(4) The argument that egoism is rational at least in so far as it introduces consistency into actions and unifies and harmonizes desires and impulses deserves little consideration. Any comprehensive end will do the same, and many comprehensive ends may be very trivial. One may make it the aim of one's life to remain slender, or may devote all one's energies to the amelioration of the social position of bald-headed men. He who counsels deliberate egoism does not recommend it merely on the score that it leads to consistent action. He does it on the ground that the end itself appeals to him as one that ought to be selected and will be selected if a man is wise. That the interest of the individual is in this sense a matter of obligation, is something to be proved, not assumed. 104. THE MORALIST'S INTEREST IN EGOISM--It has been worth while to treat at length of egoism because the doctrine takes on more or less subtle forms, and its fundamental principle, self-interest, has a significance for various ethical schools which are not, or are not considered, egoistic. Men have been vastly puzzled by the moral claims of the principle of self-interest, both plain men and professional moralists. That prudence is not the only fundamental virtue, most men would be ready enough to admit; but is it properly speaking, a virtue at all? _Ought_ I, for example, to try to make myself happy? Suppose I do not want to be happy, what is the source of the obligation? Butler tells me that interest, one's own happiness, is a manifest obligation; [Footnote: _Dissertation on the Nature of Virtue_, Sec 8; _Sermons_ III and XI.] Bentham, a writer of a widely different school, informs me that "the constantly proper end of action on the part of any individual at the moment of action is his real greatest happiness from that moment to the end of his life." [Footnote: BENTHAM, _Memoirs_, Vol. X of Bowring's Edition, Edinburgh, 1843, p. 560.] On the other hand, Hutcheson teaches me that I am under no obligation to be good to myself, although I am under obligation to be good to others: "Actions which flow solely from self-love, and yet evidence no want of benevolence, having no hurtful effects upon others, seem perfectly indifferent in a moral sense." [Footnote: _An Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil_, Sec 3, 5.] Which means that intemperance is blameworthy only so far as it is against the public interest. May I, should I, on occasion, sacrifice myself? Thoughtful men generally recognize self-sacrifice, not only as possible, but as actual, and believe it to be at times a duty. But the moralist gives forth here an uncertain sound.