VALUES AND FINAL CAUSES 103 



for its end a comfortable home and a good position in 

 society ; the ordinary commercial virtues which are exer 

 cised for the same or similar purposes ; cleanliness, and a 

 reasonable regard for health ; in fact, all those tendencies 

 which make for a secure and pleasant existence, free from 

 the risks and the shocks and the discords of a life of stren 

 uous ambition, are either admired or despised, according 

 to the temper of the time or of the individual judge ; but, 

 whether adverse or favourable, the feeling is rarely strong, 

 like the feeling excited both by crimes and by acts of 

 heroism. It oscillates about the point of indifference, being 

 sometimes a little above it, and at others a little below. 

 At its best, it never rises to the level of enthusiasm. At 

 its worst, it recalls the sentiments expressed by Virgil at the 

 sight of the neutral angels, Non ragionam di lor, ma guarda 

 e passa. 



We are now, at last, in a position to formulate a definite 

 opinion as to the relation of human aims to natural process, 

 and to the transcendental government of the universe. 

 We have found, in the first place, that a single ultimate 

 end is postulated by our judgements of relative value ; and 

 secondly, that, as the only principle of explanation for all 

 facts that do not admit of scientific treatment, it is one of 

 the vital necessities of thought, holding in this respect 

 exactly the same position as the law of uniformity, but 

 with a much wider range of operation. When, however, we 

 turn to the facts of experience (and those are the only data 

 we have at our disposal) for information as to the precise 

 nature of the final end which we are obliged to assume, 

 we discover a vast number of facts, amounting indeed to 

 about half our experience, which contradict any idea 

 we can form of human purpose. We are unable to give up 

 the assumption of a final end, and we are ultimately obliged 

 to accept the conclusion that that end is not to be found 

 within experience ; in other words, that it is transcendental. 



When we leave the consideration of the world as a system 

 of contemporary facts and regard it under the aspect of 

 evolution, we are led by another path to the same conclu- 



