It never becomes clear, then, to the popular utilitarian ethic that in the course of the first half of the nineteenth century it is being gradually robbed of its world-view by [pg 151] new modes of thought, those of historical science, romanticism, nature-philosophy, and natural science. Certain that it is still in favour with the healthy human reason, it remains unmoved at its post, and still does a considerable amount of work. Whenever, too, it considers its future prospects, it assumes that if it should ever have to give up all connexion with rationalism, it will be able to come to terms with positivism, that world-view which has been sobered by exact sciences. As a matter of fact, rationalism does merge imperceptibly into a kind of popular positivism. The optimistic-ethical interpretation of the universe is still relied on, but less unreservedly and less enthusiastically than previously. In this weakened form rationalism maintains itself till the end of the nineteenth century, and even till somewhat later, always working to produce the temper that desires civilization, whether independently or accompanied by popular religiousness. While, then, Kant, Fichte, and Schleiermacher are struggling with the ethical problem, Bentham supplies the world with an ethic. The periodical entitled _The Utilitarian_ (_L’Utilitaire_) is started in Paris in 1829 to propagate his views. In England the _Westminster Review_ works for him. In 1830 Friedrich Eduard Beneke’s translation of his _Principles of Civil and Criminal Legislation_ paved a way for him in Germany. At his death—which occurred in 1832, a year after Hegel’s—Bentham could take to the grave with him the conviction that, thanks to him, an ethic which provided enlightenment both for the reason and for the heart had proved victorious everywhere.