The ethos of a people... we may say, constitutes the atmosphere in which the best members of a race habitually live... -from "The Virtues" Offered as a textbook for university students and drawing from both classical and modern schools of philosophical thought-from Aristotle and the Bible to Mill, Hume, and Kant-this comprehensive 1901 overview of the universe of ethical thought is still a valuable resource today. The fascinating discussions within explore: . the nature of ethics . the art of conduct . ethics and the physical sciences . ethics and economics . psychological hedonism . the true sense of freedom . the origin of conscience . the moral connoisseur . the general problem of authority . the social universe . theories of punishment . morality and religion . and more. A book to dip into at random or to read in-depth, this is as fresh and original today as it was a century ago. British philosopher JOHN STUART MACKENZIE (1860-1935) was professor of logic and philosophy at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.