The Management of Life 79 



This field of the interaction and adjustment of the 

 needs and claims of the single self in relation to those 

 of other individuals constitutes what is commonly 

 called the domain of morality. Men have attempted 

 to set up standards, to enunciate principles that shall 

 rule in these complex adjustments; they have formu- 

 lated such rules in codes. Men of the blinder sort, 

 seeing nothing but what is nearest, have found it diffi- 

 cult to appreciate the need for those rules which de- 

 mand the adjustment of one's own claims to those of 

 other individuals. To avoid the results of this blind- 

 ness, men of the more farseeing sort have attempted 

 to give artificial support to such codes by attribut- 

 ing them to the will of some powerful being who will 

 punish their infraction ; by setting them forth as the 

 command of God, and to be obeyed for that reason. 

 Such a procedure has its immediate uses in dealing 

 with ignorant and thoughtless men. But, like all 

 courses that leave the grounds of reality, it has great 

 disadvantages. It places the whole matter on an arti- 

 ficial basis. It displaces the grounds of conduct from 

 a consideration of what is needed for life to a con- 

 sideration of what has been commanded. Says old Sir 

 Thomas Browne, "I give no alms only to satisfie the 

 hunger of my Brother, but to fulfil and accomplish 

 the Will and Command of God ; I draw not my purse 

 for his sake that demands it, but His That enjoins 

 it" ; and this is a notion that still widely prevails. 

 Such a reliance upon commands rather than upon the 

 content of what is done leads to perversities. All 

 things incorporated in the code of commands become 



