The aim of this book is to give, in brief compass,, an outline of the most important principles of ethical doctrine so far as these can be understood without a knowledge of Metaphysics.

The work has been considerably altered since it was first published in 1883, and most of all in the present edition. I have endeavoured to profit by various criticisms that have been passed upon it, especially those that were made by Dr. G. E. Moore and the late Dean Rashdall. Both these writers have taken a different view of the general function of a book on Ethics from that which I, in common with a good many other ethical writers, have been led to adopt. They have both maintained that the object of Ethics is to provide us with a complete system of Casuistry; and in this they have the support of Professor Laird and some others. I have referred to Casuistry at more than one point in the present edition; but it may be well to add a few words here.