The good is always relative to something and somebody, but
men will always speak of the gratified sensibiUty as good. We
need not argue with him that it is not. We may show him that
at the end "it biteth Hke a serpent and stingeth like an adder,"
but the subject of a gratified sensibiUty can not do otherwise
than caU it so far a "good."

It is not strange that we shrink from admitting the propriety
of the appUcation of the term "good," in any sense, to things



34 STUDIES IN MORAL SCIENCE

which through our whole hves we have been taught, and cor-
rectly taught, to look upon with disgust and loathing. But
remember what we are attempting. We seek to find the generic,
the universal element in the "good," by observing the most di-
verse uses of the word. Unquestionably we have seen those
uses. The riotous debauchee does speak of his revel as a good
time. And the sweetest singer of the ages calls his reverent
communion with the Infinite good. If we compare the two men
in character, we find one of them pure, the other vile. We find
one a blessing to society, the other a curse. Comparing the
effect of the two experiences, one tends to life, the other hastens
the passage of its subject through the gates of death. Each man
has honestly described his experience. We can account for
their employment of the same term in no other way than by
believing that which on the surface seems the fact, viz., that these
diverse experiences do have something in common. Very dis-
similar things may have a common element. Here is a banquet
hall. Its tables are spread with the most luscious viands from
every clime. Seated at the tables are representatives of the
highest intelligence, refinement, and culture of our twentieth
century civilization. A mile away, out in a stagnant marsh,
is the putrid carcass of a dead horse. Around it, over it,
partially within it, quarreling, fighting for chief places at the
feast, is a flock of turkey buzzards. Can you imagine (unless
in the sketch previously drawn) two pictures more imlike than
these? And yet you must agree with me that there is one
thing common to both. Each group of beings is engaged in
the satisfaction of appetite. 