VI. The Biological View

CHAPTER VI. THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. § 30. The truth that the ideally· moral man is one in whom the nloving equilibrium is perfect, or approaches nearest to perfection, beconles, when translated into physio .. logical language, the truth that he is one in whom tho functions of all kinds are duly fulfilled. Each fnnction has some relation, direct or indirect, to the needs of life: tho fact of its existence as a result of evolution, being itself a proof that it has been entailed, immediately or relnotely, by the adjustment of inner actions tp outer actions. Conse... quently, non-fulfilment of it in normal proportion is non ... fulfilment ot a requisite to complete life. If there is detective discharge of the function, the organism expe ... riences some detrimental result ~aused by the inadequacy. If the discharge is in excess, there is entailed a reaction upon the other functions, which in some way diminishes their efficiencies.

It is true that during full vigour, 'V4i1e the momentum of the organic actions is great, the disorder caused by moderate excess or defect of anyone function, soon disappears-the balance is re-established. But it is none the less true that always some disorder results froIn excess or defect, that it influences every function bodily and mental, and that it constitutes a lowering of the life f01 the time being. Beyond the temporary falling short of complete life 76 THE DATA OF ETHICS. implied by undue or inadequate discharge of a function, there is entailed, as an ultimate result, decreased length of life. If SOlne function is habitually performed in excess of the requirement, or in defect of the-requirement; and if, as a consequence, there is an often-repeated perturbation of the functions at large; there results some chronie derangement in the balance of the functions. Necessarily reacting on the structures, and registering in them its accunlulated effects, this derangement works a general deterioration; and when the vital energies begin to decline, the moving equili brium, further from perfection than it would else have been, is sooner overthrown: death is more or less prelTIature.

Hence the moral man is one whose functions-many and varied in their kinds as we have seen-are all discharged in degrees duly adjusted to the conditions of existence. § 31. Strange as the conclusion looks, it is nevertheless a conclusion to be here drawn, that the performance of every function is,in a sense, a nloral obligation. It is usually thought that morality requires us only to restrain such vital activities as, in our present state, are often pushed to excess, or such as conflict with average welfare, special .01" general; but it also requires us to carry on the~e vital activities up to their norma] lilnits. All the animal functions, in C01l1nlon with all the higher functions, have, as thus understood, their irnperati veness. While recognizing the faet that in our state of transition, characterized by very il11perfect adap tation of constitution to conditions, moral obligations of suprenle kinds often necessitate conduct which is physically injurious; we lTIUst also recognize the fact that, considered apart from other effects, it is imn10ral so to treat the body as in any way to diminish the fulness or vigour of its vitality.

Hence results one test of actions. There may in every case be put the questions-Does the action tend to main"

raE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 77 tellance of complete life for the time being? and does it tend to prolongation of life to its full extent? To answer yes ur 110 to ei.ther· of these questions, is implicitly to class the action a~ right 'or wrong in respect of its immediate bearings, whatever it may be in respect of its remote bearings. The seelning parad0xicalness of this statelnent reRults from the tendency, so difficult of avoidance, to judge a conclusion which pre-snpposes an ideal humanity, by its applicability to humanity as now existing. The foregoing conclusion refers to that highest conduct in which, as we have seen, the evolution of conduct terminates-that con duct in which the making o~ all adjustments of acts to end~ subsm.>vingcomplete individual life, together with all those subserving maintenance of offspring and preparation of them for maturity, not only consist with the making of like adjustments by others, but furthers it. And this con ception of conduct in its ultimate form, implies th~ c0nception .of a nature having such conduct for itr; spon taneous outcome-the product of its norlnal activities.

So understanding the matter, it becomes manifest that under such conditions, any falling short of function, as well as any excess of function, implies deviation from the best conduct or from perfectly moral conduct. § 32. Thus far in treating of conduct from the biological point of view, we have considered its constituent actions under their physiologiual aspects only; leaving out of sight their psychological aspects. We have recognized the bodily changes and have ignored the accompanying ment.al changes. And at first sight it seems needful for us here to do this; since taking. account of states of consciousness, apparently impliesan inclusionof the psychologicalview in the biological view. This is not so however. As was pointed out in the Principles of Psychology (§§ 52, 53) we enter upon psy chology proper, only when we begin to treat of mental 78 THE DA'l'A OF ETHICS. states and their relations, considered as referring to external agents and their relations. While we concern ourselves exclusively with modes of mind aR correlatives of nervous changes, we are treatinp: of ,vhat was there distinguished as oostho-physiology. vVe pass to psychology only when wo considor the correspondence between the connexions among sl1bjective states and the connexions among objective actions. Here, then, without transgressing the limits of our immediate topic, we may deal with feelings and functions in their mutual dependencies.

We cannot omit doing this; because the psychical changes which accolnpany mflJny of the physical changes in the organisnl, are biological factors in two ways. rrhose £eel ings, classed as sensations, which, directly initiated in the bodily £rarnework, go along with certain states of the vital organs and more conspicuously with certain stateB of the external organs, now serve mainly as guides to the per£orlnance of functions but partly as stim nli, and now serve 111ainly as stirnuli but in a srnaller degree as guides. Visual sensations which, as coordinated) enable us to direct our movements, also, if vivid, raise the rate of respiration; while sensations of cold and heat, greatly depressing or raising the vital actions, serve also for l)ur poses of discrin1ination. So, too, the feelings classed as emotions, which are not localizable in the bodilyfrau1ework, act in more general ways, alike as guides and stimuli~ having influences over the performance of functions more potent even than have 1110st sensations. Fear, at the same tinle that it urges flight and evolves the forces spent in it, also affects the heart and the ali111entarycanal; while joy, prompting persistence in the actions bringing it, sin1ul...

taneously exalts the visceral processes. lIenee in treating of conduct under its biological aspect, we are compelled to consider that interaction of feelings and functions, which is essential to animal life in all its more developed forms.

'rilE BIOLOGICA.L VIEW. 79 ~ 33. In the Principles of Psychology, § 124, iL was shown . that necessarily, throughout the animate world at large, (C pains are the correlatives of actions inj urious to' the org:lnism, while pleasures are the correlatives of actions conuucive to its welfare;" since (( it is an inevitable deduc tion from the hypothesis of Evolution, that races of sentient creatures could have come into existence uuder no other conditions." The argument was a.s follows :If we substitute for the word Pleasure the equivalent phrase-a feeling which we seek to bring into consciousness and retain there, and if we substitute for the word Pain the equivalent phrase-a feeling wbich we seek to get out of consciousness and to keep out ; we see at once that, if the states of conscious ness which a creature endeavollrs to maintain are the correlatives of injurious actions, and if the states of consciousness which it endeavours to expel are the correlatives of beneficial actions, it must quiekly dil'fippear through persistence in the iiljurious and avoidance of the beneficial. In other words, those races of beings only can· haye sUr\Tived in which, on the average, ~greeable or desired "feelings went along with activities conducive to the maintenance of life, while disagreeable and habitually-avoided feelings went along with activities directly or inulrectly destructive of life; and there must ever have been, other things equal, the most numerous and long-continued survivals among races in which these adj mtments of feelings to actions were the best, tending ever to bring about perfect atljustment.

Fit connexions between acts and results must establish themsel yes in living things, even before consciousness arises; and after the rise of consciousness these connexioDs can change in no other way than to become better estab lished. At the very outset, life is maintained by persistence in acts which conduce to it, and desistal1ce£rom acts which inlpede it; and whenever sentiency make its appearance· as au accoITJpaniment, its forms must be' such that in the one case the. produced feeling is of a kind that will be sought pleasure, and in the other case is of a kind that will be shnnned-pain. Observe the necessity of these relations as exhi bited in the concrete. \ A plant which envelops a buried bone with a plexus of rootlets, or a potato which directs its blanched shoots towards a grating through which light comes into the cellar, shows us that the. chap.ges which outer agents themselvoR 7 80 ·THE DATA OF E'rHIC8.

set up in its tissues are changes which aid the utilization of these agents. If we ask what would happen if a. plant's roots grew not towards the' place where there was moisture but away from it, or if its leaves, enabled by light t,o assimilate: nevertheless bent themselves towards the dark. uess; we see that death would result in the absence of the existing adjustments. This general relation is still better shown in an insectivorous plant, such as the D'ionrea rnu8cipula, which keeps its trap closed round animal matter but llClt round other nlatter. Here it is manifest that the stimulus ari~ing from the first pal·t of the absorbed substance, itself sets up those actions by which the mass of the sub ... stance is utilized for the plant's benefit. When we pass fronl vegetal organisms to unconscious allinlal organisms, we see a like connexion between proclivity and advantage. On observing how the tentacles of tJ, polype attach themselves to, and begin to close round, n livi.ng creature, or.some animal substance, while they aro indifferent to the touch of other substance j we are sinlilarly shown that dift'usion of some of the nutritive juices into the tentacles, which is an incipient assiulilation, causes the motions effecting prehension. And it is obvious that life would cease were these relations reversed. Nor is it otherwise with this fundamental connexion between contact with food and taking in of food, among con scions creal nres, up to the very highest. ~"asting u substance implies the passage of its molecules through the mucous membrane of the tongue and palate; and this absorption, when it occurs with a snbstance serving for food, is but a commencement of the absorption carried on throughout the alimentary canal. Moreover, the sensation accompanying this absorption, when it is of the kind pro ducod by food, initiates at the place where it is strongest, in front of the pharynx, an automatic act of swallowing, in a nlanner rudely analogous to that in which the stirn ulna of absorption in a polype's tentacles initiates prehension..

TilE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 81 If from these processes and relations that imply contact between a creature's sur£aceaud the substance it takes in, we turn to .those set up by diffused particles of the substance, constituting to conscious creatures its odour] we meet a kindred general truth. Just as, after contact, some molecules of a mass of food are absorbed by the part touched, and excite the act of prehension; so are absar bed such of its molecules as, spreading through the water, reach the organism; and, being absorbed by it, excite those actions by which contact with the mass is effecte~. If the physical stimulation caused by the dispersed particles is not accompanied by consciousness, still the motor changes set up Dlust conduce to survival of the organism if they are such as end in contact; and there must be relative innutrition and mortality of organisms in which the produced contractions do not bring about this result. Nor can it be questioned that whenever and wherever the physical stimulation has a concomitant sentiency, this must be such as consjsts with, and conduces to, movement towards the nutritive matter: it must be not a repulsive but an attrac tive sentiency. And this which holds with the lowest con sciousness; must hold throughout; as we see it do in all such superior creatures as are drawn to their food by odour.

Besides those movements which cause locomotion. those which effect seizure must no less certainly become thus adjusted The molecular changes caused by absorption of nutritive matter from organic substance in contact, or frorn adjacent o!,ganic substance, initiate motions which are indefinite where the organization is low, and which become more definite with the advance of organizatjon. At the outset, while the undifferentiated proto plasm is· everywhere absorbent and everywhere contractile, the changes of form initiateJ by the physical stimulation of adjacent nutritive matter are vague, and ineffectually adapted to utilization of it; but gradually, along with' the specialization into parts that are contractile and parts that 82 THE DATA OF ETHICS. are absorbent, these motions become better adapted; for necessarily individuals in which they are least adapted dis.. appear faster than those in which they are lTIOSt adapted.

l~ecogl1izjng this Decessity we have here especially to recognize a further necessity. The relation between these stimulations and adjusted contractions rnust he such that increase of the one causes increase of the other; since the directions o£ the discharges being once established, greater stimulation causes greater contraction, and the greater contraction causing c~oser contact with the stimulating agent, causes increase of stimulus and is therehy itself further increased. And now we reach the corollary which more particularly concerDS us. Clearly asfast as an accom panying sentiency arises, this cannot be one that is disagreeable, prompting desistance, but must be one that is agreeable, prompting persistence. The pleasurable sensation must be itself the stimulus to the contraction by which the pleasurable sensation is maintained and increased; or m~st be so bound up with the stimulus that the two increase together. And this relation which we see is directly established in the case of a fundamental function, must be indirectly established with all other functions; since non establishment o£ it in any particular case implies, in so far, unfitness to the conditions of existence.

In two ways then, it is demonstrable that there exists a primordial connexion between pleasure-giving acts and continuance or increase of life, and, by implication, between pain-giving acts and decrease or loss of life. On the one hand, setting out with the lowest living things, we see tJlat the beneficial act and the act which there is a ten dencyto perform, are originally two sides o£ the same j and cannot be disconnected without ratal results. On the other hand, if we contemplate developed creatures RoS now existing, we see that each individual and species is from day to day kept alive by pursuit of the agreeable and avoid· (tHce of the disagreeable.

THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 83, Thus approaching the facts from a different side, analysis brings us down to another face of that ultimate truth disclosed by analysis in a preceding chapter. We found it was no more possible to frame ethical. conceptions from which the consciuusness of pleasure, of some kind, at some time, to SOlue being, is absent, than it is possible to frame the conception of an object from which the conscious .. ness. of space is absent. And now we see that this necessity of thought originates in the very nature of sentient existence .. Sentientexjstence can evolve only on condition that pleasure giving acts are life-sustaining acts. § 34. Notwithstanding explanations already made, the naked enunciation of this as an ultimate truth, underlying all est.imations of right and wrong, will in many, if not in most, cause astonishment. Having in view certain bene ficial results that are preceded by disagreeable states of consciousness, such as those comD?-0nly accompanying labour; and having in view the injurious results that follow the receipt of certain gratifications, such as those which excess in drinking produces; the majority tacitly or avowedly believe that the bearing of pains is on the whole benefieial, and that the receipt of pleasures i~ on the whole detriluenta1.

The exceptions so fill their minds as to exc]ude the rule. When asked, they are obliged to admit that the pain~ accompanying wounds, bruises, sprains, are the concomitants of evils, alike to the sufferer and to those around him; and that the anticipations of such pains serve as deterrents from careless or dangerous acts. They cannot deny that thu tortures of burning or scalding, and the miseries which int.ense cold, ~tarvation, and thirst produce, are indissolubly connected with permanent or temporary mischiefs, tending to incapacitate one who bears them for doing things that should be done, either for his own welfare or the welfare of others. The agony of incipient suffocation they are conl" pelled to· recognize as a safeguard to life.. and must allow B4r THE DATA OF ETHICS. that avoidance of it is can duci ve to all that life co,n bring or achieve. N or will they refuse to own that one who is chained in a cold] dalnp, dungeon, in d3Jrkness and silence, is injured in health and efficiency; alike by the positive pains thus inflicted on him and by the accompanying negative pains due to absence of light, of freedom, of companiunship. Conversely, they do Hot doubt that-notwithstanding occasional excesses the pleasure which accompanies the taking of food, goes along with physical benefit; and that the benefit is the greater the keener the satisfaction of appotite. The,Y have no choice but to acknowledge that the inRtincts and sentilnents which so overpovTeringly prompt nlarriag8, and those which find their gratification in the fostering of offspring, work out an immense surplus of benefit after deducting all evils. Nor dare they question that the pleasure taken in accumu lating property, leaves a large balance of advantage, private and public, after making all drawbacks. Yet many and conspicuous as are the caSES in which pleasures and pains, sensational and emotional, serve as incentives to proper acts and deterrents from inlproper acts, these pass unnoticed; and notice is taken only of those cases in which men are directly or indirectly misled by then1. The well-working in essential matters is ignored; and the ill-working in unessential matters is alone recognized.

Is it replied that the more intense pains and pleasures, which have in1mediato reference to bodily needs, guide us rightly; while the weaker pains and pleasures, not imn1ediately connected with the maintenance of life, guide us wrongly? Then the implication is that the system 01 guidanCE) by pleasures and pains, which has answered with all types. of creatures below the human, fails with the human. Or rather, the adnlission being that with mankind it succeeds in so far as fulfilment of certain illlperative wants goes, it fails in respect of wants that are not impera'" tivo. Those who think this are· required, in the first placo, THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW 85 to show us how the line is to be drawn between the two; and then to show· us why the system which succeeds in the lower will not succeed in the higher. § 35. Doubtless, however, after aIr that has been saillJ tl18re will be raised afresh the same difficulty-there will be instanced the mischievous pleasures and the beneficent pains. The drunkard, the gambler, the thief, who seve ...

rally pursue gratifications, will he named in proof that the pursuit of gratifications misleads j while the self-sacrificing relati ve, the worker who perseveres through weariness, the honest man who stints himself to pay his way, will bo named in proof that disagreeable modes of consciousness accompany acts that are really beneficial. But after recalling the fact pointed out in § 20, that this objection does not tell against guidance by pleasures and pains .at large, since it merely ilnplies that special and proxinlate pleasures and pains must be disregarded out of considera tiQn for remote and diffused pleasllres and pains; and after admitting that in. mankind as at present constituted, guidance by proximate pleasures and pains falls through .. out a wide range of cases; I go on to set forth the inter pretation Biology gives of these anomalies, as being not necessary and permanent but incidental and temporary.

Already while showing that among inferior creatures, pleasures and pains have all along guided the conduct by which life has been evolved .and maintained, T have pointed out that since the conditions of existence £01" each species have been occasionally changing, there have been occasionally arising' partial mis-adjustlnents of the feelings to the requirernents, necessitating re-adjustme.nts. This general cause of derangement operating on all sentient beings, has been operating on human beings in a manner unusually decided, persistent, and invalved. It needs but to contrast the mode of life followed by pr;mitive men, wandering-in the forests and living on wild food, with 86 THE DATA OF ETHICB. the mode of life followed by rustics, artisans, traders, and professional men in a civilized community; to see that the constitution, bodily and Inental, well-adjusted to the one is ill. adjusted to the other. It needs but to observe the emotions kept awake in each<¥savage tribe, chronically hostile to neighbouring tribes, and then to observe the emotions 'which peaceful production and exchange bring into play, to see that the two are not only unlike but opposed. And it needs but to note how, during social evolution, the ideas and sentinlents appropriate to the militant activities carried on by coercive cooperation, have been at variance with the ideas and sentinlents' appropriate to the in dustrial activities, carried on by voluntary cooperation; to see that there has ever been within each society, and still continues, a conflict between the two moral natures adjusted to these two unlike modes of life. Manifestly, then, this re-adjustment of constitution to conditions, involving re-adjustment of pleasures and pains for guidance, which all creatures from time to time undergo, has been in the human race during' civilization, .especially difficult; not only because of the greatness of the change from small nomadic groups to vast settled societies, and from predatory habits to peaceful habits; but also because the old life of enlnity between societies bas been luaintained along with the new life of amity within each society. While there coexist two ways of life so radically opposed as the n1ilitant and the industrial, human nature cannot beconle properly adapted to either.

'rhat hence results such failure of guidance by pleasures and pains as is daily exhibited, we discover on observing in ,vhat parts of conduct the failure is most conspicuous . .As above shown, the pleasurable and painful sensations are fairly well adjusted to the peremptory physical requirelllents: the benefits of conforming to the sensations which prompt us in respect of nutrition, respiration, maintenance of tem perature j &co" immensely exceed the incidental evils; and THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 8'1 8uch mis-adjustments as occur may be ascribed to the change from the ont-door life of the primitive man to the in-door life which the civilized man is often cornpelled to lead. It is the emotional pleasures and pains which are in so 'con ai<1erablea degree out of adjustment to the needs of lifo as carriE'd on in society; and it is of these that the re-adjust tnent is made, in the way above shown, so tardy because so difficult.

From the biological point of view then, we see that the connexions between pleasure and beneficial action and be tween pain and detriluental action, which arose when sentient existence began, and have continued among animate creatures up to man, are generally displayed in hinl also throughout the lower and more c0111pletely-organized part of his nature; and must be more and more fully displayed throughout the higher part of his nature, as fast as his adaptation to the conditions of social life increases. § 36. Biology has a further judgment to pass on the relations of pleasures and pains to welfare. Beyond the connexions between acts beneficial to the organism and the pleasnres accompanying performance of them, and between acts detriluental to the organism and the pains causing desistance from theIn, there are connexions bet.ween pleasure in general and physiological exaltation, and between pain in general and physiological depression.

Every pleasure increases vitality; every pain decreases vitality. Every pleasure raises the tide of life; every pain lowers the tide of life. Let us consider, first, the pains. By the general mischiefs that result from submission to pains, I do not mean those arising from the diffused effects of local organic lesions, such as follow an aneurism caused by intense effort spite of protesting sensations) or such as follow the varicose veins brought 011 by continued uisregard of fatigue in the legs, or such a~ follow the atrophy set up in muscles that are persistently exerted whet} 88 TilE DATA OF ETHICS. extremely weary; but I mean the general mischiefs caused by t,hat constitutional disturbance which pain forthwith sets up. These are conspicuous when the pains are acute, whether they be sensational or emotional. Bodily agony long borne, produces death by exhaustion. 1'1ore frequently, arresting the action of the heart for a time, it causes that temporary death we call fainting. On other occasions von1iting is a consequence. And where such manifest derangeluents do not result, we still, in the pallor and trembling, trace the general prostration. Beyond the actual loss of life caused by subjection to intense cold, there are depressions of vitality less marked caused by cold les8 extreme-temporary enfeeblement following too long an immersion in icy water; enervation and pining away con sequent on inadequate clothing. Similarly is it with submission to great heat: we have lassitude reaching occasionally to exhaustion; we have, in weak persons, fainting, succeeded by tenlporary debilitation j and in steaming tropical jungles, Europeans contract fevers which when not fatal often entail life-long incapacities. Conside~, again, the evils that follow violent exertion continued in spite of painful feelings-now a fatigue ·which destroys appetite or arrests digestion if food is taken, implying failure of the reparative processes when they are most needed; and now a prostration of the heart, here lasting for a time and there, where the transgression has been repeated day after day, made permanent: reducing the rest of life to a lower level. No less conspicuous are the depressing effects of emotional pains. There are ocoasional cases of death from grief; and in other cases the mental suffering which a calamity causes, like bodily suffering, shows its effects by syncope. Often a piece of bad news is succeeded by sick.

ness; and continued anxiety will produce loss of appetite, per .. petual indigestion, and diminished strength. Excessive fear, whether aroused by physical or moral danger, will, in like manner, arrest for a time the processes of nutrition ; aI~d..

THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 89 not unfrequently, in pregnant women brings on miHo& carriage; while, in less extreme cases, the. cold perspiration and unsteady hands indicate a general lowering of the vital activities, entailing partial incapacity of body or nlind or both. How greatly emotional pain deranges the visceral \ actions is shown us by the fact that incessant worry ia not unfrequently followed by jaundice. And here, indeed, the relation between cause and effect happens to ha've been proved by direct experiment. Making such arrangements that the bile-duct of a dQg delivered its producL outside the body, Claude Bernard observed that so long as he petted the dog and kept him in good Rpirits, secretion went on at its normal rate; but on speaking angrily, and for a time so treating him as to produce depres sion, the flow of bile ,vas arrested. Should it be said that evil results of such ki.nds are proved to occur only when the pains, bodily or mental, are great j the. reply is that in healthy persons the inju.rious perturbations caused by small pa,ins, though not easily traced, are still produced; and that in those whose vital powers are much reduced by illness, slight physical irritations and trifling moral annoyances, often cause relapses.

Quite opposite are the constitutional effects of pleasure. It sOInetimes, though rarely, happens that in feeble persons intense pleasure-pleasure that is almost pain-gives a nervous shock that is mischievous; but it does Dot do this in those who are undebilitat~a by voluntary or enforced submission to actions injurious to the organisn1. In the normal order, pleasures, great and small, are stimulants to the processes b.y which life is maintained. Amon.g the sensations lJlay be instanced those produced by bright light. Sunshine is enlivening in comparison with gloonl -even a gleam excites a wave of pleasure; and experiments have shown that sunshine raises the rate of respiration: Iaised respiration being an index of raised vital activities In general. A warmth that ia agreeable in degree favours the 90 THE DATA OF ETHICS. heart's action, and furthers the various functions to whioh this is instrumental. Though those who are in full vigour and fitly clothed, can maintain their temperature in winter, and can digest additional food to make up for the loss of heat, it is otherwise with the feeble; and, as vigour declines, t,he beneficence of warmth becomes conspicuous. That benefits accompany the agreeable sensations produced by fresh. air, and the agreeable sensations that accompany Inuscular action after due rest, and the agreeable sensations caused by rest after exertion, cannot be questioned. Receipt of these pleasures conduces to the maintenance of the body in fit condition for all the purposes of life. More manifest still are the physiological benefits of emotional pleasures. Every power, bodily and mental, is increased by" good spirits;" which is our name for a general emotional satisfaction. The truth that the fundamental vital actions-those of nutrition-are furthere"d by laughter moving conversation, or rather by the pleasurable feeling causing laughter, is one of old standing j 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 ou the alimentary system is accompanied by effects, equally certain though less nlanifest, on the circulation and the respiration. Ag-ain, one who, released from daily labours and anxieties, receives delights 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.

IIIvalids 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 rerlloval to a brighter room, will, by the induced cheerfull1ess,l much THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 91 improve the physical state. In brief, as every medical man knows, there is no such tonic as happiness. These diffused physiological effects of pleasures and pains) .which are·· joined with the local or special physiolo ... gical effects, are, indeed, obviously inevitable. We have seen (P1~1:nciple8 of Psychology, §§ 123-125) that while craving, or negative pain, accompanies the under-actiy-ity of an organ, and whne positive pain accompanies its over-activity, pleasure accompanies its normal activity. We have seen that by evolution no other relations could be established; since, through all inferior types of creatures) if defect or excess of function produced no disagreeable sentiency, and medium function no agreeable sentiency, there would be nothing to ensure a proportioned performance.· of function.

And as it is one of the laws of nervous action that each stimulus, beyond a direct discharge to the particular organ acted on, indirectly causes a general discharge throughout the nervous system (PTin. of P8Y. §§ 21, 39), it resultR that the rest of the organs, all influenced as they are by the nervous ·systenl, participate in the stilnu lation. So that beyond the aid, nlore slowly shown, which the organs yield to one another through the physiological division of labour, there is the aid, more quickly shown, which mutual excitation gives. While there is a henefitto be presently felt by the whole organism from the due performance of each function, there is .an immediate benefit from the exaltation of its functions at large caused by the accompanying pleasure; and from pains, whether of excess or defect, there also come these double effects, immediate and remote. § 37. Non-recognition of these general truths vitiates Inoral speculation·. at large. From the estimates ot right and wrong habitually fralned, these _physiological effects wrought on the actor by his feelings are entirely omitted It is tacitly assumed that pleasures and pains have no 92 THE DATA OF ETHICS.

reaetions on the body of the recipient, affecting his fitness for the duties of tfe. The only reactions recognized are those on character; respecting which the current supposi tion is, that acceptance of pleasul~es is detrimen~al and submission to pains beneficlal. The notion, remotely descended from the ghost-theory of the savage, that mind and body are independent, has, among its various implica tions, this belief that states of consciousness are in no wise related to bodily states. " You have had your gratifi. cation-it is past; and you are as you ,vere before," says the morrJist to one. And to another he says, "YOil have borne the suffering-it is over; and there the matter ends." Both statements are false. Leaving out of view indirect results, the· direct results are that the one has moved a step away from death and the other has moved a step towards death. Leaving out of view, I say, the indirect results. It is these indirect results, here for the moment left out of view, which the moralist has exclusively in vi~~w: being so occupied by them that he ignores. the. direct results~ The gratification, perhaps purchased at undue cost, perhaps enjoyed when work should hLLve been done, perhaps snatched from the rightful clLimant, is considered only in relation to remote injurious effects, and no set-off is lnade for imme diate beneficial effects. Conversely, from positive and negative pains, borne now in th8 pursuit of some future advantage, now in discharge of responsibilitieo, now in performing a genero:1s act, the distant good is alone dwelt on and the proximate evil ignored. Conseq uences, plea.

snrab13 and painful, experienced by the actor forthwith, are of no importance ; and they becolne of importance only when anticipated as occurring hereafter to the actor or to other persons. And further, future evils borne by the actor are considered of no account if they result from self. denial, and are emphasized only when they result from self-gratification. Obviously, ~stinlates so framed are er1"o"

THE BIOLOGIOAL VIEW. 93 neous; and obviously, the pervading judgments of conduct based on such estimates must be distorted. Mark the anomalies of opinion produced. If, as the sequence of a malady contracted in pursuit of illegitimate gratification, an attack of iritis injures vision, the mischief is to be counted among those entailed by immoral conduct ; but if, regardless of protesting sensations, the eyes are used in study too soon after ophthalmia J a:Qd there follows blindness for years or for life, ent~iling not. only personal unhappiness bub a burden on others, moralists are silent. The broken leg which a drunkard's accident causes, counts among those miseries brought on self and family by intemperance, which form the ground for repro bating it; but if anxiety to fulfil duties prompts the continued use of a sprained knee spite of the pain, and brings on a chronic lanleness involving lack of exercise, consequent ill-health, inefficiency, anxiety, and unhappiness, it is supposed that ethics has no verdict to give in the matter. A student who is plucked because he has spent in amusement the time and money that should have gone in study, is blamed for thus making parents unhappy and preparing for himself a miserable future; but another who, thinkmg exclusively of claims on him, reads· night after night with hot or aching head, and, breaking down, cannot take his . degree, but returns home shattered in health and unable to support himself, is nalued with pity only, as not subject to any moral judg ment j or rather, the moral judgment passed is. ·wholly favourable.

Thus recognizing the evils caused by some·kinds of con duct only, men at large, and moralists as exponents of their beliefs, ignore the suffering and death daily caused nround them by disregard of that guidance which has' established itself in the conrse of evolution. Led by the tacit assumption, common to Pagan stoics and Christian f\scetics, that we are 60 diabolically organized that ple.asureo 94 THE DATA OF ETH ros. are InJurIOUS and pains beneficial, people on all sides yield examples of lives blasted by persisting in actions against which their sensations rebel. Here is one who, drenched to the skin and sitting in a cold wind, pooh-poohs hi~ shiverings and gets rheumatic fever with subsequent heart-disease, which makes worthless the short life remain ing to him. Here is another who, disregarding painful feelings, works too soon after a debilitating illness, and establishes disordered health that lasts for the rest of his days, and makes him useless to himself and others. Now the account is of a youth who, persisting in gymnastic feats spite of scarcely bearable straining, bursts a blood· vessel, and, long laid on the shelf, is permanently danlaged; while now it is of a man in nliddle life who, pushing muscular effort to painful excess, suddenly brings on hernia. In this family is a case of apha.sia, spreading paralysis, and death, caused by eating too little and doing too much; in that, softening of the brain has been brought on by ceaseless mental efforts against which the feelings hourly protested; and ill others, less serious brain-affections have been con tracted by over-study continued regardless of disconl£ort an d the cravings for fresh air and exercise. * Even wjthout accumulating special examples, the truth is forced on us by the visible traits of classes. The careworn man of business too long at his office, the cadaverous barrister poring half the night over his briefs, the feeble factory hands and unhealthy seamstresses passing long hours in bad air, the anremic} Hat-chested school girls} bending over many lessons and forlJidden boisterous play, no less than Sheffield grinders who die of suffocating dust, and peasants crippled with rheumatislll due to exposure} show us the widespread Dliseries caused by persevering in actions repugnant to the sensations and neglecting actions which the sensations prompt. Nay the evidence is still n10re extensive and * I can count up more tha.n a. dozen such cases a.mong thos~ personallJ well known to me.

THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. conspicuous. What are the puny malformed children, 8lden in poverty-stricken districts, but children whoso appetites for food and desires for warmth have not been adequately satisfied? What are populations stinted in growth and prematurely aged, such as parts of Franca show us, but populations injured by work in excess and food in· defect: the one iinplying positive pain the othel" negative pain? What is the implication of that greate\' mortality which occurs among people who are weakened by privations, unless it is that bodily miseries conduce to fatal illnesses? Or once more, what must we infer from the frightful amount of disease. and death suffered by armies in the field, fed on scanty and bad provisions, lying on damp ground, exposed to extremes of heat and cold, inadequately sheltered from rain, and subj8ct to exhausting efforts; unless it be the terrible mischiefs .caused by continuously subjecting the body to treatment which the feelings protest against?

It matters not to the argument whether the actions entailing such effects are voluntary or involuntary. It matters not from the biological point of view, whether the motives prompting them are high or low. 'fhe vital functions accept no apologies on the ground that neglect of them was unavoidable, or that the reason for neglect was noble. The direct and indirect sufferings caused by nonconforulity to the laws of life, are the same whatever induces the non .. conformity; and cannot be omitted in any rational estimate of conduct. If the purpose of ethical inquiry is to establish rules of right living; and if the rules of right living are those of which the total results, individual and general, direct and indirect, are mo~t conducive to human happiness ~ then it· is absurd to ignore the immediate results and reoognize only the remote results. § <38. Here might be urged the necessity for preluding the study of moral science, by the study of biologicaJ 8 96 THE DATA OF ET HIOB.

science. Here might be dwelt on the error men make in" thinki:t:g they can understand those special phenomena ot human life with which Ethics deals, while paying litt1~ or no attention to the general phenolnena of human lifp.. and while utterly ignoring the phenomena of life ~t large. And doubtless there would be truth in the inference that such acquaintance with the ,vorld of living things as discloses the part which pleasures and pains have played in organic evolution, would help to rectify these one-sided conceptions of moralists. It cannot be held, however, that lack of this know ledge is the sole cause, or the main cause, of their one-sidedness. For facts of the kind above instanced, which, duly attended to, would prevent such distortions of n10ral theory, are facts which i~ needs no biological inquiries to learn, but which are daily thrust before the eyes of all. The truth is, rather, that the general consciousness is so possessed by sentiments and ideas at 'Variance with the conchH~ions necessitated by familiar evi.

dence, that the evidence gets no attention. These adverse sentiments and ideas have several roots. There is the theological root. As before shown, from the worship of cannibal ancestors who delighted in witnessing tortures, there resulted the primitive conception of deities who were propitiated by the bearing of pains, and, con sequently, angered by the receipt of pleasures. Throug'h the religions of the semi-civilized, in which this conception of the divine nature remains conspicuous, it has persisted, in progre~sively ll10dified forms, down to our own times; and still colours the beliefs, both of those who adhere / to the current creed and of those who nominally reject it. There is another root in the primitive and still. sl.:fviving militancy. While social antagonisms continue to generate war, which. conslsts in endeavours to inflict pain and death while submitting to the risks of pain and death, and which neeessarily involves great privations ; it is l1~edful that physical Buffering, whether consi· THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 97 ilered in itself or in the evils it bequeath.s, should be thought little of, and that among pleasures recognized as most ,vorthy should be those which victory brings. Nor does partially-developed industrialism fall to furnish a root-. Wi.th social evolution, which implies transition from the lifo of wandering hunters to the life of settled peoples engaged in labour, and which therefore entails activities widely unlike those to which the aboriginal constitution is adapted, there comes an under-exercise of faculties for which the social state affords no scope, and an overtaxing of faculties required for the social state: the one implying denial of certain pleasures and the other submission to certain pains. Hence, along with that growth of population which makes tho struggle for existence intense, bearing of pains and sacdfice of pleasures is daily necessitated.

Now always and everywhere, there arises among men a theory con£ornling' to their practice. The savage nature, originating the conception of a savage deity, evolves a theory of supernatural control sufficiently stringent and cruel to influence his conduct. .With submission to despotic govern .. ment severe enough in its restraints to .keep. in order barbarous natures, there gro\vs up a theory of divine right to rule, and the duty of absolute submission. Where war is made the business of life by the existence of warlike neighbours, virtues which are required for war come to be regarded as supreme virtues; while, contrariwise, when industrialism has grown predominant J the violence and the . deception which warriors glory in come to be held critninal. In like manner, then, th€'~'e arises a tolerable adjustment of the actually-accepted (not the nominally-accepted) theory of right living, to living as it is' daily carried on. If tha life is one that necessitates habitual denial of pleasures and bearing of pains, there grows up an answering ethical system un~er which the receipt of pleasures is tacitly disapproved and the bearing of pains avowedly approved.

The mischiefs entailed by pleasnres in· excess are dwelt 98 THE DATA O.F ETHICS. on, while the benefits which normal pleasures bring aro ignored; and the good' results achieved by submission to pains are fully set forth while the evils are overlooked. 11ut while recognizing the desirableness of, and indeed the necessity for, systerns of ethics adapted, like religious ~ystenls and political systeu1s, to their respective tinles and l-,laces; we have here to regard the first as, like the others, transitional. We must infer that like a purer creed and a better government, a truer ethics belongs to a more advanced social state. Led, it lJ1"iori,to conclude that distortions must exist, we are enabled to recognize as such, the. distortions we find: answering in nature, as these do, to expectation. And there is forced on us the truth that a scientific morality arises only as fast as the one-sided conceptions adapted to transitory conditions, are developed into both ..

sided conceptions. The s9ience of right living has to take account of all consequences in so far as they affect happi ness, personally or socially, directly or indirectly; and by as much as it ignores any class of consequences, by so muell does it fail to be science. § 39. Like the physical view, then, the biological view cor~esponds with the view gained by looking at conduct in general from the standpoint of Evolution. That which was physically defined as a moving equili brium, we define biologically as a balance of functions. The implication of such a balance is that the several fUl1ctionsin their kinds) amounts, and con1binations, are adjusted to the several. activities which maintain and constitute complete life; and to be so adjusted is to have reached the goal towards which the evolution of conduct continually tends. Passing to the feelings whieh accompany the perfol"tn ance of functions, we see that of necessity during the evolution of organic life, pleasures have become the con~ comitants of normal amounts of functions, while pains, 'Positive and negative, haye become the concomitants of THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 99 excesses and defects of functions. And though in every species derangements of these relations are often caused hy changes of conditions, they ever re-establish themselves: disappearance of the species being the alternative.

Mankind, inheriting from creatures o£ lower kinds, snob adjustments between feelings and functions as concern fundamental bodily requirements; and daily forced by peremptory feelings to do the things which maintain life and avoid those which bring immediate death; has been subject' to a change of conditions unusually great and involved. '1 1 bis has considerably deranged the guidance by sensations, 'and has deranged in a much greater degree the guidance by emotions. The result is that in ll1any cases pleasures are not connect.ed with actions which must be performed, nor pains with actions which must be avoided, but contrariwise. Several influences have conspired to make men ignore the well-working of th ese relations between feelings and functions, and to observe whatever o£ ill-working is seen in them. Hence, while the evils which some pleasures entail are dilated upon, the benefits habitually accompanying receipt of pleasures a,re unnoticed; at the same titue that the benefits achieved through certain pains are magnified while the inlmense mischiefs which pains bring are lnade little o£."

The ethical theories char3cterizErd by these perversions, are products of" and are appropriate to, the forms of eocial life which the imperfectly-adapted constitutions of men produce. But with the progress of adaptation, bring ing faculties and requirements into harmony, such incon gruities of experience, and consequent distortions of theory, 111USt diminish; until, along with cOluplete adjustment of bunlanityto the social state, will go recognitionof the truths tl:at actions are completely right only when, besides being conducive to future happiness, special and general, they are immediately pleasurable, and that painfulness, not only ultjmate but proximate, is the concomitant of actions which are wrong.

100 THE DATA OF ETHICS. So that from the biological point of view, ethical science becolnes a specification of the conduct of as~wciated men who are severally so constituted tha.t the various self-pre .. serving activities, the acti vitie;;;required for rearing offspring, and those which social welfare demands, are fulfilled in the spontaneous exercise of duly proportioned facu~ties, each yielding when in action its quantum of pleasure; and who are, by consequence, so constituted that excess\or defect in anyone of these actions brings its quantum of pain, imme diate and remote. NOTE TO § 33. In his Physical Ethics, Mr. Alfred Barratt has expressed a view which here calls for notice. Postulating Evolution and its general laws," he refers to certain passages in the Principles oj Psychology (1st Ed. Pt. III. ch. viii. pp. 395, sqq. cf. Pt. IV. ch. iv.) in which I have treated of the relation between irritation and contraction which" marks the dawn of sensitive·life;"

have pointed out that "the primordial tissue must be differently' affected by' contact with nutritive and with innutritive matters "-the two being for aquatic creatures respectively the soluble and the insoluble; and have argued that the contraction by which a protruded part of a rhizopod draws in a fragment of assimilable matter" is caused by a commencing absorption 6f the assimilabl~ matter." Mr. Barratt, holding that consciousness "mnst be considered as an invariable property of animal life, and ultimately, in its elements, of the material universe" (p. 43), regards these responses of animal tissue to stimuli, as implying feeling of one or other kind. "Some kinds of impressed force," he says, "are followed by movements of retraction and withdrawal, others by such as secure a continuance of the impression. These two kinds of contraction are' the phenomena and external marks of pain and pleasure respectively. Hence the tissue acts so as to secure pleasure and avoid pain by a law as truly physical and natui'al as that whereby a needle turns to the pole, or a tree to the light" (p. 52). Now without qaestioning that the raw material of consciousness is present even in undiffer entiated protoplasm, and everywhere exists potentially in that Unknowable Power which, otherwiRe conditioned, is manifested in physical action (Prin. oj Psy. § 272-3), I demur to the conclusion that it at first exists under the forms of pleasure and pain. These, I conceive, arise, as the more special feelings do, by 8 compounding of the ultimate elements of consciousness (Prin. oj Psy.

§§ 60, 61) : being, indeed, general aspects ,of these more special feelings when they reach certain intensities. Considering that even in creatures which have developed nerv<Jussystems, a great part of the vital processes are carried on by unconscious reflex actions" I see no propriety in assuming the existence of what we understand by consciousness in creatUl'es not only devoid of nervous systems but devoid of structures in general. NOTE '1'0 §36. More than once in the Emotions and the Will, Dr. Bain THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW. 101 insists on the connexion between pleasure and exaltation of vitality, and the connexion between pain and depression of vitality. As above shown, I concur in the view taken by him; which is, indeed, put beyond dispute by general experience as well as by the more special experience of medical men. "Vhen, however, from the invigorating and relaxing effects of pleasure and pain respectively, Dr. Bain derives the original tendencies to persist in acts which give pleasure and to desist from those which give pain, I find myself unable to go with him. He-Says-U We snppose movements spontaneously b€gun, and accidentally causing pleausul'e; we then assume that with the pleasule there will be an increase of vital energy, in which increase the fortunate movements will share, and thereby increase the pleasure. Or, on the other hand, we suppose the spontaneous movements to give pain, and assume that, with the pain, there will be a decrease of energy, extending to the move ments that cause the evil, bnd thereby providing a remedy" (3rd Ed. p. 315).

~rhis interpretation, implying that" the fortunate movements" merely shatr6in the effects of augmented vital energy caused by the pleasure, does not setm to mo congruous with observation. The truth appears rather to be that though there is a concomitant general increase. of muscular tone, the muscles specially excited are those which, by their increased contraction, conduce to in~reased pleasure. ConverselYI the implication that desistance from spontaneous move wents which cause pain, is due to a general muscular relaxation shared in by the muscles causing these particular movements, seems to me at variance with the fact that the retractation commonly takes the form not of a passive lapse but of an active withdrz;twal. Further, it may be remarke~ that depressing as pain .eventually is to the system at large, we cannot say thatit at once dept'esses the muscular energies. NQlSimply,asDr. Bain admits, does an acute smart produce spasmodic movements,. but pains of all kinds, both sensational and emotional stimulate the muscles (Essays 1st series p. 360, 1,01' 2nd-ed.Vol. I. p. 211,12). Pain however (and also pleasure when very intense} simultaneously has an inhibitory effect on all the reflex actions; and as the vital functions in general are carried on by reflex actions, this inhibition, increasing with the intensity of the pain, proportionately depresses the vital functions. Arrest of the heart's action and fainting is an extreme result of this inhibition; and the viscera at large feel its effects in degrees proportioned to the degrees of J.lllin. IJain, therefore, while directly causing a discharge of muscular energy as pleasure does, eventually lowers muscular power by lowering those vital processes on which the supply .of energy depends. Hence we cannot, I think, ascribe the prompt desistance from muscular movements causing pain, to decrease in the tlow of energy; for this decrease is felt only after an interval. Conversely, we cannot ascribe the per sistence in a muscular act which yields pleasure to the resulting exaltation of energy ; but must, as indicated in § 33, ascribe it to the establishment of lines of discharge between the place of pleasurable stimulation and those contractile l'tructures which maintain and increase the act causing the stimulation connexions allied with the reflex, into which they pass by insensible gradation& CHAPTER VII.