[15] Bentham speaks of his enunciation of "the greatest happiness principle" in the following terms:--"Throughout the whole horizon of morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious and vast. It might be said without danger of exaggeration, that they who sat in darkness had seen a great light." With reference to this Lord Macaulay says, "We blamed the utilitarians for claiming the credit of a discovery, when they had merely stolen that morality (the morality of the gospel) and spoiled it in the stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ _and left the motive_, and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and beneficial invention, when all they have done has been to make a most useful maxim useless _by separating it from its sanction. On religious principles_ it is true that every individual will best promote his own happiness by promoting the happiness of others. _But if religious considerations be left out of the question it is not true._ If we do not reason on the supposition of a future state, where is the motive? If we do reason on that supposition, where is the discovery?"--_Vide Lord Macaulay's Essays on "Westminster Reviewer's Defence of Mill," and "The Utilitarian Theory of Government" in Lord Macaulay's "Miscellaneous Writings._" [16] There was a way in which the argument was formerly stated by utilitarians which was much more plausible, but which I observe is now seldom if ever resorted to by the modern exponents of this theory. The _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 12, 1871, says: "The now prevailing doctrine" that there is no absolute standard of right and wrong, but "that the right and wrong of an action or a motive depend upon the influence of the action, or the motive upon the general good." The argument to which I refer is thus stated by Mr W. O. Manning in his "Commentaries on the Law of Nations," 1839:--"Everything around us proves that God designed the happiness of His creatures. It is the will of God that man should be happy. To ascertain the will of God regarding any action, we have, therefore, to consider the tendency of that action to promote or diminish human happiness," p. 59. It is perfectly true that man was created by God for happiness, and that ultimate happiness, if he does not forfeit it, is the end to which he is still destined. It is moreover true that even in this world he may enjoy a conditional and comparative happiness. How it is that this happiness cannot be complete and perfect here below is precisely the secret which tradition reveals to him. It is important, from the point of view of happiness, both for individuals and nations, that the truth of this