CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY VIEW OF ETHICAL, QUESTIONS.
As a preface to the account of the Ethical Systems, and a principle of arrangement, for the better comparing of them, we shall review in order the questions that arise in the discussion.
I.First of all is the question as to the ETHICAL STANDARD.

What, in the last resort, is the test, criterion, umpire, appeal, or Standard, in determining Right and Wrong?
In the concrete language of Paley, "Why am I obliged to keep my word?
The answer to this is the Theory of Right and Wrong, the essential part of every Ethical System." We may quote the leading answers, as both explaining and summarizing the chief question of Ethics, and more especially of Modern Ethics.
1.

It is alleged that the arbitrary Will of the Deity, as expressed in the Bible, is the ultimate standard.

On this view anything thus commanded is right, whatever be its consequences, or however it may clash with our sentiments and reasonings.
2.

It was maintained by Hobbes, that the Sovereign, acting under his responsibility to God, is the sole arbiter of Right and Wrong.