system
is the one by which a man must live, assent is the better
part of wisdom. There are comparatively few who persist in a
criticism of prevailing standards, or who are troubled very
much beyond their early twenties by a tormenting conviction
that things are not done as they ought to be done. It is from
the few who realize intellectually the inadequacies of prevailing
customs, and are emotionally disturbed by them, that
moral criticism arises. And it is only by such criticism that
moral progress is made possible. "The duty of some exercise
of discriminating intelligence as to existing customs, for the
sake of improvement and progress, is thus a mark of reflective
morality--of the regime of conscience as over against custom."[1]

[Footnote 1: Dewey and Tufts: _Ethics_, pp. 181-82.]

Reflection is thus the process by which progress is made
possible, although, as we shall presently see, it is not thereby
insured. The function of intelligence is precisely to indicate
anticipated goods, "to imagine a future which is the projection
of the desirable in the present." Even the best ordered
life or society reveals some maladjustment, some remove,
near or far, from perfection. It is the business of
reflection and imagination to note the discrepancy between
what is, and what ought to be, and assiduously to foster the
vision of the latter, so that in the light of that imagined good,
men's ways of life may be amended.

Nor does the setting-up of ideal standards mean the construction
of fruitless Utopias. Reflection upon the present
ways of life and the prospect of their improvement does not
mean a mere wistful yearning after better things. It means
careful inquiry into those elements of established ways which
may be incorporated into the construction of the ideal. It
means the resolute application of intelligence to an analysis of
present maladjustments in the interests of preserving out of
inherited and current ways those factors which point towards
the goal desired. It means to be eager for perfection, and
sensitive to current imperfections. Moral progress demands a
vision of the desirable future, and a persistent and discriminating
reflection upon the means of its attainment out of the
materials of the present.

THE DEFECTS OF REFLECTIVE MORALITY. Reflection, as already
pointed out, tends to stop with merely destructive criticism.
Provoked by maladjustment and imperfection, it frequently
goes no further than to note t