Elements of science, moral and religious. A text book for schools and general use

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Preface

This book is designed to meet a want that has always existed, and is now realized, namely: such treatment and presentation of Moral Philosophy as fits it for public school instruction in morals and religion without sectarian bias.

Recent and earnest discussion in the leading quarterlies and other periodicals is a sure index of the importance of the subject, and of public interest in it.

There is but one way to effect this: It is to point out the true idea in morals and in religion, and their relation to each other. In other words, to present the true underlying principles.

In treatises on moral philosophy there is diversity as to the basis of morals. Pleasure, happiness, utility, the fitness of things, law, divine and human, are severally set up. These, indeed, are more or less auxiliary in the formation of moral character, but the underlying principle in morals is to be found in the disposition to do right; in the love of the right; in the good will, the will obedient to the right, and existing in the moral nature that demands the exercise of the good will, demands duty.

This accords with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, and also with higher authority — that of Jesus - who always refers us to the thoughts and intents of the heart as the source from which are the issues of life.

Without this good-will, there can be no true moral act. With it there must also be intelligence to direct the activities of the good will.

This moral intelligence we have from two sources:

(i) The self-evident; as, for instance, it is immediately evident to any man of good common sense that it would be right to obey God/

(2) From the true idea in any thought, sentiment, law, institution or moral object.

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Man's highest end or chief good is, then, in a true moral nature, having moral truth in its activities.

This principle, then — the true moral nature — acting from self-evident and ideal truth, must run through the warp and woof of all reasoning in constructive moral science.

The idea, the type — universal law — is the philosopher's stone that discloses all truth. When he discovers it he sees its beauty; his soul is enlarged, and is transplanted from a condition of bondage into a realm of liberty. He sees a solvent for all the vexed questions of life, in its religious, moral, educational, social, civil and political aspects, and he rejoices in it.

The Introduction finds distinctive ground in morality and religion, yet an inseparable and intertwining growth of both in the soul, draws a clear line of distinction between natural and revealed religion, vet so that natural religion, together with moral considerations, naturally tend towards and lead up to spiritual tabernacles and to the entrance to Divine revelations.

This affinity in morals and religion marks the place of religion in public school instruction; and this distinction between the natural and the revealed shows a line of demarcation between the work of religious instruction in the schoolroom and in the church.

The intention is to exhibit moral science on a religious-moral ground — not specifically Christian. The phrase "Christian ethics" is sometimes used in a too exclusive sense, as though there were no other ethics of any value; but the teaching of Jesus and the apostles by no means ignores moral truth from other sources. The splendid contributions of ancient philosophy, of the Gentile world, as well as Old Testament law, are all referred to as a part of a grand system of ethics to which Christianity is complementary and is essentially necessary to fulfil the moral law. This recognition of Gentile philosophy was not necessary on the ground that a complete science of morality is not deducible from the Old and New Testaments, but is necessary, and is not to be lost sight of, on the ground that man, however demoralized, is in the image of God, and naturally there flames out from the divinity in him fitful fires of moral truth.

But it is this acknowledgment by Jesus of what is universal in man that proves the roundness and completeness of his own

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character. It is Avith this knowledge of what is in man, and this perfect idea of the moral law, that our Lord says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

Jesus then goes on to define the moral law more particularly, and to exhibit its true idea, according to which causeless anger is at the root of murder, and adultery is in the heart; the law of divorce is restricted and the "Love thy neighbor, hate thine enemy" is transformed into "Love thine enemies."

The true idea of charity, or alms -giving in a private way, he distinguishes from the pharisaical and false one of "sounding a trumpet."

In religion, also, he distinguishes the true spirit of prayer from its vain form; and at the same time gives a form of prayer which all men admire as natural and true, and hence it is of universal acceptance.

Paul, too, in the epistle to the Romans, declares that "what men may know of God is manifest in themselves; that the Gentiles, which have not the law, at times do by nature the things contained in the law, and show the work of the law written in their hearts."

This, then, is the attitude of Christian teaching towards morality and religion. It supplies what is lacking in prior views and doctrines; it annuls nothing that is in agreement with the constitution of God or the true nature of man.

This is recognized even by J. S. Mill, who at times indulges in caricature and misrepresentation; but in a mood of right reason he writes thus:

"I believe that the sayings of Christ are all that I can see any evidence of their having been intended to be; that they are irreconcilable with nothing which a comprehensive morality requires; that everything which is excellent in ethics may be brought within them."

American institutions should foster individual independence and self-reliance, for these qualities are necessary in the true idea ot a citizen of a republic. A man that has no independence of thought and action is poorly equipped for doing his duty to the State: so the young in our land need first to be taught as to the points of agreement in human nature — the necessary and uni-

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versal principles that pertain to it; when indoctrinated in what pertains to common interests, a sure foundation has been laid for well balanced thought and feeling.

But the tendency of all sectarian schooling is to bias the child by the presentation of narrow views of duty to God and man. 'Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined, 1 ' and this childhood bias dwarfs the man. The soul of man naturally inclines to feelings of sympathy. In view of this ideal, the frequent inquiry is: how shall the brotherhood of man be cultivated and promoted; how shall we be able to conform to the Scripture injunction "to look not each one upon his own, but each also upon the things of his neighbor?" Evidently this culture comes neither through secularity nor sectarianism, for secularity fixes the thought and interest upon mere affairs of the world, and sectarian culture in sectarian schools tends directly to erect barriers, to build up division walls, and to separate brethren instead of promoting brotherly love and the sentiment of a common origin and a common destiny for man.

The Synopsis is made somewhat full to give teacher and scholar the clue to the method of bringing out the text in recitation; yet not so full but that observation and remark will be suggested and elicited. They are in aid of obtaining and of retaining distinct views.

The Explanatory Notes are to obviate any difficulty the student might encounter in clearly apprehending ideas and forms of expression peculiar to Moral Science, and necessary to a concise and distinct presentation of it. The notes will also suggest to teacher and scholar other related ideas, and thus enliven the recitation and add interest to the study.

Part First

DI VISION 1. INTR OD UC TOR T PRINCIPLES.

SECTION. PAGE.

i. Ground Principle, ....... n

2. Cicero in De Officiis 12

3. Anciem Philosophy: Plato ..... 14

4. The Leadings of Nature: Allegory of the Vine . 16

5. The Labyrinth of Thought .... 20

6. Kant: His Ethic Ground-Principle . . . . 22

7. "The Good:" The Good- Will, the Summum-honum 25

8. Morality and Religion: How related ... 29

9. The Supernatural: In Religion, in Nature . . 32

10. The Supreme Cause 3$

11. The Sum of the Argument 3S

DIVISION II. PRINCIPLES: PSYCHIC AND MORAL.

12. The Nature of Man 39

13. Moral Philosophy: Its Laws .... 42

14. Moral Science 43

16. Written Moral Laws 46

17. Religion: Natural Religion 49

18. Focal Points in the Argument .... 52

19. The Conscience ....... $3

20. The Office and the Power of the Conscience 54

21. The Authority of the Conscience ... 56

22. Note on the Conscience 58

23. The Function of the Will . . . . . 69

24. Appetites; Desires; Affections .... 73

25. Love: Love of God; of Country; of Gold . . 74

26. Self-Love 78

CONTENTS.

27. Love to the Neighbor . .

28. The Ground of Dlty.

29. The Ground of Right .

30. The Secondary Ground of Right .

31. Principle; Practice

32. Pivot Thoughts in the Principles >3-

Part Second

DIVISION I. ETHICS.

34. Ethics: The Practical; Its Source in Principles .

35. Stringent Laws

36. The Beatitudes

3S. The Sentiments

DIVISION II. DUTT; DUTIES.

39. Duty the Element in all Moral Relation

40. Duties to God ; Obedience ; Prayer ; Praise

Love ; Faith ; Hope ; Duties to Man .

42. Parental Duties ... . . . .

43. Social Duties .

44. The Ethics of Amusements .....

DIVISION III. POLITIC A L E THICS.

45. General View: Special Applications

46. The Substance of Liberty .

47. Religious Liberty

48. Personal Liberty

49. Rights: General View

50. Property Rights: General View .

51. The Origin of Rtght to Property

52. Land Title in the United States .

53. Blackstone on the Right to Property

54. Civil Liberty; Civil Rights

55. Civil Duties

56. Obedience to Law

33 86

87 88 90

Ml

128 135

HI

CONTENTS.

57. The Duty of Interest in Civil Affairs

58. Suffrage: A Conditioned Right; The Ethics of it

59. Liberty of Speech .......

60. Leo XIII on "Liberty of Speech — of Press"

61. Veracity: The Oath; Honesty; Deceit Casuistry

DI VISION I V. IX S TITUTIONS.

63. Institutions as to Origin and Character .

64. The Idea in the Institution ....

65. Institutions as Natural. Logical, Artificial

66. The Sabbath

67. Origin of Sabbath

68. Time of Rest .......

69. True Observance .......

70. The True Sabbath

71. Summary as to the Sabbath-day Institution

72. Legislation Sabbatical .....

73. Thoughts on the Sabbath by Bishop Whately

74. Marriage: Authority; Law .....

75. Requirements for the Marriage Relation .

76. Prerequisite Qualifications ....

77. Divorce

78. The Theocracy

79.. The State: Origin; Idea; Object ...

80. The Church: Union of Church and State .

Si. Disadvantages of a Church and State Union

82. Public Education

83. Family; State — Which?

84. Capital; Labor: The Idea

85. Union of Capital; Union of Labor.

86. The Union as a Regulator of Wages

87. Capital Combination as Abnormal

88. The Labor Union as Abnormal .

89. The Sum and the Moral: Suggestions 1 and 2 .

90. Public Education

Explanatory Notes .

Index

184 188 190 199

203 205 210 213

254 256

277 3°3