Excerpt from Ethics: An Exposition of Principles Man has already in being born begun the most adventurous Of all voyages. To be cast on a little island in space, coming we know not whence, going we know not whither, yet certain that our acts tell not only on our own happiness but on the whole course of human affairs; that is a situation more wonderful than anything contrived in our own imagination. Within this mystery human life must be wrought out till its inevitable termination in death, and in that life are played the myriad scenes that finally resolve into the inter action between the physical universe and the human body and mind with the diverse faculties, needs, desires, passions, memories, regrets. A good part Of our lives are led, or compelled, in some fashion by forces that lie outside our ken; yet as man has developed in society he begins to find a certain order in the universe, a regularity and a method that finally suggest to him the laws by aid Of which he predicts and to some extent controls nature. In the moral world, in the world of aspirations and passions and ambitions, of will, of accomplishment, of con science, Of character, we feel, too, that there are great governing principles Of which the laws have escaped us because the conditions are so various and so uncertain. Yet at all times men have felt the need of guidance, even though of vague direction, and in view of the immensity and perpetual marvel of the world that sweeps about them they have felt that these principles must be sought in some thing not included wholly in their own immediate conditions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.