=Moral Quality of Doer and Deed Proportionate.=--If we rule out
irrelevant considerations, we find that we never, without qualification,
invert our moral judgments of doer and deed. So far as we regard
Napoleon's actions as _morally_ good (not merely as happening to effect
certain desirable results) we give Napoleon credit for interest in
bringing about those results, _and in so far forth_, call him good.
Character, like conduct, is a highly complex thing. No human being is
all good or all bad. Even if we were sure that Napoleon was an
evil-minded man, our judgment is of him as evil _upon the whole_. Only
if we suppose him to be bad and only bad all the time is there the
opposition of evil character and good actions. We may believe that even
in what Napoleon did in the way of legal and civic reform he was
actuated by mixed motives--by vanity, love of greater, because more
centralized, power, etc. But these interests in and of themselves could
not have effected the results he accomplished. He must have had some
insight into a better condition of affairs, and this insight evidences
an interest in so far good. Moreover, so far as we judge Napoleon bad as
to his character and motive in these acts, we are entitled to hold that
the actions and also the outward results were also partially evil. That
is, while to some extent, socially beneficial, they would have been
still more so if Napoleon had been actuated by less self-centred
considerations. If his character had been simpler, more sincere, more
straightforward, then certain evil results, certain offsets to the good
he accomplished, would not have occurred. The mixture of good and evil
in the results and the mixture of good and evil in the motives are
proportionate to each other. Such is the conclusion when we recognize
the complexities of character and conduct, and do not allow ourselves
to be imposed upon by a fictitious simplicity of analysis.
=Summary.=--The first quality which is the object of judgment primarily
resides then in intention: in the consequences which are foreseen and
desired. Ultimately it resides in that disposition or characteristics of
a person which are responsible for his foreseeing and desiring just such
consequences rather than others. The ground for judging an act on the
basis of consequences not foreseen is that the powers of a man are not
fixed, but capable of modification and redirection. It is only through
taking into account in _subsequent_ acts consequences of _prior_ acts
not intended in those prior acts that the agent learns the fuller
significance of his own power and thus of himself. Every builder builds
other than he knows, whether better or worse. In no case, can he foresee
all the consequences of his acts.
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