What Ought I to Do Author:George Trumbull Ladd Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI ON THE INTENTION OF "BEING GOOD" t F all the conceptions developed by centuries of reflective thinking, there are few, or none, at once... more » so ostensibly practical and yet theoretically so difficult to analyze, so seemingly simple and yet in reality so complex, as that which is covered by the popular use of the word "Good." What is this thing good for? What is the good of doing this, or of learning that? Is this man or that woman good for anything? For how much is he (his credit) good? Is he a good (efficient) teacher; or a good (interesting and persuasive) preacher; or a (aesthetically) good painter; or a (morally) good man? Is the medicine good for this trouble? Does the orange taste good? Is this a good thing to do, -- by the way of pity, sympathy, or the bestowal of alms? Such are some of the questions, inquiring about what is good from innumerable points of view and with innumerable selfish or benevolent ends in mind, which pester the judgment and burden the conscience, every hour of every day from one year's end to another's. But most perplexingof all is the situation of the mind of the inquirer after that common element in all, which induces and authorizes them to make use of the same word Good. What is the general nature of that which men agree to call by this ambiguous and ubiquitous term? The answer to this last question can scarcely be found in the nature of the material thing, considered apart from the person who pronounces or reluctantly admits that it really is good. The reality of any material good can scarcely be what the philosophers are accustomed to call wholly "objective." For what is pleasant to the taste, and invigorating to the health of one, is nauseating to the taste and depressing to the health of another. Nor can it be inherent...« less