held from 1806 to 1872 by F. D. Maurice, publishes
here three lectures given to an audience of clergymen. These teachers of
others could not have been better taught. Professor Sorley is a clear and logical thinker who expresses himself with admirable lucidity and force. In the first lecture the most interesting part is the account of the ethical system of Nietzsche. Nietzsche was "thorough." He would have none of the morality which is summed up by "love of one's neighbour." Not the man who loves his neighbour, but he who masters him, was this philosopher's ideal. Is there not a suggestion of this thought in the tiryaXo- ipuxos of Aristotle? The Greek philosopher would have listened with amazement to the Sermon on the Mount. But the second lecture, "Ethics and Evolution," is the most important of the three. It is evolution with its consequences that appeals most strongly to the average thought of the day, and Professor Sorley's criticism of the ethical teaching which belongs to it, or may be deduced from it, is of very great value. Here is a fine passage, which we prefer to give in the words of the writer rather than attempt to epitomise it :— "It is correct to say of man that his environment is much larger than the material universe ; it is whatever he con- ceives the universe as being, and whatever it can be for him : whether lie seeks from it merely intellectual understanding, whether be regards it as a vehicle for artistic production, or whether he may see in it an opportunity for realising his own being by fulfilling the will of God—perhaps by submerging his own individuality in deity. The objects of philosophy, art, and religion,—all these are parts of the environment of civilised man, and yet his self-adaptation to them has no direct effect whatever upon his continuance on the earth as an animal organism. In other words, the process of natural selection can give us no canon at all for putting a value upon these various activities, or upon the way in which man adapts himself to these parts of his environment The way in which the action of natural selection differs according to circumstances affects its ethical significance. It operates as between individuals, and it operates as between groups,— although in the latter operation especially it is always mixed with other forces than natural selection. The competition between individuals favours egoistic qualities, the competition between groups favours qualities which may be called altruistic. Now no principle whatever can be got out of the theory of natural selection, or out of the evolution theory in general, which will decide between these divergent operations. The question may be put, Are we to cultivate the qualities which will give us success in the battle of individual with individual, or are we to cultivate in ourselves qualities which will contribute to the success of the community ? All the answer that the evolution theory can give to this question is, that when individual fights with individual, the man with stronger egoistic qualities will succeed, and that when group fights group, those groups that possess stronger
The third lecture deals with Idealism.
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