f the word becomes indistinguishable from
holiness, harmony, wisdom, love. By the slight addition 'of others,' all
the associations of the word are altered; we seem to have passed
over from one theory of morals to the opposite. For allowing that the
happiness of others is reflected on ourselves, and also that every man
must live before he can do good to others, still the last limitation is
a very trifling exception, and the happiness of another is very far from
compensating for the loss of our own. According to Mr. Mill, he would
best carry out the principle of utility who sacrificed his own
pleasure most to that of his fellow-men. But if so, Hobbes and Butler,
Shaftesbury and Hume, are not so far apart as they and their followers
imagine. The thought of self and the thought of others are alike
superseded in the more general notion of the happiness of mankind at
large. But in this composite good, until society becomes perfected, the
friend of man himself has generally the least share, and may be a great
sufferer.

And now what objection have we to urge against a system of moral
philosophy so beneficent, so enlightened, so ideal, and at the same time
so practical,--so Christian, as we may say without exaggeration,--and
which has the further advantage of resting morality on a principle
intelligible to all capacities? Have we not found that which Socrates
and Plato 'grew old in seeking'? Are we not desirous of happiness, at
any rate for ourselves and our friends, if not for all mankind? If, as
is natural, we begin by thinking of ourselves first, we are easily led
on to think of others; for we cannot help acknowledging that what
is right for us is the right and inheritance of others. We feel the
advantage of an abstract principle wide enough and strong enough
to override all the particularisms of mankind; which acknowledges a
universal good, truth, right; which is capable of inspiring men like
a passion, and is the symbol of a cause for which they are ready to
contend to their life's end.

And if we test this principle by the lives of its professors, it would
certainly appear inferior to none as a rule of action. From the days
of Eudoxus (Arist. Ethics) and Epicurus to our own, the votaries of
pleasure have gained belief for their principles by their practice.
Two of the noblest and most disinterested men who have lived in this
century, Bentham and J. S. Mill, whose lives were a long devotion to
the service of their fello