CHAPTER V.
ETHICAL SKEPTICISM AND ETHICAL PESSIMISM.
- Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law. — Dhammapada.
To turn skeptic himself, we said, seemed the only
way open before our idealist. If only he had placed
his standard a little lower! If only he had not
insisted on getting his ideal by ideal methods!
Then he might have remained safe in some one of
the positions that he temporarily assumed. But
always he drove himself out of them. Some stupendous
external reality, some beautiful mental state,
would suggest itself to him, and he would say: “Lo,
here is the ideal that I seek.” But forthwith his
own doubt would arise, accusing him of faithlessness.
“What hast thou found save that this or that happens
to exist?” the doubt would say, and our idealist
would be constrained to answer, “Not because it
exists, but because I have freely chosen it for my
guide, is it the Ideal.” And then would come the
repeated accusation that caprice is the sole ground
for the choice of this ideal. Skepticism, then, total
skepticism as to the foundation of ethics, seems to
be the result that threatens us. We must face this
skepticism and consider its outcome.
