midnight
Or , to put it briefly in the old familiar way : Does the end sanctify the means ? Assuredly it does in some cases , very easy to be imagined . Let us suppose that I have a beloved friend , an ailing person of a nervous , delicate organisation , who has taken it into his poor cracked brains that he is going to expire at the stroke of twelve on a given night . Without consulting the authorities on ethical questions , I should , in such a case , flit about his room secretly manipulating his timepieces , till I had advanced them a whole hour , and then , just before the stroke of midnight , triumphantly produce my watch and inform him that death had failed to keep the appointment . Such an acted lie as that would weigh nothing on the conscience of any man . The fact of the matter is , the circumstances must always be considered and every case judged on its own particular merits . Now , this affair of getting the key was not one for me to judge , since Ihad been a chief actor in it , but rather for some acute and learned casuist .