very consequent ethical consciousness there is a standard of value, a
primordial value which determines the single ethical judgments as their
last presupposition, and the "rightness" of this basis, the "value"
of this value can as little be discussed as the "rationality" of our
logical principles. There is here revealed a possibility of ethical
scepticism which evolutionistic ethics (as well as intuitive or
rationalistic ethics) has overlooked. No demonstration can show that the
results of the ethical development are definitive and universal. We
meet here again with the important opposition of systematisation and
evolution. There will, I think, always be an open question here, though
comparative ethics, of which we have so far only the first attempts, can
do much to throw light on it.

It would carry us too far to discuss all the philosophical works
on ethics, which have been influenced directly or indirectly by
evolutionism. I may, however, here refer to the book of C.M. Williams,
"A Review of the Systems of Ethics founded on the Theory of Evolution"
(New York and London, 1893.), in which, besides Darwin, the following
authors are reviewed: Wallace, Haeckel, Spencer, Fiske, Rolph, Barratt,
Stephen, Carneri, Hoffding, Gizycki, Alexander, Ree. As works which
criticise evolutionistic ethics from an intuitive point of view and
in an instructive way, may be cited: Guyau "La morale anglaise
contemporaine" (Paris, 1879.), and Sorley, "Ethics of Naturalism". I
will only mention some interesting contributions to ethical discussion
which can be found in Darwinism besides the idea of struggle for life.

The attention which Darwin has directed to variations has opened our
eyes to the differences in human nature as well as in nature generally.
There is here a fact of great importance for ethical thought, no matter
from what ultimate premiss it starts. Only from a very abstract point of
view can different individuals be treated in the same manner. The most
eminent ethical thinkers, men such as Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant,
who discussed ethical questions from very opposite standpoints, agreed
in regarding all men as equal in respect of ethical endowment. In regard
to Bentham, Leslie Stephen remarks: "He is determined to be thoroughly
empirical, to take men as he found them. But his utilitarianism supposed
that men's views of happiness and utility were uniform and clear, and
that all that was wanted was to show them the means by