i ETHICAL BASIS OF METAPHYSICS 3 



and Evil, Right and Wrong, Pleasure and Pain, Self and 

 others, Then and Now, Progress and Decay, human life 

 would be dissolved into the phantom flow of an unmean 

 ing mirage. But in the Absolute all moral distinctions 

 must, like all others, be swallowed up and disappear. 

 The All is raised above all ethical valuation and moral 

 criticism : it is beyond Good and Evil ; it is timelessly 

 perfect, and therefore incapable of improvement. It 

 transcends all our antitheses, because it includes them. 

 And so to the metaphysician it seems an easy task to 

 compose the perfection of the whole out of the imper 

 fections of its parts : he has merely to declare that the 

 point of view of human action, that of ethics, is not and 

 cannot be final. It is an illusion which has grown 

 transparent to the sage. And so, in proportion as his 

 insight into absolute reality grows clearer, his interest in 

 ethics wanes. 



It must be confessed, moreover, that metaphysicians 

 no longer shrink from this avowal. The typical leader 

 of this philosophic fashion, Mr. F. H. Bradley, never 

 attempts to conceal his contempt for ethical considera 

 tions, nor omits a sneer at the pretensions of practice to 

 be heard in the High Court of Metaphysics. &quot; Make the 

 moral point of view absolute,&quot; he cries, 1 &quot; and then realise 

 your position. You have become not merely irrational, 

 but you have also broken with every considerable 

 religion.&quot; 



And this is how he dismisses the appeal to practice, 2 

 &quot;But if so, what, I may be asked, is the result in practice? 

 That I reply at once is not my business ; &quot; it is merely 

 a &quot; hurtful 3 prejudice &quot; if &quot; irrelevant appeals to practical 

 results are allowed to make themselves heard.&quot; 



Altogether I can conceive nothing more pulverising to 

 ethical aspiration than chapter xxv. of Mr. Bradley s 

 Appearance and Reality? 



1 Appearance and Reality, pp. 500-501. 2 Ibid. p. 450. 



3 But does not this hurtful&quot; reaffirm the ethical valuation which Mr. Bradley 

 is trying to exclude ? 



4 If in any one s mind any lingering doubts have survived as to the purport 

 of this philosophic teaching, he has only to turn to the ingenious but somewhat 



