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312 BERNARD BOSANQUET : loose logic. But logic is no looser in morality than in opinion, which admittedly is meant to be logical. From the main aims and method of life certain necessities follow as to adjustments of time and money ; charity is or should be relative not only to the money I can spare but to the atten- tion I can devote to its utilisation, and that again follows from my line of life and special capacities. Recreation and work are adjusted by a concrete theory of the way in which the claims on my limited powers may best be met. I do not say for a moment that we are usually right, or even self- conscious, in our decision; but I do say that our life is probably a more rational whole than our opinions, and that the latter are admittedly a thing which ought to be logically coherent. There is no theoretical difficulty, therefore, in saying the same of our conduct. If it is urged, as I think Mr. McTaggart means to urge in his demand for principles of distribution, that we must lay down beforehand at least what kind of things are more im- portant, and what kind of things are to give way, I answer, as above, that in a sense this is obvious, but in a sense I believe it to be a dangerous fallacy. Our principle, the logic of our objects, will tell us in its working what are deep-lying contradictions, what are superficial, what apparent harmonies are pregnant with latent discords, or what apparent discords are introductions to fuller harmonies. It will tell us all this, so far as our knowledge and inference extend ; and that limits the situation with which in morality we have to deal. We cannot escape its operation, so long as we act bond fide. The sense that " it is all very well, but there is something wrong," which attends a victorious self-deception by which we enter on a doubtful course of conduct, must be given its place, if we are true to ourselves, and must be tracked out to its significance. We are quite safe to miss our own satis- faction, unless we take sincere account of all we know and feel, and let each element have logical fair play. But if it is meant that we are to prescribe the species of our feelings of satisfaction beforehand, that is, I think, a pit- fall. Some solutions may bring pleasure, others intellectual repose ; others " the approval of conscience " ; others the tranquillity or endurance of completed tragedy. All we need to know is that we seek complete satisfaction ; the clashing and harmonising of objects will indicate our defectiveness or our success in ways which could not be adequate, if it were possible to lay them down beforehand. It is, I am convinced, a profound theoretical error to think of current moral and social ideas and traditions as something