l lie
By the last telegram: it means the tide
Of needs reciprocal, toil, trust and love--
The surging multitude of human claims
Which make "a presence not to be put by"
Above the horizon of the general soul.
Is inward reason shrunk to subtleties,
And inward wisdom pining passion-starved?--
The outward reason has the world in store,
Regenerates passion with the stress of want,
Regenerates knowledge with discovery,
Shows sly rapacious self a blunderer,
Widens dependence, knits the social whole
In sensible relation more defined.

As these words would indicate, George Eliot's faith in the moral meaning
and outcome of the world is very strong. All experience is moral, she would
have us believe, and capable of teaching man the higher life. That is, all
experience tends slowly to bring man into harmony with his environment, and
to teach him that certain actions are helpful, while others are harmful.
This teaching is very definite and emphatic in her pages, often rising into
a lofty eloquence and a rich poetic diction, as her mind is wrought upon by
the greatness and the impressiveness of the moral lessons of life.

However effective the outward order of nature may be in creating morality,
it is to be borne in mind that ethical rules can have no effect "apart from
the percipient and emotive mind." It is, in reality, the social nature
which gives morality its form and meaning. It is a creation of the social
organism. Its basis is found, indeed, in the invariable order of nature,
but the superstructure is erected out of and by society. "Man's individual
functions," says Lewes, "arise in relations to the cosmos; his general
functions arise in relations to the social medium; thence moral life
emerges. All the animal impulses become blended with human emotions. In the
process of evolution, starting from the merely animal appetite of
sexuality, we arrive at the purest and most far-reaching tenderness. The
social instincts tend more and more to make sociality dominate animality,
and thus subordinate personality to humanity.... The animal has sympathy,
and is moved by sympathetic impulses, but these are never altruistic; the
ends are never remote. Moral life is based on sympathy; it is feeling for
others, working for others, aiding others, quite irrespective of any
personal good beyond the satisfaction of the social impulse. Enlightened by
the intuition of our community of weakness, we share ideally the un