ly to trace effects from
causes and to formulate laws according to which sequences inevitably
result from certain ascertained causes or observed facts. But is not
character, with which Ethics confessedly deals, just that concerning
which no definite conclusions can be predicted? Is not conduct,
dependent as it is on the human will, just the element in man which
cannot be explained as the resultant of calculable forces? If the will
is free, and is the chief factor in the moulding of life, then you
cannot forecast what line conduct will take or predict what shape
character will assume. The whole conception of Ethics as a science
must, it is contended, fall to the ground, if we admit a variable and
incalculable element in conduct.

Some writers, on this account, are disposed to regard Ethics as an art
rather than a science, and indeed, like every normative science, it may
be regarded as lying midway between them. A science may be said to
teach us to know {14} and an art to do: but as has been well remarked,
'a normative science teaches to know how to do.'[3] Ethics may indeed
be regarded both as a science and an art. In so far as it examines and
explains certain phenomena of character it is a science: but in so far
as it attempts to regulate human conduct by instruction and advice it
is an art.[4] Yet when all is said, in so far as Ethics has to do with
the volitional side of man,--with decisions and acts of will,--there
must be something indeterminate and problematic in it which precludes
it from being designated an exact science. A certain variableness
belongs to character, and conduct cannot be pronounced good or bad
without reference to the acting subject. Actions cannot be wholly
explained by law, and a large portion of human life (and that the
highest and noblest) eludes analysis. A human being is not simply a
part of the world. He is able to break in upon the sequence of events
and set in motion new forces whose effects neither he himself nor his
fellows can estimate. It is the unique quality of rational beings that
in great things and in small things they act from ideas. The magic
power of thought cannot be exaggerated. Great conceptions have great
consequences, and they rule the world. A new spiritual idea shoots
forth its rays and enlightens to larger issues generations of men.
There is a mystery in every forth-putting of will-power, and every
expression of personality. Character cannot be comput