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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: acknowledge that a large class of actions are made right or wrong by their
consequences only; we say further that mankind are not too mindful, but
that they are far too regardless of consequences, and that they need to
have the doctrine of utility habitually inculcated on them. We recognize
the value of a principle which can supply a connecting link between Ethics
and Politics, and under which all human actions are or may be included.
The desire to promote happiness is no mean preference of expediency to
right, but one of the highest and noblest motives by which human nature can
be animated. Neither in referring actions to the test of utility have we
to make a laborious calculation, any more than in trying them by other
standards of morals. For long ago they have been classified sufficiently
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