lly done
by a very small number of theorists, of whom John Austin is about the
best example.

The ethical philosopher, from not building on a foregone sociology, is
obliged to extemporize, in a paragraph, the social system; just as the
physical philosopher would, if he had no regularly constructed
mathematics to fall back upon, but had to stop every now and then to
enunciate a mathematical theorem.

The question of the ethical end should first appear as the question of
the sociological end. For what purpose or purposes is society
maintained? All the ethical difficulties are here met by anticipation,
and in a form much better adapted to their solution. It is from the
point of view of the social ruler, that you learn reserve, moderation,
and sobriety in your aims; you learn to think that something much less
than the Utopias--universal happiness and universal virtue--should be
propounded; you find that a definite and limited province can be
assigned, separating what the social power is able to do, must do, and
can advantageously do, from what it is unable to do, need not do, and
cannot with advantage do; and this or a similar demarcation is
reproducible in ethics.

[PRECEPTS OF ETHICS MAINLY SOCIAL.]

The precepts of ethics are mainly the precepts of social authority; at
all events the social precepts and their sanctions have the priority
in scientific method. Some of the highest virtues are sociological;
patriotic self-sacrifice is one of the conditions of social
preservation. The inculcation of this and of many other virtues would
not appear in ethics at all, or only in a supplementary treatment, if
social science took its proper sphere, and fully occupied that sphere.

Once more. The great problem of moral control, which I would remove
entirely from a science of education, would be first dealt with in
Sociology. It there appears in the form of the choice and gradation
of punishments, in prison discipline, and in the reformation of
criminals,--all which have been made the subject of enlightened, not
to say scientific, treatment. It is in the best experience in those
subjects that I would begin to seek for lights on the comprehensive
question. I would next go to diplomacy for the arts of delicate address
in reconciling opposing interests; after which I would look to the
management of parties and conflicting interests in the State. I would
farther inquire how armies are disciplined, and subordination combined
with t