Full Idea
To T.H. Green an ideal was no creation of an idle imagination, metaphysics no mere play of the speculative reason. Ideals were the most solid, and metaphysics the most practical thing about a man.
Gist of Idea
Ideals and metaphysics are practical, not imaginative or speculative
Source
report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State I
Book Reference
Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.8
A Reaction
This is despite the fact that Green was an idealist in the Hegelian tradition. I like this. I see it not just as ideals having practical guiding influence, but also that ideals themselves arising out of experience.