But although we cannot set up in any detail an ideal of character which is to be universally applicable—­although we cannot say, for instance, that all men ought to be industrious, or self-sacrificing, or fond of music—­there are some broad principles which can be used to guide our estimates as to what is possible or desirable.

We may distinguish two sorts of goods, and two corresponding sorts of impulses.  There are goods in regard to which individual possession is possible, and there are goods in which all can share alike.  The food and clothing of one man is not the food and clothing of another; if the supply is insufficient, what one man has is obtained at the expense of some other man.  This applies to material goods generally, and therefore to the greater part of the present economic life of the world.  On the other hand, mental and spiritual goods do not belong to one man to the exclusion of another.  If one man knows a science, that does not prevent others from knowing it; on the contrary, it helps them to acquire the knowledge.  If one man is a great artist or poet, that does not prevent others from painting pictures or writing poems, but helps to create the atmosphere in which such things are possible.  If one man is full of good-will toward others, that does not mean that there is less good-will to be shared among the rest; the more good-will one man has, the more he is likely to create among others.  In such matters there is no possession, because there is not a definite amount to be shared; any increase anywhere tends to produce an increase everywhere.

There are two kinds of impulses, corresponding to the two kinds of goods.  There are possessive impulses, which aim at acquiring or retaining private goods that cannot be shared; these center in the impulse of property.  And there are creative or constructive impulses, which aim at bringing into the world or making available for use the kind of goods in which there is no privacy and no possession.

The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.  This is no new discovery.  The Gospel says:  “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” The thought we give to these things is taken away from matters of more importance.  And what is worse, the habit of mind engendered by thinking of these things is a bad one; it leads to competition, envy, domination, cruelty, and almost all the moral evils that infest the world.  In particular, it leads to the predatory use of force.  Material possessions can be taken by force and enjoyed by the robber.  Spiritual possessions cannot be taken in this way.  You may kill an artist or a thinker, but you cannot acquire his art or his thought.  You may put a man to death because he loves his fellow-men, but you will not by so doing acquire the love which made his happiness.  Force is impotent in such matters; it is only as regards material goods that it is effective.  For this reason the men who believe in force are the men whose thoughts and desires are preoccupied with material goods.