70 INTELLIGENCE AND MORALS 



variable than the objects upon which their capaci 

 ties are directed. 



To many timid, albeit sincere, souls of an earlier 

 century, the decay of the doctrine that all true 

 and worthful science is knowledge of final causes 

 seemed fraught with danger to science and to mor 

 als. The rival conception of a wide open universe, 

 a universe without bounds in time or space, without 

 final limits of origin or destiny, a universe with the 

 lid off, was a menace. We now face in moral sci 

 ence a similar crisis and like opportunity, as well 

 as share in a like dreadful suspense. The abolition 

 of a fixed and final goal and causal force in nature 

 did not, as matter of fact, render rational convic 

 tion less important or less attainable. It was ac 

 companied by the provision of a technique of per 

 sistent and detailed inquiry in all special fields of 

 fact, a technique which led to the detection of un 

 suspected forces and the revelation of undreamed 

 of uses. In like fashion we may anticipate that 

 the abolition of the final goal and the single motive 

 power and the separate and infallible faculty in 

 morals, will quicken inquiry into the diversity of 

 specific goods of experience, fix attention upon 

 fheir conditions, and bring to light values now dim 

 and obscure. The change may relieve men from 

 responsibility for what they cannot do, but it will 

 promote thoughtful consideration of what they 

 may do and the definition of responsibility for what 



