The Ethical Library SOCIAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES Addresses to Ethical Societies by LESLIE STEPHEN In Two Volumes VOL. I. London Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Limited New York: MacMillan & Co. 1896 NOTE. The following chapters are chiefly a republication of addresses delivered to the Ethical Societies of London. Some have previously appeared in the _International Journal of Ethics_, the _National Review_, and the _Contemporary Review_. The author has to thank the proprietors of these periodicals for their consent to the republication. L. S. CONTENTS. PAGE THE AIMS OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES, 1 SCIENCE AND POLITICS, 45 THE SPHERE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 91 THE MORALITY OF COMPETITION, 133 SOCIAL EQUALITY, 175 ETHICS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE, 221 THE AIMS OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES.[1] I am about to say a few words upon the aims of this society: and I should be sorry either to exaggerate or to depreciate our legitimate pretensions. It would be altogether impossible to speak too strongly of the importance of the great questions in which our membership of the society shows us to be interested. It would, I fear, be easy enough to make an over-estimate of the part which we can expect to play in their solution. I hold indeed, or I should not be here, that we may be of some service at any rate to each other. I think that anything which stimulates an active interest in the vital problems of the day deserves the support of all thinking men; and I propose to consider briefly some of the principles by which we should be guided in doing whatever we can to promote such an interest. [1] Address to West London Ethical Society, 4th December, 1892.