give to vain self-reflection--which he at first
defended.

In the _Ethics_ (edited by Kirchmann, 1870; earlier editions by Schweizer,
1835, and Twesten, 1841) Schleiermacher brings the well-nigh forgotten
concept of goods again into honor. The three points of view from which
ethics is to be discussed, and each of which presents the whole ethical
field in its own peculiar way--the good, virtue, duty--are related as
resultant, force, and law of motion. Every union of reason and nature
produced by the action of the former on the latter is called a _good_; the
sum of these unities, the highest good. According as reason uses nature
as an instrument in formation or as a symbol in cognition her action is
formative or indicative; it is, further, either common or peculiar. On the
crossing of these (fluctuating) distinctions of identical and individual
organization and symbolization is based the division of the theory of
goods:

SPHERES. RELATIONS. GOODS.
_Ident. Organ.:_ Intercourse. Right. The State.
_Individ. Organ.:_ Property. Free Sociability. Class, House,
Friendship.
_Ident. Symbol.:_ Knowledge. Faith. School and
University.
_Individ. Symbol.:_ Feeling. Revelation. The Church
(Art).

The four ethical communities, each of which represents the organic union
of opposites--rulers and subjects, host and guests, teachers and pupils
or scholars and the public, the clergy and the laity--have for their
foundation the family and the unity of the nation. Virtue (the personal
unification of reason and sensibility) is either disposition or skill, and
in each case either cognitive or presentative; this yields the cardinal
virtues wisdom, love, discretion, and perseverance. The division of duties
into duties of right, duties of love, duties of vocation, and duties of
conscience rests on the distinction between community in production and
appropriation, each of which may be universal or individual. The most
general laws of duty (duty is the Idea of the good in an imperative form)
run: Act at every instant with all thy moral power, and aiming at thy whole
moral problem; act with all virtues and in view of all goods, further,
Always do that action which is most advantageous for the