Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/358

Rh from being the ultimate aim, the proper object of out pursuit. They deal with the one half of morals to the exclusion of the other. On the other hand, the utilitarians fall into the opposite error. They deal only with the upper or above-ground ethics; they overlook the groundwork. They do not see that, before a man can be a happy man, he must first of all be a man, that is, a rational being. In their scheme no provision is made for his being man, but only for his being happy. Happiness, in short, is laid down as the end or chief good of man, without any guarantee being given that this position holds true only in so far as man's rational and fundamental nature is not compromised by its acceptance. Such a guarantee is provided in what we have called the under or fundamental ethics of his condition.