Under its relative form, positive beneficence presents numerous problems, alike important and difficult, admitting only of empirical solutions. How far is self-sacrifice for another's benefit to be carried in each case?--a question which must be answered differently according to the character of the other, the needs of the other, and the various claims of self and belongings which have to be met. To what extent under given circumstances shall private welfare be subordinated to public welfare?--a question to be answered after considering the importance of the end and the seriousness of the sacrifice. What benefit and what detriment will result from gratuitous aid yielded to another?--a question in each case implying an estimate of probabilities. Is there any unfair treatment of sundry others, involved by more than fair treatment of this one other? Up to what limit may help be given to the existing generation of the inferior, without entailing mischief on future generations of the superior? Evidently to these and many kindred questions included in this division of Relative Ethics, approximately true answers only can be given. But though here Absolute Ethics, by the standard it supplies, does not greatly aid Relative Ethics, yet, as in other cases, it aids somewhat by keeping before consciousness an ideal conciliation of the various claims involved; and by suggesting the search for such compromise among them, as shall not disregard any, but shall satisfy all to the greatest extent practicable. FOOTNOTES: [A] _Leviathan_, ch. xv. [B] I can count up more than a dozen such cases among those personally well known to me. [C] _Constitutional Code_, chap. xvi, Supreme Legislative--Section vi. _Omnicompetence_. [D] _Republic_, Bk. ix. [E] _Nicomachean Ethics_, Bk. i, chap 8. [F] Bk. x, chap. 7. [G] This universal requirement it was which I had in view when choosing for my first work, published in 1850, the title _Social Statics_. [H] _On Idiocy and Imbecility_, by William W. Ireland, M. D., p. 255-6. [I] For instances see _Fortnightly Review_, Vol. XXIV (_New Series_), p. 712. [J] See Essay on "The Origin and Function of Music." [K] I do not find this passage in the second edition; but the omission of it appears to have arisen not from any change of view, but because it did not naturally come into the recast form of the argument which the section contains. [L] Most of these quotations I make from Dr. Bain's _Mental and Moral Science_. * * * * * * Transcriber's note: Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unpaired quotation marks were retained. Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. There are two Section 14's, 22's and 105's; and no Section 16. Page 94: "pharynx" was misprinted as "phayrnx".; changed here.