204 ED. WESTEBMABCK : PREDICATES OF MORAL JUDGMENT. an endless number of duties : he abstains from stealing, lying, committing adultery, suicide, and so on. The predicate "wrong" only marks the moral character of a special mode of conduct. Why should not the indifferent be allowed to do the same ? It has, finally, been observed that the so-called " indif- ferent " is something " the morality of which can only be individually determined "- 1 This remark calls attention to the fact that no mode of conduct can be regarded as indifferent without a careful consideration of individual circumstances, and that much that is apparently indifferent is not really so. This, however, does not involve an abolition of the indifferent. Such an abolition would be the extreme of moral intolerance. He who tried to put it into practice would be the most insupportable of beings, and to himself life would be unbearable. Fortunately, such a man has never existed. The attempts to make every action, even the most trivial, of responsible beings a matter of moral concern, are only theoretical fancies without practical bear- ing, a hollow and nattering tribute to the idol of Duty. 1 Martensen, Christian Ethics, p. 415.
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