' There is one subject or spirit, wliich desires in all a man's experiences of desire, undei-stands in all operations of his intelli- gence, wills in all his acts of willing ; and the essential character of his desires depends on their all being desires of one and the same subject which also understands, the essential character of his intelligence on its being an activity of one and the same subject which also desires, the essential character ol his acts of will on their proceeding from one and tlie same subject which also desires and undersunds' (Proifgomc-Ha to Ethics^, p. 138).
It is well to liave an emphatic statement of the unity of the thinking, willing, feeling subject placed on record ; for up to Green's advent we were allowed to see thinking, A\'illing, feeling, but the self was altogether out of sight. At the same time, while Green lays stress on the unity of the self in all its activities, and rightly so, there seems to lit- a .lel'ect in his analysis. He seems to take for ui^intcd th;ir the self-conscious self, in its con- .scioiiN :i].iiiihin..i,.n of objects as desirable, will always act -nisely, prudently, and rightly. But does not the self-conscious being, in making a choice, sometimes choose unwisely and WTongly? As Sidgwick points out, ' It seems to me to be fundamentally important to distinguish between choice (even deliberate choice) and judgment as to choice- worthiness, since they may diverge' (The Ethics of T. H. Green, etc. p. 30). Are we to hold that a man, following out what he thinks self- interest, clearly seeing the end in view and choos- ing appropriate means for its accomplishment, if he acts self-consciously, is always acting rightly? For Green in liis disci liitiun of the self-conscious subject docs imi s.. m i,, contemplate the possi- bility of wr.iuj .11- \iri,,iis action. He takes for granted that tlic ynn-,--. of the self-conscious being on his way tow ards the appropriate action, towards the satisfaction he will feel when the object is attained, will alwaj;s be right. But may there not be all the characteristics of the action of the self- conscious being, as these are described by Green, present in the coui'se of conduct of a man who wades through slaughter to a throne? In truth, there is needed a further analysis, leading us beyond the mere processes of a se^f-conscious being, in order to find a justification for man's action. We need a better description of the desirable than any that can be found in Green. All tliat he sets forth with regard to Desire and the self-conscious sub- ject and its action may be true, and truly realized in the case of the man who has an unworthy end in view. He may identifj; himself with his object, he may find satisfaclion in the attainment of it, and yet tlie choice m.ny not be worthy.
It is the e.\i)erience of mankind that a man may ni.ike au unworth}- choice, m.ay form a wrong
ideal, may be mistaken, and yet may all the time act as a self-conscious being. So a further criterion is needed in order to guide men in their choice, in order tliat it may be a worthy choice. True, the values of life lie in their relation to tlie self. And the realization of the self is one of the great ends of life. But the self has to grow in relation to the ideal, and the ideal has to grow as well. How shall a man learn to recognize the true ideal, and to desire it? Here we ought to enter into the religious experience of man to realize the fact that man has formed wrong conceptions of life, has worshipjjed false ideals, and desired unworthy ends. One might pass into the sphere of that re- ligious experience which has had its highest ex- pression in the Scriptures. There, too, we are in a universe of desires, and the task of Scripture is to teach man what to desire. Scripture recognizes the possibility of WTong desire leading to Avrong action, and it also recognizes that towards the making of desire all the faculties of man contri- bute. Wliat it teaches is largely the reversal of human ideals : it jnits last \y\\aX men liave put first, and it places in the front jilace, as the best and mightiest, what men have despised and for- gotten. The self-conscious being has to be taught something which it would never have learnt tluough the mere exercise of self-conscious activity. It is not necessary to enter into an analysis of Scripture terms, or to trace the history of the term ' desire ' through the Scriptures. For Scrip- ture proceeds on the fact that men have had wrong desires, false ideals, and have pursued wrong objects ; so it proceeds to teach them what is the really good, the true ideal ; and, further, to give to men the power to recognize the good, the true, and the beautiful, and to desire them. We need this education, and the world of desire cannot be really described until we bring in the revolutionary power of religion, and learn to know that reversal of human judgments inaugurated by Christ.
Here, too, the strongest influence in this educa- tion is the commanding power of i)ersonality. It is not without significance tliat in the last resort Plato and Aristotle were driven back to the concrete standard of the 'good man.' Throiigh the influence of personality men learn to recognize ideals and to love them. Around personalities cluster the thoughts, emotions, aspirations, tenden- cies which help to form the world of desire. It is so in the OT, where it is said of their devotion to the living God of Israel : ' Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee' (Ps 73^) ; or, ' To thy name and to thy memorial is the desire of our soul' (Is 26'). It is recognized that there is a world of wrong desires, objects which the self-conscious man may desire, long for, strive after ; and the story of tlie Bible is the attempt to implant in these self- conscious beings the power to free themselves from that world of false desire. In the NT the first step towards that freedom is to bring men into contact with a li\'ing personality, in whom is sphered all perfection, whose service is perfect freedom, and through whom they may learn what to desire and what to long for, and what to attain. The laws of desire, as these are in human nature, and as they are disclosed to us through research and reflexion, rule in this sphere ; but tlien they have new material to illustrate their working.