We inherit disharmonies from
other conditions of life, like the vermiform appendix and the many
other vestigial organs which have come down to us only for harm. In
general we inherit bodies and brains fairly well organized for our
welfare; but there are still atavisms to be ruthlessly stamped out.
The craving for stimulants or drugs, sexual perversions, kleptomania,
pyromania, and the other manias, bad temper, jealousy- there is a good
deal of the old Adam in us which is just wholly bad and to be utterly
done away with; rebellious impulses that are hopelessly at war with
our own good and must go the way of cannibalism and polygamy. Morality
is the stern exterminator of all such enemies of human welfare.
What factors are to be considered in estimating the worth of personal
moral ideals?
This summary consideration of the obstacles that block the path to
happiness through the heedless following of impulse, shows the
necessity of moral ideals; that is to say, of directive codes which
shall steer the will through the tumultuous seas of haphazard desire
into the harbor of its true welfare. How, then, can we decide between
conflicting ideals and estimate their relative value? It can only be
by judging through experience the degree of happiness which they
severally effect in the situations to which they are to be applied.
But there are many factors which contribute to or detract from that
happiness in its totality; and a proper estimation of ideals must note
the degree in which they provide for each possible element of
satisfaction.
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