The precept, it is said, which =I can wish= were the guide of all men's conduct, is itself the real moral principle. That which =I can wish= is the hinge on which the given direction turns. But what can I truly wish, and what not? Clearly, in order to determine what I can wish in the matter under discussion, I require yet another criterion; for without such I could never find the key to the instruction which comes to me like a sealed order. Where, then, is this criterion to be discovered? Certainly nowhere else but in my Egoism, which is the nearest, ever ready, original, and living standard of all volition, and which has at any rate the _jus primi occupantis_ before every moral principle. The direction for finding the real moral law, which is contained in the Kantian rule, rests, as a matter of fact, on the tacit assumption that I can only wish for that which is most to my advantage. Now because, in framing a precept to be generally followed, I cannot regard myself as always active, but must contemplate my playing a =passive= part _eventualiter_ and at times; therefore from this point of view my =egoism= decides for justice and loving-kindness; not from any wish to =practise= these virtues, but because it desires to =experience= them. We are reminded of the miser, who, after listening to a sermon on beneficence, exclaims: "_Wie gründlich ausgeführt, wie schön!_-- _Fast möcht' ich betteln gehn."_ (How well thought out, how excellent!-- Almost I'd like to beg.)