Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/397

 THE DOCTRINE OF THE SUMMTM BONUM. 383 defines the supreme end, and sets it plain before human aspiration. Truly a magnificent function for ethics and a magnificent position for the moral philosopher. He is pro- 1 to be guide of mankind and professor of the science of life. S -2."). All the more noteworthy is it, as was remarked at the beginning of this paper, that the practical men, the preachers and philanthropists have nothing to say to these mighty claims. You never hear a preacher talk thus of the supreme good or undertake to tell us what it is. His language is pervaded by quite another tone. 26. The fact is that the conceptions which lie at the root of eudaemonism are totally inconsistent with the spirit of the practical morality of the modern world. Between the ethical spirit of pagan and of Christian ages there is a most important and evident difference. Of course the essence of moral practice has always been the same, but the language in which men have spoken about it has been very different in the two ages. There was a much stronger eudaemonistic tone in the old world than in the modern. I am not in the least trying to appeal to theological prejudice when I call such concep- tions as Summum Bonum, self-realisation and goodness-as- health-and-beauty pagan conceptions ; and conscience, duty, self-sacrifice and devotion Christian conceptions. I am only trying to make a distinction which cannot conveniently be indicated in any other way. There is no term but "Christian " to express the general spirit of modern morality, the outcome of the centuries of moral experience and experiment which divide us from Hellenic civilisation. Now modern experience has decided that the pagan conceptions, though very im- portant, are secondary to the others. It is the fault of eudsemonism that it reverses their relative position. Among the materialistic eudsemonists this may be explained by an obtuseness to spiritual facts ; among the idealistic eudse- monists by an excessive admiration for the Age of Pericles. In this latter form the Summum Bonum doctrine is a recrudescence of paganism.