An introductory outline of any subject must inevitably be superficial.
To explain all the discriminations that are important to the
specialist, to justify thoroughly all the positions taken, to do
adequate justice to opposing views, would require ten volumes instead
of one. And though there is a crying need of scholarly and elaborate
discussion of the endless problems of morality, there is a prior need
for the student of surveying the field, seeing what the problems are,
how they are related, and what is approximately certain. The impression
left by many ethical treatises, that everything is matter for dispute
and no moral judgments are reliable, seems to me unfortunate; I have
preferred to incur the charge of dogmatism rather than to fall into
that error to offer a clear cut set of standards, to which exception
will be taken by this critic or that, rather than to hold out to the
student a chaos of confused possibilities.

No originality of viewpoint is claimed for this book. Its raison d'etre
is simply to provide a clearer, more concrete, and more concisely
comprehensive view of the nature of morality and its summons to men
than has seemed to me available. I have drawn freely upon the thoughts
of ethical teachers, classic and contemporary. These ideas are, or
ought to be, common property; and it has been impracticable to trace
them to their sources and offer detailed acknowledgment. Nothing has
been presented here that has not first passed through the crucible
of my own thinking and experience; and where the sparks came from that
kindled each particular thought I am sure I do not know.

Portions of chapters xxi and xxix have appeared in the Forum and North
American Review respectively; to the editors of these periodicals my
thanks are due for permission to reprint.