=124.= In order to complete this discussion of the main principles
involved in the determination of intrinsic values, the chief remaining
topics, necessary to be treated, appear to be two. The first of these
is the nature of great intrinsic _evils_, including what I may call
_mixed_ evils; that is to say, those evil wholes, which nevertheless
contain, as essential elements, something positively good or beautiful.
And the second is the nature of what I may similarly call _mixed_
goods; that is to say, those wholes, which, though intrinsically good
_as wholes_, nevertheless contain, as essential elements, something
positively evil or ugly. It will greatly facilitate this discussion,
if I may be understood throughout to use the terms ‘beautiful’ and
‘ugly,’ not necessarily with reference to things of the kind which
most naturally occur to us as instances of what is beautiful and ugly,
but in accordance with my own proposed definition of beauty. Thus I
shall use the word ‘beautiful’ to denote that of which the admiring
contemplation is good in itself; and ‘ugly’ to denote that of which the
admiring contemplation is evil in itself.
I. With regard, then, to great positive evils, I think it is evident
that, if we take all due precautions to discover _precisely what_ those
things are, of which, _if they existed absolutely by themselves_, we
should judge the existence to be a great evil, we shall find most of
them to be organic unities of exactly the same nature as those which
are the greatest positive goods. That is to say, they are cognitions of
some object, accompanied by some emotion. Just as neither a cognition
nor an emotion, _by itself_, appeared capable of being greatly good,
so (with one exception), neither a cognition nor an emotion, _by
itself_, appears capable of being greatly evil. And just as a whole
formed of both, even without the addition of any other element,
appeared undoubtedly capable of being a great good, so such a whole,
_by itself_, appears capable of being a great evil. With regard to the
_third_ element, which was discussed as capable of adding greatly to
the value of a good, namely, _true belief_, it will appear that it has
different relations towards different kinds of evils. In some cases the
addition of true belief to a positive evil seems to constitute a far
worse evil; but in other cases it is not apparent that it makes any
difference.
The greatest positive evils may be divided into the following three
classes.
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