is always concerned with the rightness or wrongness of conduct: it deals with the character and conduct of man, in so far as it is good or bad, right or wrong. Ethics always approves or disapproves, it sets a value, negative or positive, upon conduct. It appraises and evaluates conduct. It reflects on conduct, and pronounces human actions good or bad, with reference to some standard or criterion.
§ 3. Ethics and Moral Education. Perhaps it may be asked, What is the good of ethics? What is the use of reflecting on conduct? Even a very little experience of the world shows us that the happiest and best people are often those who have reflected least on character and conduct. Goodness and happiness, like health, are things about which the ordinary man rarely thinks unless they are impaired. There are moments when we feel, like Hamlet, the misery of being able to reflect at all: our native resolution becomes all sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. At such times we are apt to sympathise with Voltaire's dictum, "Travaillons sans raisonner; c'est le seul moyen de rendre la vie supportable." And it is true that people often speak grammatically without ever having studied grammar, argue logically with no knowledge of logic, keep perfect health in blissful ignorance of hygiene, and live good lives although they have never heard of ethics.
Yet in all these departments of life we believe in education. Man is a rational animal, and willy-nilly he must think. It is natural that he should reflect on his behaviour. The educator is aware, of course, that all men do not speak grammatically,
