Chapter V: Part I: THE DATA OF MORALITY.—Generalizations furnished by

Biology, Psychology and Sociology, which underlie a true theory of
right living: in other words, the elements of that equilibrium
between constitution and conditions of existence, which is at once
the moral ideal and the limit towards which we are progressing.

II. THE INDUCTIONS OF MORALITY.—Those empirically-established
rules of human action which are registered as essential laws by
all civilized nations: that is to say—the generalizations of
expediency.

III. PERSONAL MORALS.—The principles of private conduct—physical,
intellectual, moral and religious—that follow from the conditions
to complete individual life: or, what is the same thing—those
modes of private action which must result from the eventual
equilibration of internal desires and external needs.

VOL. II.

IV. JUSTICE.—The mutual limitations of men’s actions necessitated
by their co-existence as units of a society—limitations, the
perfect observance of which constitutes that state of equilibrium
forming the goal of political progress.

V. NEGATIVE BENEFICENCE.—Those secondary limitations, similarly
necessitated, which, though less important and not cognizable by
law, are yet requisite to prevent mutual destruction of happiness
in various indirect ways: in other words—those minor
self-restraints dictated by what may be called passive sympathy.

VI. POSITIVE BENEFICENCE.—Comprehending all modes of conduct,
dictated by active sympathy, which imply pleasure in giving
pleasure—modes of conduct that social adaptation has induced and
must render ever more general; and which, in becoming universal,
must fill to the full the possible measure of human happiness.[5]

In anticipation of the obvious criticism that the scheme here
sketched out is too extensive, it may be remarked that an
exhaustive treatment of each topic is not intended; but simply the
establishment of _principles_, with such illustrations as are
needed to make their bearings fully understood. It may also be
pointed out that, besides minor fragments, one large division
(_The Principles of Psychology_) is already, in great part,
executed. And a further reply is, that impossible though it may
prove to execute the whole, yet nothing can be said against an
attempt to set forth the First Principles and to carry their
applications as far as circumstances permit.

The price per Number to be half-a-crown; that is to say, the four
Numbers yearly issued to be severally delivered, post free, to all
annual subscribers of Ten Shillings.

* * * * *

This Programme I have thought well to reprint for two reasons:—the one being that readers may, from time to time, be able to ascertain what topics are next to be dealt with; the other being that an outline of the scheme may remain, in case it should never be completed.

The successive instalments of which this volume consists, were issued to the subscribers at the following dates:—Part I. (pp. 1–80) in October, 1860; Part II. (pp. 81–176) in January, 1861; Part III. (pp. 177–256) in April, 1861; Part IV. (pp. 257–334) in October, 1861; Part V. (pp. 335–416) in March, 1862; and Part VI. (pp. 417–504) in June, 1862.

_London, June 5th, 1862_

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Footnote 1:

One of these generalizations is that currently known as “the
Conservation of Force;” a second may be gathered from a published
essay on “Progress: its Law and Cause;” a third is indicated in a
paper on “Transcendental Physiology;” and there are several others.

Footnote 2:

The ideas to be developed in the second volume of the _Principles of
Biology_ the writer has already briefly expressed in sundry
Review-Articles. Part IV. will work out a doctrine suggested in a
paper on “The Laws of Organic Form,” published in the
_Medico-Chirurgical Review_ for January, 1859. The germ of Part V. is
contained in the essay on “Transcendental Physiology:” See _Essays_,
pp. 280–90. And in Part VI. will be unfolded certain views crudely
expressed in a “Theory of Population,” published in the _Westminster
Review_ for April, 1852.

Footnote 3:

Respecting the several additions to be made to the _Principles of
Psychology_, it seems needful only to say that Part V. is the
unwritten division named in the preface to that work—a division of
which the germ is contained in a note on page 544, and of which the
scope has since been more definitely stated in a paper in the
_Medico-Chirurgical Review_ for Jan. 1859.

Footnote 4:

Of this treatise on Sociology a few small fragments may be found in
already-published essays. Some of the ideas to be developed in Part
II. are indicated in an article on “The Social Organism,” contained in
the last number of the _Westminster Review_; those which Part V. will
work out, may be gathered from the first half of a paper written some
years since on “Manners and Fashion;” of Part VIII. the germs are
contained in an article on the “Genesis of Science;” two papers on
“The Origin and Function of Music” and “The Philosophy of Style,”
contain some ideas to be embodied in Part IX.; and from a criticism of
Mr. Bain’s work on “The Emotions and the Will,” in the last number of
the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_, the central idea to be developed in