social  sane-  utilitarianism  neither  a  political  nor  religious  but
a  'moral'  duty,  enforced  by  and  founded  on  the
shifting  and  uncertain  punishments  or  sanctions
of  society — what  Bain  describes  as  "  the  unofficial
expressions  of  disapprobation  and  the  exclusion
from  social  good  offices."  ^  But  as  a  logical  proof
of  utilitarianism,  this  means  is,  if  possible,  weaker
than  the  preceding ;  for  social  opinion,  though  of
somewhat  wider  applicability  than  legal  enact-
ment, has  probably  been,  for  the  most  part,  in
even  less  exact  correspondence  than  it  with  the
general  happiness.  The  social  sanction  is  strict
on  indifferent  points  of  etiquette,  does  not  con-
sult the  general  interests  of  mankind  on  points
of  honour,  and  is  lenient  towards  acts  that  the
utilitarian  moralist  condemns.^

1  The  Emotions  and  the  Will,  p.  264.
^  Cf.  Bain,  The  Emotions  and  the  "Will,  p.  287.  Professor
Bain  says  (Emotions,  p.  276  n.),  "  we  ought  to  have  a  written
code  of  public  morality,  or  of  the  duties  imposed  by  society,  over
and  above  what  parliament  imposes,  and  this  should  not  be  a
loosely  written  moral  treatise,  but  a  strict  enumeration  of  what
society  requires  under  pain  of  punishment  by  excommunication
or  otherwise, — the  genuine  offences  that  are  not  passed  over."
This  would  certainly  be  very  desm\ble,  were  it  not  from  the
nature  of  the  case  impracticable.  Popular  judgment  as  to  a
man's  conduct, — what  society  imposes, — is  one  of  the  things
most  diflficult  to  predict :  it  is  under  the  influence  of  most
heterogeneous  causes,  personal,  industrial,  religious,  political,  &c.
