When he opposes in these words the conclusions of his synthetic philosophy to those of Auguste Comte, he arrives at very nearly the same conclusion as Proudhon[1] and Bakunin.[2] More than that, the very methods of argumentation and the illustrations resorted to by Herhert Spencer (daily supply of food, post-office, and so on) are the same which we find in the writings of the Anarchists. The channels of thought were the same, although both were unaware of each other's endeavours.
Again, when Mr. Spencer so powerfully, and even not without a touch of passion, argues (in his Appendix to the third edition of the Data of Ethics) that human societies are marching towards a state when a further identification of altruism with egoism will be made "in the sense that personal gratification will come from the gratification of others;" when he says that "we are shown, undeniably, that it is a perfectly possible thing for organisms to become so adjusted to the requirements of their lives, that energy expended for the general welfare may not only be adequate to check energy expended for the individual welfare, but may come to subordinate it so far as to leave individual welfare no greater part than is necessary for maintenance of individual life"—provided the conditions for such relations between the individual and the community be maintained[3]—he derives from the study of nature the very same conclusions as the forerunners of Anarchy, Fourier and Robert Owen, derived from a study of human character.
When we see further Mr. Bain so forcibly elaborating the theory of moral habits, and the French philosopher, M. Guyau, unveiling in a most remarkable work the basis of Morality without Obligation or Sanction; when J. S. Mill so sharply criticises representative
- ↑ Idée générale sur la Révolution au XIXe siècle; and Confessions d'un révolutionnaire.
- ↑ Lettres à un Français sur la crise actuelle; L'Empire knouto-germanique; The State's Idea and Anarchy (Russian).
- ↑ Pages 300 to 302. In fact, the whole of this chapter, which did not appear in the first two editions, ought to be quoted.
viduals, is requisite, but I have contended that it should be exercised much more effectually and carried much farther than at present" (p. 145). And although he tries to establish a distinction between the (desirable) negatively regulative and the (undesirable) positively regulative functions of government, we know that no such distinction can be established in political life, and that the former necessarily lead to, and even imply, the latter. But we must distinguish between the system of philosophy and its interpreter. All we can say is that Herbert Spencer does not endorse all the conclusions which ought to be drawn from his system of philosophy.
