The Aesthetic Element in Morality and Its Place in a Utilitarian Theory of Morals (Classic Reprint)

The habit of the Greek mind in estimating the Talue of moral nobleness and elevation of character by their power of gratifying and impressing a spectator, S ully) has not been confined exclusively to the Hellenic race, or to the few centuries comprised under the term classical antiquity. Even in savage tribes, the military hero, and the wise and good ruler cannot but be the objects of direct respect and admiration, while even in the most matter-of-fact society that modem industrialism has ever succeeded in producing, a simple reference to the to be sure oftentimes fulsome praise of the obituary notice will show that the man of principle is valued for something else besides his mere usefulness as a macliine for grinding out happiness. And this is true not only of the moral judgments of every day life, in ethical theory too it will be found that the aesthetic element, far from being a peculiarity of the Greek systems, has played a very important part ever since the paradoxes of Hobbes :set earnest men thinking once more about the nature of virtue.
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