reach. All that can be hoped for is that the advance of
science and commerce, by fostering peace and a rational development of
character, may bring some part of mankind nearer to that goal; but the
goal lies, as every ultimate ideal should, at the limit of what is
possible, and must serve rather to measure achievements than to prophesy
them.

[Sidenote: but its principle clear.] In lieu of a rational morality,
however, we have rational ethics; and this mere idea of a rational
morality is something valuable. While we wait for the sentiments,
customs, and laws which should embody perfect humanity and perfect
justice, we may observe the germinal principle of these ideal things; we
may sketch the ground-plan of a true commonwealth. This sketch
constitutes rational ethics, as founded by Socrates, glorified by Plato,
and sobered and solidified by Aristotle. It sets forth the method of
judgment and estimation which a rational morality would apply
universally and express in practice. The method, being very simple, can
be discovered and largely illustrated in advance, while the complete
self-knowledge and sympathy are still wanting which might avail to
embody that method in the concrete and to discover unequivocally where
absolute duty and ultimate happiness may lie.

[Sidenote: It is the logic of an autonomous will.]

This method, the Socratic method, consists in accepting any estimation
which any man may sincerely make, and in applying dialectic to it, so as
to let the man see what he really esteems. What he really esteems is
what ought to guide his conduct; for to suggest that a rational being
ought to do what he feels to be wrong, or ought to pursue what he
genuinely thinks is worthless, would be to impugn that man's rationality
and to discredit one's own. With what face could any man or god say to
another: Your duty is to do what you cannot know you ought to do; your
function is to suffer what you cannot recognise to be worth suffering?
Such an attitude amounts to imposture and excludes society; it is the
attitude of a detestable tyrant, and any one who mistakes it for moral
authority has not yet felt the first heart-throb of philosophy.

[Sidenote: Socrates' science.]

More even than natural philosophy, moral philosophy is something Greek:
it is the appanage of freemen. The Socratic method is the soul of
liberal conversation; it is compacted in equal measure of sincerity and
courtesy. Each man is autonomous and all a