Our estimate
of a man's character is a sort of weather forecast of what he will
do in various situations. Goodness of character consists, then, of
such an organization of impulses as will lead to good acts-to acts
productive ultimately of a preponderance of intrinsic good, or happiness.
The blame and approval that attaches in our minds to certain acts becomes
attached also to the disposition that is fruitful of such acts. A good
man is he whose mind is so set and adjusted that it will turn away
from evil deeds and espouse the right. We can say, then, with Dewey
and Tufts, "Goodness consists in active interest in those things which
really bring happiness." [Footnote: Ethics, p. 396.] Similarly, Paulsen
writes, "Virtues may be defined as habits of the will and modes of
conduct which tend to promote the welfare of individual and collective
life." [Footnote: System of Ethics, Eng. p. 475.] And Santayana
puts it more tersely in the statement, "Goodness is that disposition
that is fruitful in happiness." [Footnote: Reason in Common Sense,
p. 144.] It is easy, then, to understand the enthusiasm that men feel
for goodness; it is the resultant of the passionate longing to be
delivered from the domination of evil impulses, the instinctive joy
in splendid and unselfish acts, the sense of relief and gratitude felt
toward those from whom one has nothing to fear. Contrariwise, the
shrinking from a bad man springs primarily from the dread of what he
may do, from the disgust which the sight of his foolish and ruinous
acts inspires and from various other reactions of the spectator which
we need not enumerate.
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