Principles of western civilisation

XI TOWARDS THE FUTURE 397

Utilitarians dreamed at last in England, that the scheme of progress unfolded by them revealed the fact that the influence of an enlightened self-interest, first of all upon the actions, and afterwards upon the character of mankind, is shown to be sufficient to construct the whole edifice of civilisation ; —is to present to us now but the progressive stages of an illusion. The nature of the deep dividing line which separates the principles of morals (covering conduct related to ends in the evolutionary process necessarily projected beyond the limits of political consciousness) from the principles of the State (concerned with interests within the limits of political consciousness) has, we see, remained entirely outside the vision of the Utilitarians.”

In the growing light we perceive of what incomplete conceptions of the principles underlying the evolutionary process many of the positions taken up have been the expression. The assertion, repeated in many keys in movements of the time, that the economic factor—that is the self-interest of the individuals within the limits of political conscious-

1 Rationalism i Europe, by W. E. H. Lecky, vol. ii. p. 3685 cf. Utzlztarianism, by J. S. Mill, pp. 24, 25. Mill speaks vaguely of his principle of utility applying to the ‘‘ collective interests of mankind” ; but he does not in practice carry us any farther than Bentham, who speaks of it as applying either to the interest of the individual or the interest of the community, and proceeds forthwith to define the interest of the community as simply ‘‘ the sum of the interests ofthe several members who compose it,” Prenciples of Morals and Legislation, p. 3.

2Mr. J. S. Mackenzie rightly points out that “the chief claims of utilitarianism to practical value seem to rest on (a) the principle of ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’ in legislation, and (4) the principle of ‘ Utilities’ in Economics.” —Av Jntroduction to Social Philosophy, chap. iv. Within these limits, and apart from its more ambitious theories, Utilitarianism has, of course, been an important factor in that distinctively English development already noticed as characterised by a tendency to the complete difterentiation of the theory of the State from the science of ethics.