Right living : lessons in ethics for schools

Front matter

ip son, Brown & Co,

Class aJkSai.

Book _Vfa_.

Preface

Human experience has shown the value of right living, also, the disaster that follows wrong living. It has been clearly demonstrated, again and again, that the basis of symmetrical life is character, first, last, and always, and good character comes only from a right use of life, and a correct understanding of its duties.

Emerson says " Character is the most valuable possession and acquisition of life. Higher than intellect^ and a great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think."

Moral stature is acquired by an inward growth or development of character. Aided by such precepts and examples as we have been fortunate enough to obtain, through the ministrations of others, and by our own efforts and observations.

The value accorded to an acknowledged weight of exemplary character is illustrated in a letter from President Adams to George Washington, then a private citizen in retirement at Mount Vernon, when in 1798 war was imminent with France — " We must have your name if you will permit us to use it. There will be more efficacy in it than in many an army."

Good citizenship is the aim and object of public school teaching, and is a positive demand of the State. It is the endeavor to do something toward meeting this

PREFACE.

demand by bringing to the young people in our public schools the incentives to high character and noble living by kindly advice and admonition, strengthened by numerous examples and anecdotes from the lives of those whom the world has delighted to honor, that this book has been prepared. If it shall have served this purpose in any degree, the author's object will have been attained.

As with the physical, so with the ethical. A belief, as yet fitful and partial, is beginning to spread amongst men, that here, also, there is an indissoluble bond between cause and consequence, an inexorable destiny, a law which altereth not.

Herbert Spencer.

Living is an Art, a method of expressing great conceptions; in fact, the highest method, the noblest of the Arts.

Thomas Starr King.

INTRODUCTORY.

The great question confronting humanity to-day is one of ethics. Real life, how to find and enjoy it, is the most important problem of this, or any age. The most significant of all thinking, teaching and training is found in ethical lines. Without this foundation, life is insufficient and incomplete. The facts bearing upon certain rules of conduct must be impressed upon the mind as emphatically as the facts of mathematics, accepted with the understanding that they are, like the fundamentals of arithmetic, to be applied in the affairs and business of life, in order to evolve the highest possible ultimate. Correct conduct is imperative in all conditions, under all circumstances. Where it is not, life cannot be counted a success, but a disastrous failure.

Every aid should be sought to deepen and strengthen moral conviction. A wise word, timely spoken, has saved men from the convicts cell. Sound advice is the rope thrown to those in the mire of doubt and despair. It is the stairway leading from danger. Appropriate sayings, similes, bits of wisdom here and there are the golden nails that fasten facts in the memory forever. Philosophers have dropped them all the way along. Yet all wise precepts are valueless unless practically carried into use, not for on* 3 day alone, but for every day.

The highest good of the individual, the greatest

8 INTRODUCTORY

good to the greatest number — this is the high purpose of life.

How to live honestly, truly, correctly, nobly and honorably is the grand object of being.

Life consists in action, in duty done hourly. This fact understood and acted upon is life, wherever found. That which we ought to do and should do, is only conformity to correct action, that is, the action that gives, or, is productive of real pleasure, sincere satisfaction.

We know when we do wrong by the misery experienced, the trouble and mental disturbance that follow; or, observing the result in others, we need not experiment ourselves in wrong-doing, to be sure of the fact. We know, as well, the consequence of right action by the happiness it brings to ourselves and others.

Humanity is a unit — a body. We are parts of the whole. We cannot injure a part but the hurt is felt, directly or indirectly, soon or late, by the whole. We cannot injure ourselves, but, some one else must suffer on that account. Every one contributes more or less, in one way or another, to the general welfare. Our own interest and the interest of the whole, therefore, are identical. Hence, the necessity of the best action. In our undertakings, it is our business to inquire — will the doing of this bring peace and harmony, or wilt it produce pain and inharmony? If the former, I shall do it cheerfully and eagerly; if the latter, I must refrain from its performance.

It is a law of nature to do naught that imposes torture upon ourselves, because we shrink from suffering. Therefore we shun those acts that hold the sting of pain and regret.

INTRODUCTORY : g

Experience has brought the conviction that certain other courses we pursue bring joy, comfort, happiness, and leave no shame, pain or sorrow after them. How to secure this condition of human happiness to each and all, and how to avoid the other extreme of grief and dismay should be the object of all lovers of the human race.

We are constantly to try to know more of human nature, the appetites and passions, the laws of heredity, the affections, forces, environment and influences that make human beings as they are. As we learn more of the guiding and controlling powers of life, we will be better fitted to guide, restrain and direct others. It is our duty to be ready to show by actual demonstration, by example, the nobler way and the reasons for walking therein. Many would be better men and better women, better children, if they only knew how to be. Such a showing and inducing of all to adopt the way that is free from pain, vexation and depair, is true moral culture.

It has been sometimes questioned, how one should be trained who is inclined more to vice than to virtue. For instance, a child has a tendency to take things not belonging to him — how would you break him of the evil? How indeed, but by stimulating the organs of the brain bearing upon honesty and justice; by calling the blood from one set of organs to the opposite, showing the difference between those good qualities, whose action makes happiness, and the attributes of theft, dishonesty and injustice, whose action results in shame and distress? Where one manifests a disposition to be penurious and selfish, show the attractiveness of benevolence and generosity.

io INTRODUCTORY

The circulation of the blood is swifter where a function of the brain is in action. We should aim to bring the circulation to that function of the mental system whose use is followed by health- and pleasure. A faculty not stirred or aroused to action, becomes dormant, and, after awhile, inactive. Lead one to think of what he actually is, and then, make him realize, if possible, all that he ought to be, and may become. Point him toward the unfoldment of the great possibilities and capabilities of his highest nature.

Nothing that we have seen or known, is more wonderful and beautiful than the mind of man. To aid its processes of growth and development, its highest unfoldment, is the object of this book.

Susan H. Wixon.

Contents

What is Morality? 18

What is Ignorance? 22

Knowledge the Great Treasure 26

II. What Is Morality?

The straightest way, perhaps, which may be sought, Lies through the great highway, men call — "I ought."

Anon.

Man should do all things he knows are right, And fear to do no act save what is wrong.

Phebe Carey.

Inherent in the nature of man are certain valuable qualities.

The unfoldment, growth, cultivation and adaptation of these qualities to certain ends, should always be sought. Wherefore? Because such unfoldment, growth, cultivation and adaptation applied to daily conduct, tend to the betterment of man, and, also, to the well-being of those with whom he comes in contact.

Acquaintance with, and obedience to, these moral forces of life, which may be justly called natural laws, makes happiness — gives strength, beauty and character to men, women and children. What are called morals, these are to man as roots to a tree. Give the roots room to grow, good soil to grow in, and they will afford nourishment and healthy life to the tree, that, in return, yields a wealth of bloom, which, in time, changes into sound and beautiful fruit.

Cut the roots, neglect them, allow them to become diseased, the worm to fasten upon them, and the 18

WHA T IS MORALITY ? 1 9

growth of the tree is arrested, its vitality becomes feeble, the branches decay and break, the leaves curl and fall prematurely, the blossom is weak and immature, the fruit unsightly and imperfect.

Thus are morals the rootlets, the very foundation of true manhood, of noble and excellent womanhood. jive them space to stretch, increase and expand, a gracious and healthy soil, and they cannot fail to proluce a grand and vigorous growth, with sweet, sus- :aining and attractive fruit. Omit or neglect to take especial care of those roots of life, force them to grow n impoverished ground, amid pernicious weeds that ;heck and clog their freedom, and they become winched, narrowed, twisted and sapless. The man is :hen a weakling, a starved, repulsive object, the fruitige of whose life is unwholesome, acrid and poisonous.

In living a moral life, should one be actuated by lope of reward or fear of punishment? No. Such reasons are both degrading and insulting. Animals are noral but they cannot tell why. Man should be moral because it has been proven that morality is better for lealth, happiness and comfort.

What should we regard as moral?

Anything that tends to the elevation and happiness )f humanity is moral. Any power that lifts man from he filth of degradation, and places him on the solid ground of sound sense, good understanding and wislom, is moral. Any influence that makes of a human )eing a better man, a more devoted husband, a kinder parent, a more agreeable neighbor, a truer friend, a nore genial and reliable comrade, a nobler citizen, is noral. Anything that removes ignorance and substiutes knowledge is moral.

Good health is one of the requisites of good morals. A healthy body can sustain a healthy mind better than a feeble and diseased body; therefore, we should scrupulously observe hygienic principles, be true to all laws of health, and jealously guard every avenue through which might enter disease and infirmity. We should be careful as to the food we eat, and the Tfluid we drink, that no harmful thing may enter the system, and thus work injury to the physical, mental or moral nature, each being dependent and inter-dependent upon the other.

Conduct is the true test of character, and the various combinations and qualifications that go to make up the virtuous among men, women and children, arise from what we term morals.

The distinguishing traits that dignify, ennoble and glorify humanity are morals, and every living person is entitled to instruction in morals, because such instruction operates to develop true men and true women, honest and upright citizens, and these are the need of all times and all countries.

STORY OF MICHAEL ANGELO.

It is related of this great sculptor, that once walking with some friends through an obscure street in Florence, he discovered a fine block of marble lying neglected in a yard, and half buried in dirt and rubbish. Regardless of his holiday attire, he fell to work upon it, cleared away its filth, and lifted it from the slime and mire in which it lay. His companions asked him in astonishment what he wanted with that worthless piece of rock. "Oh," said he, "there's an angel in the stone and I must get it out."

WHA T IS MORAL1 TV/ 21

He removed it to his studio and there, with patient toil, with mallet and chisel, he let the angel out.

What to others was but a rude unsightly mass of stone, to his educated eye was the buried glory of art. A mason would have put it in a stone wall; a cartman would have used it for filling in, or to grade streets ; but, Angelo transformed it into a gem of art, and gave it value for ages to come. What possibilities of virtue and usefulness may we not see in a child? Do we know how to get the angel out? Are children, men and women, to be only used for "filling in," to lie amid dirt and gravel, or to stand out in the glory and beauty of true manhood and real womanhood? To the end that human beings may become real men and real women, is the knowledge and practice of morals — that they may learn to use the measures that conduce to the highest happiness and supreme welfare of the greatest number, this is morality.

III. What Is Ignorance?

We suffer much from the faults of others, but we lose much more by our own ignorance. — Ruskin.

Ignorance is mental darkness. We live in a cycle of free libraries. We live in the age of science. The newspaper is everywhere. Then is it not almost criminal to remain stifled in ignorance? For, if we have not the advantages of free schools, we still may have the newspapers and libraries.

Who are the ignorant?

They are the blunderers.

They are the plodders, who do the bidding of others in any menial service commanded.

What is it to be ignorant? It is*to grope the way — to stumble — to see through a glass darkly — to peer this way and that, and know not the light. For example, Ignorance it was that had once a strip of rag in a cup of lard, for a lamp to read by. Knowledge, after a time, gave a tallow candle. To-day, the same science, extended, has revealed the incandescent light, flooding the spaces with brilliance and glory.

To be ignorant is to take a back seat.

It is to be pushed aside while learning and intelligence grasp the prizes of life.

We ought to be ashamed to be ignorant.

WHA 1 IS IGNORANCE? 23

We should be still more ashamed to be deficient in moral understanding of the laws of right and justice.

Gray, the poet, wrote :

"Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise. '

But ignorance is never bliss. It may stand for inaction, content, stupidity, but it is not bliss in the true meaning of the word.

No community is in a blissful state that has a majority of ignorant people. It is a concern of the genera] public, as well as the individual, that the people shall not be ignorant.

Why so?

Because it may be observed that where poverty largely exists, there is ignorance. Does not history prove that where ignorance prevails, especially ignorance of moral laws, there may be witnessed the decline of nations, principalities and powers?

Where there is licentiousness, wickedness, criminality, laxity in the enforcement of law, abuses of persons and property, or a foolish pride in the same, there is ignorance, real ignorance of the moral purpose of life.

This is not to say, however, that to be ignorant, in the general term, is synonymous with wickedness, for there are many ignorant people, who are as good, morally, as the most finely educated, in many instances far superior.

So there are educated persons, who, morally, walk in the very slums of ignorance.

Ignorance is in all directions. In lacking of skillful fingers, quickened thought to apply ways and means to make a living, in wastefulness of energies, in failure to find the channels of progress,

It is conceited and thinks it knows when it does not know. No one is rightly educated who walks in defiance of moral restraints.

Ignorance is a mischief maker, a deceiver, a contriver of continual mistakes.

When Alexander the Great was plundering the palace of Darius, one of his soldiers found a leather bag. It contained the crown jewels of Persia. The prize was worth millions, but what did the stupid fellow do? He shook out the glittering gems among the refuse and rubbish, and said he had found a fine sack to carry his dinner in!

Fear nothing so much as ignorance, for ignorance leads into dangers, mishaps and troubles of all kinds. It is the great evil of all evils.

There is a curious old Norse fable which relates that once upon a time the Evil One — that is, the great chief devil of all the lesser devils — was walking abroad, and he chanced upon a man engaged in making buttons out of molten lead. "What in the world are you doing?" he inquired.

"Making eyes," said the man, facetiously, and kept on gravely at his work.

"Making eyes! Making eyes!" reflectively mused the one who was said to possess an evil eye himself. After a pause he said — "Really, I dislike this evil eye of mine. Can you make me some new eyes?"

"Oh, yes, indeed," was the reply; "but you must first be bound hand and foot."

Accordingly, the devil consented, and when he was securely fastened, the man poured the molten lead in his evil eyes, and in a short time the devil died of

WHAT IS IGNORANCE? 25

his new eyes in great agony, and was never seen on earth again.

When the eyes of ignorance are put out, evil will disappear.

IV. Knowledge The Great Treasure

Knowledge is the most valuable treasure, for it cannot be stolen nor consumed. Hitopadesa.

The ink of Science is more precious than the blood of martyrs.

Arabic Proverb.

That which we know is all our own. The more we know — the more we absorb of useful knowledge, the richer we become.

Science which can be shown, demonstrated, realized, is the desirable thing.

Does not actual knowledge put to flight all extremes of error and misunderstanding?

Take a fact in Nature; prove it; it becomes yours, and not all the hyenas and bloodhounds of ignorance can take it from you. As some one has said before, "There are two most valuable possessions which no search warrant can get at; and which no reverse of fortune can destroy : they are what a man puts into his head — knowledge; and into his hands — skill."

Is there any limit to the acquisition of knowledge?

No. No certain person has gained the whole of knowledge, and no one knows so much that he may not acquire still more. Sir Isaac Newton said at the close of his illustrious life, that the great facts he had found by study and search, were but pebbles on 26

KNOWLEDGE THE GREAT TREASURE 27

the seashore, compared to the vast ocean of knowledge still untouched.

We are never too old to learn, and the great purpose of life should be to store the mind with all the useful knowledge possible.

Why? Because we are thus armed and equipped to battle with the forces of error and prejudice, and in any encounter to come off conqueror. "The true victories," said Napoleon Bonaparte, "the only ones which we need never lament, are those won over the dominion of ignorance. "

To knozv is to walk with kingly tread among men.

It is to be uplifted. It is to become the owner of treasures of more value than mines of gold and silver.

It is to walk in clear light.

Knowledge, real knowledge, is stimulation.

It has a million strings, by which it draws us, step by step, to fountains of living waters, the fountains that supply the thirst of all nations.

The fundamental forces of being urge on to discovery. These forces dawn with active life, and prompts the child to inquire, to question everything it sees and hears. It has a right to intelligent answers to its questions, and explanation of all it does not understand.

Nature commands that we seek to know, and knowing, to apply knowledge. Of what avail is knowledge unless applied? In a book called "Homestead Highways," the author tells of a graduate of a distinguished New England college, who could tell all about Latin and Greek roots, and, who later was graduated from a well-known theological seminary with some degree of honor, who, when his health failed, because of overstudy, went back to the old homestead among the hills and took up the plough. This man, though he knew so much of dead languages, so much of higher mathematics and of philosophy, so much of all that was choice in literature, went about his farm with his cartaxles groaning and squeaking so loudly that his neighbors might hear them a half-mile away. One day he started out with his oxen and cart for the adajcent grist-mill. He had not gone far when he met a neighbor.

"Wal, deacon, 'pears like them air wheels o' yourn air purty dry. I've hearn 'em squeakin' more this year 'en ever. Why don't yer grease 'em, deacon? Sounds kinder lon'som' like f hear 'em whinin' up an' daown hill, an' 'cross th' fields. "'

"Why, sir, it never occurred to me, but I think it might be a very excellent plan. I believe father did something of the kind when I was a boy."

So, the author says, it was with everything about the deacon's farm. The things wore out, went to ruin quickly because the deacon had no knowledge of the ordinary workings of every day life. He could not decipher Nature's cost-mark.

To store the mind with dates and figures is not so important as to know how to interpret the devices of Nature, to apply that which we do know to the life we live. That which is termed invention or discovery, is only applied knowledge. We may fill our minds with huge collections of thoughts of others; but they serve little purpose unless we deduce from them new and original thoughts of our own.

The accumulation of much knowledge avails noth ing unless for helpfulness toward others as well as to ourselves.

KNOWLEDGE THE GREAT TREASURE 29

Knowledge is needed in the emergencies of life, and in the pursuit of happiness. It is craved as an incentive to gain more knowledge, and to induce others to apply for more.

For what purpose?

Surely to make living easier, pleasanter, better. To make all who come within the circle of our influence, as well as ourselves, wiser, nobler, happier, better able to cope with the emissaries of crime and the temptations that arise on every hand.

Is this not an inspiration in the search after knowl edge? Does it not point to finer growth, greater activity?

How shall I teach others, you ask?

Tell in the simplest way, and by direct and appropriate illustration, the truths you have learned.

Teach that you know. That you do not know you have no right to assume to know.

No humble aid should be overlooked in seeking knowledge.

Nothing should be thought beneath our notice, even though coming outside our particular range. Unforeseen difficulties are constantly arising whereby that which we know, however simple it may be, will come in play.

It is related of Joseph Hume that after he was appointed ship's surgeon he made several professional voyages from England to India. His spare time he devoted to the study of navigation, although never expecting to be a navigator. Many years after in 1825, on his passage from London to Leith in a sailing smack, when the vessel had scarcely cleared the mouth of the Thames, a sudden storm came on. The vessel was driven out of her course, and in the darkness of night struck on the Goodwin sands. The captain lost his presence of mind, and seemed incapable of giving coherent orders. The vessel would quickly have become a total wreck had not one of the passengers suddenly taken command and directed the working of the craft. This passenger took the helm until the danger was over. The vessel, her cargo and passengers, all were saved and the man who sailed the smack out of danger was Joseph Hume.

Thus knowledge acquired in a leisure hour saved life and property in the midst of a storm and gale.

Let no moment flit by unimproved. • A mind directed toward the inn of knowledge will not be apt to stray into forbidden paths of crime and shame, or find itself at last in the hovel of dismay and despair.

V. Concerning Education

Education should bring to mind the ideal of the individual.

Richter.

Education is the enlargement of perception. It is extension of thought. It is unfoldment. It is growth. It is the flowering of mind and morals. It is the means whereby character is made. It is the charm that gives gracefulness to strength of mind, extension to the range of vision, power and glory to the whole being of man.

Any other object than the uplifting of the human being is unworthy to be called education.

Is instruction alone education, do you think? Is to be able to enumerate the names of towns and cities by the thousand, to detail events from six thousand years down, education?

That is only an exercise of memory.

Education is more than an effort of memorizing.

It is the opening of latent talent, the loosing of the soil of the mind, that new roots may stir to action. It is the fact of independent acting; the awakening of dormant powers, the starting of thought, the flashing of observation, the kindling of reflection.

It is facts put to use.

It is application, enfolding the physical and mental, the moral and intellectual. 31

Mental development in a weak and feeble body, is like life in an imperfect and dilapidated mansion, where the roof is leaky, the windows rattling, the doors unhinged and the chimney defective. Yet, a physical development, defying disease, a muscular frame like a prize-fighter is of no great value if the mind is a barren field, a wild pasture, the moral attributes swinging and swaying in the wilderness of ignorance, untaught and uncontrolled.

Education combines the vigor of both mind and body. It holds all parts of the human system complete and able to compete with the world.

A mind enlarged by practical comprehension of all that is adapted to common every day living, sustained by principle, nourished by the virtues, is a jewel. When set in a firm, healthy brain, supported by healthful blood in a healthy body, it is, indeed, the one great prize of time and the world we live in.

Education is a flood of rich music, enriching and enrapturing all who come within the spheres of its harmonies.

Education is the changing of the ideal into the real. It is gained always by personal effort.

It is true enough that some seem not to have the energy to make the effort of acquiring education. Such must make special endeavor.

A step at a time.

The mastering of the alphabet is the key to all there is to know from books, and books are but the tools we work with, to gain much that is unwritten and unsaid.

A wealthy woman once placed her daughter in a fashionable seminary to be educated. The teacher

CONCERNING ED UCA TION 33

told the mother subsequently that it seemed impossible to fix the attention of the daughter. "She seems to lack capacity," said the teacher. "Capacity! Capacity!" indignantly exclaimed the irate parent. "Why did you not inform me before. I would have you know my, daughter's father is able to buy her a capacity if she needs one!"

But capacity is something that money cannot purchase. It may procure diplomas, but cannot buy that which makes diplomas.

An education cannot be purchased or given.

It has to be earned in all cases, by the one who aspires to it.

There are some, who having gained a smattering of many sciences, therefore think they know all there is worth knowing. Such continually fall into mistakes.

The builders tell a rather interesting story of a Buffalo capitalist who was pretty summarily taken down for trying to set himself up as the end of all things in whatever he undertook. No matter what was on foot, if he went into it he must have all the say and nobody else was allowed even a side remark. Not long ago he built a fine brick house. In this undertaking, as in all others, he was boss and all hands, dictating to builders, architects, and all without the slightest hesitation. At last they grew very tired of the browbeating they had to stand and let him have his way whether it was right or wrong; The house was finished and shortly afterward the owner set about building furnace fires to test his heating apparatus, when behold, there wasn't a chimney in the house!

Thus, not to be educated in the real sense is at some period in life, sometimes, at frequent intervals, to be humiliated.

There is no greater harm to any country than that its government should neglect to impartially educate its children.

That government is always best that affords the best means of education, an education that is rational, substantial and equal to all.

Why should you care for an education? For what reason? Because education makes happiness.

It makes men and women of value to the world and to one another.