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determined from the feelings, but only from the reason. So Kant affirms: "Heteronomy and a falsification of the moral principles is the inevitable result if, without regard to the law, any object is chosen under the name of good and allowed to determine the will, so that from it the highest principle of practice is deduced."

II. The rational idea of the good determined by this standard is the idea of dignity, worthiness or worth. This is an ultimate idea of the reason of the same order with the True, the Right and the Perfect. In it is opened a reality which, but for man's constitutional capacity of rational intuition, would have remained utterly inconceivable and unknown.

The good, rationally estimated, is more than enjoyment. It is any object which can be acquired, possessed and used, any source of enjoyment and the enjoyment resulting, which reason approves as worthy of the pursuit of a rational being. Reason judges that the man acts worthily of himself as rational in seeking the object and deriving enjoyment from it; it judges that the object has dignity and worth; is worthy to be an object of pursuit and a source of enjoyment to a rational being.

Necessarily the good of any being must be in harmony with the constitution of the being. It cannot be for the good of a fish to be taken out of the water. Man is constituted rational. His good must be accordant with his rational constitution. Among all objects which may be desired, possessed and enjoyed, those only are good which reason declares worthy to be desired, possessed and enjoyed by a rational being. If a man gains the whole world at the expense of his own spiritual integrity and perfection, the gain is not worth the expenditure; it is evil and not good. When Raphael expends life putting the creations of his genius on the canvas, or Newton or Kepler in exploring the heavens, or Paul in building up Christian churches, reason approves of the object as having dignity and worth, and sees, as the Creator saw his own works in the beginning, that it is good. But if any man lives selfishly in rapacity and prodigality, or in rapacity and miserliness, or in fraud or violence using others for his own aggrandizement, or in idleness and luxury, reason condemns his ends, his acquisitions, his achievements and his joy therein, as unworthy of a rational being, and pronounces it shameful that he should spend his powers and find his enjoyments in such pursuits. A reasonable contempt for a life of selfish enjoyment is uttered by Froude, in reference to a sentiment of some political economists that an idle and luxurious class is a benefit to society by stimulating the young to seek a similar success: "They are like Olympian gods, condescending to show themselves in their empyrean and to say to their worshipers, Make money, money enough, and

ye shall be as we are, and shoot grouse and drink champagne all the days of your lives.'"* And our approval and condemnation as worthy or unworthy in such cases is immediate and decisive, and independent of the greater or less amount of pleasure.

III. The rational idea of the Good, as that which, measured by the standard of reason, has dignity and worth, presupposes the ideas of the True, the Right and the Perfect. Each of the four is distinct from the others, but there is an order of precedence and dependence in their origination. The idea of the True presupposes no rational idea. Law or right presupposes the idea of Truth. What is true to reason is a law to action. The Perfect presupposes the ideas of truth and law. The Good presupposes, not only the knowledge in experience of joy and sorrow, but also the ideas of the true, the right and the perfect as the standard by which we discriminate among joys and their sources as worthy or unworthy of the pursuit of a rational being, as having worth or being worthless.

IV. The distinction between good and evil as determined by reason is eternal and immutable, like the distinction between the true and the absurd, the right and the wrong, the perfect and the imperfect. It must be so because the standard by which it is measured is so. Hence the principles, laws and ideals of Reason determine what good is possible in the universe. The possibility of good contrary to these is excluded by the eternal constitution of things; that is, by the fact that Reason is supreme and the universe is the expression of its eternal truths, laws and ideals. It is impossible for any power, even though almighty, to make any acquisition or any pleasure not accordant with reason to be good. Almightiness can no more make evil to be good than it can make the absurd true and real, the wrong right or the imperfect perfect. Hence the significance of the prophet's denunciation, "Wo unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness." (Isa. 5: 20.)

V. The Good being distinct from the Right, any correct ethical philosophy must recognize and treat them as distinct. The confounding or identifying of the Bene and the Recte has been a common source of error in systems of morals. The love which is the fulfilment of the law must comprise both righteousness and benevolence, or, if both words had the Latin form, Recte-volence and Bene-volence.

VI. The good thus rationally determined, is not merely a superior good distinguished from the inferior good by quantity, but it is the true or real good or well-being, distinguished by worth from all that is falsely called good. As the true and real good it is of course the highest

* Inaugural Address at St. Andrew's, March 19, 1868.

good. Thus what the highest good is, is ascertained not empirically by measuring quantity, but rationally by the standard of reason.

VII. Distinguish worth as estimated by reason from value in Political Economy. The latter is measured by the demand for the article and the labor of producing it. Whatever amount of labor the article has cost, if there is no demand for it, it has no value in the market. On the other hand, it makes no difference as to value in exchange whether the demand for an article is wise or unwise, right or wrong. An article that is positively injurious, like intoxicating liquors, may have great value in the market.

On the other hand, worth as estimated by reason, is independent of the demand for it. It is that which wisdom and love demand, but which folly and sin may refuse. The greatest demand cannot impart worth to what is unreasonable and wrong. Nor does it depend on the amount of labor in producing it. What proportion is there between the amount of labor in producing Homer's Iliad, or Shakespeare's Hamlet, or Newton's or Kepler's discoveries, and their worth? The works of the great painters and sculptors have passed out of the market. They are preserved by princes and nations. No money can buy them. So wisdom is represented in the book of Job as having worth above all price. "Man knoweth not the price thereof. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire. No mention shall be made of coral or pearls; the price of wisdom is above rubies." (Job 28: 12-19.) The same is the priceless worth of God's redeeming grace: "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Pet. 1: 18.) It reveals a low estimate of a man to say he is worth a million of dollars, for it ranks him with marketable commodities. Christ says the worth of a man is more than that of a world. So simple a virtue as integrity we acknowledge to be of priceless worth, when we say of the upright man that the world does not contain gold enough to buy him. Says Kant: "Everything in the realm of ends has either a price or a dignity. That in the place of which an equivalent may be put, has a price; that which is above all price and admits not substitution by an equivalent, has a dignity (Würde).”*

It is true, however, that the idea of value arises and derives its significance from the fact that man has the idea of worth as estimated by reason. A brute cannot traffic. Hence political economy is an attempt to find a rational principle for determining value in exchange. And the principle that every legitimate transaction in business is an ex

* Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, p. 64.

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

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