t. They could not
believe that what they were always striving to overcome, and the power
or principle in them which overcame, were of the same nature. The
pleasure of doing good to others and of bodily self-indulgence,
the pleasures of intellect and the pleasures of sense, are so
different:--Why then should they be called by a common name? Or, if the
equivocal or metaphorical use of the word is justified by custom (like
the use of other words which at first referred only to the body, and
then by a figure have been transferred to the mind), still, why should
we make an ambiguous word the corner-stone of moral philosophy? To the
higher thinker the Utilitarian or hedonist mode of speaking has been at
variance with religion and with any higher conception both of politics
and of morals. It has not satisfied their imagination; it has offended
their taste. To elevate pleasure, 'the most fleeting of all things,'
into a general idea seems to such men a contradiction. They do not
desire to bring down their theory to the level of their practice. The
simplicity of the 'greatest happiness' principle has been acceptable to
philosophers, but the better part of the world has been slow to receive
it.

Before proceeding, we may make a few admissions which will narrow the
field of dispute; and we may as well leave behind a few prejudices,
which intelligent opponents of Utilitarianism have by this time 'agreed
to discard'. We admit that Utility is coextensive with right, and that
no action can be right which does not tend to the happiness of mankind;
we acknowledge that a large class of actions are made right or wrong
by their consequences only; we say further that mankind are not too
mindful, but that they are far too regardless of consequences, and that
they need to have the doctrine of utility habitually inculcated on them.
We recognize the value of a principle which can supply a connecting link
between Ethics and Politics, and under which all human actions are or
may be included. The desire to promote happiness is no mean preference
of expediency to right, but one of the highest and noblest motives by
which human nature can be animated. Neither in referring actions to the
test of utility have we to make a laborious calculation, any more than
in trying them by other standards of morals. For long ago they have been
classified sufficiently for all practical purposes by the thinker,
by the legislator, by the opinion of the world. Whatever