Moral culture as a science

Preface

The great necessity for a definite plan of presenting the subject of Ethics to children in the pubhc schools has led to the preparation of this treatise. The fact that a work was needed which should' be practical, and yet wide in its range, has been constantly kept in mind.

For the convenience of readers, the book has been divided into three parts, with the addition of an appendix.

In the first part, those fundamental psychological facts which have a bearing especially upon ethical development have been set forth, as it seemed necessary that they be kept in mind by the reader. In the second part, the nature of the various virtues, and practical suggestions for teaching them, are considered, while the ethical aspect of school discipline and of our common-school branches of study are discussed in the third part.

The MS. of this work has been carefully reviewed by educational experts, and the conclusions reached have been pronounced correct, without exception. As to the manner of presenting them there has been a difference of opinion.

The popular method of illustrating ethical truths by stories, for children as well as for adults, is considered by far the most successful one, and doubt was expressed as to the possibility of teaching ethics in any other way.

Preface,

So much is being done in this field by wholesome publications like the Youth^s Companion and many series of books, that work of this kind seemed superfluous, although a few illustrative stories for children are appended to this work.

Ethical culture obtained in this way is necessarily disconnected and fragmentary. Educators, be they parents, teachers, or settlement workers, need a clear, connected, and scientific grasp of the subject as a whole; this we have tried to give, employing the analytical treatment of parts while preserving the unity of the whole.

We hope that the approval of our readers may justify our method of presentation.

B. S. W.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction 7

Chap. I. What is Morality? . 13

II. The Appetites of the Body 17

III. The Desires of the Mind 22

IV. Attributes and Emotions 29

V. Mental and Moral Training 35

VI. Morality in School 40

VII. Love and Fear 47

VIII. Cant and Moralizing 59

Martin's Thinking 149

Contents.

PAGE

^'DocTOE Chakles" 176

Consideration 180

Kindness 183

Frank's Lesson 188

How a Glacier Answered a Question 193

Miscellaneous Proverbs .... 194

Quotations 196

Introduction

Morality has, up to the present time, been taught in public schools only incidentally as misdemeanors were committed and occasion arose for their correction. It has never been made a subject of regular systematic instruction. For that reason it has made comparatively little impression upon the minds of children. Those who were dependent for their instruction in this direction upon the public schools have therefore received but vague and uncertain ideas regarding their moral nature and duties.

A systematic education includes, besides mental and physical training, also moral culture. Such an education the state is in duty bound to give to its future citizens.

To invest this subject of morality with its rightful dignity and importance in the eyes of school children, certain regular hours should be set aside for the study of its guiding principles. Here, as elsewhere, concentration of thought is indispensable for the thorough understanding and mastery of the subject. Only one thing at a time can be studied. Incidentally, of course, both oral and written language is taught most effectively, as moral instruction awakens many thoughts of vital interest in the child's mind to which he will give spontaneous utterance. But to the child, it is studying only the great subject of how to do right, how to live. These moral principles

Moral Culture as a Science.

must be studied as thoroughly as those of any other branch of knowledge. This course of regular instruction would dispel the utter ignorance on the subject, which is now too often the cause of immorality. Ignorance could then, at least, no longer be pleaded as an excuse for wrong-doing.

But many earnest teachers are opposed to the special study of morality in our public schools. " Do not moralize," is their plea. The answer is. Teaching the laws and principles of moral conduct is not moralizing. It is giving information which the state owes its future citizens. No one can be, in justice, expected to obey the laws of which he is ignorant, and certainly such ignorance is more harmful in its effect than any other. Only when the nation as a whole understands, as it does not now, the principles which should govern the actions of men, can it attain an elevated moral standpoint.

In the universities and in some high schools, ethics are taught; but it is believed by many thoughtful educators that younger children should not be taught ethics, excepting incidentally in connection with school government. They fear that it will lead to morbid introspection in the child, and to what they are pleased to call the " curse of the New England conscience," which makes its unfortunate possessor feel continually " under condemnation."

Now it is not only to gain a knowledge of moral principles, but also to avoid the possibility of falling into such a pitiable condition of mind, that the plea for broad, comprehensive moral culture is made. A mind accustomed to finding the principles of right

Introduction.

which underlie even every-day questions will learn to see the true proportion of things, and will never be weighed down by a sense of wrong when this is unjust to itself. Moreover, what is this much-to-befeared New England conscience? Its very existence simply proves that moral lessons, taught in early childhood, cannot easily be eradicated.

" As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." In the truth of this old adage the Pilgrim Fathers believed. New England parents of former times brought up their children in the name and in the fear of God; but it was in the fear of an angry, jealous God, whose threatening presence was always with them. They succeeded in rearing a race strong, stern, and unflinching in all matters of religion. ( This does not mean that they were necessarily honest and just. Their treatment of the Indians, of the Quakers, or any others differing from them in religious matters, is notorious.)

Times have changed. Wo no longer fear an angry God, but we pray to a loving Father, who wishes us to see in every man His child, our brother, whom we are to love as ourselves. Instead of narrow commands and precepts with which the Puritan was bound, we teach broad principles of the Ideal Right, and call upon every individual to formulate the laws of his own conduct accordingly. We can learn from the Puritans that firm faithfulness with which they impressed their precepts upon the young minds, however ^' uncouth Time may have rendered their Right."

Little children can well understand what is right and wrong, and why it is so. They have to live their lives and form habits which will influence their future.

Moral Culture as a Science.

They have a free will, and can act as they decide, making their existence either a blessing or a torment to all around them. Why, then, should they not he taught the principles of morality as far as they can understand them? A child begins to lead its own inner life, it learns to reason about things, as soon as it begins to think, and it thus becomes the center of a circle from which its influence extends either for good or for evil. There is no stand-still in moral life. Either backward or forward men must go. Is it right, then, to let children grow up all the while working at the very foundation of their lives, without giving them the principles according to which they should build? Everything received as truth in childhood, that enters into the life and activities of the young mind, retains through all the years of later life a poetic charm which no lessons of after years can equal. If the experience of the man confirms the truth of the child's instructions, he will very often live up to them more and more. Especially is this the case with the young, earnest men and women who have children to train. The eager demands of the little ones make them reach far back into their childhood to find those things which have been helpful to them in their own moral development.

That the principles of true morality should be taught in the public schools, no one will doubt, who has observed the foolish manner in which most children are trained at home. Few parents know what real moral culture is. They have frequently only very vague notions of Right or Wrong, but in a general way they want their children to do the one and avoid the other,

Introduction.

though they are, as a rule, not impartial enough to judge the shortcomings of their own children justly.

Many parents, moreover, often laugh at serious faults when in good humor, and punish innocent doings severely when they happen to be irritable. In fact, very few parents have themselves ever had any special moral instruction, and consequently they cannot give it to their children. It is like the mental instruction which the child receives at home. A few parents know how to teach, and their children make rapid progress, but in most cases the home training is deficient, and for the education of the people we must depend upon good schools for moral as well as mental development.

Upon the teachers of our public schools must depend much of the progress in moral lines which all patriotic citizens fondly hope may raise our national character above anything dreamed of so far.

At present, conditions for rational school work are hard, but with the elevation of public morals will come the ideal school, in which the kindergarten spirit and the kindergarten conditions as to time, numbers, and materials furnished for work will be realities.

If teachers will enter into the best spirit of our time, that which is to be found in the writings of Charles Kingsley, James Russell Lowell, Thomas Hughes, and Jane Addams, and carry into their school life this same magnificent sympathy with all their kind, this same confidence in all humanity, whether rich or poor, old or young, they will find that teaching moral principles will become the happiest work of their lives. School will not drag upon their hands; a new meaning and a higher significance will appear about even every-day occurrences. Their eyes will be opened, and they will see the rich fields waiting for the sower to scatter good seeds before the weeds have had time to cover the land!

Although this book was designed to lead teachers to realize the necessity of and to give some practical help in teaching moral principles, yet it is not expected nor desired that teachers will accept the views presented without questioning their correctness. On the contrary, it is hoped that all readers may, to their own satisfaction, verify all the conclusions reached, and act accordingly.

MORAL CULTURE AS A SCIENCE.

JJart Iix6t

Chapter I. What Is Morality?

In every human being there exists an innate sense that some acts are less right to perform than others; that there is a right and a wrong.

We recognize this sense in the little child, and find it also in the savage. When this sense is cultivated it becomes moral judgment. Associated with this there is a feeling, also inborn, which prompts us to do the right and fear the wrong; this is called conscience. These instincts are the basis of all morality, and on this basis we must build the science of morality, — i.e., the knowledge of that which is right according to our present conception of the word. This knowledge of right is not inborn, but varies with the age and education of the individual, and the spirit of the time in which he may Hve.

From history we learn of many unjust and terrible deeds committed under the impression that they were right. Even now our civilization allows wrongs to be committed which will seem inhuman and savage in a hundred years. In countries that we call civilized," the teachings of Christ are accepted theoretically as the highest conceptions of morality. They are summed up in the great command, " Love the Lord thy God above all, and thy neighbor as thyself."

These form the foundation upon which, in theory, the right and wrong are based and by which we measure the righteousness of any act.

In the United States, the constitution separates church and state, and for that reason religion cannot be taught in the public schools, for many persons consider the belief in God a superstition, and do not want their children to hear of it in school. Other parents object to having their children taught even the simplest religious principles by any but members of their own denomination. Therefore the teaching of a personal God must be left to home and church; but no parents will object to having their children taught the laws of God, Love, Truth, Justice, Honesty, and Humility, for these are the foundation of all our conceptions of right at the present time.

The law of Moses, " Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," is the expression of our inborn longing for something that is higher and better than that which we have. The desire for the ideal expresses itself in it; therefore we may call truth, honesty, humility, and justness the ideal virtues. They are to the character what temper is to steel and brilUancy to the diamond. The temper makes the difference between steel and pig-iron; the brilliancy distinguishes the stone from glass. Thus love of truth and right belongs to the noble character, above the time-server and man of policy.

The second great ethical law that we have accepted is, " Love thy neighbor as thyself." Not with your whole heart, as you love truth and right, but as yourself; willing to give to him what you wish that he should give to you, — help, respect, and consideration.

What is Morality?

The instinctive desire for the sympathy and love of others which all possess, is one of the earliest manifestations of the child's moral nature. Its reciprocal, love of man, is the source of the social virtues, which, by their general exercise, bring most of pleasure and happiness into the human life. Their key-note is the Golden Rule, ''Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," and the life that is without them may be pronounced a partial failure, with but little true happiness in it. The virtues founded on the love of man, constituting the group of social virtues, include benevolence, kindness, generosity, gratitude, etc.

Naturally, children want to do right; their hearts glow when they hear of a noble, generous deed, and they want to imitate it. They love their parents and friends, and are glad to show this love to them. But there is so much pleasure to be had from the fulfillment of the desires, so often advantages of a certain kind to be gained by wrong-doing, that if they have not learned to control their love of pleasure, they cannot do right. Not until they have learned to do right by training and strengthening the will to Hsten to the dictates of judgment and conscience, are they able to overcome their passions in the time of temptation, and make of these stepping-stones to a higher life.

Little by little the will must be trained, as an athlete is trained for his feats of endurance. Only in this way can children learn the practice of self-control in their daily life.

The virtues that flow more particularly from self-control may be called the personal virtues, for they

Moral Culture as a Science.

refer more directly to the person himself. They are temperance, diligence, courage, chastity, patience, cheerfulness, etc. The foundation of all virtues is self-control; for a man who cannot control his passions and emotions can never be depended upon. He may love his fellow-men, he may love right and wish to follow it, yet his passions and emotions present their claims, and not ha^dng learned to deny or control them, his good intentions come to naught. Self-control is the most difficult lesson to learn. Natural instinct helps children to love the other virtues, but the control of self is uphill work. Yet, continual self-control of desires and pleasures, even of their thoughts and of their wishes, is the price which they must pay for the mastery over self. This continual self-control is against all natural impulses. But is not the victory over self worth the price that it costs? Henry More happily expresses the gain in the following words: —

" By persisting in a habit of self-denial, we shall, beyond what I can express, increase the inward powers of the mind, and shall produce that cheerfulness and greatness of spirit as will fit us for all good purposes; and shall not have lost pleasure, but changed it; the soul being then filled with its own intrinsic pleasures."

Chapter II. The Appetites Of The Body

In moral culture, the Appetites of the Body and the Desires and Emotions of the Mind are the factors with f which we have to deal.

The Appetites of the Body, four in number, are necessary for the existence of the individual and the race. Man shares them with every organism possessing life, — not only with the lower animals, but also with plants. They are, —

The Appetite for Nourishment (air, food, drink).

For Activity.

For Rest.

For Reproduction.

Thus it is, without doubt, a moral duty to take as much fresh air and wholesome nourishment as the welfare of the body demands. Nature has made the fulfillment of this duty so pleasant that man often eats and drinks more than the body can assimilate, or food y/hich he knows to be unwholesome, though pleasing to the palate. Sometimes, the natural appetite is allowed to become a passion, which may dLOstroy the power of the will, leaving its poor victim a wreck.

The Appetite for Food. The deeire for nourishment, expressed by thirst, is the first to appear in independent Ufe, as well in the little human baby as in the baby plant. Indeed, the absorption of nutri-

Moral Culture as a Science.

tive material from a solution, and the removal of waste matter, seem to be the fundamental acts of that unexplained mystery, Life, in whatever stage of existence it may be found.

This appetite includes the desire for shelter and clothing, which, indirectly, may be said to nourish the body by economizing the expenditure of vital force, and therefore of nourishment necessary to produce this force. This first-developed and most fundamental appetite in man has become the source of all industrial advances that have been made through the progress of civilization, as it is also the source of the ambition for wealth.

For Activity. Activity of the body is necessary for its growth and perfect development. No muscle will develop and increase as it should, unless it is in active use, and a child that is for the most part kept quiet indoors remains weak and small. Muscular exercise increases the force of circulation, brings a greater blood supply to every tissue, and so promotes the active changes which are necessary for growth and health. The desire for activity is therefore universally found. The smallest baby executes purposeless movements with its limbs, and mothers know that the child that does not " kick " is not " all right. " Even trees growing in exposed places are more gnarled, perhaps, but also stronger, tougher, and more vigorous, than others of the same species growing in sheltered locations.

Activity, carried to excess, may degenerate into destructiveness. By producing a passion for out-of-door sports at all costs, it may interfere with the child's

The Appetites of the Body.

mental development, and lessen or destroy his usefulness as an individual.

For Rest. The appetite for rest is the sequel and counterpart of that for activity. What a delicious feeling of relief is produced by rest, after a busy day, when the body is thoroughly fatigued. Rest, under such circumstances, is generally accompanied by a deep and refreshing sleep. The child sleeps in its mother's arms; the dog curls up and sleeps in the sunshine; at night, the flowers close, the leaves fold up, and plants, as well as animals, appear to rest.

The word " rest " presupposes a pre^uous exertion. The appetite for rest may, however, and in later life too often does, degenerate into indolence, — a desire for rest without previous exertion. While pleasure afforded by rest after activity is one of the kind gifts of nature to promote human welfare and happiness, indolence will slowly, but surely, sap away all life and energy, every high and noble feeling, leaving its victim a mere vegetating being, too often to fall an easily yielding prey to the other appetites, excepting that for activity. Perhaps no other appetite exerts such a strong influence over a great many, otherwise good, conscientious persons; laziness enters as a dry-rot into many lives.

Reproduction. The three appetites above described are necessary for the well-being of the individual. They therefore appear with the first dawn of life. That for reproduction has for its object the perpetuation of the race, and does not appear in normal individuals until the age of maturity. Like the others, it exists in a rudimentary form among plants. Among the higher animals it develops not only into a true conjugal love, but often into a self-sacrificing love for the offspring. In man, developed and expanded, it becomes the source of the noblest and most enduring feelings of his nature, — the pure love between husband and wife, and strong, self-forgetful, parental love.

This appetite is sometimes found active in children, either from an inherited nervous constitution (which should be treated by hygienic and other measures), or more generally because it has been forced into its precocious development by bad habits. Prominent among the latter is the pernicious one of "teasing" or bantering a child because of some real or fancied preference for a child of the opposite sex. This habit is only too often indulged in by young and old, including even teachers, yet nothing could be more mischievous in its effects upon the young mind. Such a course prematurely awakens desires, which, if left to their natural growth, may become the source of the purest happiness. But thus early to awaken what nature intended to lie dormant is like tearing open the bud of a flower: even if the bud is not destroyed, yet thereafter it can never attain to that perfection of beauty which it might have reached had it been left to develop naturally. When young people have passed the period of childhood without having lost that purity of feeling which is their rightful inheritance, they will acquire a certain reserve, a reticent modesty, which nature provides as a protector against the too rapid development of this instinct. What a proof of the sacred beauty of conjugal relation is it, that even

The Appetites of the Body.

plants are arrayed in gorgeous splendor at the time of their marriage!

As long as these appetites are servants under the control of Will and Judgment, they contribute in a great measure to the enjoyment of life, but when any one of them becomes master, it changes into a passion and leads towards mental and physical destruction.

Chapter III. The Desires Of The Mind

The Desires of the Mind are analogous to those of the body, and like them may be classified into, — The Desire for Mental Nourishment.

For Activity.

For Rest.

For Reproduction.

Animals possess them in a rudimentary form.

The Desire for Mental Nourishment. This desire shows itself (a) as a thirst for knowledge, and (b) as curiosity; the former representing the desire for scientific knowledge or any higher information, the latter, that for an acquaintance with the surroundings and pergonal affairs of others.

Like its physical analogue, this desire appears very early, being one of the first manifestations of the awakening mind. Children eagerly accept all knowledge presented to them, and are gifted with acute powers of observation; indeed, we may measure the youthfulness and vigor of the mind in later years by the degree of its receptivity for new facts and theories.

A distinct form of this instinct is the desire for moral nourishment, which is generally a marked characteristic, especially of the youthful mind. All normal persons, young or old, enjoy hearing or reading of deeds of heroism, self-sacrifice, or other virtues.

The desire for knowledge, when not properly di- 22

The Desires of the Mind.

reeled into useful channels, may become perverted into idle curiosity and inquisitiveness. The mind that has good wholesome work to do will rarely waste valuable time over other people's affairs. But when the absorbing and important lines of knowledge are closed against it, this desire finds vent in a curious prying into the minor matters of life. The more penetrating and thirsty for knowledge a mind is, the more capable of following legitimate lines of investigation when the opportunities are given, the more prying and curious will it become when the avenues for obtaining useful information are cut off, and it will become so in exact proportion to the closing up of these avenues.

This is the reason why curiosity has been more often a fault of woman than of man. She was confined to the narrow limits of her household; her life was contracted; knowledge of an elevating, practical kind, or an interest and an influence upon the practical issues of the day, were too often forbidden her by public opinion. But nature has endowed her, like her brother, with a thirst for knowledge, and bafiled in its efforts to get at the great, moving truths of the world, it turns into a thousand small, often degrading, channels, where this noble desire, like a stream turned into a swamp, spends itself in doing harm rather than good.

The Desire for Mental Activity. Like the preceding, this is manifested at an early period. Very small children like to learn. As they grow older, they enjoy riddles, arithmetical problems, " questions on the map, " in geography, etc. Moderate activity of the mind is pleasant and exhilarating to almost every one, though the direction it takes may be a perverted one.

Moral Culture as a Science.

This desire, combined with the preceding one, is the source of all scientific investigation, and its value in the progress of the race cannot be overestimated.

Like the preceding, it also has a moral aspect, and can be made of much use in the training of the child. Who does not enjoy the consciousness of having done a good deed? The satisfaction experienced when a person has stepped out of his ordinary course to perform some kind of heroic or self-sacrificing act invites to a repetition of the act, — i.e., to moral activity.

The Desire for Mental Rest. This is the sequence of acti^dty in a normal mind, but mental rest need not always mean entire mental inactivity. The mind often turns from one employment to another, and is rested thereby, — a fact which teachers make use of freely at the present time. But as there is a physical, so there is a mental indolence, which does much harm, weakening and degrading the mind, and rendering it unfit for useful work. This is fostered by mental idleness, the pursuance of unworthy objects which do not tax the mental powers, — above all, by day dreaming, the idle conjuring up before the mind's eye of images and pictures picked up from light literature, and of which the first person is always the hero. Nothing is more harmful to the mind than this sort of dreaming. Mental indolence it is which leads people blindly to accept another's statement, especially when presented with sufficient force and positiveness, \\dthout investigating its truth or fal^itJ^ Mental indolence is not common among children, but it may be produced by enforcing a too implicit acceptance of facts or statements which they do not understand.

The Desires of the Mind,

From a moral point of view, there is much of this indolence. Men and women too often accept the conclusions and rules of conduct formulated for them by those "in authority." This is easy, and saves them the trouble of carefully thinking out these things for themselves. This refers as well to a destructive as to a constructive line of thought, — i.e., as well to those who destroy or deny accepted doctrines as to those who attempt to establish them. Ingersoll has proportionally as many unthinking followers, who repeat his phrases and arguments in a parrot-like manner, as are found in any religious sect or denomination.

The Desire for Reproduction. This is, perhaps, one of the strongest of mental desires. The child, in his eager stories, tries to reproduce what he has seen, or upon his slate attempts to picture the objects which surround him; the man copies what he has seen others do. Nearly every act of life is a reproduction of one that has been performed before, either by the individual himself, or by some one else from whom he has consciously or unconsciously adopted it. Imitation and Habit are two strong faculties which grow from this desire, and they enter deeply into every life for good or for evil, to elevate or to degrade.

From a moral point of view, this desire is of the widest importance, for Imitation and Habit influence the lives of men, even against their better judgment.

Imitation. When a child often hears of or sees any certain deed committed, after a time memory will bring it up, and imitation causes the involuntary desire to do the same thing. This may occur, even though the act be a frightful one, which at first