It manifests itself throughout in various degrees of

goodness and badness. The destiny of goodness, in

reaching which it must itself cease to be, is

accomplished by the Whole. And, since in that

consummation idea and existence are not lost but are

brought into harmony, the Whole therefore is still good.

And again, since reference to the perfect makes finite

satisfactions all higher and lower, the Absolute is

realized in all of them to different degrees. I will

briefly deal with this latter point.

We saw, in our last chapter, the genuine meaning of

degrees in reality and truth. That is more perfect which

is separated from perfection by a smaller interval. And

the interval is measured by the amount of re-arrangement

and of addition required in order to turn an appearance

into Reality. We found, again, that our one principle

has a double aspect, as it meets two opposite defects in

phenomena. For an element is lower as being either more

narrow or less harmonious. And we perceived, further,

how and why these two defects are essentially connected.

Passing now to goodness, we must content ourselves by

observing in general that the same principle holds. The

satisfaction which is more true and more real, is

better. And we measure, here again, by the double aspect

of extension and harmony. Only the perfect and complete would, in the

end, content our desires. And a satisfaction more

consistent with itself, or again wider and fuller,

approaches more nearly to that consummation in which we

could rest. Further the divergence of these two aspects

is itself but apparent, and consists merely in a one-

sided confinement of our view. For a satisfaction

determined from the outside cannot internally be

harmonious, while on the other hand, if it became all-

inclusive, it would have become also concordant. In its

application this single principle tends naturally to

fall apart into two different standards. Still, for all

that, it remains in essence and at bottom the same, and

it is everywhere an estimation by the Absolute.

In a sense, therefore, the Absolute is actually good,

and throughout the world of goodness it is truly

realized in different degrees of satisfaction. Since in

ultimate Reality all existence, and all thought and

feeling, become one, we may even say that every feature

in the universe is thus absolutely good.

I have now briefly laid down the general meaning and

significance of goodness, and may go on to consider it

in a more special and restricted sense. The good, we

have seen, contains the sides of existence and idea. And

the existence, so far, has been found to be in

accordance with the idea, but the idea itself, so far,

has not necessarily produced or realized itself in the

fact. When, however, we take goodness in its narrower

meaning, this last feature is essential. The good, in

short, will become the realized end or completed will.

It is now an idea which not only has an answering

content in fact, but, in addition also, has

made, and has brought about, that correspondence. We may

say that the idea has translated or has carried itself

out into reality; for the content on both sides is the

same, and the existence has become what it is through

the action of the idea. Goodness thus will be confined

to the realm of ends or of self-realization. It will be

restricted, in other words, to what is commonly called

the sphere of morality.

For we must here take self-realization to have no

meaning except in finite souls; and of course every soul

is finite, though certainly not all are human. Will,

implying a process in time, cannot belong, as such, to

the Absolute; and, on the other side, we cannot assume

the existence of ends in the physical world. I shall

return in the next chapter to this question of teleology

in Nature, but, for the sake of convenience, we must

here exclude it from our view. There is to be, in short,

no self-realization except that of souls.

Goodness then, at present, is the realization of its

idea by a finite soul. It is not perfection simply, but

perfection as carried out by a will. We must forget, on

the one hand, that, as we have seen, approbation goes

beyond morality; and we must, as yet, be blind to that

more restricted sense in which morality is inward.

Goodness is, here, to be the carrying out by the

individual of his idea of perfection. And we must go on

to show briefly how, in this sense also, the good is

inconsistent. It is a point of view which is compelled

perpetually to pass beyond itself.

If we enquire, once more, "What is good?" in the

sense of asking for some element of content which is

special, we must answer, as before, "There is nothing."

Pleasure, we have seen, is by itself not the essence of

goodness; and, on the other hand, no feature of the

world falls outside of what is good. Beauty, truth,

feeling, and sensation, every imaginable matter

must go to constitute perfection. For perfection or

individuality is a system, harmonious and thus inclusive

of everything. And goodness we have now taken to be the

willed reality of its perfection by a soul. And hence

neither the form of system by itself, nor again, any one

matter apart from the whole, is either perfect or

good.

But, as with truth and reality, so with goodness our

one standard becomes double, and individuality falls

apart into the aspects of harmony and extent. In

principle, and actually in the end, these two features

must coincide (Chapter xxiv.); but in judging of

phenomena we are constantly forced to apply them

separately. I propose to say nothing about the various

concrete modes in which this two-fold perfection has

been realized in fact. But, solely with a view to bring

out the radical vice of all goodness, I will proceed to

lay stress on this divergence in application. The

aspects of extent and of harmony come together in the

end, but no less certainly in that end goodness, as

such, will have perished.