this immense importa-
tion, an advance of 50 per cent, in the price of butcher's
meat has been sustained.*
But what I want chiefly to insist upon is that all this
* Ashworth's " Cobden and the League," p. 261.
142 Natural Causation.
misery was artificially brought about by mischievous legis-
lation. Had commerce been left alone by Government, had
it been only allowed to run in a natural channel through the
simple laws of supply and demand, thirty-one years of direct
misery — and who shall say how many years of indirect
misery, some of which we may even now be reaping ? — had
been spared.
And now, while I am upon the subject of Free Trade, let
me plead for free trade in female industry. Has the
vState or have the professional classes any moral justifica-
tion in prohibiting women from pursuing any honest
occupation for which they have an inclination ? I am aware
of the two objections generally cited against the wisdom of
such permission. The first is, that if women enter the pro-
fessions they will become unfeminine ; the second is that
Nature has made woman mentally and physically inferior
to man, and that therefore it is impossible that she should
ever really succeed in the professions. As to the first ot
these objections, I would point out that it is an extremely
difficult thing to draw a line between employments femi-
nine and unfeminine. It seems to me to be an arbitrary
distinction varying with each generation. Some time ago
I believe it was thought to be a pedantry improper in ladies
to spell correctly. About two hundred years ago Fenelon
could thus write : " Women should be taught to keep their
minds within due limits, and should learn to shrink from
science as they would shrink from vice." Fenelon was a
progressive man for his age, and had written largely upon
female education ; yet I doubt whether in our own day
men, even with the most conservative taste in women, would
deny them all study of science. All they would object to
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 145-,
is that they should be allowed to make any public use of
the knowledge freely allowed them to gain.
Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, in answer to
the second objection, the great majority of women to be
, really greatly inferior to men, has the State or have the-
professional classes any right to prohibit them following
any occupation they choose r Just as much and no more
than they have to prohibit delicate or incompetent men.
If they are capable of doing the work well, it is unjust both
to them and to the community to hinder the performance-
of good work. If, on the contrary, they cannot do it, why
trouble to say they shall not : Does not the one involve
the other ? Nature has one all-powerful prohibition —
Incompetency ; what need is there of other?
To turn to another subject : State interference with the
liberty of the individual, either in religious or medical
matters.
To the student of human nature there are few questions-
more interesting, more bewildering, and to a certain ex-
tent more tragical than the history of the rise and fall of
human beliefs. How or why they arise is not always easy
to discover. Each different age has its own peculiar belief,,
and in some degree each different nation. One thing
alone we can prophesy with fair accuracy : that however
wise or foolish a belief may be, whatever difficulty it may
have encountered at the outset to get itself accepted, yet
when once it is accepted and fairly propagated, it will have
tenfold more difficulty to get itself uprooted. One gene-
ration reaps what another has sown ; and the belief that
has been accepted with great difficulty and much hesita-
tion by our fathers, becomes passively yielded to with no
144 Natural Causation.
difficulty and little hesitation by our children. Nor, para-
doxical as the assertion may seem, must the mental
superiority or inferiority of a man be gauged by the folly
•or wisdom of his beliefs. What child of ten, for instance,
does not believe in the existence of antipodes ? Yet Lord
Bacon steadfastly denied its possibility. None now but
ignorant boors believe in witchcraft. Three centuries ago
who disbelieved in it r Even the most conservative of
medical men would hardly deny now that the supposed
efficacy of constant bleeding was more or less of a super-
stition ; yet fifty years ago it was a belief almost universal.
Is there then no test of truth ? At least its attainment
is of such rare difficulty that we should be long-suffering
towards those who differ from us. Propagate other opinions
by all means. This we may rightfully do, since " he who
only knows his own side of the case knows little of that."
But here our interference should stop. Directly the State
arrogates to itself a right to punish by fine or imprisonment
non-acquiescence in its religious or medical injunctions,
then, it seems to me, it is the duty of every honest citizen
to remonstrate. For nearly a century persecutions have
-ceased for religious matters ; but on the medical question
•of vaccination, a great deal of cruelty, I grieve to say, is
practised towards parents, who having had, as they believe,
their elder children injured by careless vaccination, refuse
to submit the younger ones to a similar danger. They
are in fact fined or imprisoned till they yield.
" But," it will be answered, " the State is forced to
somewhat stringent measures here. The unvaccinated
become a centre of infection to the vaccinated."
If vaccination be really the safeguard it is represented to
Natural Grmvth in Civilisation. 145
be, no infection can injure those who have submitted to the
process. Jenner was so convinced of its protective power
that on one occasion he inoculated with small-pox a lad
he had recently vaccinated, and triumphed in the fact that
even then the boy escaped.* On another occasion he took
a child recently vaccinated to the bedside of a patient,
suffering from the strongest phase of small-pox, and he
was unaffected. Either vaccination is such a protection
that the vaccinated have nothing to dread from their un-
vaccinated neighbours ; or else it is not a protection, and
should not be compulsorily inflicted. I see no escape from
this logical dilemma.
" In things doubtful," Lord Houghton has somewhere
said, "liberty." lam no strong anti-vaccinator myself ; but,
since we are often most assured of what we are most
ignorant, I will confess that since I have studied the anti-
vaccinator's side of the question, I am not so entirely con-
vinced of the infallibility of vaccination as I was a few
years ago. Is it quite certain that the diseases of animals
1 other than glanders and hydrophobia) can be communi-
cated to man, or* those of men to beasts? If I, recovering
from scarlet fever, nurse a child, the latter is almost sure
to take it ; but will my lap-dog or my cat ? The cattle
plague, when it occurred some years back, infected
thousands of cattle ; did it infect their keepers ? Ac-
cording to Jenner s most admiring biographer, Baron,
his discovery consisted of vaccination performed in this
way : Grease was taken from the sore heel of a horse, put
into the already sore teats of a cow, and the lymph from
the gathering naturally thus arising was put into the
* Baron's "Life of Jenner," vol. i., p. 13S.
K
146 Natural Causation.
human arm. I was fourteen when I was last vaccinated,
and have perfect recollection of it. The arm took, as the
phrase goes, and so I suppose I had the cow-pox ; but so
far as my own sensations went I only had a sore arm.* I
had no fever, no eruption (save on the arm), no loss of
sleep or appetite. I was in all respects perfectly well.
Vaccination has now had a fair trial for about a hundred
years. Has small-pox disappeared: On the contrary,
the epidemic of 1871 was a severe one. It has decreased
no doubt, but the decrease had begun before the practice
of vaccination. Measles and scarlet fever have decreased
almost in the same ratio. f The decrease in these two
latter zymotic diseases is acknowledged to be owing to
the better drainage of cities, to our greater knowledge
of disinfectants and sanitary matters generally. Is it
not just possible that the same causes are at work in
the decrease of small-pox r I am far from dogmatically
asserting this to be the case ; but I think it to be
* Jenner's description of a case of aggravated cow-pox in the cow :—
" The whole skin with the exception of no part of it, from the base of
the horns to the end of the tail and to the hoofs, was one continued
disease, not of vesicles nor scabs, but a discharge similar to that pro-
duced by a blister. Even the nose and to the very edge of the lips were
affected the same as the other parts of the skin. Every symptom of
violent fever was present ; no attention having been paid to that previous
to my seeing her." — " Life of Dr. Jenner," by John Baron, F.R.S., vol. i.,
P. 352.
t Dr. Farr, on p. 305 of his " Vital Statistics," declares that " Fever
has declined nearly in the same ratio as small-pox. In the three latter
periods of the table the deaths from fever decreased as 621 : 264 : 114 ;
from small-pox as 502 : 204 : 83." This slightly greater decrease is pro-
bably to be traced to our greater dread of small-pox, and consequent
greater precaution in exposing ourselves to infection.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 147
within the bounds of possibility. Voluntary vaccination
seldom does harm, as will be attested by the well-to-do
of all ranks. Lymph taken from a healthy animal or
infant, inserted by a careful medical man into a person
perfectly healthy at the time, brings about no ill effects.
But whether diseases of animals can be imparted to man,
or no, it is unhappily beyond doubt that human diseases
can be propagated with fatal facility from one human
being to another. It is next to impossible for the public
vaccinator to perform the operation with the extreme care
necessary to make it devoid of risk. Conscientious parents
of the lower classes have been, and still are, subjected to
an amount of persecution painful to contemplate. That
their objection to it is not so unreasonable as is often
represented, may be seen from the fact of the increase
in the mortality of infants since the Vaccination Act.
Prior to this, in 1847,* the mortality was somewhat less
than it is now. The percentage of infants dying under
one year old when vaccination became " obligatory,"
that is to say, 1855-65, was 11 '841 ; and in 1870-75, when
it became "enforced," it rose to 12*257. When we take
into consideration the greater knowledge of sanitary and
other conditions favourable to life, I need scarcely say
the relative significance of these figures is greater than
the absolute. If any careful student will impartially study
the statistics of the decrease in small-pox, with increase
in infant mortality, he can hardly fail to see, even
from the common-sense point of view and leaving
the moral aspect untouched, that the general advan-
* See Hopwood's " Statistics," published under the superintendence of
the Registrar- General and by order of the House of Commons, 1877.
148 Natural Causation.
tages are hardly so great as to warrant the community
being made to pay nearly ^98,000 a year for its privi-
leges, to say nothing of the bonuses, amounting to about
;£i 6,000, voted by Parliament for extra good vaccination.
When we do come to the moral part of the question; when,
that is to say, we take into consideration the number of
conscientious poor parents who submit to imprisonment
or to be literally fined out of house and home, rather than
that their children shall run the risk of some ghastly disease
through State vaccination ; when, moreover, we consider
the iniquity of compelling people who spare neither time
nor money in exposing the evils of enforced vaccination
to administer to those evils by paying towards them, we
shall, I think, agree that the legislation which has brought
about all this is not to be admired either for its wisdom or
morality.
" Well," I imagine some of my readers retorting, " sup-
pose we grant you, more for the sake of the argument than
that we are convinced — suppose we concede that under the
pressure of human wants and necessities man's material
welfare can proceed unaided by the assistance of Govern-
ment, man does not live by bread alone. He has a soul,
and needs religion ; he has a mind, and needs education."
No one realises more firmly than I do that man does not
live by bread alone ; yet none the less certain am I that if
the State has hindered man's material welfare, she has in
a still greater degree hindered his mental and moral wel-
fare. I believe no one can read impartially a history of
Christianity without being convinced that it was an un-
mitigated misfortune for her when she fell into the hands
of the State. I do not deny that within her arms have
Natural Growth tu Civilisation. 149
been found men of unblemished integrity, of exalted recti-
tude. But the integrity and rectitude of these men did not
require the assistance of the State ; whereas the evils
belonging to the State Church could not have existed in
any voluntary system, but belong solely and entirely to the
fact of the close union between Church and State. I allude
of course to the evils of non-residence, of pluralities, of the
sale and purchase of livings ; of the possession of family
livings, in which the living was almost avowedly reserved,
not always for the younger son, but for the most incom-
petent son — for the youth who promised to be too inefficient
to earn his livelihood in any other profession. Nay, she
has been the cause of evils far more serious than these. In
the words of Mr. Buckle : — " For almost a hundred and fifty
years Europe was afflicted by religious wars, religious
massacres, and religious persecutions ; not one of which
would have arisen if the great truth had been recognised
that the State has no concern with the opinions of men, and
no right to interfere, even in the slightest degree, with the
form of worship which they may choose to adopt." I am
not now pleading for any immediate disestablishment ot
the Church. On the contrary, it seems to me that, taking
into consideration the immense decrease in abuses, the
unselfish, hard-working lives of the large majority of our
clergy, above all, the cry for still more reform coming from
the nobler members themselves, never was disestablish-
ment so little imperative as now. But it is quite possible
to admit this, and yet. to regret that in the first instance
the Church should have fallen into the hands of the State.
I have sometimes heard it cited by way of argument that
* " History of Civilisation," vol. i., p. 262.
150 Natural Causation.
the refined State-paid clergyman is a centre, or rather focus,
of civilisation ; a great agent in refining the poor and
bringing them into connection with the rich. This I do
not deny. But I have yet to learn that it needs " a scholar
and a gentleman " to be paid by the State in order to keep
him " a scholar and a gentleman." I am willing to grant
that the majority of Dissenters are less refined than the
clergy of the Established Church ; but that is simply be-
cause they are for the most part taken from the lower
middle classes, and their surroundings are less refined.
Yet let me point to one small body, unendowed by the
State, that are remarkable for their culture : the Unitarians.
I doubt whether the most refined clergyman the Church of
England possesses could exceed in culture and breeding
such men as the Rev. James Martineau, or the late Rev.
W. H. Channing. When we come to man's mental wel-
fare, I am afraid here also I must point out that the
influence of the State has been the reverse of beneficial.
If I were asked to name the three great agents in the
mental progress of man, I should say the Printing Press,
the establishment of Railways, and the Penny Post. How
has the first of these fared in the hands of the State r It
has been hampered, restricted, kept down, till a cry for the
" liberty of the Press " has passed almost into a by-word.
AVhen the Press by persistent efforts did at last win com-
parative liberty, the State injured her by a more fraudulent,
because a less direct way, than open repression. She
taxed books ; she taxed newspapers ; she taxed in
addition the very paper on which information was
printed. In a word, she taxed knowledge itself. And
what are the .advantages she has bestowed in com-
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 15
pensation for these manifest evils r For myself, I cannot
name one.
When we come to Railways, we shall find that they
certainly owe little to State assistance ; though, on this
occasion, it must in justice be admitted that the whole
country was of the same opinion as the State. It was not
at first a question of class interest, such as the Penny Post
or the Corn Laws, where the country wanted one thing and
the State another. Here the State really represented the
feeling of the average citizen. Happy is the country when
it does not do less than this ! But what country, and what
Government, from the time of Socrates to the present day,
has recognised its greatest man r Consider, for instance,
what are the country's representatives in an average House
of Commons : a certain number of rich parvenus, who
enter Parliament for the sake of writing M.P. after their
names ; a certain number of barristers, who enter Parliament
in the hope of legal preferment ; a large number of landed
proprietors, of old family, who represent the several counties
because their fathers did it before them ; and a very small
minority, indeed, who have an intimate acquaintance with
political science and are actuated by a disinterested desire
to work for the good of the nation. In a House like this
how many will be likely to have any knowledge of the
forces of Nature ; any acquaintance with those great
Natural Laws which, when understood by man, act for the
most part beneficially, but which, when not understood or
unheeded by him, bring about mischief that is irreparable?
We can hardly blame the State for denying the capabilities
latent in steam when great engineers, when celebrated
barristers, when " Quarterly " reviewers all vied with each
152 Natural Causation.
other in pouring contempt upon the man who ventured to
assert them. And yet I know no more impressive figure,
no scene more worthy of a future dramatist, than that of
George Stephenson, the uncultured genius, who was to
revolutionise the civilisation of the world, pleading before
the "collective wisdom" of his country for permission to
make some further use of the instrument he had invented.
What was called "The Liverpool and Manchester Bill"
went into Committee of the House of Commons on the 21st
of March, 1825. The wealth and influence of the opponents
of the measure enabled them to retain the ablest counsel
at the Bar. On the 25th of April Stephenson was called
into the witness-box. The directors had previously begged
him to refrain from so much as hinting before Parliament
that his locomotive could go at a greater rate than ten
miles an hour. In reality it was somewhat difficult for
him to keep the engine down to ten miles an hour, but he
promised to be prudent. Past experience had made him
nearly as anxious to be prudent as the directors themselves.
But he was uneducated, uncultured, and, like most scientific
men, simple and direct. Vituperation upon vituperation
was poured upon him. One asked him, with a sneer, if he
were a foreigner (alluding to his Northumbrian accent) ;
another plainly hinted that he was mad. He returned no
vituperation ; but modest and free from self-assertion
though he was, he had withal that quiet self-reliance with-
out which no man is really great. He said afterwards,
when relating these experiences, that he felt that these
barristers were questioning, not for the sake of getting at
the truth (to impart which no man would have been more
ready, more patient than he), but simply to bewilder him.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 153
Yet the slight excitement naturally engendered by such
conduct made him — not angry nor vindictive, for those
qualities were foreign to him — but made him forget
his resolutions of prudence. He began with his experience,
beginning in 1803 as a brakesman at Killingworth, up to
that present period, during which time he had constructed
fifty-five steam-engines, of which sixteen were locomotives.
Then, when warmed with his beloved subject, he confessed
that he felt sure that a high-pressure locomotive that he
was now constructing could go at the rate of twelve miles
an hour. Here honourable members whispered to learned
lawyers that the man must certainly be under a delusion !
And too late Stephenson knew that he had been imprudent.
Then came a series of trivial questions, aimed for the pur-
pose of showing that the witness was wholly devoid of
common sense, rather than to gain any information as to
the question before them. Among them was this ques-
tion* : " Suppose, now, one of these engines to be going
along a railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour,
and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the
way of the engine, would not that, think you, be a very
awkward circumstance?" To this question the witness,
not wanting in that sense of humour that belongs more
generally to the philosophic and scientific mind than the
world imagines, answered, with a twinkle in his eye, "Very
awkward — -for the coo." For three days he was under
cross-examination. He gave his scientific evidence simply
and, for the most part, clearly ; though when the cost of
constructing bridges had to be gone into — that subject being
somewhat new to him at the time, and he by no means
* See Smiles' " Lives of G. and R. Stephenson," p. 264.
154 Natural Causation.
adroit in assuming knowledge that he had not — wavered in
his answers, implicity, if not explicitly, betraying his
ignorance. His cause was lost, though by a very trifling
majority. And he himself was stigmatised in wholly
immoderate language.
" Who/' said the leading counsel against him, " but Mr.
Stephenson would have thought of entering into Chat
Moss, carrying it out almost like wet dung ? It is igno-
rance almost inconceivable. It is perfect madness, in a
person called upon to speak on a scientific subject, to pro-
pose such a plan Every part of the scheme shows
that this man has applied himself to a subject of which he
has no knowledge, and to which he has no science to
apply. . . . Locomotive engines are liable to be operated
upon by the weather .... the wind will affect them ; and
any gale of wind which would affect the traffic on the
Mersey would render it impossible to set off a locomotive
engine, either by poking of the fire, or keeping up the
pressure of the steam till the boiler was ready to burst."
Thus the collective wisdom of the country !
But the committee of directors appointed to watch the
measure in Parliament, urged possibly thereto by the
fact of the very small majority by which the Bill was de-
feated, urged also, perhaps, by the increased respect the
manly, honest behaviour of George Stephenson elicited
from them, pressed on the measure again. I will not weary
the reader by going minutely into the details of this second
proceeding. Suffice it to say that the Act was at last
passed, but the cost of obtaining it was ^27,000 !
But to show what was effected by this one man, aided
by individuals urged to help him by no higher motive than
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 155
that of self-interest, let me quote the following passage
from Mr. Smiles' "Life of Stephenson," p. 370 : —
" The following striking comparison has been made be-
tween this [the London and Birmingham] railway and one
of the greatest works of ancient times. The Great Pyramid
of Egypt was, according to Diodorus Siculus, constructed
by three hundred thousand — according to Herodotus, by
one hundred thousand men. It required for its execution
twenty years, and the labour expended upon it has been
estimated as equivalent to lifting 15,733,000,000 of cubic
feet of stone one foot high. Whereas, if the labour ex-
pended in constructing the London and Birmingham
Railway be in like manner reduced to one common denomi-
nation, the result is 25,000,000,000 of cubic feet more than
was lifted for the Great Pyramid ; and yet the English
work was performed by about 20,000 men in less than live
years. And whilst the Egyptian work was executed by a
powerful monarch concentrating upon it the labour and
capital of a great nation, the English railway was con-
structed, in the face of every conceivable obstruction and
difficulty, by a company of private individuals, out of their
own resources, without the aid of Government, or the con-
tribution of one farthing of public money."
And again with the Midland Railway : —
" Compare it," says Mr. Smiles (p. 381), "for example,
with Napoleon's military road over the Simplon, and it
will at once be seen how greatly it excels that work, not only
in the constructive skill displayed in it, but also in its cost
and magnitude, and the amount of labour employed in its
formation. The road of the Simplon is 45 miles in length;
the North-Midland Railway jih miles. The former has
156 Natural Causation.
50 bridges and 5 tunnels, measuring together 1,338 feet in
length; the latter has 200 bridges and 7 tunnels, measuring
together 1 1,400 feet, or about 2\ miles. The former cost
about £720,000 sterling; the latter, about £300,000,000.
Napoleon's grand military road was constructed in six
years, at the public cost of the two great kingdoms of
France and Italy; while Stephenson's railway was formed in
about three years by a company of private merchants and
capitalists out of their own funds, and under their own
superintendence."
But now, before finally quitting this part of my subject,
let me cite one more detail concerning the general dealings
of Parliament with railways. I allude to what is known by
the name of The Railway Mania.
The success of the first main lines of railway had created
a strong speculative tendency ; and in consequence persons
utterly ignorant of railways, but greedy for premiums,
applied for allotments which they could sell at a premium.
Railway schemes were composed to attract the unwary.
The Post Office was literally crammed with circulars and
prospectuses. Pseudo-engineers, scheming lawyers, reaped
an undreamed-of harvest. Surely, if State interference were
justifiable at all (beyond, as I have said, for the absolutely
necessary purposes of prevention of aggression and en-
forced performance of contracts) it would be as a preventive
of these frauds. But in 1845 it was found that no less than
157 Members of Parliament were on the list of committees.
George Stephenson a few years since had been denounced
as insane for dreaming that his locomotive could proceed
at the rate of twelve miles an hour. Now the scheming
engineers and floaters of companies declared that their loco-
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 157
motives should run at the rate of a hundred miles an hour.
In vain did Stephenson try to stem the torrent of the turn
in public opinion. The State, capricious lady that she is,
having endeavoured to restrict, to hamper, to denounce in
every way the establishment of railways, now went to the
other extreme. In 1845 powers were granted by Parlia-
ment to "construct not less than 2,883 miles of new rail-
ways in Britain, at an expenditure of about forty-four
millions sterling ! Yet the mania was not appeased ; for
in the following session of 1846 applications were made to
Parliament for powers to raise ^389,000,000 sterling for the
construction of further lines ; and they were actually con-
ceded to the extent of 4,790 miles (including 60 miles of
tunnels at a cost of about ^120,000,000 sterling)." So
long as the railway system was built upon sound commer-
cial principles the State either denounced or ignored it ;
but when based upon the wildest, most fraudulent specula-
tion, she honoured it with her encouragement. Stephenson,
who had suffered sufficiently from her repressive mood,
dreaded her far more in her present mood of pampering
and spoiling. He wrote to Sir Robert Peel, complaining
that " these Members of Parliament are now as much dis-
posed to exaggerate the powers of the locomotive as they
were to under-estimate them a few years ago." He
publicly proclaimed his conviction that forty miles an hour
was the highest rate that* a train could run with perfect
safety. For himself he preferred the very moderate rate of
twenty-four miles. To conclude in the words of Mr. Smiles
(p. 429) : " The result of the labours of Parliament was a
tissue of legislative bungling, involving enormous loss to
the nation. Railway Bills were granted in heaps. Two
158 Natural Causation.
hundred and seventy-two additional Acts were passed in
1846. Some authorised the construction of lines running
almost parallel with existing railways, in order to afford
the public ' the benefits of unrestricted competition.'
Locomotive and atmospheric lines, broad-gauge and
narrow-gauge lines were granted without hesitation.
Committees decided without judgment and without dis-
crimination ; and in the scramble for Bills the most un-
scrupulous were usually the most successful."
The history of the Penny Post has been already de-
tailed.
Have I given enough facts in support of the theory pro-
pounded by me at the beginning of this essay ? At least,
I think I have given enough to show the grave danger
latent in the cry now arising from politicians, " More
State help ; more State interference ! ' : I allude of course
to Free Education.
But before proceeding to the subject of Free Education
let me touch slightly upon the subject of Compulsory
Education itself.
Here let me first express my astonishment that the cry
for Compulsory State Education should have proceeded in
large measure from that Liberal Party who, in greater or
less degree, were, if not absolutely inimical to the preserva-
tion of a State Church, at least fully conversant with the
evils almost inseparably associated with it. Yet it seems
to me that the arguments used in favour of State Education
are not a whit more satisfactory than those for a State
Church. Indeed, in one sense of the word they are less
satisfactory. For the greater part of the Church revenues
have another source than taxation ; and, save nominally
Natural Grorvth in Civilisation. 159
(for I believe compulsory attendance at church, though
long since obsolete, has never been formally abolished),
persons are not compelled to go to church. But children
are forced to go to school, however anxious parents may be
to keep them at home ; and thus parents are forced, even
though they may be in a state of starvation, to pay their
mite towards the expense, though they would much rather
have the child at home ; while the great bulk of the cost is
chargeable upon other persons, many of whom have diffi-
culty enough in educating their own children, without in
addition being forcibly compelled to contribute towards
the expense of educating the children of others.
"But," I imagine some critic exclaiming, "do you so
undervalue education that you think it a matter of indiffer-
ence whether children are educated or no ; or is it that you
are so narrow that you wish education to be confined to
the upper classes alone?" I plead guilty to neither of
these accusations. So far from wishing to keep the poor
"to their station," as is the cant phrase, I hold that the
station a man or woman is born to is that to which they
can severally raise themselves by free trade in their own
industry and intelligence. I would have every arbitrary
artificial barrier removed either in the form of rank, religion,
country — even sex. I would give every man and woman-
child a fair field and no favour ; and so far from condemn-
ing or despising the successful man because he is what is
called " self-made," I would hold him up as an example
worthy of admiration and imitation to the children still
struggling in the rank from which he has succeeded in
raising himself. Again, so far from undervaluing the
advantages of education, I regard those advantages as so
160 Natural Causation.
undeniable, so palpable and ostensible as certainly not to
require the somewhat doubtful compliment of making their
reception a matter of compulsion instead of a boon and a
favour. But the chief factor in improvement seems to me
to be, not compulsory education, but removal of what may
rightfully be called compulsory prohibition by the removal
of a newspaper tax, and by the establishment of a penny
post. Parental and filial affection are not less strong in
the poor than in the rich. Indeed, judging by the large
share of their wages — by servant-girls specially for in-
stance — habitually given by the poor to their parents, I
should be inclined to think that if anything it is greater;
and the consciousness that if they only know how to read
and write they will be able to communicate with their
relatives at a long distance, is a great inducement to them
to master the difficulties of reading and writing. Again,
now that newspapers and books are cheap, the poor man is
scarcely behind the rich man in his appreciation of them.
Doubtless the literature is of a different class. But the
labourer in his village reading-room enjoys his pipe and
local newspaper as much as the fashionable man his cigar
and "Truth" in his club, or the scholar his "Spectator"
in his library. Remove all arbitrary prohibitions in the
way of unjust taxation, and the natural laws of parental
affection, of self-interest, in a word of supply and demand,
will be more effectual than any compulsory education.
Give a man an inducement to read and write, and he will
learn to do so. But before the establishment of cheap
literature and cheap postage, he naturally refused to trouble
himself to master difficulties which when mastered would
almost certainly prove useless ; which in the course of a
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 161
few years would probably be forgotten simply for lack of
practice. But prove to a parent that if he teaches his
child, that child will be not only happier, but will be sooner
off his hands and able to work for himself; and parental
affection, coupled with self-interest, will make that parent
voluntarily educate his child whenever possible. And it is
just in those cases where voluntary education is not
possible that compulsory education steps in and becomes
such an extreme cruelty. Here is a case I cut out from the
"Daily Telegraph " of November 27th, 1885 : —
"THAMES.— School Board Prosecution. —Amongst persons
summoned at this court for not sending their children to school, was a
wretchedly clad woman named Arnin. — The School Board visitor having
proved the non-attendance of the child in question, the defendant, in
answer to the charge, stated that she was a widow and supported herself
■and family entirely by her own exertion. Her two sons, aged respec-
tively 17 and 15, were out of employment, and the reason she had not
been able to send her little girl to school was on account of her having
no boots or clothes to go in. — Mr. Lushington said he must fine the
defendant 2s., or, in default of distress, two days' imprisonment. — The
officer : Have you the 2S. ? — Defendant : I have not two farthings in
the world, and no food or firing at home."
Here is another, from the same paper of February 8th,
1886:—
" SCHOOL BOARD TYRANNY.
"to the editor of 'the daily telegraph.'
" Sir, — Permit me to state a hard case. A respectable woman, who
lives within 500 yards of my house in Sydenham, in the street for which
my wife is district visitor, and for whose respectability we can vouch,
told me this morning the following story : —
" Her husband, a carpenter, formerly earned £2 and upwards a week,
the whole of which he was in the habit of giving to his wife. He fell from
a scaffold about two and a half years ago, and is so weak and unwell that
.he is not fit to work, except for light jobs, for a short time. The wife goes
L
162 Natural Causation.
out charing at 2s. a day. They have nine children. Two daughters are
well married ; a son has been away from home in a situation for three
years. The eldest girl at home, aged sixteen, earns about 4s, a week.
The eldest boy at home has a place at 6s. a week. Recently he has had
two fearful abscesses, which have prevented him going to work. With a
view of trying to keep his place his next brother, aged twelve, has for a
fortnight been filling his brother's place, at a shop in Forest Hill. The
father has been summoned to Greenwich, and fined 6d. and costs, 2s.,
because this boy of twelve has not been at school. On the day on which
this sickly man had to walk to and from Greenwich his wife could not
come to my house, and so lost 2s., and if the lad is made to go to school
probably his elder brother will lose his place, and with it 6s. a week.
My wife says their house is a model of cleanliness, and the children a
picture of neatness. The earnings of this family are seldom in excess of
24s. a week. One quarter of this is threatened by the cruel law which
will not allow the younger brother to fill the elder boy's place tempo-
rarily ; the father is made to walk nine miles and pay 2s. 6d., the mother
losing 2s. while the husband is appearing before the magistrate. Of
course I have paid the fine and costs ; but is it any wonder, when such
things are happening, that the poor hate the Board Schools ? The only
public relief this respectable family can get is by breaking up their little
home and going into the Union. The man is quite unfit to break
stones. — I am, yours obediently. " S. FLOOD PAGE.
" February 6th."
The cruelty of this case is so obvious that I would rather
call the reader's attention to what is not so obvious, viz.,
that even in an educational point of view (in any reason-
able and not superstitious sense of the word) the fortnight
spent by the boy in his brother's place of business would
have been by no means wasted time. It would be the means
of giving him insight into an occupation that in a few years
he will probably adopt as his own. More than this, if he
show himself attentive and alert his employers would
probably recommend him. And a lad, even with only a
fortnight's good character, will have a slight advantage
over an entire beginner. Thus education, which when
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 163
given voluntarily is a great advantage in the struggle
for existence, when made compulsory — in other words,
enforcing the letter and neglecting the spirit — becomes a
grave drawback in the struggle for existence.
I fail to see how free education would benefit in cases
like this. To me the crying evil is, not that parents should
be forced to pay for the education that they voluntarily
give their children, but that they should be compelled to
educate them, whether delicate or strong, or whether mixing
indiscriminately with children of good or bad parents
should prove beneficial or harmful. In a word, I fail to
perceive what right the State has to interfere with the
sacred rights of parents, so long as they have done nothing
to forfeit their liberty as free citizens by any criminal
action.
Here I may be reminded that parental love is not invari-
able, and that legislative interference is chiefly intended for
the protection of those unhappy little ones who have drunken
or selfish parents. I am quite aware that parental love is
not invariable. Whether this world is the best of all
possible worlds I know not, but it is certainly not the best
of all imaginable. This being so, some children will be
blessed with greater parental love than others. But it
must be remembered that affection for offspring is the rule,
and lack of affection the exception, and to legislate for the
few at the expense of the many, to legislate for the un-
worthy at the expense of the worthy, is an injustice, even if
the State were likely to prove an efficient foster-mother,
which seems to me the reverse of probable. It has been
the purport of the present section of my essay to prove
that nothing is so well done by State effort as by voluntary
164 Natural Causation.
effort. And most certainly, concerning the protection and
succour of the poor little waifs and strays devoid of parental
care, voluntary effort has not been backward. Look at Dr.
Barnardo's Home ; look at the Ragged Schools, founded,
I believe, by the late Mary Carpenter ; the Field Lane
Refuges ; the excellent work done by the religious of all
denominations — all supported voluntarily ; all doing good
to the receivers ; all doing little or no harm to the giver.
In these schools there is no complaint of " over-pressure,"
no accusation of wanton extravagance. In the Board
Schools the cry of " over-pressure " has unhappily been
too frequent of late ; though in justice * I will admit the
* In what seems to me a sensible and impartial little book, " Over-
Pressure and Elementary Education," Mr. Sydney Buxton, M.P., has
endeavoured to prove, and I think with some success, that there has been
considerable exaggeration in the complaints of over-pressure. Having
no practical connection with the School Board I feel myself at a dis-
advantage, and speak, therefore, quite subject to correction. So far as
merely second-hand information warrants my coming to a definite
opinion, I am inclined to agree with Mr. Buxton. Cases of over-pressure
undoubtedly do occur ; but taking into consideration the enormous
number of children who attend these schools, the relative proportion of
children suffering from over-pressure is not greater than at other schools
— our own public schools, for instance. But the difference between the
two cases seems to me this, that the parent can take away his child
from the public school if he thinks fit, but he cannot from the Board
School. In the one case a parent has a right to deliberate within himself
as to whether the future good a boy may gain from over-pressure is
not worth a little risk to present health. If a boy is going in for the
Indian Civil Service, or the Royal Artillery, or if he hopes to be a Fellow
of his College, it is worth while to run a risk that would not be worth
while if he were simply going to be a clerk. But the withholding a
child from examinations in Board Schools belongs to the teacher and
not to the parent, and the mere existence of the Merit Grant would, I
think, prove which way an ordinary teacher would be likely to be
biassed.
Natural Grmvth in Civilisation. 165
possibility of exaggeration. But about the extravagance
of the Board Schools there is, I fear, no exaggeration.
The figures speak for themselves. Whatever the State
does, it does expensively; and education is no exception to
the rule.
" The last Government Report," says Mr. Arthur Mills,
in an article on the " London School Board " in the
"National Review" for December, 1885, "tells us that,
whereas the average salary of masters in London Voluntary
Schools was little over ^152 per annum, that of masters in
the Board Schools averaged over ^257 ; while the mis-
tresses in Voluntary Schools were content with an average
salary of about ^87, against ^178 earned by their more
fortunate sisters in Board Schools. And when we find that
all the smaller items of ordinary expenditure are greater in
Board than in Voluntary Schools, it is no matter of sur-
prise that a comparison of the two classes of schools for the
year ending September 29th, 1885, should show a very
large excess in the former over the latter. As the results
produced by the teaching power in Voluntary Schools are,
as tested by the Government grant, practically equal to
those obtained in Board Schools, it is difficult to explain
this vast discrepancy in cost on any hypothesis consistent
with careful finance on the part of the London School
Board."*
* " The National Review," vol. vi., p. 567. To those readers who hold
that much of the progress of this century is to be traced to the progress in
education, I may as well point out how small a portion after all of educa-
tion is State education. In 1885 the total of Board and Voluntary Schools
were 18,895, of which 4,295 only were Board Schools. — "Westminster
Review," October, 1886, p. 507.
The system of State subsidies began with ,£20,000 a year, and has now
1 66 Natural Causation.
When we come to Free Education, in addition to Com-
pulsory Education, the hardships seem to me to be even
grown to over ,£3,000,000. Yet, in spite of this immense outlay, how
seldom one comes across a girl or lad of the labouring classes who can
spell ! They can generally read ; so I think could girls and boys before the
School Board Act of 1870; they can write better, though still execrably from
the scholastic point of view ; but the spelling is of a most " phonetic "
description. The following article on " Some Education Statistics" is
from the " St. James's Gazette " of January 14, 1888 : — " The final test of
the efficiency of our School Board system is to be found in the examina-
tion papers of the scholars who successfully present themselves in Standard
VI., and are thereupon released from obligatory attendance. When a child
has passed Standard VI. he (or she) is supposed to be sufficiently well
instructed for all the purposes Parliament had in view when it passed Mr.
Forster's Act ; and to be competent, at the least, in reading, writing, and
arithmetic. The Code, it is true, aims at something more than this. It
prescribes that before a child is passed in Standard VI. he shall be able
' to read a passage from one of Shakespeare's historical plays, or from
some other standard author, or from a history of England ; ' to write ' a
short theme or letter on an easy subject — spelling, handwriting, and com-
position to be considered,' or to write an exercise in dictation ; and to do
' sums ' in vulgar and decimal fractions, simple proportion, and simple
interest. Moreover, each child is supposed to be instructed in one or
more of the ' class ' subjects, and in at least one of the ' specific ' subjects.
The class subjects are English, geography, elementary science, and his-
tory. The specific subjects include algebra, Euclid and mensuration,
mechanics, Latin, French, animal physiology, botany, the principles of
agriculture, chemistry, physics, and (for girls) domestic economy. Unless
a child has reached the fourth standard, history cannot be taken as a
class subject for him ; and only two 'class ' subjects are allowed to be
taught to any child, one of them being invariably English. Furthermore,
no child can be presented for examination in any specific subject who is
not also presented for examination in elementary subjects in the fifth or
some higher standard. These and other rules are meant to ensure that
the scholars shall be well grounded in the Three R's before they pass on
to the higher branches, and that no higher subjects shall be taught at all
unless the school, as a whole, has reached a fair standard of excellence.
Thus it appears that in theory the Department discourages all teach-
Natural Growth in Civilisation.
167
greater. Hard as it is for a parent on the brink of starva-
tion to be compelled to educate his own child, it is still
ing which might stand in the way of a thorough grounding in the
elements of instruction ; and we see that the examination papers in
Standard VI. are the real test as to whether the intentions of Parliament
have been fulfilled. If we find much bad writing, bad spelling, faulty
arithmetic, and deficient intelligence in the examination-papers of
Standard VI., we may know there is something wrong. If, in addition,
we find all this in the papers of children who pass the final standard, we
may know that the inspection is lax, and that the public money is being
granted in aid of the education of children who are not being properly
educated after all.
" We have before us a batch of Standard VI. examination-papers for a
number of schools, giving the exercises in dictation, composition, and
arithmetic. The percentage of ' passes ' is about seventy-five ; but the
percentage of papers which show command of the Three R's is about ten.
Certainly not one paper in ten is free from error ; the writing is cramped
and slovenly ; little or no attention is paid to punctuation, capital letters,
etc. ; nearly all the dictation and composition exercises contain evidence
that the writers have not understood the sense; downright mistakes in
spelling are frequent ; and the whole performance is extremely poor.
Here are some specimens of the errors in orthography committed by
children whose education is 'finished :'
Dircition (direction). Enimy.
Heir (hair). Ramcart (rampart).
Chord (cord). Peopl.
Steadious (tedious). Probaly.
Probobobly.
Fising (fishing).
Pruving.
Himiself.
Thybone.
Tower (tore).
More specimens could be given if we had more space ; and we take no
notice of a multitude of common errors — the omission or improper use of
the h, of single and double letters, of ' ei ' and ' ie,' of 'as ' and ' has,'
* is' and ' his,' etc. Can it be said that children capable of such work
have been thoroughly grounded in the elementary subjects ? Yet they
Rost (roast).
Spectecales.
Specteceles.
Specikles.
Snak.
Twiglight.
Lenghened.
Baloons.
Buckel.
Slitest.
Hedoge (hedgehog).
Edgeock.
Hedgejog.
Hedgeogg.
Hedgehawk.
Eggog.
1 68 Natural Causation.
harder to be compelled to educate somebody else's
children. As it is, compulsory education inflicts a tax ol
nearly ninepence in the pound upon every householder.
When free education, and the inevitable outgrowths that
are sure to follow, become established, it will be difficult to
say what the amount of taxation will be.
In certain times of distress, that in greater or less degree
afflict all classes alike, the class that suffers the most, as it
seems to me, after the labourer, and much more than the
farmer or tradesman, are the poorer ranks of the small
gentry, the proprietors of schools for young children, ot
Kindergarten Schools, as they are called, or the struggling
artist. And the cause is not far to seek. Neither contribute
to the necessities of the various classes, but rather to their
luxuries, and this in a somewhat poor and feeble way. The
mother sends her little one to the Kindergarten, not
because she is incompetent to teach it herself, but simply
to be freed for a few hours each day from its noise. But
when bad times come, and her husband cannot get his
rents, or his investments turn out badly, and they are
have all been allowed to pass Standard VI., and, we doubt not, some
' class' and ' specific ' subjects as well.
"The errors of grammar are on the same scale. Here we have again
' has ' and ' as,' ' his ' and '' is,' ' an ' and ' a,' used indifferently and at
random. The numbers are fearfully mixed up ; and the feminine forms
given to certain nouns are a wonder to see. Even more instructive are
the exercises in composition. Sometimes an anecdote is given out orally,,
and the children are asked to write it down from memory ; sometimes
they are asked to write on any theme that occurs to them. The results.
are very curious ; but we are precluded from entering into particulars..
We can only state generally that not only are handwriting, spelling, and
grammar bad, but that in many cases the children have clearly had bull
the dimmest comprehension of what it all meant."
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 169
obliged to retrench, almost the first retrenchment will be
taking the little ones away from school and teaching them
herself; and certainly the last luxury she or her husband
will indulge in is to have their own or their children's por-
traits taken by the struggling young artist. The very wealthy
classes, who suffer comparatively little from the general
distress, are precisely those who do not employ small school
teachers or struggling artists. Their mansions are so
roomy that their children are not in the way ; they have
nursery governesses in preference to sending them from
home, and they prefer that their portraits shall be taken
by a distinguished Academician rather than by a nobody.
Well, the distress in these instances is extreme. I speak
from personal acquaintance with one or two cases in point.
Rent is unable to be paid, cast-off clothing is as welcome
as with the poorest labourer ; and yet a certain position
must be kept up, or the few pupils that remain would be
removed. Servants are dismissed save one rough girl to
do the dirty work. The mother buys herself a cookery
book and teaches herself cooking ; she unpicks an old
dress, cuts out a new one by it, and teaches herself dress-
making; she gets up two hours before breakfast in order to
teach her girls the piano before she has to begin work with
the few pupils that remain to her. And yet all the time she
is thus cooking and dressmaking and educating, a look into
Whitaker's Almanack is sufficient to assure her that her
husband is forced to contribute to the payment of three
examiners of needlework, to a superintendent of cookery, to
a singing instructor (to say nothing", of course, of the vast
body of inspectors and teachers of other subjects), in order
that the children of others should be educated. To add to
170 Natural Causation.
it all, four-fifths of the women whose children are being thus
educated at the public expense are perfectly competent to
teach them needlework and cookery — far more competent
than the poor lady who has bravely turned her shoulder to
the wheel in time of need — and are perfectly willing to do
so into the bargain.
The same argument holds good throughout the whole of
the Poor Law system. Money is wrested from us for the
benefit of none but tramps and vagrants. Not a person
save the wholly disreputable will enter a workhouse. I do
not now mean decent servants or small tradespeople. Here
prejudice might arise from social considerations ; but the
poorest crossing-sweeper, the half-starved seller of water-
cresses, so long as they have an atom of self-respect left,
refuse to avail themselves of the shelter provided for them
by the bounty of the State. Dickens' portraiture of Betty
Higden in " Our Mutual Friend " is not one whit exag-
gerated. Compare the horror of the poor for workhouses,
with their gratitude for almshouses, for hospitals, for
orphan asylums, for ragged schools, for free homes and
refuges ; and we shall see the difference between the
benefits afforded by voluntary charity and enforced charity.
Voluntary charity blesses him that gives, and (when pro-
perly administered) him that takes. Compulsory charity
certainly does not bless him that gives — for the kindest-
hearted among- us pay our poor rates with no more
benevolent feeling than we pay our gas rate ; and even
when it blesses him that takes — which is very seldom
indeed — it does so in much less degree than voluntary
charity, which brings rich and poor together, exciting at
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 1 7 1
the same time kindly feelings in the giver and grateful ones
in the receiver ?
Are these imperfections, these failures of State manage-
ment, accidental, merely failures in detail ? Or is there
something radically wrong in the principle of State inter-
ference itself r
If I thought the errors, the various shortcomings I have
selected of State management merely accidental, I should
not have trespassed so long upon the reader's patience.
Errors of detail in course of time often right themselves ;
and I have only dwelt at such length upon them in order
to convince the reader of their existence before proceed-
ing to what is in reality the true purport of this section of
my essay.
Having registered the facts, let me now proceed to
discuss the law underlying these facts. Briefly summed
up, it is this : Civilisation is a slow, gradual development
of the selfish and the social feelings proceeding from
within; not an artificial system imposed from without.
The radical defect of that Socialism which, under one
name or another, is now dominant throughout Europe is
that it treats society as a mechanism, whereas it is an
organism. Society does not consist of a certain number ot
machines, into which, if a certain quantity of steam be
poured, a certain amount of work is sure to be produced ;
but it consists of organisms, to which, indeed, food must
be given — or, to speak more correctly, found for them-
selves — but the benefit of which food depends not so much
upon the quantity swallowed as upon the assimilating
power of the creature by whom it is received. Even with
172 Natural Causation.
vegetable organisms the kind of manure that will make
one plant bear fruit abundantly will burn up another ; the
amount of water necessary to one injures another. But
when we come to animal life the great factor in material
and mental welfare, the great factor in progress, nay,
even in possibility of existence, is the creature's own
power of discrimination. This is the great factor that has
enabled creatures of low organisation to develop to com-
paratively high organisation, which has enabled savages
gradually to become civilised. What to eat, what to
reject, what to avoid, what to approach ; and with men,
what is coincidence, what is cause, what is effect. And
the greater power of discrimination — of knowing how to
choose the good and refuse the evil — each- animal, each
man possesses, the greater likelihood that he will leave
posterity to inherit, in an intensified degree, his own
capability.
The two great factors in civilisation are self-interest
and fellow-feeling ; and the first is the stronger of the two
in average human nature ; though, as I have already
pointed out in a former essay,* the development of the
sympathies seems to me to have enormously increased of
late. Still, that egoism has a slight priority over altruism
is seen in the fact that the first question a young man puts
to himself on leaving school is, " What shall I do to gain
my own living?" not, "What shall I do to gain a livelihood
for others?" It is quite true, that if he is not a rogue, and
means to do his work honestly, he cannot benefit himsell
without benefiting others. Unless he do his work effici-
ently he will get no work to do. But for all that, self-
* Page 107.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 173
interest is the primary motive. The milkman, the butcher,
the baker, call at their customers' doors with the regu-
larity of clockwork ; but they take no manner of imper-
sonal interest in their customers. The barrister, the
naval or military man, the actor, the clerk, the author,
when he does not write for a purpose, all are impelled to
their various professions for reasons of self-interest. And
the great guiding power in their selection is this faculty ot
discrimination. "What am I most fitted for:" asks the
young man of himself, when he thinks of his future career.
And then he adds, " Where am I likely to get on the
soonest r Which of the trades or professions are least
crowded ?-" In a word, he has to discriminate between
what he can do and what he cannot do ; between the
offices most wanting' him and most able to do without
him. And in so far as he is able to exercise this power
of discrimination rightly will he succeed or fail.
But just as the trading and professional classes cannot
do good to themselves, without unconsciously doing good
to their employers, so in many cases — especially where
there is personal intercourse — there is a slight intermixture
of altruism with this pure egoism ; the good that is done
grows to be conscious, and there is distinct pleasure in
doing it. The cook, on first coming to be hired, has no
more impersonal motives than the milkman in leaving the
milk. But in time she becomes attached to a kind master
and mistress ; and if she is told that, because she cooked
the dinner exceptionally well, her master, wearied and
fagged after a long day's work, was tempted to eat his
dinner, which, had it been less well cooked, he would not
have been able to touch, she receives very genuine pleasure
174 Natural Causation.
And in my opinion those mistresses keep their servants
the longest who make due allowance for the sympathetic
feelings in them. Again with the dressmaker. Prima-
rily, no doubt, payment and future recommendation are the
motives within her ; but if she has worked for the family
for some years, she is distinctly pleased to be told that her
young ladies had more partners than usual at the ball,
because the dresses she made them happened to be particu-
larly becoming to them. Again with the tutor or school-
master. He too works primarily for payment, and, if a
pupil passes well, thinks first of the prestige it will bring
his school ; but if the boy has endeared himself to him by
his industry and ability, it is with feelings of quite dis-
interested pleasure that he hears that the boy's future com-
fort is secured by having gained a Fellowship, or passed
the Indian Civil Service examination satisfactorily. And
when we come to the family physician, I need scarcely say
that even delight in his own professional skill is hardly so
great as his delight in having- saved the life of an old
patient, who is, more often than not, an old friend. Nay,
even without this personal acquaintance, it is quite possible
to have this feeling excited. I can speak personally of the
pleasure it gives authors to hear that their labours have
enabled unknown readers to pass away a few hours
pleasantly.
But now, as we saw that pure egoism constantly becomes
touched with slight altruism, let us proceed to the altruistic
feelings themselves. Here too, no doubt, it is difficult to
draw a distinct line. The consciousness of having done a
noble or a kind action does no doubt give rise to feelings
that are pleasurable to self. Still, speaking generally, just
Natural Growth di Civilisation. 175
as a profession is chosen simply from a view to self-
interest, so benevolent actions are done solely with a view
to the interest of others. The philanthropist has to sacri-
fice not only his time and his money, but he has often to
be the witness of misery that he revolts from ; the mission-
ary has often to leave home and relations, and all the
amenities of civilised life ; the author, who, when writing
on social and moral subjects, takes the unpopular side,
knows that not only must he expect no payment for his
work, but he must bear the cost of publication, and very
often a good deal of severe criticism in addition. And yet in
spite of all the penalties that disinterestedness has to bear,
the amount of disinterested fellow-feeling and of unpaid
labour in this country at the present time seems to me
enormous. Even were State interference much less
hurtful than it is, it seems to me strange, that in this
century of all others, when there has been so large a
development in the sympathetic feelings, there should be
so great a demand for compulsory help. The necessity for
it seems to me purely imaginary. Space would fail me to
detail these charitable organisations at any length. Is
there a famine in Ireland ? Immediately donations are
voluntarily subscribed for and sent over. Is there war in
foreign parts ? instantaneously come applications from
devoted ladies to offer their services as nurses. Lint,
money, food, even books and games are among the contri-
butions. Or shall we simply confine ourselves to detailing
the various modes of relief for the distress that is more or
less permanent in our own country. Look at our orphan
asylums, our hospitals, our institutions, our refuges,
our rescue work. Look at Miss Octavia Hill, working for
1 76 Natural Catisation.
the improvement of the homes of the poor ; look at Miss
Rye, devoting herself to the aid of Emigration. And then,
by no means least, must be remembered that quiet unosten-
tatious charity, which perhaps does most good of all,
because it is least likely to be imposed upon — that between
individuals. Who does not know the goodness of the kind
physician, who at one time contents himself with a smaller
fee from " a brother professional," at another remits a fee
every third or fourth visit from an ordinary patient, whom
he knows is disabled by illness from remunerative employ-
ment ; to be followed by remitting fees altogether in cases
of real distress. Who does not know the kind music or
drawing master, who offers to give some last finishing
lessons to a promising pupil, free of charge, because
his or her parents could not afford to pay for them.*
What kind mistress of a household ceases to take interest
in a faithful servant, after said servant has left her service
to be married, and comes to have little ones of her own ?
And then last of all, think of the fellow-feeling from the
poor to the poor. Surely there is no need to imprison a
hard-working widow for keeping her elder girl at home to
look after the little ones. Voluntary aid is certain to com-
pensate for the enforced absence. Even were there no good
district visitor, no clergyman's wife or daughter willing to
teach her at odd hours — a thing most improbable — the
* Even in my own circle of acquaintance — by no means a large one — I
could name at least half a dozen who have done good in this way. And four
cases are known to me of country gentlemen or clergymen, of the wealthier
classes, educating poor children of more than average ability, at their own
expense. All of which said children did well in after-life ; one attaining
a very distinguished position indeed.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 177
child's own little friends of her own age would be only too
glad and proud to impart to her the knowledge that they
have themselves received.
Here I can imagine some critic interposing, " How is it
that you who are so rigid a denouncer of State help should
speak so appreciatively of voluntary aid r Surely, to be a
consistent supporter of the laissez faire doctrine, you should
consider all help equally hurtful. The inferior should be
left to perish by reason of their inferiority ; the superior to
prosper by reason of their superiority. If State help is so
hurtful, voluntary help must be equally hurtful. There
can be no distinction between the two."
To my mind there is a very great distinction, which I
can best express in the words of another than myself.* " //
is one thing to tell the rich to help the poor ; another thing to
tell the poor that they are to be helped by the rich." Indiscri-
minate voluntary charity has no doubt done some harm,
but there is no need for charity to be indiscriminate ; or
rather, it is of the gravest importance that it should not be
indiscriminate. And I think this importance is very much
more widely recognised now than of old. In private life
and between individuals, different persons can be dealt
with according to their different characters. We hope to
influence one by encouragement or by affection ; in other
words, we approach him only through his higher qualities.
There are others with whom this mode is unavailing, if
not ruinous. These we can only influence by leading them
to fear the consequences of their actions. Providence can
only be taught by refusing help ; selfishness lessened by
the apparent withdrawal of sympathy from the unselfish,
* I think J. S. Mill, but I cannot find the passage.
M
178 Natural Causation.
and so on. It is one of the many vices ot State adminis-
tration — at once inherent and unavoidable — that it can
only deal with individuals collectively. And this vice
alone — apart from many others — suffices to prove that
voluntary help is effectual where State help is ineffectual ;
indeed, in many cases where it is pernicious.
That the poor should be helped seems to me certain.
Even putting aside that fellow-feeling which has been
nearly as necessary a factor in civilisation as self-interest
itself, it seems to me that since the two vices largely con-
fined to the poor have been almost created by artificial law,
have been brought about by the selfishness or folly of the
rich, the rich should look upon it as a simple matter of
justice to do their utmost to remedy that evil.
I am not one of those who look upon the poor as more
vicious than the rich. I am not now speaking of the brutal
or criminal classes, of whom I have no personal experience;
but the decent poor — even those who are half starving —
seem to me to possess cheerfulness, industr}^, contentment,
fellow-feeling, honesty (at all events towards those who
have been kind to them), to an extent that might well be
imitated by the rich. But they have two faults in a degree
much greater than the average rich man. These are im-
providence and lack of enterprise. But the first is more
universal than the other. This improvidence seems to me
the bane of the otherwise deserving poor ; bone of their bone,
flesh of their flesh ; bred into their very marrow ; afflicting
the worthy and comparatively worthless alike. Does a
young man get an extra day's wage ? Is he selfish ? Im-
mediately he spends it in a day's jollification. Is he un-
selfish ? Immediately he devotes it to relieving the wants
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 179
■of some friend poorer than himself; and this, though he
may have little ones of his own. Whether he has children,
-or whether he is childless, it is all one to him. The
average poor man never thinks of putting by for the future.
But will not past mischievous legislation fully account for
this?* Look at the Middle Ages, when in the 230 years
from Richard the Second's time, the poor-rate had grown
to seven millions. Or was it likely that enterprise would
flourish, when, as in France, the meddling and regulating
spirit of legislation " disposed without scruple of the re-
sources of manufacturers ; it decided who should be
allowed to work ; what things it should be permitted to
make ; what materials should be employed ; what pro-
cesses followed ; what forms should be given to produc-
tions. It was not enough to do well, to do better ; it was
necessary to do according to the rules. Everybody knows
the regulation of 1670, which prescribed to seize and nail
to the pillory, with the names of the makers, goods not
•conformable to the rules, and which, on a second repetition
* I am glad, however, to be able to state that this improvidence,
though still, unhappily, of considerable extent, is certainly less than it
was. With decrease in expenditure on poor relief, has followed increased
habits of providence in the poor, as is shown by their investments in
savings banks, in clothing clubs, and various other kinds of institutions
for similar purposes. See a very interesting article published in the
''Journal of the Statistical Society," December, 18S3, on the " Progress
of the Working Classes in the last half century," by R. Giffen, LL.D. ;
afterwards reprinted in his"Essays in Finance," Second Series. I commend
this article and one on " Further Notes on the Progress of the Working
Classes " in the same volume, to all those advocates of Protection who
insist upon the miserable condition of the poor arising from the abolition
of the Corn Laws. The facts being that not only do the poor receive die
benefit of the importation of cheap food, but their money wages have
(increased about 50 per cent.
180 Natural Causation.
of the offence, directed that the manufacturers themselves
should be attached also. Not the taste of the consumers,
but the commands of the law must be attended to.
Legions of inspectors, commissioners, controllers, jurymen,
guardians, were charged with its execution. Machines
were broken, products were burned when not conformable
to the rules, improvements were punished, inventors were
fined An artisan could neither choose the place
in which to establish himself, nor work at all seasons, nor
work for all customers. There exists a decree of March
30th, 1 700, which limits to eighteen towns the number of
places where stockings might be woven. A decree of June
1 8th, 1723, enjoins the manufacturers at Rouen to suspend
their works from the 1st of July to the 15th of Septem-
ber, in order to facilitate the harvest."* Had labourers
wished to put by, could they have done so during the
thirty-one years when the Corn Laws were in existence ?
Was it very likely that they would refrain from the plea-
sures of marriage, when its penalties were constantly
hidden from them by the pseudo-religious talk of clergy-
men and district visitors (for surely true religion needs not
the support of absolute falsehood), " that God never sends
mouths but he sends meat " r
The consequence of all this legislative and charitable
bungling is an amount of improvidence that is appalling - r
that can be only cured by kind and judicious advice, coupled
— hard as it is to have to say it — with letting the improvident
man or woman suffer the consequences of his or her improvi-
dence, after it has been proved fully that mere advice has
* Quoted by J. S. Mill, in his "Principles of Political Economy,"
People's Edition, pp. 573, 574.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 181
no effect. Free education will not do this ; nor will any of
the many socialistic schemes now afloat. Greatly as the
State was to be dreaded in her prohibitive and restrictive
mood, she is still more to be feared in her present mood of
pampering, of teaching and assuring the poor either expli-
citly or implicitly that everything is to be doney^r them
and nothing by them. For it must be remembered that
when legislation once begins to interfere with the regula-
tion of charity its original limitation is sure to be extended.
The framers of the Code of 1870 did not foresee that Com-
pulsory Education must necessarily lead to a demand for
Free Education. And yet I have endeavoured to prove
(and I hope successfully) that the cost of this Compulsory
Education to the poor is but a trifling hardship in compa-
rison to the necessity of procuring food, clothes, and some
one to nurse the infants when the mother is away. Already
has come a demand for Free Dinners ; and for myself I
would rather be forced to pay for a dinner which at least
does the child's body temporary good, than for lessons
which when the child is half-starved can do it no manner
of good. Necessarily will follow that a sort of livery, or
peculiar dress, shall be given to every child to wear at least
during school hours ; and that in each district shall be pro-
vided one or more creches, so that the necessity of keeping
an elder child at home to look after the little ones shall
not be pleaded as an excuse for the non-attendance of such
child.*
* In an able article in the January number of the Westminster Review,
1886, on " Socialism and Legislation," the writer draws attention to the fact
" that certain Socialists say that the State should supply fuel in winter
and ice in summer," referring as his authority to Gronlund's " Co-opera-
tive Commonwealth," p. 93.
Buckle, whose "History of Civilisation" I should like to see in the
1 82 Natural Causation.
Well ; let us, for the sake of the argument, dismiss from
our minds the cruelty and injustice of taxing A. to provide
hands of every Socialist, has devoted two entire chapters to a comparison
of the Protective spirit as it was in France and England, drawing the
inference that the greater stability and freedom of the latter is solely
owing to the fact that se/f-help has been always regarded with greater
favour than State help. Of France he says :— " Everything is referred,
to one common centre, in which all civil functions are absorbed.
All improvements of any importance, all schemes for bettering even
the material condition of the people, must receive the sanction ot
the Government . . . everything that is done must be done at
head-quarters. The Government is believed to see everything, to
know everything, and provide for everything. ... In fact, the
whole business of the State is conducted on the supposition that
no man either knows his own interest, or is fit to take care of himself.
So paternal are the feelings of Government, so eager for the welfare of its
subjects, that it has drawn within its jurisdiction the most rare as well as
the most ordinary actions of life. In order that the French may not make
imprudent wills, it has limited the right of bequest ; ... in order that
society may be protected by its police, it has directed that no one shalL
travel without a passport. . . . The people, even in their ordinary amuse-
ments, are watched and carefully superintended. ... In their fairs, at
their theatres, their concerts, and their other places of public resort, there
are always present soldiers who are sent to see that no mischief is done.
. . . Even the education of the children is brought under the control of
the State, instead of being regulated by the judgment of masters and
parents ; and the whole plan is executed with such energy, that as the
French, when men, are never left alone, just so while children they are
never left alone. At the same time, it being reasonably supposed that
the adults thus kept in pupilage cannot be proper judges of their own
food, the Government has provided for this also. Its prying eye follows
ihe butcher to the shambles, and the baker to the oven. By its paternal
hand meat is examined lest it should be bad, and bread is weighed lest it
should be light. In short, without multiplying instances, with which most
readers must be familiar, it is enough to say that in France, as in every
country where the protective principle is active, the Government has
established a monopoly of the worst kind ; a monoply which comes home
to the business and bosoms of men, follows them in their daily avocations,.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 1 83
B.'s children with education and clothes and food ; let us
imagine that by seizure of the Church revenues, or by
troubles them with its petty, meddling spirit, and, what is worse than all,
diminishes their responsibility to themselves ; thus depriving them of
what is the only real education that most minds receive — the constant
necessity of providing for future contingencies, and the habit of grappling
with the difficulties of life." Vol. ii., pp. 123 — 126.
Thus Buckle, writing of France in or about 1859. Had he lived to
postpone his work twenty years later, would he have been able to draw
a comparison between France and England so greatly in favour of the
latter ? Listen to Herbert Spencer writing of his own country in
1884 :—
In i860, "The restrictions of the Factory Acts were extended to bleach-
ing and dying works ; authority was given to provide analysts of food and
drink, to be paid out of local rates. ... In 1861 occurred an extension ot
the compulsory provisions of the Factories Acts to lace-works ; power
was given to poor-law guardians to enforce vaccination ; local boards were
authorised to fix rates of hire for horses, ponies, mules, asses, and boats.
... In 1862 an Act was passed for restricting the employment of women
and children in open-air bleaching ... as well as an Act giving the
Council of Medical Education the exclusive right to publish a Pharmaco-
poeia, the price of which is to be fixed by the Treasury. In 1863 came the
extension of compulsory vaccination to Scotland and also to Ireland
There came the Bakehouses Regulation Act, which, besides specifying the
minimum age of employes occupied between certain hours, prescribed perio-
dical lime-washing, three coats of paint when painted, and cleaning with
hot water and soap at least once in six months ; and then came also an Act
giving a magistrate authority to decide on the wholesomeness orunwhole-
someness of food brought before him by an inspector. . . . In 1866 have
to be named an Act to regulate cattle-sheds, etc., in Scotland, giving local
authorities powers to inspect sanitary conditions and fix the numbers of
cattle ; an Act forcing hop-growers to label their bags with the year and
place of growth, and the true weight, and giving police powers of search ;
an Act to facilitate the building of lodging-houses in Ireland, and provid-
ing for regulation of the inmates ; a Public Health Act, under which there
is registration of lodging-houses and limitation of occupants, with inspec-
tion and directions for lime-washing, etc.; and a Public Libraries Act
giving local powers by which a majority can tax a minority for their
184 Natural Causation.
some other scheme not fully comprehended by me, all this
tremendous system of relieving the poor shall be carried
on free of taxation. Is it good that the poor, already suffi-
ciently improvident, shall be encouraged in redoubled
improvidence r For it must be remembered that it is not so
much as contemplated that State Free education shall cease
with the existing generation. It is to be a national thing.
Every parent is to be encouraged to marry as early as he
likes, under the complete certainty that the children he
recklessly brings into the world will be educated at some-
body else's expense ; and (as seems to me certain in the
books. . . . We have, in 1869, the establishment of State telegraphs, with
the accompanying interdict on telegraphing through any other agency ;
we have the empowering a Secretary of State to regulate hired convey-
ances in London ; we have further and more stringent regulations to
prevent cattle diseases from spreading ; another Beerhouse Regulation
Act, and a Sea-birds Preservation Act (ensuring greater mortality of fish).
In 1870 we have a law authorising the Board of Public Works to make
advances for landlords' improvements, and for purchase by tenants ; we
have the Act which enables the Education Department to form School
Boards, which shall purchase sites for schools, and may provide free
schools supported by local rates ; and enabling school-boards to pay a
child's fees, to compel parents to send their children, etc., etc. ; we have
a further Factories and Workshops Act, making, among other restrictions,
some on the employment of women and children in fruit-preserving and
fish-curing works. In 1871 we meet with an amended Merchant Shipping
Act, directing officers of the Board of Trade to record the draught of sea-
going vessels leaving port; . . . there is a Pedlers Act, inflicting penalties
for hawking without a certificate ; . . . and there are further measures for
enforcing vaccination. . . . We have in 1880 a law . . . which dictates
certain arrangements for the safe carriage of grain cargoes ; also a law
increasing legal coercion over parents to send their children to school.
In 1881 comes legislation to prevent trawling over clam-beds and bait-
beds, and an interdict making it impossible to buy a glass of beer on a
Sunday in Wales." — " The Man versus the State," pp. 9-1 1.
Natural Growth in Civilisation. i85
future, should Free Education come to pass) will be
clothed, fed, and their little ones nursed by others than
themselves. Far be it from me to undervalue the
benefits of education. But it must be remembered that
book-learning is a tool or a key (though a most valuable
tool, I admit) of knowledge, not knowledge itself. No
amount of grammar and geometry stuffed into unwilling
brains will compensate for lack of self-reliance, indepen-
dence, judicious foresight — in a word, discrimination. And
the best, indeed, in many cases, the only way of teaching
self-reliance, independence, and foresight is by not inter-
fering between an act and its natural penalty. " For educa-
tion " (to quote Sir William Hamilton) " does not consist
in the mere possession of facts, or in the simple swallowing
of truths. It is not by the amount of knowledge communi-
cated, but by the amount of thought which such knowledge
calls into activity, that the mind is exercised and developed."
And again, Montesquieu has said : " It is not always
possible so completely to exhaust a subject as to leave
nothing to be done by the reader. The important thing is,
not to be read, but to excite the reader to thought." But
it is only with the exceptional boy or girl, the exceptional
man or woman, that book-learning excites thought. What
does excite thought, alike in average and exceptional human
nature — in all save the absolutely incapable (who, however
great our compassion for them, should certainly not be
helped to the extent of encouraging them in leaving pos-
terity) — are the simple, natural consequences of our daily
acts : How to get on ; above all, how to get on our
children. This latter difficulty touches upon the two great
primary instincts of nature — feeling for self, love for off-
1 86 Natural Causation.
spring. On this side, the selfish parent thinks to himself,
What shall I do to enable my son to earn his own living,
and be soonest off my hands r On the other side, he asks,
What shall I do to promote the future happiness of my
child ? Save with the solitary student, the genius, the
enthusiastic scholar, who love their several branches of
study simply for themselves, and with no other end in view
— save with these few (perhaps not one in five thousand),
all book-learning by all classes, from the lowest trade to the
highest profession, is simply regarded as a means to this
end : How shall I get on ? How shall I get my children
on ? Remove this incentive ; interfere with parental
responsibilities, by removing them to the shoulders of the
State, and the amount of thought that is alone called forth
by the imperative necessity of adjusting actions to ends
will be lessened, will gradually die away, will perish from
lack of use. And then also must be remembered those
pregnant facts underlying the law of heredity. A certain
smattering of grammar and geometry is not inherited
directly by child from parent ; but the development, the
increased capacity of brain that alone comes from properly
exercising it, is passed on — passed on oftentimes in an
intensified degree.
It is sometimes said that it is never safe to prophesy.
Yet surely, if ever we may judge of the future by the past,
it is justifiable in this case. To me, at least, it seems
certain that just as laws in favour of industry injured it,
hampered it, restricted it, till trade came to a deadlock —
just as laws framed for the prevention of usury and for the
lowering of the rate of interest increased usury and doubled
and trebled the rate of interest, so certainly these new laws
Natural Growth in Civilisation. 187
(if passed), conscientiously framed with a view to the im-
provement of average intelligence, will end in deteriora-
tion and degeneration of the moral and mental faculties.
I have no wish to erect Nature into the position of the
semi-idol that she filled in the last century. I am
willing to admit that some of her laws are terrible, cruel,
tragical ; but it must be remembered that her prejudicial
laws are the seldom and the occasional, her beneficial laws
the many and the constant. Hurricanes, famines, earth-
quakes happen but rarely. In temperate regions, perhaps,
not once in a century. Even death can only happen once
in every life. But the beneficial laws of Nature affect us
through all the simple everyday acts of our entire life.
Natural Law says to every one reaching maturity, "Be in-
dustrious, be provident, and you will prosper. Show tender-
ness and justice to your children, and they will show grati-
tude and respect to you. Have fellow-feeling for others. If
unavoidable calamities should overtake them, do for them
as you would have them do for you. Nay, if they are not
unavoidable, if you feel certain that you would have escaped
them, judg-e them not harshly. Give them a " help-up,"
only first be sure that your present "help-up " does not in
reality mean future " help-down." But Artificial haw, in its
new form of Socialism, says, " Be industrious or idle, sow
or leave unsown, you shall reap the fruits of others. Why
refrain from the pleasures of marriage; we will ensure that
you shall escape all its responsibilities. Be provident or,
improvident, be drunken, be lazy, your children shall be
as well educated as if you were sober and self-restrained.
Why should children suffer for their fathers' sins ? The
rich have abundant wealth. Force them to expend it
1 88 Natural Causation.
for the good of those whom you have brought into the
world."
"Well," perhaps some demagogue of the extreme type
will retort " be it so." By your own showing, the poverty
and ignorance of the poor have been largely brought about
by the tyranny, the injustice, or the folly of the State ; and
the members of the State are, or at all events were, the
rich. Let the rich reap what they have sown. By unjust
taxation they have condemned our bodies to starvation ;
by unjust taxation they have condemned our minds to
ignorance. Let them now pay for the food our children
eat, for the education our children receive. It seems to us
right and meet that they should do so, since they have
fattened upon our miseries."
I can understand the kind of crude justice such an
argument must have with those who can only see
proximate and not ultimate results. I hardly expect the
average politician — whether he be village labourer or
village squire — to have a sufficient knowledge of Natural
Law to understand that the entire origin of the evils
brought about by foolish legislation was its attempt to
divert the natural course of events from its proper channel.
But to divert it from one side is as foolish, as harmful, as
to divert it into another. The utmost reparation legislation
can make is, so far as possible, to undo the evils it has
caused. And this can only be done by bringing back, at
whatever cost, the flow of things into their natural channel.
This will not be done by interfering with parental responsibili-
ties. The ultimate result of this interference is not difficult
to foresee — practically unlimited pauperism. The poor
man, already sufficiently improvident, will be rendered
Natural Grmvt/i in Civilisation. 189
doubly improvident ; already marrying in his twenties —
where the professional man, in these days of competition
and struggle for existence, postpones his marriage till the
thirties — will then be tempted to marry in his teens ; will
probably select as his wife a girl barely emerging from
childhood, unfitted both physically and mentally for the
responsibilities of parenthood. Why should he not, when
the State offers, nay, insists, that he shall be relieved from
all responsibilities r Population, already increasing at too
great a rate in this country, will increase at a far greater
rate — a population be it remembered decreasing, if socialism
carries the day, with every generation, by lack of practice,,
in capabilities of self-help. And then be it also remembered
that since all faculties perish from lack of use, Fellow-
feeling in the rich (if there will be any rich left) will also
be greatly lessened, if not indeed extinguished. I have
already shown that there is no conscious exercise of the
benevolent feelings in our charities that are compulsory.
The kindest among us pay our poor-rate with no manner
of compassionate feeling. Yet the increased amount taken
from us compulsorily will lessen by that much the amount
we should otherwise give voluntarily. Or if it be said, the
increased expenditure upon the poor is not to mean in-
creased taxation — even then, since so much is to be done
by State effort, there will be little or nothing left for
voluntary effort to do. Either way, our sympathies will
die out for lack of exercise.*
* State socialism must not be confounded with voluntary co-operation,
the benefits of which none recognise more fully than I do. For an
excellent summary of the invaluable advantages brought about by volun-
tary co-operation, I recommend the chapter devoted to Co-operative
Institutions, by the late Professor Fawcett, in his "Manual of Political
Economy," pp. 241 — 257.
i go Natural Causation.
I must not leave this section of my essay without
drawing attention to another pregnant fact pertaining to
it : that not only has the State greatly hampered civilisa-
tion by doing what she ought not to have done, in the shape
of perpetual intermeddling; but in addition she has some-
what hampered it by leaving undone what she ought to have
done. The great, and indeed the only function of the State
is to protect her citizens from either explicit or implicit
aggression. By explicit aggression I mean public aggres-
sion in the shape of aggressive wars, and private aggression
in the shape of burglary, outrage, etc., down to street annoy-
ance. By implicit aggression I mean breach of contract,
which is but a somewhat indirect form of robbery. Yet so
wretchedly does the State perform this office, that every
one knowing anything of the law (unless urged thereto by
a sense of public duty) will rather suffer wrong than run
the risk of fresh wrong in the shape of waste of time and
money. In the Essays of Mr. Spencer, to which I have
already referred, will be found numerous examples of the
mal-administration of the law. But these sins of omission
are not simply coincident with, but the result and conse-
quence of the State's sins of commission. "It is a law,"
says Spencer, " universally illustrated by organisations of
every kind, that in proportion as there is to be efficiency,
there must be specialisation, both of structure and function
— specialisation, which of necessity implies accompanying
limitation."
And thus it comes to pass that, just as we have seen
that the State, by her sins of commission — by pertinaciously
undertaking to do for her citizens what should only be
done by the citizens themselves — has unconsciously
Natural Growth i/i Civilisation. iqi
discouraged self-reliance and all originality ; so, by her
sins of omission — by making it so very difficult for her
citizens to gain redress from aggression — really en-
courages dishonesty and offers a premium to positive vice.
By attempting to do many things entirely beyond her
province she leaves herself neither time nor ability to do
the one thing well that should be done by her and none
other.
Yet both by her sins of omission and commission is it
not proved — what has been the object of this Essay to set
forth — that Civilisation, like everything else in this our
world, has proceeded by Natural Law ; not by arbitrary
interference, but rather in spite of it ?
INDEX.
• t H i
Accuracy, great difficulty of ... 77
Acrania, fishes developed from .. . 21
Acts of Parliament, new, since
i860 183. 1S4
Acts of Parliament repealed 116, 117
Adaptation, a necessary factor in
possibility of existence 38
Algce, or tangles 21
Anatomy, a more perfect science
than medicine 34
Ancient times, in reality early
times 11
Aristotle, his authority questioned
by Bruno 11
Arr.im, a victim of School Board
cruelty 161
Ashworth, extracts from his
" Cobden and the League " 140, 141
Astronomy, the effect a know-
ledge of it has on the human
mind ..
B.
Bain (Professor), on the con-
science 99
Ball, R. S., extract from his
article on the Nebular Theory 18, 19
Baron's Life of Jenner ... 145, 146
Biology, reference to spontaneous
generation in Spencer's Princi-
ples of [fiole 25
Biology, Spencer's reference to
Pla?taria, in his Principles of . 28
Biology, Spencer's definition of
Life, in his Principles of ... 46
Board Schools, their extravagance 165
Bruno, Giordano, an opponent of
Aristotle n
Buckle, on Protection {note) ... 119
,, extract from his "II istory
of Civilisation " 1S2
Buckle, on the evils of a Si ate
Church 149
Buxton (Sydney), on over-pres-
sure 164
Carpenter (Dr.), on Free Will ... 67
Cause, the importance of a right
recognition of 68
Causation, law of, Mill's chapter
on ... 27
Causation (Natural) explains the
genesis of the solar system ... 24
Causation (Natural) explains the
origin and preservation of life . 22
Central Europe under an Arctic
climate 23
Cheerfulness, Spencer on 94
,, Spino/n on 91, gz
,, Richter on 96
N
J 94
hid ex.
PAGE
Civilisation, the result of natural
law 113
Civilisation, definition of 171
,, its two chief factors . 172
Clifford, Professor, on moral re-
sponsibility 69
Clifford, Professor, on true bene-
ficence 89
Clifford, Professor, on the con-
science 101
Compulsory education 158
Compulsory vaccination, its evils 145
' ' Cobden and the League " ... 139
Cobden, Life of, by John Morley 138
Conscience, Bain on 99
„ Clifford on 101
,, Maurice on 102
,, Whewell on 99
Conscientiousness, difficult to
account for 96
Corn law agitation I3 6 - X 39
Creation, Haeckel's history of ... 21
Croll, on Glacial Periods 23
D.
" Daily Telegraph," its report of
School Board tyranny 161
Darwin, on the working of Natu-
ral Selection 38
Darwin, on Glacial Periods ... 23
Deeds, their reproductive power. 61
Design, or special creation 12
,, like evolution, in starting
with a First Cause past finding
out x 3
Design, parts company with evo-
lution in all else 14
Design, has no interpretation for
facts connected with astronomy 17-20
Design, cannot interpret the
Glacial Epoch ... 23
Design, cannot interpret the fact
that lowly organised animals
can repair severe injuries better
than highly organised ... 28, 29
Design, have we any right now
to believe in it? 36
Dickens as a novelist 49"53
,, his humorous portraiture
of Mrs. Chick 77
Dockwra, his work in the postal
sy$tem 123
Dombey (Mr.), his character im-
probable S°"53
Discrimination, its great import-
ance 172
Draper (Dr.), on Halley's comet. 33
, , on shrine and relic
cure 44
E.
Earth, originally a mass of molten
or nebulous matter 20
Earth, its five main divisions or
epochs 20,21
Earth, its comparative insignifi-
cance 3 1
Education, Sir W. Hamilton on . 185
,, Montesquieu on ... 185
,, cruelties of compul-
sory
161
Education, free, its hardships 166-170
Eliot (George), a strictly scien-
tific novelist 49*55
Eliot (George), inspires whole-
some dread of moral deteriora-
tion 66
Eliot (George), on liability to in-
accuracy 77
Encyclopaedia Britannica, extract
from, on Nebular Theory ... 18
Index.
*95
Encyclopaedia Britannica, on the
history of the Post Office ... 124
Energy, conservation of, a great
discovery 27
Entozoa, their existence inexpli-
cable on Design 29,30
Ethics, Data of, extracts from
Spencer's 94, 95
Evolution, like Design, starts with
the assumption of an Infinite
First Cause
Evolution, comprises two classes,
one atheistic and one agnostic
in the higher sense of the word
Evolution, its principle of more
importance than its details ...
Evolution, essentially opposed to
belief in special creation
Existence, Infinite First, believed
in by both evolutionists and
theists
External Creator, believed in by
upholders of the doctrine of De-
sign
13
14
30
37
13
13
Fair (Dr.), on the decline in fever
and small-pox 146
Fawcett, on co-operative institu-
tions (note) 189
" Felix Holt," quotation from ... 63
Fellow-feeling, a great factor in
civilisation , ... 17 2
Fenelon, on female education ... 142
Fishes, developed from acrania ... 22
Fitzgerald (Percy), on theatres ... 133
" Florence Dombey," her character 53
Force, its beginning unknown ... 15
persistence of 27, 29
,, in reality motion 27
PAGE
Forces, correlation of 27
,, misnomer to speak of ... 27
Forests, fern 21
,, leafed 21
,, pine 21
,, tangle 20
" Fragments of Science," Tyn-
dall's, extract from 14
France, its meddling spirit of
legislation 179
Free trade in theatres 135
,, female industry ... 142
Free Will, not a correlative of
theism 40
Free Will, the doctrine of 41
,, and necessity 47
Froude, his censure on doubt ... 79
Geikie (James), his " Great Ice
Age" 23
Generation by evolution, Spencer
on (note) 25
Generation, spontaneous 24
Geologists concede that the earth
was at first nebulous or molten 20
Geologists concede that its original
state was incandescent 22
Glacial Epochs 23
Giffen's " Essays in Finance " ... 179
Goethe's view of matter 14
Gravitation, its effects if sus-
pended 3 1
Guinea-pig, has teeth which are
shed before it is born 29
II.
Hamilton (Sir W.), on educa-
tion ' 185
Haeckel's "History of Creation" 21
196
Index.
Herschel, Kant's theory of the
universe developed by him ... 16
" Hetty Sorrel," a scientific con-
ception of character 55
Heredity, Maudesley on 88
,, Spencer on 89
Hill (John), his labours for postal
reform 122
Hill (Rowland), on Post Office 128, 131
Hobbes, his definition of religion
and superstition 74
Honesty, necessity of, in matters
of belief 36, 37
Houghton (Lord), on liberty ... 145
Hopwood's Statistics ... 147
Humboldt, on nebulous masses... 32
Huxley, on newts 28
I.
Indestructibility of matter ... 27, 29
Industry, its eitreme importance 82
,, necessity <>f free trade in 115
Improvidence, very general among
the poor 178
Improvidence, accounted for by
past legislation 179
Improvidence, its only remedy ... 180
Infant moitality, increase in ... 147
" In'ellectual Development of
Europe" (Draper's), extracts
from 33, 44
Interference (State), its grave
danger 1 15, 116, 15S
Investigation, duty of, before ac-
cepting any doctrine 88
J-
Jan^on, quotation from {note) ... 116
"James's (St.) Gazette," extract
from 166, 16S
Jenner, his conviction of the com-
plete protection from small-pox
effected by vaccination 5
Jenner, his description of aggra-
vated cow-pox in the cow ... 145
Jenner, vaccination lymph as pre-
pared by him 146
Jupiter, satellites of 17
K.
Kant, his doctrine that the uni-
verse consisted originally of a
gaseous chaos 1 6
Laplace's theory 16
,, on the rings of Saturn 19
Lassell (Mr.), on Satellites of
Uranus 18
Lecky, his argument against Utili-
tarianism no, ill
Lecky, on religious dogmatism 87, 88
Liberty, Mill on 80, 8t
Life, origin of 24
,, definition of, by H. Spencer 46
Liverpool and Manchester bill ... 152
Luther, his comparison of mind to
a mill 86
London and Birmingham Railway
compared with the Great Pyra-
mid 155
M.
M a re, has no moons 20
Matter, Professor Tyndall on .. 14
Matter, its origin and existence
incomprehensible 15
Maudesley (Dr.), on heredity 88, 109
Maudesley (Dr.), his comparison
of healthiness to holiness ... 90
Index.
197
Maurice (F.D.), on the Con-
science 102
" Melemma, Tito," analysis of
George Eliot's conception of his
character 60
Mills (Arthur), on the School
Board 165
Mill (J. S.), on the right of free
discussion 80
Mill (J. S.), extract from his
" Political Economy " 180
Mind, a mysterious form of matter 26
Montesquieu, on education ... 185
Morality, definition of ... 74, 81
,, intrinsic, not extrinsic 78
Morals, Eecky's History of Euro-
pean, extracts from 87, IIO
Morley (John), on Burke and the
Corn Laws 137
Morley (John), extracts from his
" Life of Colxlen " 140,141
N.
Nature, her commands written
plainly 81
Nature, law runs throughout the
whole of 81
Nature not anthropomorphic ... 88
,, inexorable in her penal-
ties 83
National Review, article on School
Board 165
Natural law, compared with arti-
ficial law 187
Nebular Hypothesis 15
Nebular Theory, extract from an
article on, by R. S. Ball ... iS
Necessity, philosophical, not a
correlative of Atheism 41
"New History of the English
Stage " (Fitzgerald's) ... 133, 134
P.
Penny postage, Rowland Hill's
system 125
Pensions, abuse of postal 124
Persistence of force 27
Philosophical necessity 41, 44
Planaria, Spencer on 28
Plateau (Dr.), Laplace confirmed
by his experiments 17
Post Office, the beginning of ... 21
Poor Law system, evils of 170
Prayer, natural laws unaffected
by 32
Predestinarianism 43
Progress of the working classes,
R. Gitfen on 179
Protection, Buckle's numerous
examples of, in France ... 182, 183
Protection, Spencer's examples of,
in England 183, 184
R.
Railway Mania ... 156, 157
Railways, owe nothing to State
assistance 151, 158
Religion, definition of 74
" Romola," quotation from ... 62
" Rosamond Vincy," a scientific-
ally conceived character 58
Rowland Hill, his work in the
Post Office 126, 133
S.
Saturn, Laplace on his rings ... 19
School Board prosecution, case of 161
,, tyranny, case of ... 161
Self-interest, a factor in civilisa-
tion 172
Socialism, its radical defect ... 171
,, and legislation, "West-
minster Review " on 1S1
198
Index.
29
183
28
16
pa<;e
Solar system, Laplace's theory ... 16
Small-pox, decrease in ... 146, 147
Special Creation hypothesis, its
weakness ... .„
Spencer (Herbert), extract from
"Man*, the State"
Spencer (Herbert), on Planaria...
,, reference to his
' ' Progress ; its Law and Cause "
Spencer (Herbert), on cheerful-
ness 94. 95
Spencer (Herbert), on useless
Acts of Parliament 183, 184
Spencer (Herbert), on the relation
of specialisation and efficiency . 190
Spinoza, on necessity 71, 72
,, on cheerfulness ... 91, 92
" St. James's Gazette," on educa-
tion statistics 166, 167
State, her only rightful function... 192
,, her invariable extravagance 165
State effort, its inferiority to vo-
luntary effort 163
State management, its failures 122, 171
„ „ why it is per-
nicious 178
Stephenson (George), his life and
work 152, I5 6
Superstition, definitions of... 74, 78
Sympathy, its great development
of late years ... 107, 173, 175, 176
T.
Tangles, lowest group of plants... 21
Theatres, burning of 134
Theatres, prospered ill under State
management 134
" Tito Melemma " 60,61
Trial by Battle 35
Tuke (Sir Brian), the first English
Postmaster 122
Tyndall, extract from his " Frag-
ments " 14
U.
" Utilitarianism," Mill's, extract
from 84
Utilitarianism, Lecky's argument
against no
V.
Vaccination (compulsory), cruelty
of 144, I4 8
Vaccination (voluntary) does little
harm 147
Voluntary charity, its benefits ... 170
,, effort, its efficiency ... 164
W.
"Westminster Review," on social-
ism and legislation (note) ... 181
" Westminster Review," on Board
Schools (note) 165
Whewell (Dr.), on conscience ... 99
Willis (R.), translator of Spinoza 72, 93
London: r. k. burt and co., printers, fetter lane, e.c.
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