ABSTRACT
As applied to Ethics, the word "absolute" will by many be supposed to imply principles of right conduct that exist out of relation to life as conditioned on the Earth, out of relation to time and place, and independent of the Universe as now visible to us, "eternal" principles as they are called. Relative Ethics has to take as the standard by which ta estimate divergences from right, or degrees of wrong. The law of absolute right can take no cognizance of pain, save the cognizance implied by negation. The moment cognizance is taken of excess of function, or arrest of function, or defect of function, with the resulting evil, physiology passes into pathology. The relation between morality proper, and morality as commonly conceived, is analogous to the relation between physiology and pathology. Physiology describes the various functions which, as combined, constitute and maintain life.
