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are yet without an ideal, and as we come nearer to our task, its difficulties increase. We have described above the remarkable position in which every moral idealist finds himself. He says that his moral doctrine is to be more than a mere bit of natural history. He wants to find out what ought to be, even if that which ought to be is not. Yet when some man says to him: “Thy ideal is thus but thy personal caprice, thy private way of looking at things,” he does not want to assent. He wants to reply: “My ideal is the true one. No other rational ideal is possible.” Yet to do this he seems to need again some external support in reality. He seems to require some authority based upon facts. He must somewhere find his ideal in the world of truth, external to his own private consciousness. He must be able to say: “Lo, here is the ideal!” He must