Still, investigation of the Utilitarian method led me to see defects [in it]: the merely empirical examination of the consequences of actions is unsatisfactory; and being thus conscious of the practical imperfection in many cases of the guidance of the Utilitarian calculus, I remained anxious to treat with respect, and make use of, the guidance afforded by Common Sense in these cases, on the ground of the general presumption which evolution afforded that moral sentiments and opinions would point to conduct conducive to general happiness; though I could not admit this presumption as a ground for overruling a strong probability of the opposite, derived from utilitarian calculations.” It only remains to mention that the Table of Contents and the Index have been revised in accordance with the changes in the text. E. E. CONSTANCE JONES. GIRTON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, _April 1901_. FOOTNOTES: [6] Cf. note on p. 457, and Prefatory Note to the Seventh Edition. [7] Kant’s _Fundamental Principles_ (_Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten_), §§ 1, 2. Mill, _Utilitarianism_, pp. 5, 6 [7th edition (large print), 1879]. [8] Book i. chap. v. of _The Methods of Ethics_. PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION This Edition is a reprint of the Sixth, the only changes (besides correction of a few clerical errors) being an alteration of type in the passage which occurs on p. 457 in the Sixth Edition and pp. 457-459 in this Edition, together with consequent changes (1) in paging and indexing, (2) in the reference to the passage in question in the reprinted Preface to the Sixth Edition, and (3) in the insertion of the note on p. 457. E. E. C. J. _December 1906._ CONTENTS BOOK I CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION PAGES 1. Ethics is a department of the Theory or Study of Practice. 1-2 2. It is the study of what ought to be, so far as this depends upon the voluntary action of individuals. 2-4 3. In deciding what they ought to do, men naturally proceed on different principles, and by different methods. 4-6 4. There are two _prima facie_ rational Ends, Excellence or Perfection and Happiness: of which the latter at least may be sought for oneself or universally. It is also commonly thought that certain Rules are prescribed without reference to ulterior consequences. The Methods corresponding to these different principles reduce themselves in the main to three, Egoism, Intuitionism, Utilitarianism. 6-11 5. These methods we are to examine separately, abstracting them from ordinary thought, where we find them in confused combination, and developing them as precisely and consistently as possible. 11-14 CHAPTER II ETHICS AND POLITICS 1. In considering the relation between Ethics and Politics, we have to distinguish between Positive Law and Ideal Law. 15-18