Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism / by H. Strickland Constable.

  • Constable, H. Strickland (Henry Strickland), 1821-1909
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism / by H. Strickland Constable. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    These strangely credulous people have a super- stitious belief in “ law ; ” self-enacted, self-acting laws of nature. But the idea of a law wdtliout a maker of it is really inconceivable to a sane mind. If law be defined to mean only invariable sequences and antecedents the inconceivability remains just the same. There must be some cause for their being invariable. Trying to conceive a self-enacted, self-acting law of nature is like trying to conceive the new licensing act to have been made by itself and policeman X, carrying out its provisions without knowing what he is doing, and without having re- ceived orders to do so. They must invent a new word. Law means an enactment made and enforced by some living mind and will. The i:^ost distinguished men of science, such as Mr. Huxley, state, each in his own department, that M. Comte, when he enters upon that depart- ment, is altogether wrong in his facts and opinions. Nearly all moral and religious philosophers of repute state that, in their department, he is fright- fully wrong. Unselfishness, self-sacrifice, a reverential spirit, self-control, self-respect, humility, and trust in God, are usually observed to go together; and for those who possess these qualities in any very great degree, nearly all men, with the exception of the lowest savages, the criminal classes, some LTtilita- rians, and torpid-blooded ])hilosphers, feel great veneration sometimes amounting to worship. We learn from Mr. Mill that M. Comte’s qualities were of an opposite description for the most part;