PSYCHICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SCIENCE 169

need not cognize it by a reflex act, is that some actions are

wrong and deserve punishment. The merest savage knows

that an ungrateful and treacherous injury inflicted on himself

is an act of that kind. Australian savages appear to have

very clear and precise ethical notions about punishments

they have themselves merited, and will hold out a limb to be

speared when they have done an act which merits that

chastisement.

Though tribes may differ as to what is right and just, men

have never thought an action to be right because it was

unjust, or because it was ungrateful, or another act to be

wrong because it was just or kind.

So essential is the distinction between the " good " and the

" useful," that not only does the idea of " benefit " not enter

into the idea of " duty," but the very fact of an action not

being beneficial may make it praiseworthy. Its merit may

be increased by any self-denial which attends on its per-

formance, and also decreased by gain.

To nurse carefully and tenderly is "good," but our

appreciation of its merit is diminished if we know that

the patient's death has brought his nurse a rich and

hoped-for legacy. A woman may have an immoral con-

nexion with another's husband, but if we find that instead

of any gain thereby accruing, she has sacrified herself for

him, our censure may be thereby mitigated, since it shows

she "has loved much."

In the material gain or loss which may attend our acts

it is not that the absence of the former, or of pleasure,

benefits our neighbour more ; it is that any diminution of

pleasure which circumstances may occasion (irrespective

of any advantage thereby occasioned to our neighbour) in

itself heightens the value of an action. But evidently that

can never be the substance of duty which makes any act

more dutiful by its absence !

need not cognize it by a reflex act, is that some actions are

wrong and deserve punishment. The merest savage knows

that an ungrateful and treacherous injury inflicted on himself

is an act of that kind. Australian savages appear to have

very clear and precise ethical notions about punishments

they have themselves merited, and will hold out a limb to be

speared when they have done an act which merits that

chastisement.

Though tribes may differ as to what is right and just, men

have never thought an action to be right because it was

unjust, or because it was ungrateful, or another act to be

wrong because it was just or kind.

So essential is the distinction between the " good " and the

" useful," that not only does the idea of " benefit " not enter

into the idea of " duty," but the very fact of an action not

being beneficial may make it praiseworthy. Its merit may

be increased by any self-denial which attends on its per-

formance, and also decreased by gain.

To nurse carefully and tenderly is "good," but our

appreciation of its merit is diminished if we know that

the patient's death has brought his nurse a rich and

hoped-for legacy. A woman may have an immoral con-

nexion with another's husband, but if we find that instead

of any gain thereby accruing, she has sacrified herself for

him, our censure may be thereby mitigated, since it shows

she "has loved much."

In the material gain or loss which may attend our acts

it is not that the absence of the former, or of pleasure,

benefits our neighbour more ; it is that any diminution of

pleasure which circumstances may occasion (irrespective

of any advantage thereby occasioned to our neighbour) in

itself heightens the value of an action. But evidently that

can never be the substance of duty which makes any act

more dutiful by its absence !