Ultimate Objectives

It we want to know how far we can depend upon a person, we should know at least two things about him: We should know what basically he believes, and then we should know under what circumstances, if any, he would depart from what he believes. Every man has a set of principles, a code of conduct, a philosophy of life to which he adheres or from which he departs – and the safety and solidarity of people varies greatly according to how faithfully they follow their professed principles; for example, the man who believes that honesty is a divine commandment is likely to be more reliable than the man who believes that honesty is merely a policy to be pursued according to convenience. The man who believes that virtue actually offers its own eternal reward is likely to be more reliable than the man who believes that virtue is merely a social convention, to be variously observed according to shifting circumstances. Likewise, the man who believes himself literally to be an everlasting immortal individual would be inclined to live in some respects quite differently from the man who doesn’t have that kind of conviction. He who has his eyes on a short journey might well decide to get everything he can from everyone he can. But he who has his eyes on an endless journey is more inclined to consider his course. To him, any one wronged is cause for concern, because somewhere, sometime, he may meet every man he has misused, and somewhere, sometime, every wrong must be righted, and every debt discharged. Of course, some people who profess high principles sometimes depart from their principles and deeply disappoint us. But still, to know how far we may trust a man (and, parenthetically, how far we may trust an institution or an organization or even a nation), we need to know what his ideals and ultimate objectives are; we need to know what he wants from life; we need to know what he has his eyes on – what he has in his heart – because that is what he is going to move toward, if he isn’t interrupted.