ay be presented to us are
many and various. The mind of man has been more than usually active
in thinking about man. The conceptions of harmony, happiness, right,
freedom, benevolence, self-love, have all of them seemed to some
philosopher or other the truest and most comprehensive expression of
morality. There is no difference, or at any rate no great difference, of
opinion about the right and wrong of actions, but only about the
general notion which furnishes the best explanation or gives the most
comprehensive view of them. This, in the language of Kant, is the sphere
of the metaphysic of ethics. But these two uncertainties at either end,
en tois malista katholou and en tois kath ekasta, leave space enough for
an intermediate principle which is practically certain.

The rule of human life is not dependent on the theories of philosophers:
we know what our duties are for the most part before we speculate about
them. And the use of speculation is not to teach us what we already
know, but to inspire in our minds an interest about morals in general,
to strengthen our conception of the virtues by showing that they confirm
one another, to prove to us, as Socrates would have said, that they
are not many, but one. There is the same kind of pleasure and use in
reducing morals, as in reducing physics, to a few very simple truths.
And not unfrequently the more general principle may correct prejudices
and misconceptions, and enable us to regard our fellow-men in a larger
and more generous spirit.

The two qualities which seem to be most required in first principles of
ethics are, (1) that they should afford a real explanation of the facts,
(2) that they should inspire the mind,--should harmonize, strengthen,
settle us. We can hardly estimate the influence which a simple principle
such as 'Act so as to promote the happiness of mankind,' or 'Act so that
the rule on which thou actest may be adopted as a law by all rational
beings,' may exercise on the mind of an individual. They will often seem
to open a new world to him, like the religious conceptions of faith or
the spirit of God. The difficulties of ethics disappear when we do not
suffer ourselves to be distracted between different points of view.
But to maintain their hold on us, the general principles must also be
psychologically true--they must agree with our experience, they must
accord with the habits of our minds.

When we are told that actions are right or wrong only in