120 ESSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



tinguishing and self-seeking subject, as making 

 both character and circumstances what they are " 

 (p. in). 



A free will, however, is not necessarily a good 

 will, any more than a strong character is a good 

 character, though it may be true that the weak 

 man cannot be a good man. Hence a fuller dis- 

 cussion of the nature of will in its relation to desire 

 and reason is necessary in order to establish the 

 distinction between the good and the bad will 

 which is the basis of ethics. To will is to identify 

 one's self with one of those tendencies towards 

 different objects, which, till that identification, are 

 external to the man. An act of will is thus never 

 mere desire. I* willing a man seeks to realize 

 himself in that which he wills. Any act of will is 

 the expression of the man as he at the time is, 

 but the character of the man and the distinction 

 between the good and the bad will depends upon 

 the nature of that object in which self-realization 

 is sought. 



This brings us at once to ethics proper and the 

 criticism of the Utilitarian theory. Not that Pro- 

 fessor Green ever allows himself to be driven by 

 reaction from Hedonism into a one-sidedly ascetic 

 view. " Self-satisfaction is the form of every object 

 willed" (p. 161), and "in all self-satisfaction, if 

 attained, there is pleasure" (p. 165). This is the 

 truth that underlies the false notion that pleasure 



