Principles of character making / by Arthur Holmes.

  • Holmes, Arthur, 1872-1967
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Principles of character making / by Arthur Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    over tlie perturbed soul of the youth like dark and light waves upon the surface of a river. But, to carry out our figure,—underneath this surface flows a strong and vigor- ous current. It divides almost immediately into two great classes of impulses—Egoistic and Altruistic. The self- regarding and the other regarding impulses alternately direct a boy’s course; here, one in the driver’s seat; there, the other; here one tugging forward with demon strength and the other holding back with all the forces of conscience helping it; both always at war, one triumphing at first, the other never beaten, finally slowly and painfully fighting its way upward to a place of dominance in the moral life, aided and abetted by the moral ideal of an altruistic com- munity. The Hierarchy of Instincts.—Though morality is ultimately a matter of instinct, it is not a matter of in- stincts. A moral man is not a democracy of instincts each having its own sweet, or bitter, unhindered way. Such a state would be the direst anarchy. A moral man is a hierarchy of impulses. Certain ones have the primacy and must be infallibly obeyed. Sometimes lesser valuable in- stincts arise in a sudden gust of popularity and demand their satisfaction at whatever cost to the body politic. At such moments the sway of reason totters, or else, holds aloft the calm, cold Ultimate purpose of life—the satisfaction of the supreme Instinct to do Right, to act for the greateU Self-happiness in the long run, to act for the greatest Good of the greatest number. These instinctive ends are ad- mitted to be supreme but they are ends held in mind as ideas. The ability to comprehend ends of conduct, or the ability to discern between the values of various impulses and to determine what one should be suppressed for the