Spencer, Data of Ethics, chap. IX.]
(2) If it is practically impossible to calculate the relative worth
of consequences in many cases, it is yet easy enough to do so in the
great majority of moral situations. In most cases the preponderance
of value is clear. That selfishness and self-indulgence are not worth
while; that abstinence from pleasure-giving drugs and intoxicating
liquors is worth the sacrifice; that truth and honesty, the law-abiding
spirit, the spirit of service, friendliness and courtesy, sanitary
measures, incorruptible courts, and a thousand other things are worth
the effort and cost of acquiring them, is indisputable. It is only
in some peculiarly balanced situations that we find practical difficulty
in deciding. If morality were limited to the cases where we can be
sure on which side the greater good or lesser evil lies, we should
not be shorn of much of our present code.
(3) It would, of course, be impracticable to stop and calculate at
the moment when action is needed. But such continual recalculation
is unnecessary. Our ancestors, after many experiments, have found
solutions for all the familiar types of situation; the results of their
thought are crystallized for us in the ideals that press upon us from
without and the voice of conscience that calls to us within. Forces
beyond the individual human mind have taken care of these things and
slowly steered man, with all his passions and caprices, toward his
own better welfare.
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