802 
Sharp—The Personal Equation in Ethics. 
he applied it through those three volumes, fell exactly into its 
place as the keystone which held together the detached and frag¬ 
mentary component parts of my knowledge and beliefs. It gave 
unity to my conception of things. I now had opinions, a creed, a 
doctrine, a philosophy; in one among the best senses of the word, 
a religion, the inculcation of which could be made the principal 
outward purpose of a life. “ To appreciate the bearing of these 
words upon our subject it must be remembered that Bentham’s 
strength lies entirely in his work as a legal reformer. His dis¬ 
cussion of ethical principles properly so called, is not only 
superficial in the extreme, but it is, in the volume referred to at 
least, very meager. He contents himself mainly with stating 
his own opinions and calling all others meaningless or absurd. 
It appears from this that Mill first adopted his views and after¬ 
wards in his own writings proceeded to demonstrate their truth. 
In other words the happiness of his fellow men appealed to Mill 
as an end worthy of his highest devotion. Whatever was in¬ 
imical to this, either in the actions of himself or others, must 
therefore necessarily meet with his disapproval; whatever 
promised to contribute towards it, he viewed with satisfaction 
and pleasure. The one class of actions w^ere accordingly for him 
good, the other,bad. In other words his feelings determined his 
position; his abstract reasoning was simply a means in his hands 
of converting other people to his own views. Why is it 
then that so many of these other people have refused to become 
convinced? Is it because of any flaw in the arguments? Is it 
because they have become convinced that the term “ sum of 
pleasures" is meaningless, as Green asserts, or that pleasure 
is not itself valuable, but is only a sense of value, as some of 
his followers have informed us? I trow not. The explanation is 
rather to be found in the attitude of mind that we find ex¬ 
pressed by Wundt in the following words : 2 "How the idea of 
an equable division of happiness among the now living members 
of the race can arouse the enthusiasm of any human being, with 
the possible exception of a Utilitarian philosopher, andean over¬ 
come the every-day impulses of egoism and personal kindliness, 
it is absolutely impossible to conceive.The abstract 
2 Ethik, pp. 365, 367. 
