The Descent of Man

als that the foundation of morality lay in a
form of Selfishness; but more recently the
"Greatest happiness principle" has been
brought prominently forward. It is, however,
more correct to speak of the latter principle as
the standard, and not as the motive of conduct.
Nevertheless, all the authors whose works I
have consulted, with a few exceptions (42. Mill
recognises ('System of Logic,' vol. ii. p. 422) in
the clearest manner, that actions may be performed
through habit without the anticipation
of pleasure. Mr. H. Sidgwick also, in his Essay
on Pleasure and Desire ('The Contemporary
Review,' April 1872, p. 671), remarks: "To sum
up, in contravention of the doctrine that our
conscious active impulses are always directed
towards the production of agreeable sensations
in ourselves, I would maintain that we find
everywhere in consciousness extra-regarding
impulse, directed towards something that is not
pleasure; that in many cases the impulse is so
far incompatible with the self-regarding that