After having tested in the preceding chapter the actual basis of Kant's Ethics, I now turn to that which rests on it — his leading principle of Morals. The latter is very closely connected with the former; indeed, in a certain sense, they both grew up together. We have seen that the formula expressing the principle reads as follows: “Act only in accordance with that precept which you can also wish should be a general law for all rational beings.” It is a strange proceeding for a man, who ex hypothesi is seeking a law to determine what he should do, and what he should leave undone, to be instructed first to search for one fit to regulate the conduct of all possible rational beings; but we will pass over that.

It is sufficient only to notice the fact that in the above guiding rule, as put forth by Kant, we