IS VIRTUE A PHANTOM ? 1 25 



to the growth of the moral environment, to the 

 expansion of the moral ideal. It would be to 

 assert the existence of a permanent and unchanging 

 environment somewhere, even though it were in the 

 heaven of heavens, the existence of an eternal 

 Ideal, of an unalterable standard of Right. And 

 what is there in the character of our sensible 

 world of change to justify such an assumption ? 



Thus goodness is as unattainable as happiness, 

 and like it an ideal for which the Real has no room. 

 It is indeed in one way even more unmeaning, for 

 the perfection of goodness would destroy its own 

 moral character. If all our duties became pleasures, 

 they would ipso facto cease to be duties, and the 

 virtue which is no longer tempted to do wrong 

 ceases to be virtue. 



And so must not the pessimist's judgment be 

 that in aiming at goodness we are but pursuing 

 the fleeting Image of a mirage^ that with its delus- 

 ive promise of the waters of eternal life, and the 

 green palms of victorious virtue, lures us ever 

 deeper into the wilderness of Sin ; that mankind will 

 do well to abandon the wild-goose chase of such a 

 winged phantom as insane folly ; and that goodness, 

 so far from being an alternative to happiness, is not 

 even an end which can be rationally aimed at ? 



§ 21. Byway of contrast to the otherwise un- 

 redeemed gloom of their pictures of life, pessimist 

 writers have been wont to assert that w'hatever 

 gratification could be got out of life must be derived 

 from the aesthetic emotions and activities ; hence 

 it is incumbent upon us to examine whether their 

 assertions are well founded. 



In the first place, there is clearly a subtle irony 

 in fixing upon the rarest and most capricious of our 



