Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/324

 310 BEBNAKD BOSANQUET : difference, for trained habit can make all adjustments of which reflexion is capable we attempt to harmonise the situation presented to us, including our own selves, following the logic of the objects of desire towards real satisfaction. We are not brilliantly successful ; but we are about as suc- cessful in conduct as in the other matters which we approach in the same way ; for example in science, or in practical organisation. We aim, then, at satisfaction, or the removal of contradic- tions in experience where our action can affect it, in short, at determining and attaining what we really want. It is a mistake of principle, I hold, to attempt to lay down before- hand in what our satisfaction is to consist, whether in pleasure or in any other predetermined form of consciousness. That is like binding a physicist before he begins his science in terms of what he is to explain phenomena. Every problem or situation is thoroughly concrete, though universal and the meeting point of universal forces and principles. Our busi- ness is to invent the course which shall most remove contra- dictions ; to theorise the individual situation, including our own resources. This is why, though as a rule I have the utmost respect for Mr. McTaggart's arguments and examples, I cannot think his instances here to be of a relevant type. They rank, it seems to me, with questions which are carelessly propounded as puzzles to students of practical sciences, con- taining no possible data for an answer. It is like saying to a gardener, " Am I to prune an apple-tree in my orchard ? " or saying to a doctor, " My child has spots on him ; what do you think can be the matter? " The answer comes at once : " Show me the tree " or " the child, and I will tell you what I think ". Just so it is asked, Is marriage the best arrange- ment ? The moralist, if I am right, and as Green maintains, 1 has no immediate insight based on a comparison with the idea of perfection in the abstract. He will demand that the question shall be closely stated, with regard to the stage of social advance, the race and civilisation about whom it is asked, and will then treat the issue as a serious inquiry, largely sociological but having an ethical aspect through its bearing on character. He can determine the general nature of the claims and capacities of selves in a definite type of society ; and may then be able to offer a judgment on the question what arrangement of institutions provides a con- ciliation of these with the least degree of injury. The point 1 Prolegomena, sect. 379.