mily, or his
tribe. If he thinks about the matter for himself at all, this is the
only consideration of which he can take account. There are three courses
open to him. He need not reflect on the action at all, but simply follow
in the wake of his neighbours (and this, of course, is far the commonest
case); or, if there is any divergence of opinion about it amongst his
neighbours, he may deliberate as to whose opinion it is safest to
follow; or, lastly, he may consider for himself, whether the action is
really the best means of attaining the end aimed at, that is to say, he
may test the means by its conduciveness to the end, which is always, in
some shape, the welfare of himself or others. If he follows the opinion
of others, it is plain that their opinion, so far as it has been formed
independently, has been formed in the manner above described. The only
alternative, therefore, is between the acceptance of existing opinions,
without any consideration or examination, and their reference to the
conception of well-being, or however else the idea may be expressed, as
a measure of their appropriateness and sufficiency. The idea of
well-being itself may be inadequate, and even in parts incorrect, and,
as society advances, it is undoubtedly undergoing a constant process of
expansion and rectification; but it seems to me that this regard for
their own welfare or that of others, however we may phrase it, is the
only guiding-principle of conduct, in the light of which men can
reconsider and review their rules. Unless they follow the mere blind
impulses of feeling (in which case they do not follow rules at all, but
simply act irrationally), or else observe implicitly the maxims of
conduct which they find prevalent around them, they must, and can only,
ask the question whether it is possible to alter their conduct for the
better, that is to say, whether they can better promote their own
welfare or that of others by some modification of their actions. Take
the case of Slavery. There was a time when savage or barbaric tribes,
moved by a regard to their own interests, and also, we may trust,
touched by some compassion for their victims, began to substitute, for
the wholesale butchery of their enemies defeated in war, the practice of
retaining some or all of them for the purposes of domestic or agrarian
service. Again, there came a time when, viewed by the side of other
forms of service which had meanwhile come into existence, slavery, w