THE APPLICATIONS OF SCIENCE 161 



what result we wish to obtain ; and we have to decide 

 what is the right means to that end, what action will 

 produce the desired result. The distinction between the 

 two decisions can be traced in the simplest as well as 

 (perhaps better than) in the most complex actions. If I 

 go to a meal in a restaurant, I have first to decide 

 whether I want beef or mutton, tea or coffee, and 

 second how I am to get what I want. If I have tooth- 

 ache, I have first to decide whether I want to be cured, 

 and second if I am more likely to be cured if I doctor 

 myself or if I go to a dentist. The fact that there are 

 two decisions is sometimes obscured by the simplicity 

 and obviousness of one of them. In the first example, 

 the decision as to means is liable to be overlooked ; for 

 (except in some restaurants) it is obvious that the best 

 way to get the meal I want is to ask for it. In the second, 

 the decision as to end may be unobserved, because it is 

 so obvious that I want to be cured. 



In these simple examples the distinction between the 

 two decisions is clear ; in others they are so closely inter- 

 connected that care is needed to separate them. Our 

 choice of the ends at which we may aim is often deter- 

 mined in part by the means we have of attaining them ; 

 it is foolish to struggle towards a goal that can never be 

 reached. On the other hand, action which is desirable 

 as a means to one end, may be objectionable because it 

 leads at the same time to other results that are undesirable 

 as ends. In all the more complicated decisions of life, 

 such conflicts between ends and means arise, and it is a 

 necessary step towards accuracy of thought to disentangle 

 the conflicting elements. It is all the more necessary/ 

 because in controversial matters there is always a* 

 tendency to conceal questions of ends and to pretend', 

 that every question is one of taieans only ; the reason is > 

 that agreement concerning ends is far less j easily \ 

 attainable than agreement concerning means, so that, * 



