Page:Philosophical Review Volume 4.djvu/639

623 of which the concrete rules are but attempted applications to the affairs of this world as we happen to find them, these, if there are such things at all, are presumably absolute, eternal, immutable, the same for all time. The absolutely right in practice is that course which, when all the issues are taken into account, is in strict conformity with the abstract principles of obligation. It may not be rational to hold that the doing of a particular thing, irrespective of results to any being whatsoever, is absolutely wrong on its own account; but it may still be held absolutely wrong to bring about certain results. It will be apparent that I do not attach to the terms 'absolute ethics,' 'absolutely right,' the peculiar sense given to them in Mr. Herbert Spencer's Data of Ethics. But to enter further upon this point would be foreign to my purpose.