change of equivalents or of equivalent services, rests on the rational ideas of justice and of the reciprocal relations and obligations of men in the community of a moral system. And language recognizes the reference to human welfare in calling articles of exchange goods.

VIII. The Good is the rational end or object of acquisition, possession and enjoyment. In knowing what the good is, we know the end or object approved by reason as worthy to be acquired, possessed and enjoyed by a rational being.

The question" What is the Good?" is not the primary and fundamental question of ethics. All knowledge is the knowledge of being. All action has being for its ultimate object. Moral character is primarily the choice of a being or beings as the supreme object of service; it is not the choice of an object to be acquired, possessed and enjoyed, but of a being or beings to be served. True ethics transcends the question as to the summum bonum or highest good, and passes over into an entirely different sphere of thought. The fundamental question of ethics is not," What shall I get?" but it is, "Whom shall I serve?”

But when I have chosen the being or beings to whom I will devote my energies in service, the question arises, "What service can I render?" In answering this question we are obliged to ascertain what the good is; what object or end is worthy to be acquired, possessed and enjoyed by a rational being, whether it is acquired for himself or for another. What object to be acquired, possessed and enjoyed does reason declare to have true worth?

The good therefore is the rational end or object of acquisition, possession and enjoyment. It presupposes the true, the right and the perfect; it is that in which they culminate. Here opens to our investigation the sphere of rational ends of action. In the sphere of the good we find those rational ends of pursuit which satisfy our highest aspirations and may be put forward as constituting a full and sufficient reason for life itself. Here is the answer to the question, forced on this generation by materialistic denials of the ultimate realities of Reason ; "Is life worth living?" Reason answers that in knowing the truth, obeying it as law, and realizing perfection man attains the Good, which has true and immutable worth and is worthy of the pursuit and enjoyment of rational beings. I shall sometimes call it, for short, the rational end or object, meaning, not the object of service, but the object approved by reason as worthy of being acquired, possessed and enjoyed. It is the true and right object of all acquisitive action on the part of a rational being.

It is this reality known by Reason which opens to knowledge the whole sphere of teleology or final causes. Reason asks, what is the true good of a rational being? and judges all things else in their relation to that.

It asks, what is it good for? of what use is it? What rational end does it subserve?

50. In what the Good or Well-being of a Rational

Being consists.

Thus far my definition of the good has been analogous to my definition of the right by the formal principle of the law. I have said that the good is that which is determined by a rational standard as having worth. But I have not said what it is which has this worth. This I now proceed to define; and the definition will be analogous to the definition of right in the real principle of the law. What is it which has in itself worth as estimated by reason; which is everywhere and always worthy of human acquisition and possession, and everywhere and always worthy to be the source of happiness to a rational being? I. The essential good of a person is the perfection of his being; his consequent harmony with himself, with God the Supreme Reason, and with the constitution of the universe; and the happiness necessarily resulting.

1. The essential good is primarily the perfection of the being.

Man's acquisitions are not merely of external goods to be consumed for his enjoyment or used as instruments in accomplishing his ends. There are also excellences constituting the perfection of his being, which are to be acquired by his own action. This perfection is what he must primarily seek to acquire as the true good.

This is a necessary inference from what has been already established. The Good, which is the rational object of all acquisition, is itself the realization of the truths, laws and ideals of reason. So far as a man attains the perfection of his own being he attains the end which reason declares to have true worth; this is the end worthy of pursuit and acquisition for ourselves and for all beings.

The attainment of perfection must begin in the acquisition of right moral character. Character begins in choice. When a man chooses whom he will serve, he acquires moral character; the will is thenceforward a charactered will and all action thereafter develops, confirms or modifies the character. The moral law requires us to choose as the object of service God as supreme and our neighbor equally with ourselves. This choice is the essence and germ of the love to God and man which is the fulfilment of the law. It is the essential germ of all right character.

This right choice, constituting the germ of all right character, is good in itself and cannot be perverted to evil or made a means of evil. Knowledge, intellectual power, discipline and culture, vigor of body, all outward conditions and possessions may be used for evil. The

power of long foresight and of self-control may be used for evil; the cool-headed villain is the most dangerous villain. But the right choice cannot be perverted to evil; should it be overpowered and fail to carry out all its purposes, it is still good in itself:

"A noble aim faithfully kept is as a noble deed."

Man in his power of choice can determine all his energies and possessions to the service of God and man, and thus to the realization of the universal good; or to the service of self and thus to the realization of evil. But the choice of God and man as the object of service is good in itself, good without qualification, good which can never be perverted to evil. So Kant says: "There is nothing in the world, and we cannot conceive of anything out of the world, which can be held to be good without qualification, except a good will. . . . This good will is good not on account of its effects or its fitness to accomplish any given end, but simply in itself, as a right choice or purpose. It is therefore to be prized incomparably higher for its own sake, than anything which comes to pass to gratify any desire or even all desires together. Even if the good will is unable to carry its purpose into execution, still the good will would remain, and it would have its worth in itself, like a jewel which glitters with its own luster. Success or failure neither adds to nor takes from this worth. These are like the setting of the gem, convenient for handling and setting it forth to notice, but unheeded by the lapidary in estimating its real worth.”*

Besides right moral character, the Good consists in the perfection of all the powers and susceptibilities of the being. It is physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual perfection. All action in accordance with the law of love tends to the development, discipline and culture of the man in the realization of this perfection.

And it can be realized only by action in accordance with the law of love. Should a person propose to himself his own perfection as the great object of acquisition and should he seek it only for his own aggrandizement and enjoyment, he would be serving himself supremely, not God and his neighbor; he would miss the perfection which he proposed to attain, and instead of its grandeur and blessedness would find himself shriveled in selfishness, and his whole sphere of interest and action, the whole firmament and horizon of his life shrunk within the bounds of what he can clasp within his own arms and hug to his own bosom. And here is the significance of the Saviour's paradox, " He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

* Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten; Erster Abschnitt, pp. 11, 12, 13.

Goethe is a striking example of a man devoting his life to seeking his own culture with all the energy of commanding genius. Great as are the works of his genius, he missed that which is of highest worth, and the light of his intellect reveals more clearly his moral deficiencies. Intent on personal culture and enjoyment, he took little interest in the great political movements of his time, which were changing the destiny of Europe and America and affecting all the interests of humanity. In Napoleon's invasion he fawned on the conqueror of his people-unlike Fichte, who, as the enemy approached, dismissed his class with the inspiriting words: "We shall resume these lectures in a free country." The track of his life was strewn with crushed and cast-off loves, like orange-peels thrown away after he had sucked out all the sweetness. Great and lustrous like an iceberg, floating deep and towering high, moving majestic with the strength and swell of the ocean, effulgent in the sunshine, a mountain of light, but also a mountain of ice. Plainly he never attained the true good. And this estimate of himself he himself pronounced, when in his old age he said: "I have ever been esteemed one of fortune's favorites; nor can I complain of the course my life has taken. Yet, truly, there has been nothing but toil and care; and now in my seventy-fifth year I may say that I have never had four weeks of genuine pleasure. The stone was ever to be rolled anew. My annals will testify to the truth of what I now say.' Contrast this with Paul's review of his life of self-sacrificing love: "I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand: I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day." There is no absolute perfection to a finite being, but only its perfection in its own kind and under its own necessary conditions. But man, endowed with reason and free-will, is capable of progress. While his moral character at a given point of time may be right, he is in culture and capacity capable of continual growth. His perfection, therefore, is not a resting in any attainment as a finality. The very fact of resting in knowledge or power acquired, or in good work done as a finality and satisfying sufficiency, would involve the cessation of activity, and the resting would be a rusting in routine, formalism and cant. The perfection of man involves continual growth. It is the condition of the growing tree, the tree of the Lord, which is full of sap, leafing, blooming, fruiting and growing from year to year, transforming the mold, the air, the water into its own organic substance, and thus glorifying itself with beauty and majesty; not a bark-bound tree, standing fruitless and

* Eckermann Conversations, January 27, 1824.

unblessed from year to year. It is the condition of immortal youth. In becoming as a little child, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, the Christian becomes not only simple-minded, teachable and trustful as a child, but also acquires the perpetual youthfulness which we love to think of in the immortals, losing nothing of its freshness and buoyancy, its vigor and capacity of growth through the lapse of ages.

2. A person's Good consists in his harmony with himself, with God the Supreme Reason, and with the constitution of the universe. His will is in harmony with his Reason, and all his desires and passions under the power of love are brought into harmony with one another. He is in harmony with God. The universe, physical and spiritual, is the progressive expression or revelation of the archetypal thoughts of God. As such it must be good. Man is not an isolated ego and cannot work out his own good in independent individualism. He belongs to the universal system, physical and spiritual, and his well-being consists essentially in his harmony with the system of which he is a part, and with the Wisdom and Love which evermore are embodying themselves in it. Its Cosmic forces, acting on him every moment for good or evil, go on evermore above his reach and independent of his power. But if he reads aright the truths of his own reason, he reads in them also the truths of the supreme and universal reason. If he realizes the perfection of his own being, he knows that he is in harmony with the constitution of the moral and physical system and with the thought and design of the Supreme Reason energizing in it evermore for good. While, then, his own perfection constitutes primarily his good or wellbeing, it has this scope that it puts him in harmony with the constitution of the universe and with the wisdom and love and power ever energizing in it; and thus makes it sure that all the complicated and immeasurable agencies of the worlds of nature and of spirit will bring him blessing. "All things work together for good to them who love God."

3. A third essential constituent of good or well-being is the happiness flowing from the perfection of the person and from his harmony with himself, with God and with the constitution of things.

It may be objected that since happiness may arise from evil and be a motive to evil, it cannot belong of itself to the essential good. This is true. On the other hand, sorrow that comes necessarily from evil, may be a motive to forsake it. Such sorrows, for example, are remorse, the misery of self-conflict, the dissatisfaction with worldly acquisitions. The sorrow of repentance is good, although it could not have existed if the penitent had never sinned.

But happiness has no existence of itself and is always inseparable from its source in something else. The happiness which comes from