At all events they would excite no enthusiasm 67 For this purpose there must be some prize before us, of recognised positive value, more or less definite 67 And before all things, to be enjoyed by us individually 67 Unless this prize be of great value to begin with, its value will not become great because great numbers obtain it 71 Nor until we know what it is, do we gain anything by the hope that men may more completely make it their own in the future 72 The modern positive school requires a great general enthusiasm for the general good 73 They therefore presuppose an extreme value for the individual good 74 Our first enquiry must be therefore what the higher individual good is 76 CHAPTER IV. GOODNESS AS ITS OWN REWARD. What has been said in the last chapter is really admitted by the positive school themselves 77 As we can learn explicitly from George Eliot 78 In _Daniel Deronda_ 78 That the fundamental moral question is, '_In what way shall the individual make life pleasant?_' 79 And the right way, for the positivists, as for the Christians, is an inward way 80 The moral end is a certain inward state of the heart, and the positivists say it is a sufficient attraction in itself, without any aid from religion 81 And they support this view by numerous examples 82 But all such examples are useless 83 Because though we may get rid of religion in its pure form 83 There is much that we have not got rid of, embodied still in the moral end 84 To test the intrinsic value of the end, we must sublimate this religion out of it 86 For this purpose we will consider, first, the three general characteristics of the moral end, viz. 88 Its inwardness 88 Its importance 89 And its absolute character 91 Now all these three characteristics can be explained by religion 93 And cannot be explained without it 96 The positive moral end must therefore be completely divested of them 100