Chapter 2

MORALITY AND THE PRIZE OF LIFE.

The worth the positive school claim for life, is essentially a moral worth 33

As its most celebrated exponents explicitly tell us 34

This means that life contains some special prize, to which morality is the only road 34

And the value of life depends on the value of this prize 35

J.S. Mill, G. Eliot, and Professor Huxley admit that this is a correct way of stating the case 36

But all this language as it stands at present is too vague to be of any use to us 38

The prize in question is to be won in this life, if anywhere; and must therefore be more or less describable 39

What then is it? 40

Unless it is describable it cannot be a moral end at all 41

As a consideration of the _raison d'être_ of all moral systems will show us 42

The value of the prize must be verifiable by positive methods 43

And be verifiably greater, beyond all comparison, than that of all other prizes 44

Has such a prize any real existence? This is our question 44

It has never yet been answered properly 45

And though two sets of answers have been given it, neither of them are satisfactory 45

I shall deal with these two questions in order 47