(5) Another important aspect of any moral situation lies in the
rejection which every choice involves. Not only must we ask what a
given impulse has to offer us, in immediate and remote satisfaction;
we must consider what alternative goods its adoption precludes. What
might we have been doing with our time and strength or money? Is this
act not only a good one, is it the best one for that moment of our
lives? An important function of ideals is to point us to realms of
happiness into which our preexisting impulses might never have led
us, and whose existence we might scarcely have suspected.
(6) Finally, we may ask of every proposed line of conduct, what will
be its worth to us in memory? Not only in our leisure hours, but in
a current of subconscious reflection that accompanies our active life,
we constantly live in the presence of our past. And the nature of memory
is such that it cannot well retain the traces of certain of our keenest
pleasures, but can continually feed us upon other joys of our past.
It is imperative, then, for a happy life, so to live that the years
are pleasant to look back upon. Vicious self-indulgence and selfishness
are rarely satisfying in retrospection, whereas all courage and heroism
and tenderness are a source of unending comfort. For better or worse,
we are, and cannot shirk being, judges of our own conduct. We may be
prejudiced, and may properly try to correct our prejudices; we may
discount our own disapprovals, and seek to escape from our own self-
condemnation.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155