Few of us now can avoid some exposure to codes of ethics and con duct; governments may require them of their own satellite organi zations; businesses find them increasingly desirable; professional and quasi-professional organizations consider them mandatory and furnish much energy on their development. One immediate consequence of this is that those exposed to such codes develop opinions about them, however untutored and unprofessional-an exemplification of the old adage, "those things which touch all are the concern of all." And so it is with me. My own interest in codes of ethics grew as a result of being on committees which were obliged to develop codes of conduct for my university. I am not an ethicist, moral philosopher, or business analyst. This alone explains the absence in the references to so much of the sort of literature that might be taken to authenticate what I have to say and which might reassure the reader that it is worth saying. Nevertheless, my work in language, rhetoric, and intellectual history may afford a slightly different perspective on familiar ground well trod den by specialists. On the safe-because untestable-basis of experience