,,four ,,phases ,,of ,,morals ,,socrates1 ,,aristotle1 ,,christianity1 ,,utilitarianism4 ,,by ,,john ,,stuart ,,blackie1 ,f4,r4,s4,e4 ,,professor ,,of ,,greek ,,in ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,edinburgh ,,second ,,edition4 ,,edinburgh ,,edmonston ,,and ,,douglas #ahgd4 ,,to ,,sir ,,henry ,,holland1 ,,bart41 ,m4,d41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,,president ,,of ,,the ,,royal ,,institution ,,op ,,great ,,britain1 ,,etc4 ,,etc4 ,,dear ,,sir1--,as the substance of this book was originally delivered in the form of ,lectures before the ,royal ,institution1 ,london1 ,i was naturally led1 in giving my notes a more exact expression and a larger illustration1 to do so in connexion with your name--a name which1 besides its official significance in all that concerns the ,albemarle ,street ,institution1 was recommended to me by that remarkable combination of rare experience of life1 enlightened scholarship1 and various knowledge of men and places1 which1 more than the greatest metaphysical acuteness1 or the most extensive academical learning1 enables a man to be a sound judge of those important practical questions with which the science of ,ethics is occupied4 ,as by the arrangements of the season--#ahfi--of which my course formed a part1 the number of ,lectures was limited to four1 and as ,i determined to treat the subject in the concrete historically1 rather than in the form of abstract discussion1 it necessarily happened that the four phases of morals to which ,i specially directed attention1 viewed in reference to the whole system of ethical doctrine1 presented an incomplete and fragmentary aspect4 ,i endeavoured however1 under these limitations1 to bring forward those historical manifestations of moral truth which both afforded a ready occasion for discussing some of the most fundamental questions of ,ethics1 and1 from historical and local considerations1 were most fitted to be presented to a ,british audience at the present day4 ,at the same time1 there runs through the four discourses a unity of thought and tendency beyond what the title indicates1 and which those who are competent to judge will easily recognise4 ,hoping that you will find nothing in this book but what has been 8attained with honesty1 and maintained with moderation0--the test of excellence in such matters which yourself have wisely indicated1--and that you may be able to accord to these ,discourses in their written form some portion of that approbation which your presence conferred on their oral delivery1 ,i am1 ,,dear ,,sir1 ,yours1 with sincere esteem1 ,,john ,,stuart ,,blackie4 ,,university1 ,,edinburgh1 ,october #ahga4 ,,contents4 ,,socrates ,,aristotle ,,christianity ,,utilitarianism ,,socrates4 #a ,,as there is no country which can boast the honour of possessing more names of a world-wide significance than ,greece1 so among those who hold this lofty position there is no name superior to ,socrates1 concerning whom the ,delphic oracle in ancient times1 and a great utilitarian authority in modern times1 agree in testifying that he was the wisest of the wise ,greeks4#a4a ,and though stout old ,cato1 in ancient times1 as ,plutarch informs us1 gruffly enough expressed his opinion that the son of ,sophroniscus was a pernicious old babbler1 whose breath was justly stopped by the cup of hemlock which he drank for his last supper--in harmony with whom the benign old dogmatist whom the modern utilitarians revere as their patriarch declares that ,socrates and ,plato wasted their lives in talking nonsense under the pretence of teaching philosophy1#a4b--yet these negative utterances1 few and far between1 against the fair fame of the father of moral science1 have died away almost as quickly as uttered1 and are now no more heard in the grand organ-swell of the general admiration of more than two thousand years4 #b ,unquestionably if there be any name1 after the great ,founder of the ,christian faith1 which is entitled to claim the title of a preacher of righteousness for all times and all places1 it is the name of ,socrates2 and it is with the view of bringing his high merits in tins respect before the general public1 in as easy a way as is consistent with scholarly accuracy1 that ,i have undertaken to write the present paper4 ,the subject is one peculiarly attractive to a thinking man1 not only on its own merits1 but because of the ample and thoroughly trustworthy materials which we possess for forming a correct judgment4 ,we are not here1 as in the case of ,pythagoras1 sent to fish for fragments of truth among fanciful writers who lived several hundred years after the death of the object of their transcendental laudations2 but1 as in the gospel history1 we have to deal with the intimate disciples and daily companions of the great hero of the story4 ,we gather our knowledge of the life and philosophy of ,socrates from ,xenophon and ,plato1 both of whom have reported their intercourse with the philosopher in a tone of mingled admiration and sobriety which leaves no ground for suspicion4 ,only with regard to ,plato we must take with us this caution1 that he was both a poet by temperament and by mental habit a system-builder2 and1 as he chose to set forth his own speculations in a series of dramatic dialogues wherein ,socrates is the chief speaker1 we must beware of accepting1 as standing on one common basis1 the facts with regard to the life of ,socrates brought forward in these compositions and the doctrines which are put into his mouth4 ,with regard to the former1 we may accept ,plato's evidence as a contemporary authority with the #c utmost confidence2 with regard to the latter1 we must be constantly on our guard2 and indeed1 according to my view1 it is wise never to accept any statement of ,socrates's doctrine from ,plato1 of which the germ at least does not lie plainly in ,xenophon4 ,for ,xenophon1 just because he was a less original man than ,plato1 a pleasing and graceful writer1 somewhat on the level of our ,addison1 was for that reason free from the temptation1 or rather had not the capacity1 to interpolate anything into his account of the philosopher which was not consistent with the actual fact4 ,he was a plain man1 with no theories to support1 and no pretensions to maintain2 and as a faithful contemporary recorder of what he heard and saw1 a more capable and trustworthy witness could not be desired4 ,we shall therefore draw our sketch of the life and sayings of the great ,athenian preacher mainly from his pleasant little book1 introducing the idealist of the ,academy only where he cannot be suspected of using his revered master as a mere dramatic engine1 or where his superior literary powers have enabled him to paint a more effective picture4 ,the age of ,socrates was the age of ,pericles1 the culminating epoch of ,athenian glory2 he was contemporary with ,euripides1 ,sophocles1 ,herodotus1 ,thucydides1 ,hippocrates1 ,democritus1 ,anaxagoras1 ,aristophanes1 ,phidias2 but1 while he shared all the elevating influences of this ascendant age1 growing with its growth and blossoming with its blossom1 he was not spared the sorrow of quitting the scene beneath the first dark shadows of its decay4 ,that military ambition which is as much the besetting sin of democracy as of autocracy1 had precipitated the ,athenians1 during the latter part of the fifth century #d before ,christ1 into a distant expedition which crippled their energies and exhausted their resources2 all this1 and certain violent revolutionary changes which arose out of it1 ,socrates had to live through1 till at last1 a few years before his death1 he saw the pride of ,periclean ,athens laid prostrate at the feet of ,lysander and the rude oligarchy of ,lacedmon4 ,he was born in the year #dfi ,b4,c41 eleven years after the naval battle of ,salamis which freed ,europe for ever from the apprehension of ,asiatic servitude1 exactly at the time when the brilliant but sober policy of ,pericles commenced its long period of happy sway over the fortunes of the ,athenian state4 ,at this time ,simonides and the other great poets who had seen and sung the glorious victories of ,marathon and ,salamis were swiftly departing from the scene2 but the memory of those patriotic achievements still burned vigorously in every ,athenian breast1 and conspired1 with the birth of new and ambitious intellectual aspirations1 to surround the youth of the philosopher with an atmosphere the most favourable to social and intellectual progress4 ,the importance which the achievements of the democracy at ,marathon and ,salamis gave to the middle and lower classes of society at ,athens1 broke down the barriers which ancient aristocratic exclusiveness might have raised against the pretensions of mere character without position2 so that ,socrates1 though the son of a stone-cutter1 and not1 like ,plato1 drawing his blood from the old ,attic aristocracy1 seems to have found free entrance into the society of the most distinguished public and literary men of his age4 ,his mother1 as he himself took care to inform the world1 was a 8right worthy and worshipful #e 10 or lady-obstetrician2 a 8wise woman10 as the ,french say1 in matters where it seems most natural that women should be specially wise2 her name was ,phnarete2 but in social position1 according to our aristocratic way of talking1 she was nobody4 ,what ,socrates's own profession was1 or how he supported himself1 a very important point in the history of all public men1 we unfortunately do not know exactly2 that he practised stone-cutting in his early years is not improbable2 and this may have given rise to the belief mentioned by ,pausanias1 that a group of the ,graces at the entrance of the ,propyla was his work2 but there is not the slightest indication either in ,xenophon or ,plato that he continued to practise this art1 or any other art1 in after life4 ,he had therefore no profession2 and1 as he made no money by his philosophy1 we must believe that he had been left some small competence by his father1 or some relation1 on which he was content to live4 ,that he was extremely poor we know1 both from ,xenophon and from his own account of himself before the jury at his trial4 ,we know also that his habits of life were remarkably plain and frugal1 that he required little money1 and coveted none4 ,that he was in a position to have made money if he had chosen there can be no doubt2 but he expressly states that he had relinquished all projects for increasing his income1 in order that he might devote himself without distraction to the great work of his life4 ,however1 with his philosophical notions about mere external grandeur1 he seems to have been rich enough to live comfortably with a wife and family4 ,this wife was the noted ,xanthippe1 not always the most pleasant companion1 and1 perhaps not altogether #f without reason1 from her point of view1 at variance with a husband who showed such utter indifference to worldly aggrandizement and domestic display2 but for this touch of sharpness in the temper only1 as he argued1 the better fitted to be the wife of a philosopher1 or to make a philosopher of her husband2 for1 as men who wish to learn to ride do not choose the meekest and most docile beast that they can find1 but the most spirited1 so the husband who wishes to rule a wife well should have such an one as it is not easy but difficult to control4 ,this character of the philosopher's wife rests on the authority of ,xenophon2 ,plato nowhere alludes to it2 and whatever her temper might have been1 ,socrates certainly did not consider it so bad as to justify his sons in withholding from her the usual love and reverence due from children to their parents2 for 8you may be sure10 he said1 8if she is a little cross sometimes1 it is for your good2 and there is a reason in her objurgations which a wise son ought to acknowledge40 ,having no special occupation or profession in life1 ,socrates might perhaps have passed in ,athens for an idle man1 a lounger about the streets1 and public talker1 had there not sprung up about this time a class of men professing to be teachers of eloquence and of all wisdom1 with whom he was brought into connexion4 ,these were the ,sophists1 a name which means nothing more than professors or teachers of wisdom4 ,like these men1 ,socrates was always seen in the streets and public places of ,athens1 conversing with the clever young men1 and publicly debating all points of speculative and practical interest4 ,he was therefore in outward appearance and to the #g general eye a mere ,sophist among ,sophists4 ,for it is not everybody who cares to know that two men who fight with the same weapons and in the same style of fence may be fighting for very different causes1 on opposite sides1 and with altogether contrary results4 ,but the truth behind the appearance was1 that while the majority of these ,sophists taught eloquence as a trade1 and logical training as an affair of intellectual exhibition1 ,socrates preached virtue as a mission1 and the exercise of right reason as the only means of obtaining virtue4 ,we say mission here not as a fashionable phrase of the day1 but with a special emphasis2 for it is quite certain1 both from the speech of the philosopher at his trial1 and from not a few passages in ,xenophon1 that he devoted his life to self-improvement in the first place1 and to the improvement of his fellow-citizens in the second place1 with the conscientious devotedness of a man who was strongly impressed with the conviction1 that this employment was assigned to him direct from ,god1 whose high injunction he was not at liberty to neglect4 ,his language with regard to this is in a precisely similar tone to that of ,st4 ,paul when he writes1 8,woe is me if ,i preach not the gospel40 ,the human source through which he got this mission some writers have been curious to trace1 alleging that his master was ,anaxagoras1 and other things to that effect2 but there is no hint of this either in ,xenophon or ,plato2 and in fact it is foolish to go in search of a master for a man so thoroughly original1 so distinct and decided a protester against all who had gone before him4 ,we may be assured1 at least1 that in the moral philosophy which was the burden of all his teaching1 he had no master but #h himself 7as indeed ,xenophon makes him say in express words7 and the ,god to whom he habitually referred his highest inspirations2 while in regard to other matters he had enjoyed the common training of all ,athenians in music1 poetry1 gymnastics1 and a little mathematics to boot--a science which1 since the days of ,thales 7#fjj ,b4,c47 and ,pythagoras 7#eej ,b4,c471 had occupied a conspicuous place in the higher culture of the ,athenians4 ,of the exact date when he assumed a prominent position as a public teacher of wisdom and virtue we have no exact account2 it is natural however to suppose1 from the sobriety and solidity of his character1 and from the long-continued quiet search after truth which occupied him in his early years1 that he did not suddenly emerge into notoriety1 but grew up step by step into that general acknowledgment of superior wisdom1 on which1 according to a well-accredited account1 the ,delphic oracle was not afraid to put its seal4 ,certain it is that in the year #dbc ,b4,c41 when he was about forty-seven years of age1 he was such a notable character in ,athens as to have been brought upon the stage by the broad license of ,attic comedy as the representative of the whole class of ,sophists1 with whom1 by the superficial eye1 he was naturally confounded4 ,we must suppose therefore that his reputation as a great public talker and debater had been gradually growing1 up to that period4 ,and no doubt1 even if he had been a man of less original talent1 there was something about his personal appearance and character that could not fail to make him the mark of general observation among the busy-idle community of ,athens4 ,he was no less odd in his features and in his manner than in his doctrines2 an or #i eccentric person ,in the general opinion1 whom no man knew exactly what to make of4 ,his features1 the very reverse of classical1 are familiar to all the frequenters of our public museums2 and are1 besides1 minutely described by both his illustrious disciples4 ,his general appearance was that of a ,silenus or ,satyr1 with a flat1 somewhat turned-up1 nose1 full prominent eyes1 big lips1 and in later life1 as appears from the monuments1 a bald head2 but these defects were of no avail1 even with the beauty-loving ,athenians1 to diminish the charm of his conversation and the power of his address4 ,for1 as ,alcibiades says in the ,platonic dialogue1 where he is one of the chief speakers1 he was a ,satyr only externally1 but internally full of wonderful shapes and sights of gods1 like certain hollow figures full of pipes and tubes1 seen in the statuaries' shops1 which outwardly were shaped like ,sileni1 but within contained a machinery of beautiful sacred images4 ,so1 as is wont to happen to wise men1 his loss became his gain1 and his uncomely physiognomy1 to all that entered into conversation with him1 was the cause of an agreeable surprise4 ,very different in this from a great modern poet1 who was sensitive about his club-foot1 the ,athenian philosopher made a jest of his unclassical nose1 saying that if noses were to be valued as they ought to be1 by their fitness for performing the proper functions of a nose1 his olfactory organ was better than those noses whose shape was vulgarly accounted more classical2 for the upward cast of his open nostrils made them more ready to receive smells from all quarters1 while the comparative flatness of his nasal protuberance removed it from the possibility of interfering with the free #aj vision of his eyes2 and as to the prominency of these his organs of vision1 this was a manifest excellence even more than the conformation of his nose1 inasmuch as it enabled him to look1 not only straight before him in the way that most eyes do1 bat sideways also1 and almost all round1 so that he could see when no one suspected him of looking at them4 ,but it was not only his general oddity1 his pleasant humour1 and his wisdom seasoned with salt that made him a noticeable man amid the brilliant society of ,athens3 he was moreover a thoroughly healthy man1 of great powers of endurance1 a valiant soldier when his country required his services1 and a good bottle-companion when piety towards ,dionysus1 or any occasion of social festivity1 according to ,attic usage1 demanded that men should drink largely4 ,on these points we have a graphic picture put by ,plato into the mouth of ,alcibiades1 which1 to complete our personal portrait here1 it will not be amiss to translate4 8,when we were together in the campaign at ,potida1 and ,i messed with him every day1 ,i found that in the power of enduring toil he surpassed not only me but all the soldiers in the camp4 ,for when1 as sometimes will happen on the march1 we might be at a loss for a dinner1 ,socrates could always fast with the least complaint2 while1 on the other hand1 at our banquetings and junketings he always enjoyed everything in the most hearty way2 and when he was forced to drink1 even though not willingly1 he could drain cup for cup with the stoutest bottle-companion in the camp2 and1 what is strangest of all1 even after our stiffest bouts no one ever saw ,socrates drunk4 ,and as to cold and frost1 ,i remember #aa well1 one night in one of those severe ,macedonian winters1 when there was a very biting frost1 and every man either stayed within or went out well encased in warm sheepskin jackets and felt shoes1 ,socrates alone went about in the open air with no other covering than his common mantle1 and trod the frosted ground with his bare feet more lightly than others did with their warm shoes4 ,but ,i must tell you something more notable of his doings at ,potida4 ,one morning he went out early to indulge some contemplations2 but not succeeding1 as it would appear1 in his object1 whatever that might be1 he remained standing and looking right out before him till it was near mid-day2 and then the soldiers began to notice him1 and said one to another that ,socrates had been standing there in a brown study from sunrise4 ,thereafter some of the ,ionians about the evening1 after supper1 took their quilts and carpets out1 for it was then mild summer weather1 and1 shaking them on the ground1 slept in the open air1 keeping an eye at the same time on ,socrates to see whether he would remain all night standing in that reverie2 and when they awoke in the morning with the sun1 lo6 ,socrates was standing in the same spot2 and1 after saying a prayer to the sun1 shortly retired4 ,so much for his contemplative oddities2 but it is only fair that ,i should tell you how he was as good a soldier as a sophist1 and could achieve no less notable things with his hand than with his head4 ,for when the battle took place1 for my conduct in which the generals gave me such honourable marks of distinction1 ,i1 who knew the real state of the case1 insisted that if any man had distinguished himself in the fight it was ,socrates1 to whom on that occasion #ab ,i should willingly resign the intended laurels4 ,but though this was quite true1 the judges were inclined to favour me2 and ,socrates came forward and asserted with the greatest emphasis that my claims were superior to his2 and so ,i carried off the reward of valour which none but he could with perfect justice claim4 ,then again when we retreated from ,delium1 after the defeat ,i was riding off on horseback1 while ,socrates and ,laches followed1 as hoplites1 on foot1 and coming up to them ,i cried1 ,fear not1 good friends1 ,i will keep alongside of you and defend you from the pursuit4 ,on that occasion ,i admired even more than at ,potida the conduct of this man2 for while both were in danger of being overtaken it was manifest that ,socrates during the whole retreat displayed far more coolness than ,laches1 who was by profession a soldier4 444 ,instead of hurry and trepidation we saw in him only the large full eye that with wise wariness turned to this side and to that in a fashion that seemed to say to all comers that they would find a steady nerve if they came within sword's length of him4 ,and thus he got out of the rush safely2 for so ,i have always observed that in a retreat the men who are most afraid always fare the worst4 ,and many other things there are ,i might relate1 which would show clearly what a strange and truly admirable creature this ,socrates is4 ,individual persons1 behaving in individual cases as excellently as ,socrates1 it might be easy to point out2 but such a compound1 a thing in the shape of a man so utterly unlike any other man1 you will find nowhere1 either among famous ancients op illustrious moderns4 ,one might make an adequate portraiture of ,achilles1 or ,brasidas1 of ,pericles1 or #ac ,nestor1 or ,antenor1 and other famous characters2 but such a unique mortal as this son of ,sophroniscus no man can describe1 unless1 indeed1 he chooses to steal my simile1 and say that he is a ,silenus superficially1 both in his appearance and in his talk1 but to those who look deeper his soul is a shrine of most excellent1 beautiful1 and worshipful divinities40 ,this passage will make it plain that ,socrates was no mere idle speculator or subtle talker1 such as might be found in ancient ,athens or in any modern ,german university by scores--but a practical man1 and an effective citizen of prominent merit4 ,but if he showed courage in the field of battle not inferior to the stoutest and coolest professional soldier1 he displayed a civic virtue on other occasions1 which only the fewest on all occasions have been able to exhibit4 ,this virtue was moral courage2 a quality which1 when exercised in critical circumstances1 raises a man high above the average of his kind1 whereas with mere physical courage he is only a more cool and calculating rival of dogs and cocks and tigers1 and other ferine combatants4 ,on that memorable occasion1 when the whole of ,athens was fretted into a fever-fit of indignation on account of the neglect of the dead and dying slain by the victors at ,arginus 7,b4,c4 #djf71 and in the torrent of what appeared to them most righteous wrath1 were eager to overbear all the customary forms of fair judicial trial1 ,socrates happened to be serving as one of the senators whose duty it was to put the question to the assembly of the people in the case of great public trials2 and1 a motion having been made that the generals who were guilty of the alleged neglect of pious duty should be condemned to drink the hemlock1 and have their property #ad confiscated1 it fell to the senators to perform the preparatory step in the prosecution4 ,but as the proceedings in the case had been dictated by violent excitement1 and were decidedly illegal1 ,socrates refused1 in the face of violent popular clamour1 to have anything to do with the matter1 and lifted up his single protest--one amongst fifty--against violating the sacred forms of law at the dictation of an excited populace4 ,on this1 as on other similar occasions when he came into collision with the public authorities1 he maintained a truly apostolic bearing1 using in almost identical terms the language of the apostles ,peter and ,john1 when they were forbidden to preach by the ,sanhedrim3 8,whether it be right in the sight of the gods to hearken unto you rather than to the gods1 judge ye2 but as for me1 ,i have sworn to obey the laws1 and ,i cannot forswear myself40 ,with all this faithfulness1 however1 in the public service1 ,socrates was very far from wishing to be what we call a public man2 on the contrary1 he kept himself systematically out of places which were eagerly coveted by less able men1 and refused to have anything to do with the party politics of the day4 ,this withdrawal from the service of the ,state1 to the majority of ,greeks1 with whom the ,state was everything1 could not but appear strange1 and tend to increase their prejudice against philosophy and philosophers4 ,but ,socrates acted here1 as in all other matters1 with admirable good sense2 he felt that to be a politician and a preacher of righteousness was to combine two vocations practically incompatible2 for the popular measure which it might serve the immediate need of the political man to advocate it might not seldom be the first duty of #ae the moralist to condemn4 ,besides1 if he took office with men who habitually acted on principles of which he could not but disapprove1 he would be forced to waste his strength in a fruitless opposition to measures which he could not prevent2 and in this way it came to pass that1 while he utterly disapproved1 in the general case1 of a good citizen1 whether from the love of selfish ease1 or from false modesty1 or from moral cowardice1 refusing to take part in public life1 in his own particular work he felt that political activity would be a hindrance1 and that it was his duty to abstain4 ,in these few paragraphs are summed up all that from indisputable authority we know of the personal history of the greatest of heathen preachers4 ,the circumstances connected with his death are too closely interwoven with the character of his teaching to be intelligible here4 ,we shall therefore enter now directly into a short exposition of his ethical teaching2 after which we shall be in a condition to consider with an intelligent astonishment how it came to pass that the preacher of the noblest doctrine that ,athens ever heard1 before the preaching of ,paul on the ,hill of ,mars1 after living in high repute and popularity for seventy years1 should at last have been made to quit the scene of his moral triumphs1 publicly branded with the stigma which was wont to be attached to the lowest of malefactors and the vilest of traitors4 ,the two first questions to be asked with regard to any great moral or political reformer are--,what had he to reform8 and then1 ,in the work of reform who were his antagonists8 ,the first of these questions is answered intelligibly and plainly enough in #af the current knowledge of every schoolboy1 that ,socrates brought down philosophy from heaven to earth1 or1 as ,cicero has it more fully in the ,tusculan questions1 8,socrates primus philosophiam devocavit e clo1 et in urbibus collocavit1 et in domos etiam introduxit1 et coegit de vit et moribus1 rebusque bonis et mails qurere40 ,now there cannot be any doubt that1 both relatively to the time and place where he taught1 and absolutely for all times and all places1 ,socrates by this step did one of the highest services to human progress4 ,by a natural vice of the human imagination we are led to seek in the misty distance for some pleasant excitement to thought1 while neglecting the direct lessons of familiar wisdom from things under our eyes1 which appear contemptible only because they are common4 ,we attempt ambitiously to measure the remote movement of the spheres1 and to note their imagined music1 before we have brought any order or harmony into the daily course of our own lives2 we climb all the highest mountains in ,europe for a fine prospect1 when there is likely a much better one to be enjoyed not five miles from our own door4 ,in obedience to this tendency of the human mind the early philosophy of ,greece was occupied principally 7not altogether certainly1 for ,pythagoras was a great moralist7 with cosmical and metaphysical speculations which amused the fancy and raised interesting and puzzling problems for thought1 without any valuable practical result4 ,when ,thales1 for one1 said that the first principle of all things was water1 he enunciated a great truth2 it is true that wherever there is life there must be humidity2 with dryness dwells only dust and death and frost4 ,but this was a truth #ag leading to no applications2 it could neither purify the wells nor improve the wines2 no man would be the better in his body or his soul for formulating a cosmical generality of this kind4 ,and if ,heraclitus1 the sombre sage of ,ephesus1 advanced a step further in a true generalization1 when he said that fire or heat is the fundamental force which makes water possible1 as modern chemistry has amply demonstrated1 this doctrine did not advance human nature one step either towards outward comfort or inward satisfaction4 ,and of what avail was it to tell men1 as he did1 that 8all things are in a perpetual flux10 if he did not teach them how to regulate that flux in the flow of their own lives1 and to prevent the tidal currents of their soul from getting into a plash and jabble of conflicting waters in the navigation of which no seamancraft could avail against miserable shipwreck8 ,more useless still was it to assert1 as ,anaxagoras is reported to have done1 that the sun is a large mass of glowing stone or metal1 so many times bigger than the earth--a proposition which1 if it were true1 would not teach a poor cowering savage to kindle a stick fire1 nor make one olive-tree brighter with blossoms that promised a purer and a richer oil2 while1 if it were not true1 then the whole of your lofty heliacal philosophy is only a blaze of lies4 ,the whole history of modern science1 indeed1 before the establishment of the close and cautious method of experiment introduced by ,bacon1 shows that all physical inquiry starting from unproved assumptions1 and ending in sweeping speculations1 is only a sublime sort of idleness1 and a procreation of cloud-phantoms4 ,socrates therefore acted wisely for his own time and place in saying to a people fond of #ah curious subtlety and unfruitful speculation4 ,let us have done with this lofty-sounding but essentially hollow talk about sun and moon and stars1 and let us know something certain1 and do something useful4 ,this we shall achieve if we keep within our own lower sphere1 and attend to our own work as men2 let us order our houses well in the first place1 and after that concern ourselves with the order of the universe2 if1 indeed1 this does not rather belong to the gods1 who may safely be left to do their cosmical work quietly1 without any ,anaxagoras or ,archelaus to tempt with adventurous guesses the principles of their administration4 ,such was the thoroughly practical1 and1 if you will1 thoroughly utilitarian tone which1 taught by ,xenophon1 we justly view as the starting-point of the ,socratic philosophy4 ,and there can be no doubt man is so essentially a practical animal1 that if even the accurate and curiously verified physical science of these latter days were as destitute of social applications and as barren of practical results as ,greek science was in the days of ,socrates1 nine hundred and ninety-nine persons of those who now delight to dabble in chemistry and geology would leave these interesting sciences to the few men of a purely speculative character with whom mere knowledge is loved for itself4 ,but when by geology we are enabled to unearth coals and gold1 and know where to sink wells much more certainly than by the medival magic of the divining-rod2 and when by chemistry we improve our stores1 bleach our clothes1 purify our infected chambers1 and dye our cloth with hues of which even the most skilful of the lichen-gatherers in the ,highland glens never dreamt--then1 to use a bookseller's phrase1 you are #ai sure to interest a large public4 ,but there is another view of the case1 which places the ,socratic philosopher on a much more lofty and honourable pedestal4 ,for notwithstanding all the surprising discoveries and brilliant achievements of modern physical science1 it must still remain true that 8,the proper study of mankind is man10 and that no kind of knowledge ever can surpass either in interest or importance the knowledge of man as a social being1 as the member of a ,family1 of a ,church1 and of a ,state4 ,the depreciation of moral science which we have lately heard from ,mr4 ,buckle and other members of that school is a transitional phenomenon arising out of the one-sided culture of the understanding1 and a defective emotional1 volitional1 and imaginative organization4 ,if new discoveries are not every day trumpeted in the domain of moral philosophy1 it is just because this science1 like ,euclid1 is too certain1 too fundamental1 and too indispensable to have been left to the happy chance of being found out after the lapse of long centuries4 ,morals are as necessary to the acting man as the sun's light to the growing plant2 they are not discovered1 because they always have been and always must be2 and the only great result that we have to look for then in them is that they shall be more universally recognised1 more scientifically handled1 and more practically applied4 ,socrates therefore was right1 not only for ,greece in the fifth century before ,christ1 but for ,england at the present moment1 and for all times and places1 when he proclaimed on the house-tops that the first and most necessary wisdom for all men is not to measure the stars1 or #bj to weigh the dust1 or to analyse the air1 but1 according to the old ,delphic sentence1 to know themselves1 and to realize in all the breadth and depth of its significance what it is to be a man1 and not a pig or a god4 ,and in attaining this knowledge1 while he would certainly find that1 though a stable physical platform to stand on and a healthy physical atmosphere to breathe are necessary for the production of a normal humanity1 yet in general the measure of a man's manhood is to be taken not so much from what he attaches to himself from without as from what he brings with him from within4 8,the kingdom of heaven is within you0 is a pregnant ,socratic maxim as well as a profound evangelic text1 and1 in reference to our present subject1 simply means that1 while the most brilliant discoveries of physical science only minister to our comforts1 our conveniences1 and our furnishings1 moral science alone can teach us to be men2 for we are men by what we are1 not by what we have4 ,gas-pipes1 and water-pipes1 spinning-jennies1 steamboats1 steam-coaches1 submarine telegraphs1 photographs1 oleographs1 oxyhydrogen1 blowpipes1 and the thousand and one devices for using and controlling nature which we owe to advanced physical science1 may adorn and improve life in many ways1 may multiply production of all kinds infinitely1 and facilitate the diffusion of intellectual as well as material benefits2 but they have no originating power in what is highest2 they can create neither thought nor character2 they are the most useful of ministers1 but the most unmeaning of masters4 ,and there can be little doubt that1 if ,socrates were to rise from the grave at the present moment1 while1 with his1 strong #ba common sense and keen eye for the practical1 he would joyfully recognise all the wonderful material progress of which ,england and ,america make their boast1 he would not the less feel himself constrained to utter an emphatic warning against the danger of estimating our national grandeur by the visible pomp of gigantic machinery and complex apparatus rather than by the invisible power of noble purpose and lofty design4 ,such was the attitude of ,socrates to the great teachers who since ,thales downwards had preceded him in leading the intellectual advance of the most intellectual people of the ancient world4 ,he stood forward as a teacher of moral science1 as a preacher and philosophical missionary also2 for in morals1 the separation of theory from practice is an inconsistency of which only a feeble and imperfect nature is capable4 ,who1 then1 and of what quality1 were his antagonists in the great regenerative work which he undertook8 ,not so much the physical philosophers1 who might still pursue their researches or pamper their imaginations in their own speculative corners without disturbing the busy world1 except in so far as they now and then might come into collision with theological orthodoxy1 but the great untrained mass of the people themselves1 and the pretentious array of a class of men who put themselves forward as their instructors1--the famous ,,sophists4 ,the word ,sophists signifies professors of wisdom1 in which sense ,lucian calls our ,saviour --that crucified ,sophist--because ,he came forward as a public instructor professing to teach men wisdom4 ,but as wisdom is a vague word 7in fact in ,greek signifies clever1 and even #bb cunning as often as wise71 we must consult the circumstances of time and place to know what it exactly meant in any particular instance4 ,the generation immediately preceding ,socrates1 when the ,sophists first became prominent1 was the era of the great ,persian wars1 and of the notable uprising of national spirit and of popular power which that memorable struggle called forth4 ,how fiercely the strife between the old aristocratic and the new democratic element in ,greek society had been raging in the immediately preceding epoch1 the poems of ,theognis may serve sufficiently to indicate2 and now that by the battle of ,salamis the political importance of the middle and sub-middle classes had been blazoned forth before universal ,greece in glowing characters1 the democracy in great commercial cities like ,athens at once started into an attitude of hitherto unsuspected significance4 ,new aspirations had been created1 new pretensions were put forth1 and new guides were required for a large class of people who felt themselves as it were suddenly shooting up from pupilage into majority4 ,now what guides had a people1 circumstanced as the ,athenians then1 were1 to look to for direction8 ,the ,church in those days--if we may call it a ,church--was not a teaching body2 its moral efficacy was exercised through sacred ceremonial and pious hymns2 its intellectual agency was almost null4 ,and though gymnastics and music1 including a certain amount of the most popular literary culture1 were common1 there were no institutions like our ,universities1 for the severe and systematic discipline of the thinking faculties4 ,a cry went up from the heart of the people for prophets to enlighten them2 but there were no schools #bc of the prophets4 ,this state of things was the natural soil from which a class of self-constituted popular teachers would grow up2 and these teachers were the ,sophists4 ,and if we ask further in detail what they taught1 the answer will be furnished from the same sources that explain their existence4 ,as the democracy brought them into existence1 the demand of the democracy would be the measure of the kind and quality of the article which they were expected to supply2 and the article which a democracy demands for the use of its public spokesmen is always the same1--a certain practical knowledge and shrewdness in the conduct of affairs1 a certain ready sympathy with1 popular prejudices and passions1 a certain superficial dexterity in argument1 and above all1 a fluent and effective style of popular oratory4 ,to supply these wants the acceptable teachers of the people would require to profess a knowledge of the great leading principles of law1 a familiarity with political forms and the best methods of controlling masses of men into habits or fits of co-operation1 a practical command of logic1 so as to be able to turn the point of an argument1 or entangle in a net of subtleties an inexperienced jury1 and1 as the crowning accomplishment1 a faculty of speech1 alert and unscrupulous1 which might never lack a shift to give plausibility to a bad case1 and should ever be ready to confound1 overwhelm1 and dazzle where it was hopeless to refute4 ,now it is easy to perceive that the lessons delivered by the professors of this wisdom1 however acceptable to clever and ambitious young gentlemen eager to enter upon the arena of public life1 could not1 in the nature of the case1 be conceived in any very exalted tone of morals or be framed so as to inculcate the formation #bd of any strictly honourable rules of conduct4 ,the ,sophists were mere tradesmen2 they were paid for the furnishing of a certain article1 and they had to supply that article1 of the quality and in the way and manner which might be most agreeable to those on whose patronage they depended4 ,they were therefore1 as ,socrates constantly pointed out1 the slaves of the parties by whom they were paid2 and if what their employers wanted was the show of wisdom rather than the substance1 a ready command of words and arguments in preference to an earnest and severe search after truth1 it was not to be expected that the majority of them would give themselves much concern to inculcate a severer wisdom4 ,tradesmen are seldom found acting upon principles which have a direct tendency to frighten customers from their shops4 ,not that there was anything necessarily bad or immoral in the profession or teaching of a ,sophist2 some of them1 evidently1 such as ,protagoras and ,prodicus1 even on the witness of their great adversary ,plato1 were very proper and respectable gentlemen2 few of them1 perhaps1 grossly immoral2 and with those of them who1 like ,gorgias of ,leontium1 confined themselves strictly to the teaching of the rules of pure rhetoric and elocution1 no fault could justly be found any more than with ,quinctilian among the later ,romans1 or ,principal ,campbell of ,aberdeen among ourselves4 ,but it is plain1 from the very nature of the case1 that the ,sophists1 so far as they went a step beyond the province of strict rhetoric1 were placed in a position which rendered their moral and philosophical teaching a matter of just concern to all who were interested in the education of the youth of ,athens1 and in the #be character of her public men4 ,besides1 among an impressible and excitable people like the ,athenians1 fond of display1 and ambitious of popularity1 the mere methodized art of talking1 apart from any solid knowledge1 and without any high moral inspiration1 was a very dangerous engine to put into the hand of ambitious young politicians4 ,and the fact unquestionably is1 according to the concurrent testimony of ,xenophon1 ,plato1 ,isocrates1 ,aristotle1--in fact1 of all antiquity1--that these public teachers generally did dispense very shallow and often very dangerous doctrine4 ,they were the natural birth of an age of movement and innovation2 and in such an age1 along with much that may operate as a healthy stimulant to progressive thought1 there is always present a drastic admixture of the merely analytic1 sceptical1 and destructive element1 a negative force1 strong to impugn the validity of ancient foundations1 but weak to establish anything equally stable and effective in their place4 ,by the negative and sceptical teachings of these men1 ,socrates found the youth of ,athens shaken from their old moorings1 and tossing about amid seas of perplexing doubt on the one hand1 and unprincipled libertinism on the other4 ,every great principle of social order and human right that formerly had been received from venerated tradition1 and believed by the co-operation of a healthy instinct with a hoary authority1 was now denied2 and the field was waiting for the appearance of a great constructive prophet1 who should bring people back through steps of scientific reasoning to a living faith in those maxims of immutable morality which they had originally inherited with the blood from their fathers' veins and the milk from their mothers' breasts4 #bf ,such a great prophet now appeared1 and his name was ,socrates4#bf4a ,we have now clearly before us the battle-field in which ,socrates had to appear1 and the opponents with whom he had to contend2 we see also the cause for which he had to fight4 ,this was nothing #bg less than the establishment of a firm philosophy of human life1 a sure guide for human conduct1 and a strong regulator of society4 ,the way now lies open to inquire what special doctrine he taught in order to achieve victory in this struggle2 and a careful perusal of ,xenophon's book1 which we regard as the #bh only safe authority in the matter1 leads to a generalized statement of the ,socratic moral philosophy1 comprised in the following two propositions3-- 7,i47 ,man is naturally a sympathetic and a social animal4 ,he has1 no doubt1 strong1 self-preserving1 self-asserting1 and self-advancing instincts1 which1 if left without counteraction1 would naturally lead to isolation or mutual hostility1 and ultimate extermination2 but these instincts of isolated individualism are met by yet stronger instincts of sympathy1 love1 and fellowship1 in the ascendency of which the true humanity of man as distinguished from tigerhood and spiderhood consists4 7,,ii47 ,man is naturally a reasoning animal1 and is only then truly a man when his passions are tempered and his conduct regulated by reason4 ,the function of reason is the recognition and the realization of truth2 truth recognised in speculation is science2 #bi truth realized in action is a moral life and a well-ordered society4 ,these two propositions may appear to many persons now-a-days to contain nothing that is not very vague and very cheap2 nevertheless1 when looked into accurately and followed out unconditionally1 they lead to most important practical consequences2 in fact1 while their consistent assertion under all circumstances necessarily leads up to a noble and a heroic life1 their habitual denial as necessarily leads down to a base and a brutish life4 ,let us look at them therefore sharply in detail4 ,the first proposition1 as the reader will readily perceive1 is levelled directly against the selfish theory of morals which was advocated with more or less openness by many of the ,greek ,sophists1 and was prominently put forth in this country1 as is generally known1 at the time of the great ,civil ,war1 by the celebrated ,thomas ,hobbes of ,malmesbury4 ,that stout speculator1 in his treatise on 8the ,philosophical ,elements of a ,true ,citizen10 lays it down with a distinctness which admits of no qualification1 that 8all society is either for gain or for glory2 that is1 not so much for love of our fellows as for love of ourselves20 and again1 a few pages further on in the same treatise1 he puts forth the famous dictum that 8the natural state of man is a war of all men against all men40 ,against such a one-sided1 unhuman1 unworthy1 and altogether false assertion1 ,socrates comes armed1 not only with the whole force of a sympathetic1 a social1 and a benevolent nature1 but with that healthy instinct and practical good sense1 which in him was prophetic not so much of his immediate disciple ,plato as of his great successor ,aristotle4 #cj ,in one of the conversations of the ,memorabilia of which the subject is --a much wider word1 let it be well noted1 than the ,english 8friendship10--,critobulus1 one of the young followers of the philosopher1 is introduced as lamenting over the difficulty of making friends2 and the views of ,socrates follow in reply4 ,we extract the whole passage3-- 8,what perplexes you1 my young friend1 said ,socrates1 seems to be that you have frequently seen even the best men1 and of the most noble quality1 quarrelling with one another1 and fanning themselves into hostility1 even more fierce than that which divides the most worthless members of society4 ,just so1 said ,critobulus1 and not only this1 but the best-ordered societies1 and those ,states which seem to possess the most delicate sense of public honour1 are often found to plunge into the most unjustifiable wars4 ,where1 then1 shall we find a place for social sympathy and true friendship8 ,if the bad by their very nature cannot know what love means1 if betwixt the bad and the good there can be no fellowship any more than betwixt fire and water1 and if finally the good1 who practise virtue most severely1 in the ambitious contests of human life are still found for the most part envying one another and hating one another1 among what class of men1 ,i ask1 are fellowship and good faith possible8 ,but1 said ,socrates1 this is by no means such a simple matter as you seem to think4 ,nature here as elsewhere has two sides4 ,there is naturally implanted in men a social and sympathetic element2 for they naturally need one another1 and feel for one another1 and help one another by co-operation2 and alongside of this there exists also an element of hostility2 for wherever a #ca great number of persons find their affections fixed on the same object1 which they cannot all enjoy1 opposition and war in reference to that object will naturally ensue4 ,hence strife and wrath and the passion for aggrandizement1 and feelings of envy and dislike toward those who in the great competition of life are more successful than ourselves4 ,nevertheless1 so strong is the sympathetic principle in nature1 that it penetrates through all these barriers1 and joins in bonds of brotherhood all the noble and the good40 ,this passage deserves special prominence in every estimate of the philosophy of ,socrates1 not only on account of its own strong practical good sense--a leading quality of the philosopher's mind--but on account of the complement which it supplies to the other part of his doctrine1 that virtue is practical reason4 ,how true this doctrine of rational morality is1 and how comprehensive1 we shall endeavour to show immediately2 but in the first place1 before applying reason to the actions of a social being1 we must postulate the existence of a sympathetic instinct1 without whose impulsive and attractive power reason could never be induced to exercise itself in any social direction4 ,to prove to a man who has no love in his nature that he ought to love his neighbour1 and that without such love no society is possible 7a proof by the way which ,hobbes leads very triumphantly71 is all very well as a piece of reasoning2 but it could lead to no practical consequences if the person to whom it was addressed was root and branch made up of pure selfishness4 ,it would be like arguing to a tiger that it should become a lamb4 ,in all moral questions1 therefore1 the motive powers must be supposed #cb as a fact2 they belong to the nature of a moral being as steam belongs to a steam-engine2 and therefore ,socrates1 whose whole teaching breathes the earnest conviction of the great truth that moral philosophy has no meaning as a theory1 but exists only as a fact1 is everywhere exhibited as a great lover of men4 ,love of his kind1 indeed1 was the main inspiration of his life1 as in fact it must be that of all men who aspire to the noble position of social reformation in any shape2 therefore it was that he was seen constantly in the streets and in the market-places1 and in the public shops1 and the ateliers of the sculptors1 and in festal and convivial celebrations of all kinds2 therefore it was that he professed himself on all occasions --a passionate admirer of everything beautiful and excellent whether in man or woman2 and from this quick and ready sympathy with all human excellence it was that1 while he spoke the truth on all occasions without fear1 there was so little generally of harshness in his reproof2 nay1 he would carry his human forbearance and sympathetic complaisance so far on occasions as to visit a beautiful 1 and converse with her on the philosophy of dress1 and the most scientific manner of spreading the net and baiting the hook for her admirers4#cb4a ,how incongruous would it not be to figure ,john ,calvin or any modern theological doctor relaxing his gravity in this region so far2 and yet ,socrates was as veritable a saint as ,calvin1 only the men were constitutionally not only different1 but adverse2 besides1 ,socrates was a ,greek1 and1 so far as impressibility by mere physical beauty is concerned1 this #cc implies much4 ,what the modern ,protestant theologian would have thought it a sin to look at in the ancient philosopher might have excited an innocent and pious admiration4 ,but the tolerant universality of large human sympathy in ,socrates1 however difficult it may be for some men to understand1 was in fact much less an anomaly in a severe moralist than the selfish theory of ,hobbes is in a man pretending to be a man at all4 ,to explain such a perverse phenomenon we must bear in mind that the love of singularity in some minds is greater than the love of truth2 that some men of great intellectual capacity are deficient in some of the finer instincts that stir heroic breasts1 and fail to recognise in others what they have no experience of in themselves2 that in the common characters whom one meets in daily life an essentially selfish motive can often be traced beneath the gracious surface1 where to the public eye only benevolence1 philanthropy1 humility1 and self-denial shine out with genial radiance2 that the scientific mind has a peculiar pleasure in tracking out such inconsistencies2 that the speculative mind in its eagerness to embrace various phenomena under one law is apt to run a-muck against ,nature1 delighting1 as she does sometimes1 more in the compromise of various principles than in the triumph of one2 and finally1 that men trained principally in the political and legal world often have a tendency to transfer the selfish principles which are most considered in their domain to other spheres of the social system1 where more free scope is given to the exercise of the benevolent and unselfish propensities4 ,these considerations may perhaps account for the genesis of such an incomplete moralist as ,hobbes1--it is only #cd the common instance of a meagre plant growing up in a bad climate4 ,socrates1 on the other hand1 surprises and puzzles us by his sheer redundancy of ethical sensibility2 as a tropical vegetation seems sometimes to smother with the exuberance of green life the sober demands of an eye educated in a temperate climate4 ,let us now turn to the second proposition3 ,,man ,,is ,a ,,reasoning ,,animal2--trite enough1 but what does this imply8 and how far does it bring us when we attempt to answer the question started by ,dr4 ,paley1 ,why am ,i bound to keep my word8 ,let us see how ,socrates would have answered this question4 ,through the memoirs he stands forward in no character so strongly as in that of the exposer of unrealities4 ,himself the most truthful of all men1 throughout a long life he can find nothing better to do than to help others1 first to draw the real truth out of themselves1 and then1 by the touchstone thus acquired1 to distinguish the true man in the actual course of life from the fake pretender4 ,truth therefore1 unadulterated truth in thought and in act1 was the pole-star of his navigation4 ,but the recognition and realization of truth is the distinctive function of reason2 therefore truthfulness under every form of thought or action is the grand law of reasonableness1 and in virtue of this the grand rule of human conduct4 ,for no creature can be called upon to act at variance with its own nature2 and if it should attempt to do so1 it will either fail utterly--as if a worm should essay to fly--or1 succeeding so far in the experiment1 as when a bear dances or a man speaks lies habitually1 the creature will make itself either ridiculous or contemptible4 ,as therefore you expect #ce your dog to nose well1 your cat to mouse well1 your horse to race well1 and your cow1 when well grassed1 to give good milk1 so expect yourself on all occasions to think and to act reasonably1 that is truthfully or in conformity with the reality of things2 and know for certain on each occasion that your thought or your act deviates from right reason1 that thus far you are not your proper self1 you are not1 in the full sense of the word1 a man2 you are1 in fact1 in reference to this matter1 acting like a madman4 ,for1 as ,socrates in his familiar way puts it1 if a man1 imagining himself twelve feet high1 should bow his head whenever he entered a door eight feet high1 in order to avoid fracture of the skull1 would we not call such a person mad8 ,and if he is justly esteemed insane who in such an exorbitant way takes a false measure of his bodily height1 why should one be esteemed sane who habitually makes an equally false estimate of his mental stature8 ,if a person were to imagine that he knew ,greek1 but whenever he opened his mouth poured forth a mere swallow-twitter of inarticulate jargon1 could he possibly be held to be of sound mind8 or if a man should push himself forward into the van of any great undertaking1 such as the building of bridges or the cutting of tunnels1 conceiving himself to be able to do these things1 when he was known to be ignorant of the simplest practical elements of architecture and engineering1 should we not say truly that such a person is labouring under a delusion1 which1 if not madness1 is something very closely allied to it8 ,from such considerations as these ,socrates deduced1 with all the certainty of mathematical demonstration1 that the most imperative duty1 and the most binding #cf obligation of every man--the postulate1 in fact1 of all reasonable and fruitful activity in life--is 1 ,,know ,,thyself6 and this maxim does not mean1 of course1 that a man is to go into a corner1 and by a series of probings to take the measure of his own capacity2 it means rather that we shall know our relation to that outer world in which our active powers are to be spent2 it means that we shall know the world by free intercourse and by cautious trial1 and that we shall make it our business with conscientious care to discover what we are fit for on this stage of things on which the drama of our life is enacted1 and what we are not fit for4 ,and always in every work1 reasonably undertaken1 if the execution is to be enduringly successful1 let the reasonable and true man study1 as the one thing needful1 ,,to ,,be ,,the ,,thing ,,that ,,he ,,would ,,seem ,,to ,,be4 ,from this statement1 taken directly from the report of ,xenophon1 the reader will perceive that we have got in ,socrates fundamentally only a very modern ,scotch friend with a very ancient ,greek face1 viz41 the excellent laird of ,craigenputtoch and venerable prophet of ,chelsea on the ,thames1 the burden of whose preaching has always been the unveiling of ,,shams4 ,mr4 ,ruskin's ,lamp of ,truth in ,architecture shines also manifestly with a kindred light2 and in fact it is quite certain1 and the most important of all truths to be implanted in the youthful mind when starting on the career of life1 that we live in a world of most grave and earnest and stiff realities1 that must be dealt with in a real and honest way--that is1 neither in a superficial nor in a false way1 nor in an absurd way1 nor with any sort of random strokes1 but only in a calculated and a reasonable #cg way1 and according to the unchangeable nature of things--if not1 the penalty is sure4 ,if we will mistake a granite rock for a gigot of mutton1 we shall find that we have dined on something that no culinary art can make at all digestible4 ,let us examine in rapid detail how far the general ,socratic principle of acting1 reasonably and truthfully will bring out the individual virtues which are the most necessary and the most esteemed1 whether in the common concerns of life or in those seasons of rare culmination when manhood rises into heroism4 ,now1 here we see plainly enough1 in the first place1 that all the so-called intellectual virtues--that is1 those that depend on the vigorous and well-directed use of the intellectual faculties--are1 by the ,socratic principle1 at once provided for in the most effective way4 ,these virtues are foresight1 calculation1 prudence in every shape1 trained talent1 professional expertness1 and substantial work on scientific principles in all trades and occupations4 ,the man who does any kind of work in a careless1 bungling1 or superficial way is not acting as a reasonable being2 for the first demand of reason1 as the truthful faculty in the world of action1 is to realize its idea completely and thoroughly2 and this no hasty and superficial handiwork can pretend to do4 ,again1 if a man1 as happens only too often1 undertakes a long walk1 and having miscalculated the distance1 or carried with him confused ideas of north and south1 finds himself under the veil of night wandering about in a boggy waste when he ought to have been snug in his bed1 he has himself to blame3 he acted unreasonably in undertaking an unknown expedition without exact information or wise calculation2 and it is only reasonable #ch that he should be overtaken by the necessary consequences of all unreasoning procedure in a world where ,reason is the only law and ,truth the unerring judge4 ,in the same way1 from want of accurate knowledge1 wise foresight1 and comprehensive survey1 ,crimean campaigns are bungled1 and ,reform ,bills of most serious consequence are huddled or juggled through a house of fretful or feverish senators1 and ,acts of ,parliament are patched up with clauses that contradict one another1 and make the preamble look like a bridegroom who finds he has promised eternal fidelity to a mistaken bride4 ,all this is unreasonable work1 and the men who did it were not exercising their reason at the time of the perpetration2 for any practical purpose they might as well have been blind1 furious1 fatuous1 or asleep4 ',tis plain1 therefore1 that all the efficiency of every kind of work done in the world depends on its reasonableness1 that is1 on its truthfulness2 and in full view1 so to speak1 of the importance of this intellectual virtue ,nature has furnished man with a moral excellence closely akin to it4 ,the recognition of truth in the strictly intellectual world becomes1 in the world of propulsive passions and inspiring emotions1 the love of truth4 ,this virtue shows itself in frankness1 openness1 and simplicity of character1 and in an imperious disdain of all sorts of equivocation1 dissembling1 falsehood1 and disguise1 according to the well-known type of the heroic character in ,homer3 8,that man within my soul ,i hate1 even as the gates of hell1 ,who speaks fair words1 but in his heart dark lies and treachery dwell40 ,here ,achilles1 every one feels1 is speaking like a man2 and1 though all truth is not always everywhere #ci to be proclaimed1 yet on great occasions1 where to strike the just mean is difficult1 he who in an impulse of fearless fervour vents a little too much truth1 is always more admired than the man who from a surcharge of cautious reticence speaks too little4 ,for a lie1 in fact1 as ,plato says in the ,republic1 is a thing naturally hateful both to gods and men2 nor indeed could it be otherwise2 for what is all nature but a manifestation in visible forms of a grand army of invisible forces8 and an untruthful manifestation is no manifestation at all1 but rather a concealment1 as if a man should use words to say the very contrary of what he means1 which words1 certainly1 whatever effect they might have1 could not possibly be any exhibition of his real nature4 ,it is plain therefore that a lie is on every occasion a contradiction to the essential truthfulness1 and an obstacle thrown in the way to the direct purpose1 of nature2 and whenever lies are told1 it will be found that they proceed either from a fundamental feebleness1 that is1 an inherent lack of assertive and demonstrative force1 or from fear1 that is1 a comparative feebleness in respect of some external threatening force1 or finally from a systematic perversion or inversion of nature in individual cases or unfavourable circumstances1 which operate as an obstruction to the free expression of the essential truthfulness of things4 ,in this way individuals whose social sympathies have been frosted in early life1 may grow up into a monstrous incarnation of selfishness1 living by the practice of systematic falsity1 of which we have examples enough in the professional swindlers of whose achievements almost every newspaper contains some record2 and whole classes of men1 as slaves and helots1 kept in a #dj state of unnatural bondage and subjection1 may learn1 or rather must learn1 to practise lies as their only safety from injustice4 ,every slave is naturally a liar2 for his nature is a false nature1 and has grown up into a contradiction to all nature1 as trees by forceful artifice are made to grow downwards seeking the earth1 instead of upwards to find the sun4 ,and we may say generally1 that ninety-nine out of every hundred lies that are told in society are lies of cowardice2 lies of gigantic impudence and unblushing selfishness1 like the lies of ,alexander the false prophet in the second century1 and other gross impostors1 being comparatively few2 though of course1 when they do occur1 they excite more attention and figure more largely in the newspapers4 ,and from these considerations we see plainly how it is that the world places such a high value on the virtue of courage2 for courage arises mainly from the possession of that amount of physical or moral energy which enables a man truthfully and emphatically in a real world to assert himself as an effective reality2 and in fact there is no character that in the general judgment of mankind1 and in a special degree to the ,british feeling1 appears more contemptible than the man who1 on the appearance of any petty danger1 or the prospective emergence of a possible difficulty1 forthwith sneaks out of his position1 gives the open lie to his own professions1 and the cold shoulder to his best friend4 ,so deep-rooted and so wide-spread1 so woven into the living fibres of the very heart of things1 is the virtue of truth and truthfulness in nature and life1 which again1 as we have said1 is the mere utterance of reason2 the necessary utterance consequently of an essentially reasonable being1 and not at all the artificial product of a selfish compact #da or calculation of any kind1 as ,hobbes and the other advocates of selfism1 more or less modified1 affirm4 ,we speak the truth therefore1 and we are bound to keep our promise1 not because experience proves that society could not exist for a single day under the pervading influence of all sorts of falsehood1 nor again because it can be proved by a formal induction that to speak the truth1 as a general rule1 is the best way to secure the greatest happiness of the greatest number--though there can be no harm in a man fortifying his virtue by these very true and very philanthropic considerations1 if he chooses1--but the root of the matter lies deeper and more near to the heart of the individual man1 springing1 as we have said1 directly out of the essential truthfulness and reasonableness of nature1 according to the prime postulate not of the philosophy of ,socrates only1 but of ,plato and ,aristotle also1 and all the great teachers of practical wisdom amongst the ,greeks4 ,it does not seem necessary1 after what has been said1 to expatiate largely on the obvious deduction of the other cardinal virtues from the ,socratic principle of ,reason or ,truth4 ,wherever we turn our eyes it will require little perspicacity to perceive that to do the right is on all occasions to do the true thing1--as an apostle has it1 1 to do the truth2 or1 in the words of a great son of the ,porch1 not to demand that things shall be as we wish1 but to wish that things shall be as they are4 ,the great virtue of ,justice1 for instance1 which1 in its widest and well-known ,platonic sense1 signifies giving to every person and thing that which properly belongs to it1 is nothing but the assertion in act of the truth in reference to their concurrent or adverse claims2 for how can a man realize in any #db relation of life the beautiful ,stoical definition of ,right given in the ,institutes of ,justinian--,justitia est constans et perpetua voluntas suum cuique tribuendi--how can a man assign to each person that which is properly his1 unless he knows truly the nature and natural claims not of that person only1 but of all persons with whom his claim may come into competition8 ,it is plain therefore that ,justice is merely knowledge or reason2#db4a and as the claims of different parties in reference to the same thing are often very various and complicated1 hence it is that to be a just judge a man does not require to have a benevolent nature--though in cases of equity the kindly feelings also must come into play--so much as to have an intellect of large range1 of firm grasp1 and of subtle power of discrimination4 ,and if anybody1 with special reference to legal decisions1 chooses to ask not only what qualities constitute a good judge1 but on what principles the idea of property is founded--how he is to know the exact boundaries of ,,meum and ,,tuum in particular cases1--the answer here also1 on the ,socratic postulate of truth and natural reasonableness1 will be obvious enough4 ,that is mine by the law of nature and truth and ,god1 which is either a part of me1 or the natural and necessary1 fruit and product of that vital energy which ,i call ,,me2 or1 more simply1 the product of my labour and the issues of my activity are mine2 and no man can have a right or a claim consistent with the truth of things1 to appropriate the fruit of that growth whereof the root and the stem and the living branches #dc and the vital juices are a necessary part of me4#dc4a ,but it is not mere legal justice and a true apportionment of the ,mine and ,thine that flow as a plain corollary from the obligation of acting the truth1 but the wider equities of ,christian charity and toleration2 yea1 and the very constraining power of the ,golden ,rule itself is evolved unmistakeably from the same principle4 ,for what is it that from the time of ,greeks and ,romans down to very recent days has tainted the whole laws of ,european countries with such harsh declarations of intolerant dogmatism and merciless persecution8 ,simply the fact that men1 from defect of sympathy and defect of knowledge1 had never been trained to realize the truth of things as between the natural right of a majority to profess a national creed1 and the equally natural right of a minority to entertain doubts and to state objections as to the whole or any part of such a creed4 ,intolerance proceeds either from narrowness of view or from deficiency of sympathy2 and in either case it blinds the bigot to the fact that the right which he has to his own opinions never can confer on him any right to dictate opinions to others2 the moment he does that he invades a dominion that does not belong to him1 and transgresses the truth of ,nature2 nor will this transgression be less flagrant when it is made by ten millions against one man1 than if it #dd were made by one against ten millions4 ,in the same way all those superficial and inadequate1 too often also harsh and severe1 judgments which we see and read daily amongst men in the common converse of life1 are the result of a habitual carelessness as to truth1 of which habit only too efficiently conceals the grossness4 ,and under the bitter inspiration of ecclesiastical and political warfare1 men1 when speaking of their adversaries1 will not only lightly excuse themselves from using any special care in testing the facts which it suits their purpose to parade1 but they will even consciously present a garbled statement constructed upon the principle of pushing into prominence everything that is bad1 and keeping out of view everything that is good in the character of the person whom it may suit the use of the moment to vilify4 ,and in this way even the sacred-sounding columns of an evangelical newspaper may become a systematic manufactory of lies1 against which most gross abuse of the truth of ,nature the son of ,sophroniscus1 if he were to appear on earth now1 would assuredly lift his protest with tenfold more emphasis than he ever did against the sham knowledge of the most superficial of the ,sophists4 ,one or two short paragraphs will enable us now to say all that remains to be said on the great principles of the ,socratic philosophy of ,ethics4 ,in the first place1 nothing that has been said here in endeavouring shortly to epitomize the leading idea of ,socrates with regard to practical reason and acted truth1 assumes to settle definitively that much-vexed question1 ,how far is a man at any time1 from any motive1 and for any object1 entitled to tell or to enact #de a lie8 ,in a dialogue of considerable length1 which ,socrates holds with ,euthydemus1 a raw and conceited young ,athenian1 who1 because he possessed a great library1 imagined himself to possess much wisdom1 the philosopher is represented as puzzling the young gentleman with such questions as the following3 ,whether is it lawful for a general1 with the view of raising the drooping spirits of his soldiers1 to give out an unfounded report that friends are coming up to help them8 ,whether1 if a father1 whose sick son refuses to take a necessary medicine1 shall disguise this medicine under the aspect of food1 and by the ministry of this drugged aliment restore his son to health1 this act of deceit is right or wrong8 ,or again1 if a friend whom we love is given to fits of melancholy1 and may be apt in an evil moment to meditate suicide1 is it an act of culpable theft privately to purloin or forcibly to abstract the sword or other lethal instrument of which he may avail himself to commit the fatal act8 ,in such and similar cases1 though the point is rather raised than settled1 ,socrates plainly seems to imply that lies are both natural and beneficial1 and therefore ought to be tolerated4 ,and in truth1 though the extreme dogmatism of certain of the ,church ,fathers lays down the doctrine that the obligation of truth-speaking and truth-doing is absolute1 and admits of no exception1 yet the common sense of mankind1 and the universal practice of saints and sinners in all ages and in all countries1 goes along with ,socrates 7and we may add ,plato here1 ,rep4 ii47 in the assertion1 that where violence is done to ,nature in one way by an unnatural overwhelming force1 such as occurs in war1 then ,nature defends herself by a #df violence to her habitual principles in an opposite direction2 that is to say1 it will be justifiable1 on certain occasions1 and within certain limits1 to defeat force by fraud2 or1 as ,lysander the captor of ,athens used to say1 where a man may not show the lion's hide he must wrap himself in the fox's skin4 ,but the very suspicion with which the general moral sentiment guards the extension of this motive1 which in extreme cases it allows1 shows that all deviation from truth is looked upon as the result of a force upon ,nature2 and1 if it may in certain cases be excused or even imperatively commanded1 it never brings with it the natural aliment of our better nature1 which breathes freely only in the wide and pure atmosphere of truth4 ,the general obligation of truth1 therefore1 according to the doctrine of ,socrates1 is not at all weakened by the occasional necessity of deceit2 for while the one rests firmly on the foundation of the eternal constitution of things1 the other is the mere shift of the moment1 the sudden dictate of an expediency1 which in noble natures is half ashamed of itself when it succeeds4 ,another well-known dogma of the ,socratic philosophy is1 that not only is ,science as the product of ,reason the supreme legislative authority in all questions of morals1 but in point of fact also1 that to know what is right is to do what is good1 for no man with his eyes open will perpetrate an act which demonstrably leads to his own destruction4 ,of this assertion1 so contrary to the universal experience of mankind1 and so ably refuted by ,aristotle and his school in the ,nicomachean ethics1 it need only be said that it is one of those paradoxes in the garb of #dg which all philosophies are apt to clothe themselves occasionally1 partly for the gratification of the teacher1 who delights to push his principle to an acme1 partly for the benefit of the scholar1 whose attention is excited and his imagination pleased by the startling novelty of the dictum4 ,the proposition of ,socrates therefore1 that knowledge is virtue1 and vice not only folly but ignorance1 is of the same nature with the paradox of the ,stoics1 that the virtuous man can have no enemy1 or that pain is no evil1 or with the precept in the ,gospel1 which no man ever thinks of obeying in the letter1 that when a thief takes your cloak you should thank him1 like a benign ,quaker1 for his kindness1 and give him your coat into the bargain4 ,but it is possible to defend the paradox of ,socrates taken strictly1 by saying that when a man does a thing which demonstrably leads to his ruin1 he either never had this demonstration vividly present to his mind1 or1 at the moment when the self-destroying act was committed1 his knowing faculty was blinded and sopited1 dosed and drugged by his passions1 and so2 at the time when his knowledge was most required1 he was virtually ignorant of what he was about4 ,but there is little profit in puzzling about such paradoxical maxims1 as1 like ,berkeley's theory about the non-existence of matter1 they are constantly open to be corrected by common-sense and the daily experience of life4 ,a ,calvinist preaches ,fatalism in the pulpit to-day1 but to-morrow flogs his slave or his son for abusing his free-will4 ,so a smart twitch of the toothache answers the ,stoics when they assert that pain is no evil3 and the lives of ,solomon1 ,king ,david1 and ,robert ,burns prove that great men in all ages have1 in #dh their cool moments1 been as nobly sagacious as ,socrates1 but not therefore at all moments as consistently virtuous4 ,the last point which demands notice here is the relation which virtue bears to happiness1 and to the much-bespoken utilitarianism of the most recent ethical school in this country4 ,now the truth with regard to this stands patent on the very face of the ,socratic argument1 and can escape no man who goes through the ,memorabilia with ordinary sympathy4 ,the happiness of every creature consists in the free and unhindered exercise of its characteristic function2 the happiness of a horse in racing well1 of a dog in nosing well1 of a cat in mousing well1 of a man in reasoning well1 that is1 in thinking and acting reasonably4 ,for the opposite state of things to this could only exist on the supposition that the ,author of ,nature or the ,supreme ,artificer 7 1 as ,socrates and ,plato loved to phrase it7 delighted in inspiring creatures with a desire1 and providing them with a machinery1 to do things the direct effect of which is to make them miserable2 that is to say1 if the demiurge were a demon2 of which demoniacal government of the world1 however1 happily there is no sign2 for not even the most tortured victim of toothache1 as ,dr4 ,paley observes1 has yet found himself warranted in drawing the conclusion that teeth in general were made for no other purpose than that people might be tormented with such excruciating pangs4 ,happiness1 therefore1 and the reasonable exercise of his faculties by a reasonable creature1 are identical4 ,no creature can deliberately desire to make itself miserable1 and no rational creature can escape misery except by acting reasonably4 ,and if1 #di in the language of the schools1 any person1 from this point of view1 shall call ,socrates a eudmonist1#di4a a eudmonist unquestionably he was4 ,but we must bear in mind that1 while he was the warm advocate of all sorts of happiness and enjoyment1 and himself at the same time a living picture of vital joy and geniality1 he never allowed himself to be carried away by the perverse and perilous subtlety of a certain school of philosophers1 both in ancient and modern times1 who thought to do honour to the eudmonistic principle by confounding the good with the pleasurable4#di4b ,for the distinction so broadly established in all languages between ,pleasure as an affair of momentary excitement or titillation1 and ,good as the source of lasting and permanent enjoyment1 is not to be obliterated by the arbitrary terminology of men who write ethical systems in books4 ,according to the established use of language1 from ,socrates and ,st4 ,paul down to the present hour1 ,pleasure cannot be the good of man1--it may be the good of a brute2 for as pleasure is momentary happiness1 without reason1 or it may be often in the teeth of reason1 so the ,good is reasonable and permanent happiness1 accompanied1 it may be1 with a little momentary pain1 but productive of lasting satisfaction4 ,so much for eudmonism4 ,then1 as for utilitarianism1 whether it be a different thing from eudmonism1 or only a different aspect of the same thing1 #ej there is nothing more certain than that ,socrates was a utilitarian4 ,the word useful 7 or 7 is constantly occurring in his conversations2 utility in fact was the starting-point of his whole movement1 and gives the key-note to all his discussions2 for his grand objection1 as we saw above1 to the physical speculations of his predecessors1 was that they were useless1 as opposed to which the doctrine which he preached was recommended on the ground of its practical utility4 ,of this utilitarian principle he was indeed so fond1 that1 like his doctrine of virtue being founded on knowledge1 he was inclined to push it too far1 and certainly did run it1 in some cases1 to absolute falsity4 ,this appears most strikingly in two dialogues in the ,memoirs1 where1 in opposition to the idol-worship of mere beauty1 so dear to the ,greeks1 he flatly lays down the counter proposition that nothing can be beautiful except in so far as it serves the purpose for which it was intended2 in other words1 that beauty consists in that suitability or fitness of an article to effect its purpose which makes it a useful article4 ,but every one sees that there is a jump in the logic here1 which1 if ,socrates had been as anxious to establish a scientific theory of beauty as he was to present rational morals1 he certainly could not have made4 ,for though every article1 as the imperative condition of its existence1 ought to answer the purpose for which it was made1 and the article which answers this purpose best is the best article2 and though beauty of structure is a something superadded1 and which will always offend if it is plainly at war with the design1 fitness1 and utility of the structure--for which reason1 as architects say1 the ornamentation #ea ought always to grow out of the construction1--it is quite a different thing to say that beauty and fitness or utility are identical4 ,the railway companies in our day have thrown across not a few beautiful rivers and picturesque gorges the ugliest iron bridges that can be conceived2 but no doubt they are as useful1 and perhaps may be more permanent1 than stone structures of a more elegant and graceful design4 ,we shall therefore say that ,socrates1 in his remarks on the 1 pushed his utilitarian principles and the extreme practicality of his nature into the domain of the absurd and the false4 ,but within his proper province of morals1 one cannot see that he was led by his doctrine of utility into any speculative or practical mistake4 ,for the word useful in itself is a word which really has no meaning2 it is always only a stepping-stone to something beyond itself1 and receives significance only when from some independent source the end is exhibited which the useful object subserves4 ,when1 therefore1 ,socrates talks about morality being identical with utility1 he is not asserting a philosophical principle like the modern writers who use that term2 he only means to say that a certain course of conduct founded on reason1 or certain maxims deduced from reason1 are useful to a man to enable him to obtain the end of his existence1 that is1 a certain happiness according to his opportunities and capacities4 ,and if the advocates of the so-called utilitarian philosophy1 finding the utter unmeaningness of their favourite shibboleth as a distinctive term1 shall tell us that utility means something absolute 7which however it can do only by interpolating into itself an altogether foreign idea71 if1 however1 they shall say1 as they are #eb in the habit of doing1 that that course of action is useful which tends to promote 8the greatest happiness of the greatest number10 then here they say nothing which either ,socrates or ,plato or the apostle ,paul1 or ,dr4 ,wollaston or ,immanuel ,kant or in fact any sane man1 ever dreamt of contravening4 ,in virtue of his faith in the innate sociabilities of man as opposed to the selfism of ,hobbes1 ,socrates could not but believe that it was his duty1 after having made his own life reasonable in the first place1 to help other people to get out of the limbo of unreason as speedily as possible4 ,this he says again and again in his conversations2 in fact1 his whole missionary exertions meant nothing else2 and the philanthropic power of the missionary impulse which impelled him to seek the rational happiness of his fellow-men having once full sway in his heart1 the wish for the greatest happiness of the greatest number followed as a matter of course4 ,every missionary estimates his success and feels his moral enjoyment increased by the number of his converts4 ,the man who desires the happiness of his fellow-beings at all1 whether as ,epicurus or ,plato1 must desire that happiness to the greatest number of human beings that can comfortably enjoy it within certain given limits of space and time4 ,the next great division of our subject leads us to consider1 what is by no means a matter of secondary importance1 the peculiar and characteristic manner in which ,socrates inculcated the lofty principles of his ethical philosophy--the so-called ,socratic method of teaching and of preaching4 ,now1 with regard to this1 in the first place1 what lies on the surface is that the ,socratic method of inculcating the principles of morals consists in a sort of catechising or cross-questioning #ec such as is practised by lawyers in ,westminster ,hall1 a method which is generally considered not the most pleasant of operations even there1 and which if practised now-a-days by private persons1 whether in ,west-end saloons or in ,east-end parlours1 would certainly be considered extremely ill-bred4 ,and that this should be the general feeling of all classes of mankind with regard to the matter is natural enough2 for the object of the operation being generally to convince the person operated on that he knows nothing about what he professes to know1 and to do this by publicly entangling him in the web of his own arguments1 and forcing him into a self-contradiction1 it is obvious that self-esteem and love of approbation will1 in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred1 be strong enough to stir a certain degree of resentment in the breast of the sufferer4 ,nay1 sometimes will he not feel like a poor fish cleverly hooked by an expert angler1 and played about perhaps more to show the skill of the captor than from any consideration of the feelings of the captive8 ,all this is very true2 and no doubt ,socrates made not a few enemies by this extremely personal method of exposing the manifold superficialities and incompetencies of the persons with whom he conversed4 ,but1 upon the whole1 that he was rather a popular man1 or more correctly1 an extremely popular man1 in ,athens1 during a long lifetime1 notwithstanding the catastrophe of the hemlock1 seems pretty plain both from ,xenophon and ,plato4 ,this popularity1 in the face of what certainly was a rather odious mission1 arose both from the kindly sympathetic nature of the man1 and from the admirable tact which the philosopher constantly displayed in dealing #ed with those whom he submitted to the operation of his ethical probe4 ,though in the majority of cases he was found to end in a direct contradiction of the original position of his adversary1 he always commenced by agreeing with him2 and if he saw nothing absolutely to agree with in the way of argument1 he took care to launch him in a good humour by praising some excellence in him or about him4 ,thus1 in the case of ,euthydemus1 mentioned above as the possessor of a large library1 he gives prominence to the praiseworthy ambition shown by the young man to spend his money rather on the sentences of the wise than on the vanities of external pomp and pernicious dissipation2 and thus1 though the young book-fancier departs at the end of the dialogue altogether shorn of his conceit1 and thinking the best thing he can do hereafter to prove his learning is to hold his tongue1 yet he leaves the philosopher with no rankling ill-will1 but rather disposed towards him as one feels towards a kind and considerate physician who has been forced to administer to his patient a nauseous drug4 ,and thus the mild manner of the teacher removed1 in a great measure1 the offence of the lesson2 for it is1 as an apostle says1 8the wrath of man which worketh not the righteousness of ,god10 in most cases1 not the mere speaking of the truth1 if the truth be spoken in love4 ,let us inquire now more particularly how the cross-examination went on4 ,aristotle1 in a well-known passage of the ,metaphysics1 tells us that there were two inventions to which ,socrates might justly lay claim--the defining of general terms 7 71 and inductive reasoning 7 74 ,a modern instance will enable us to understand #ee what this means4 ,suppose ,i get into an argument with any person as to whether ,a4 or ,b41 or any person holding certain opinions1 manifesting certain feelings1 and acting in a certain way1 is a ,christian4 ,i say he is2 my contradictor says he is not2 how1 then1 shall we settle the difference8 ,following the example of ,socrates1 the best procedure certainly will be to ask him to define what he means by a ,christian4 ,suppose then he answers1 ,a ,christian is a religious person who believes in the ,nicene ,creed1 ,i immediately reply1 ,the ,nicene ,creed was not sent forth till the year #cbe after ,christ2 what then do you make of the thousands and hundreds of thousands of ,christians who lived before that8 ,to this objection the answer of course will be that the ,nicene ,creed1 though not set forth in express articles1 did virtually exist as a part of the living faith of all true ,christians4 ,then1 if ,i doubt this1 ,i say1 ,was ,origen a ,christian1 was ,justin ,martyr a ,christian8 are you sure these two ,fathers believed every article of that ,creed8 ,my opponent now1 in all likelihood1 not being profoundly versed in patristic lore1 is staggered2 and ,i proceed1 we shall suppose1 to cite some passages from some one of the ante-,nicene ,fathers1 which imply dissent from some of the articles of the orthodox symbol4 ,he is then reduced to the dilemma of either denying that this ,father was a ,christian1 or 7as that will scarcely be allowable7 widening his original definition so as to include a variety of cases which1 by the narrowness of the terms1 were excluded4 ,i then go on to test the comprehensiveness of the new definition in the same way2 and if ,i find that it contains any elements which belong to the species and not to #ef the genus1 any peculiarities say of modern ,calvinism1 or of medival ,popery1 that do not belong to the general term 8,christianity10 ,i push him into a corner in the same way as before1 till ,i bring out from his own admissions a pure and broad definition of the designation ,christian1 as opposed to ,heathen1 ,jew1 or any other sort of religious professor4 ,now the example here given was purposely chosen1 to make manifest by a familiar example1 what everyday experience must teach us1 that the principal cause of difference of opinion amongst men is1 that people start in argument with some general term1 with respect to which they do not know1 and have in fact never thought of seriously inquiring1 what extent of ground it covers4 ,so that when the inadequate notions with which the minds of untrained persons are possessed have to be replaced by adequate ones1 the process always resolves itself into a making of definitions1 and a strict scrutiny of some general term1 which had hitherto passed current without special interrogation4 ,a teacher therefore1 who would be practically useful to mankind1 and not merely make brilliant oratorical displays to tickle and to amuse1 must before all things make it his business to see that they have clear ideas1 not on matters of profound and remote speculation1 but on the common currency of general terms which the necessities of social life require4 ,such a teacher was ,socrates2 and hence the logical form which his practical teaching by cross-examination1 among a people passionately fond of arguing1 naturally assumed4 ,a less argumentative people than the ,greeks1 such as ourselves1--,english and ,scotch and ,irish1--will often look on a ,socratic dialogue in ,plato1 or even ,xenophon1 #eg as curiously pedantic1 which to the ,athenians was only amusingly subtle4 ,even ,socrates1 the most practical1 and1 in the sense explained above1 the most utilitarian of men1 loved to have his little logical play out of the discussion1 in a fashion which to a broad practical ,briton1 unaccustomed to speculation1 and impatient1 often incapable of grappling with a principle1 would appear impertinent4 ,so much for the ,socratic hunt after definitions4 ,as to the other point mentioned by ,aristotle1 that ,socrates deserves praise as the inventor of inductive reasoning1 there is really no cause for surprise in the matter4 ,lord ,bacon was not the inventor of this method of dealing with facts2 neither indeed1 if we look beneath the surface1 was ,socrates2 both induction and deduction exist in a state of constant action and reaction in every normally developed human mind2 but the praise which belongs to ,bacon is that of having pressed the inductive method1 with strong adjurations and a special machinery1 into the service of physical science2 while the praise1 no less important1 belongs to ,socrates1 of having taught men four hundred years before ,christ1 to be as scrupulously exact in testing by experience their moral ideas1 as they now are in proving by experiment their physical theories4 ,let us take a well-known instance of induction in physical science1 and then see how1 under certain obvious modifications1 the same method of procedure must be adopted in the successful cultivation of the moral sciences4 ,we know1 for instance1 that there exists a marvellous1 almost miraculous1 force pervading the universe1 called ,electricity2 this is now one of the widest of general terms in the vocabulary of physical science1 and arrived at1 like #eh all other such terms1 by the carefully weighed steps of a long induction4 ,certain phenomena of attraction are first observed1 in reference to amber1 wax1 and other bodies1 when rubbed1 free from the influence of humidity2 the same phenomena are then observed in other bodies1 and accompanied with the emission of sparks of light and tiny explosions2 by an ingeniously contrived apparatus the force which causes these sparks and these explosions is accumulated1 and the effects produced by this higher potency of the same force become of course more noticeable1 and some of these experiments lead a thinking man irresistibly to the notion that what we call electricity1 as elicited by us from our electrical machines1 is only a sort of mimic thunder and lightning1 as crackers with which boys play on the ,queen's birthday are in principle the same as big cannons and ,lancaster guns4 ,this idea1 once entertained1 is tested in many different ways1 till the conclusion is certainly arrived at that electricity and lightning are identical4 ,by and by other forces1 such as magnetism and galvanism1 being considered more carefully1 and compared with the electricity of the electric machines1 are found to possess many points of resemblance1 and are in time concluded to be fundamentally the same2 and now our general term electricity is widened into a cosmical power1 which if we fail to define1 the failure will arise not from building on partial facts1 but because our generalization has clearly mounted so high into the domain of the ,infinite that the finite understanding staggers1 and perhaps is doomed for ever to stagger1 at the attempt to hold it in firm grasp4 ,thus the progress of physical science is a continual process of the giving up of inadequate #ei general terms1 and supplying them by something either exactly adequate1 or approximating to adequacy1 as high as the human intellect can hope to ascend4 ,now to this process the discovery of the true significance of general terms in morals forms an exact parallel4 ,suppose1 for instance1 a young ,englishman emerging out of the merely physical delights of cricket and boat-racing1 and beginning to occupy himself seriously with some of the great social questions of the day4 ,to him morality first presents itself1 not in the form of logical analysis1 the characteristic engine of ,socrates1 but in the concrete form of the ,christian ,church4 ,he starts therefore with an idea of ethical science as a part of ,christianity1 and of ,christianity as he knows it1 formulated in certain articles of belief1 represented dramatically in certain liturgic services1 and held together by a certain hierarchy of office-bearers4 ,in this condition it is not to be expected that the idea either of ,morals1 or of ,church1 or of ,religion1 or of ,christianity1 will exist in his mind so purified from adventitious and accidental matter as to stand the test of strict reasoning4 ,what then is to be done with him1 if he is not to remain contented with that purely local conception of moral and religious truth which belongs to him like his cylindrical hat or his swallow-tail coat1 as an affair of accepted tradition rather than of reasoned truth8 ,plainly there is only one course3 you must convince him of the insufficiency of his premises for warranting any general conclusion at all2 and1 then leading him through the whole moral and ecclesiastical experience of the ,christian ,church1 open to him a wide and a sure field of observation from which legitimate inductions #fj with regard to moral and religious ideas comprised in the term ,christianity can be made4 ,so that the cross-examination1 of which we gave a specimen above1 is in reality a process of induction as much as the processes in physical science by which electricity is identified with galvanism1 and both with magnetism4 ,but if the ethical idea is to emerge perfectly pure from such an investigation1 our young ,episcopal philosopher will require to broaden his conception of morality and religion yet further1 so as to embrace moral phenomena of an important kind beyond the pale of the term ,christianity altogether4 ,no doubt ,christianity is to us1 and has been to the most favoured races of humanity1 for nearly two thousand years1 the grand bearer of the deepest moral truth2 but the religion of ,christ does not exist everywhere1--did not exist certainly when a ,pythagoras1 a ,socrates1 and a ,plato founded their great schools of moral teaching and training among the ,greeks2 and thus to bring out the ethical idea strong in the internal identity of all its various ,avatars1 our young inquirer must launch out into the wide1 and in a great measure hitherto unexplored1 sea of comparative ethics and comparative theology4 ,a type of this sort of procedure will be found in the late admirable ,baron ,bunsen's book entitled ,god in ,history1 a work with regard to which even those who do not accept all its conclusions must admit that it is constructed upon the only scheme on which a large and adequate philosophy of ethical and religious truth can be raised4 ,we have said that moral investigation1 when conducted on the ,socratic method1 is as truly inductive as any process in physical science4 ,but there is a #fa distinction1 and that a very vital one4 ,in moral inquiries we can often start directly with deduction from some inward principle1 implanted in the human mind by the ,author of our being4 ,the love of truth1 for instance1 as above set forth1 is one of those principles2 our general term in this case we bring with us2 and any induction which we may require is not to prove the existence of such an instinct1 but to verify1 to extend1 and to correct our notions of its applicability1 or perhaps merely to confirm us in our original sacred faith1 by showing in detail that society never has existed1 and in fact never can exist1 without that regard to truth in all dealings of man with man1 the necessity of which we had asserted originally from the constraining power of the inborn moral imperative decree4 ,and if our moral principles always existed in a vivid and healthy state1 there might be little need for the slow retrogressive process of induction in ethics2 but as these instincts are peculiarly liable to be enfeebled1 curtailed1 and perverted by individual neglect1 as well as social constraint1 the corrective and cathartic process by induction on a more extended basis becomes necessary for the worst men1 and not without utility for the best4 ,at the same time1 of the noblest minds in the moral world it may always be asserted that their whole life has been rather a practical deduction from lofty truths given by original inspiration from the ,divine ,source of all vitality than the product of any induction from an acquired survey of facts4 ,the work of a great moral teacher or reformer1 such as the apostle ,paul or ,thomas ,chalmers1 is in fact a creation as much as the poems of a ,shakespeare or the paintings of a ,raphael2 and has a #fb manifest affinity also with the grand deductions of mathematical genius1 which1 from the postulated form of a triangle1 a circle1 or other figure of which the conditions are dictated by the mind1 not gathered from observation1 evolves an array of the most curious relations1 of which no one had hitherto dreamed1 and which are each one as necessary and absolutely true as the postulate from which they came forth4 ,exactly so with ,morals4 ,an admitted postulate--say of truthfulness1 of love1 or whatever inborn original principle you please1--may be worked out as the world advances into ever new and more noble practical applications1 which shall be as unconditionally right as the original diving force out of which they grew4 ,and as the propositions of ,euclid can be proved a posteriori by empirical measurements1 though they do not depend on these measurements1 in the same way the great truths of ethical science may be proved from induction1 though in the case at least of great moral teachers they are the direct and pure products of an inspired deduction4 ,and both with respect to mathematical and moral truths1 it may be said that1 while the a posteriori inductive method forces assent upon the lowest class of minds1 the a priori or deductive method is the spontaneous evolution of the highest class of minds1 whose dictates are sympathetically accepted by all whom ,divine grace may have disposed to be touched by the noble contagion4 ,so much for the logical element in the ,socratic method4 ,but as his logic was merely the dexterous weapon of a great moral apostleship1 we must look on him also from this aspect1 and contrast the method of his teaching with that of a modern sermon4 #fc ,a sermon is either the most rousing and effective1 or the tamest and most ineffective of all moral addresses1 according to the character and power of the man who delivers it4 ,if the speaker has a real vocation to address his fellow-men on moral subjects1 and if he does not deal in vague and trivial generalities1 sounding very pious on ,sunday1 but having no distinct and recognisable reference to the secular business of ,monday1 then a good sermon may be compared to a discharge of moral electricity1 which will arouse many sleepers1 or to the setting up of a sure finger-post1 which will direct many wanderers4 ,but if he is tame1 and a mere professional dealer in certain routine articles of piety1 which religious people wear as a sort of amulet rather than use as a weapon--in this case no species of moral address can be looked on as less effective2 for it neither rouses nor guides1 and instead of ending in any work in the life of the hearer 7and all moral teaching that does not end in a work is vanity71 the hearing of it is rather looked on as a sort of work in itself1 which1 however short1 is generally considered as having been a little too long when it is ended4 ,now1 as distinguished from both these styles of pulpit address1 the ,socratic sermon was addressed to the individual man1 and could not fail to produce a distinct and tangible effect2 for it ended always by saying to the hearer1 as ,nathan said to ,david1 ,,thou ,,art ,,the ,,man6 ,there was no escape from the appeal2 it might not hover about the ears with a pious hum for half an hour1 and then be forgotten2 it must either be indignantly rejected1 or graciously accepted4 ,and herein precisely lay the great distinction between ,socrates and the ,sophists1 #fd a distinction which ,mr4 ,grote has so perversely done his best to obliterate4 ,socrates was a preacher2 the ,sophists were not4 ,socrates was a patriot fighting and dying earnestly for a great cause2 the ,sophists were cunning masters of fence1 who had no cause to fight for except themselves and their own pockets4 ,but ,socrates1 though in a very different way1 was as earnestly a moral reformer in ,athens as ,calvin was in ,geneva4 ,when the stern ,genevese disciplinarian set himself with all the resolution of a manly nature to put some checks and hindrances in the way of the loose practices of the 8,libertines0 of ,lake ,leman1 these respectable people protested strongly against the attempt1 saying to the unflinching preacher1 8,it is your place to explain the ,scriptures2 what right have you to meddle with other things--to talk about morals and find fault80 ,and even so in ,athens there were certain ,libertines who used exactly the same language to ,socrates4 ,had you been a mere talker like the other ,sophists1 you might have been allowed to talk2 talking is a very innocent affair2 but your talk is not a mere exhibition of lingual dexterity2 it means something2 it means perhaps danger to the ,state1--certainly it means danger to us2 it means that we may be called to account for our deeds by any man who assumes to have a more scrupulous conscience or a more enlightened reason than ourselves2 and this is what we will not tolerate4 ,one of the oddities of ,socrates which seems to have offended the nice taste of the 1 or men of elegant culture in ,athens1 was the homeliness of his style and the familiarity of his illustrations4 ,this is particularly alluded to by ,alcibiades in the #fe humorous speech in ,plato's ,banquet2 from which an extract has been already made4 ,in the peroration of that speech ,alcibiades is made to say that not only the personal appearance1 but the whole style and language of ,socrates1 had a close affinity to the ,sileni and ,satyrs2 for instead of using elegantly turned sentences and studiously selected illustrations1 like the ,sophists1 he was always talking about 8smiths and tanners and shoemakers1 and asses with pack-saddles10 and a whole host of such vulgarities1 which to the hearer at first seemed to make him ridiculous2 but by and by they discovered that behind all this rough ,satyr's hide of uncouth expression there lurked a truly divine meaning1 and the faces of gods peeped out through the holes of the beggar's coat4 ,and the same language is used in ,xenophon by ,critias and ,charicles when1 in the exercise of a tyrannical authority1 they called upon the philosopher to cease from his dangerous business of talking sedition to the young men4 ,now1 any man who considers this matter will perceive that the peculiarity of style here noted lay partly in the natural character of the man1 partly was the best style which he could possibly have adopted1 if he really wished to do good as a moral missionary1 and not merely to parade himself before men as a clever talker4 ,the dignity of the pulpit in modern times is one of the great causes of its comparative inefficiency2 it will not condescend to familiar subjects2 it rejects familiar illustrations as bad taste1 and the consequence too frequently is that it is not received into the confidence of every-day life1 and stands apart on too lofty a pedestal to be useful4 ,but as a sensible and acute ethical writer remarks1 #ff 8if moral questions disdain to walk the streets1 the philosophy of them must remain in the clouds20#ff4a and so ,socrates is justified in his method of testing every lofty principle by a familiar example1 and1 like ,wordsworth1 the thoughtful poet of the ,lakes1 teaching us that philosophy is then most profound when it points out what is uncommon in common things1 and that he is a wiser man who plucks a lesson from the daisy at his feet than he who wanders for it to the stars above his head4 ,another notable peculiarity of the ,socratic method is1 that1 while in the majority of cases the discussion seems to end in unveiling the ignorance of pretenders to knowledge1 and1 as we express it1 taking the conceit out of them1 in other cases the young examinee1 instead of being convicted of ignorance1 is pleasantly surprised at finding that he knows more than he suspected1 and goes home with the comfortable assurance that he needs not to sink his bucket into any foreign shaft1 but really possesses a well of living waters in his own soul1 if he will only work it faithfully1 and be careful to remove obstructions4 ,the unveiling of this hidden fountain of knowledge to the humble and thoughtful inquirer is the famous obstetric process of which ,socrates humorously boasted himself a practiser4 ,as his mother's profession was to help nature to bring her physical births easily and happily to the light1 so her son's business was to practise intellectual obstetrics1 and help people to deliver themselves of their intellectual offspring4 ,in this method of talking there is involved the whole philosophy of the best art of teaching2 even as the word education by its #fg etymological affinities plainly indicates1 in so far as it signifies to 8draw out10 not to 8put in40 ,we see here again the practical issue of that fine erotic passion for human beings1 that divine rage for humanity1 which was the inspiration of his life1 and put into his hands the golden key to the hearts of all teachable men4 ,while he was the most exact and scientific1 he was1 at the same time1 the least dogmatic and egotistic of moral teachers4 ,he did not desire so much that men should placidly submit to receive his dogmas1 as that they should be trained to the grand human function of shaping out the universal divine idea1 or at least some part of it1 each man for himself1 according to his capacity4 ,he wished to be no more than the trencher of the moral soil1 not the planter of the seed2 the seed lay already in the clod1 which being broken1 the outward influences of sun and air and dew excited1 from within the growth of an essentially divine germ4 ,let it be noted under this head1 in conclusion1 that it was essential to the reformatory mission of ,socrates that he should teach without a fee4 ,the man who practises a trade or a profession may justly demand the wages of his labour2 but to preach moral truth1 to protest against public sins1 and convert sinners1 is no profession for which the world can be expected to pay4 ,those who practise remunerative trades and professions supply the immediate wants of the world1 and are paid in the world's coin2 but for this payment they become the slaves of the masters who employ them1 and must give the rightful value for the stipulated reward4 ,but a prophet1 or an apostle1 or a teacher of moral truth in any shape1 knows that he is bringing an article to the #fh market for which there may be no demand2 he knows further that1 by his mere attitude as a preacher1 he is assuming a superiority over his brethren which is inconsistent with the equality of position and right which the act of buying and selling supposes in the parties concerned4 ,he must1 above all things1 be free in his function2 and to accept money from no one is the first condition of moral independence4 ,of this the father of the faithful1 as we read in the ,book of ,genesis1 gave an illustrious example1 when he refused to take any of the booty offered to him by the king of ,sodom1 8lest thou shouldest say1 ,i have made ,abram rich40 ,and for the same reason manifestly1 neither the ,hebrew prophets nor the apostle ,paul were paid for their preaching1 nor indeed in the nature of things could he4 ,savonarola was not paid for publicly preaching against the vicious lives of the ,popes2 ,luther was not paid for his manly protest against the prostitution of ,divine grace in the sale of pardons for tinkling silver2 and in the same way ,socrates was not1 and could not be1 paid for his mission of convincing the cleverest persons in ,athens of ignorance1 shallowness1 and all sorts of inadequacy4 ,in fact he did not come forward as a professional teacher at all4 ,he issued no flaming advertisements4 ,he only said that he was a man in search of wisdom1 and would be glad of any honest man's company and co-operation in the search4 ,the ,sophists in this and in so many other respects were altogether different4 ,they made large professions and accepted large fees4 ,it remains now1 in order to complete our sketch1 that we give some indication of the theological #fi opinions and religious life of ,socrates2 then that we point shortly to his political opinions and public life2 and lastly1 that we attempt a just estimate of the circumstances and agencies which led to his singularly notable and noble exit from the brilliant stage where he had for so many years been the prominent performer4 ,that ,socrates because he was a moralist should have been also a theologian is not absolutely necessary2 it is natural1 however2 so natural1 indeed1 that when a great popular teacher1 like ,confucius1 though not theoretically an atheist1 practically ignores religion1 we cannot but accept this as a sign of some mental idiosyncrasy alike unfortunate for the teacher and the taught4 ,for to deny a ,first ,cause1 or not to assert it decidedly1 is as if a man1 professing to be a botanist1 should describe only the character of the flower and the fruit as what appears above ground1 while either from stupidity or cross-grained perversity1 he ignores the root and the seed1 without which the whole beauty of the blossom and the utility of the fruit could not exist2 or1 to take another simile1 it is as if a man should curiously describe the cylinders and the pistons and the wheels1 the furnaces1 the boilers1 and the condensing chambers of a steam-engine1 and while doing so studiously avoid mentioning the name of ,james ,watt4 ,one would say1 in such a case1 that1 while the describer deserved great praise for the clearness and consistency with which he had set forth the sequence of mechanical operations that make up the engine1 he had left an unsatisfactory impression on the mind1 by omitting the grand fact which rendered the existence of such an engine possible1 viz41 a creative intellect4 ,we should say that he was a good mechanician and an #gj eloquent expounder of machinery1 but we could not call him a philosopher2 he had stopped short1 in fact1 at the very point where philosophy finds its thrill of peculiar delight at the vestibule of ultimate causes4 ,to the scientific man1 in the same way1 who is either a speculative atheist or who studiously avoids any allusion to an original plastic ,intellect as the ,ultimate ,cause of all things and the ,primary ,force of all forces1 the universe is merely a vast unexplained machine1 performing a closely concatenated series of unintelligible operations1 tabulated under the name of ,laws2 and to the moralist1 who is only a moralist1 society is a machine of another kind1 whose wheels and pulleys and bands may be curiously described1 and must be kept in nice order1 but of whose genesis he can give no intelligible account4 ,it follows1 therefore1 that a philosophical moralist must be a theist1 and that not only on speculative grounds1 but from this practical consideration also1 that from no source can the ,moral ,law derive the unity and the authority which is essential to it1 so efficiently as from the all-controlling and unifying primary fact which we call ,,god4 ,any other keystone contrived by ingenious wits to give consistency to the social arch is artificial2 this alone is natural4#gj4a ,accordingly we find that from the days of ,moses and the ,hebrew prophets1 through ,solon and ,pythagoras to ,socrates and ,plato2 from ,socrates and #ga ,plato through the ,apostles and ,evangelists and the grand army of ,church ,fathers1 to ,luther1 ,calvin1 ,knox1 and the other great ,reformers of the sixteenth century2 from the great ,churchmen of the ,reformation through ,leibnitz and ,spinoza1 and ,locke and ,butler and ,kant1 down to the very recent and low platform of ,paley and ,austin1 the foundation of ,morals has been laid in ,theology4 ,and of all great theological moralists there is none who is at once more theoretically distinct and more practically consistent than ,socrates4 ,to him is to be traced the first scientific expression of the great argument from design1--an argument1 no doubt1 which is as old as the human heart1 and exists in all unperverted minds without being formulated1 but which1 in a logical age and among a critical people1 not the less demands to be set forth1 link by link1 and illustrated in detail as ,socrates does in the following dialogue1 a dialogue which we shall translate at length1 at once as a notable landmark in theological literature1 and as a good illustration of the philosopher's favourite method of bringing out a grave truth from a familiar colloquy4 8,there was one ,aristodemus1 a little man1 well known in ,athens1 not only as one who never either sacrificed to the gods or used divination1 but as laughing and jeering at those who did so4 ,this man ,socrates one day happened to meet1 and knowing his tendencies addressed him at once thus4 ,tell me1 ,aristodemus1 are there any persons whom you admire particularly for their wisdom8 ,that there are1 he replied4 ,well1 said ,socrates1 let me hear the names of a few4 ,homer1 said the other1 for epic poetry2 ,melanippides for dithyrambs2 for tragedy1 ,sophocles2 #gb for sculpture1 ,polycleitus2 for painting1 ,zeuxis4 ,then tell me this1 which is worthy of the greater admiration1 the artist who makes figures which have neither life nor intelligence1 or ,he who makes animals that have both life and intelligence8 ,this artist1 of course1 said ,aristodemus2 for such animals would not be made by chance1 but by calculation4 ,well then1 of two classes of things1 whereof the one has manifestly been constructed for some useful end1 and the other1 so far as one can see1 for no end at all1 which would you call the product of calculation8 ,of course the things made for some useful end4 ,now answer me this1--,he who made men at first1 and gave them senses to bring them into contact with the outward world1 eyes to see and ears to hear1 did ,he furnish them with these organs for a useful purpose or for no purpose at all8 and as for odours and smells1 if we had not nostrils1 so far as we are concerned they might as well not have existed2 and how could we have had any perception of sweet and sour1 and all agreeable tastes1 had we not been furnished with a tongue to take1 cognisance of such sensations8 ,observe further1 how the eye1 being naturally a tender organ1 is supplied with eyelids as a house with a door1 which may be opened to receive pleasant guests1 and closed when danger approaches2 the eye-lashes also manifestly serve as a sort of sieve to prevent the passage of any injurious particles which the wind might drive against the pupil1 while the eyebrows form a sort of coping or fence which prevents the sweat from the forehead flowing into the organ of vision4 ,not less wonderful is it that the ear is so formed as to be able to take in an uncounted number of various sounds1 and #gc yet is never filled2 and in the mouth we are instantly met with the remarkable fact in all animals1 that1 while the front teeth1 which take up the food1 are formed for cutting1 the back teeth1 which receive it from them1 are adapted for the after operation of grinding2 observe also the situation of the great organ of nourishment1 close to eyes and the nostrils1 which keep a watch against the approach of unhealthy food2 while on the other hand1 that part of the food which is useless for nutrition1 being naturally offensive1 is carried off by ducts and passages placed at as great a distance as possible from the organs of sensation4 ,all these contrivances1 so manifestly proceeding from a purpose1 can we doubt whether we should call works of chance or of intellect8 ,looking at the matter in this light1 certainly1 said the little man1 ,i can have no hesitation in saying these are the contrivances of a very wise and benevolent designer4 ,consider further1 continued ,socrates1 how there is implanted in all animals a desire of continuing their species1 how the parents have a pleasure in breeding1 and the offspring are above all things distinguished by the love of life and the fear of death4 ,these also1 he said1 seem to be the contrivances of some ,being who wished that animals should exist4 ,then1 continued ,socrates1 consider yourself--do you believe that there is something in you which we call ,intelligence8 and1 if in you1 whence came it8 is there no intelligence in the world outside of you8 ,your body1 you perceive1 is made up of certain very small portions of solid and liquid elements1 of which vast quantities exist beyond you1 and of which your body is a part2 and if your body is taken from such a vast storehouse of matter1 is your mind the only #gd part of you which is underived from any source1 and which you seem to have snapped up somehow by good luck8 and is it possible1 or in any way conceivable1 that all this gigantic and beautifully ordered form of things which we call the world should have jumped into its present consistency from mere random forces without calculation8 ,scarcely2 but then ,i do not see the authors of the world as ,i do of works which men produce here4 ,as little do you see your own soul1 said ,socrates1 which yet is the lord of your body1 so that1 taking your own logic strictly1 you must conclude that you do all things by chance and nothing by calculation4 ,well then1 said ,aristodemus1 the fact is that ,i do not despise the ,divine ,power1#gd4a but ,i esteem all ,divine natures too mighty and too glorious to require any service from me4 ,for this reason rather they justly claim our regard1 said ,socrates1 their might and their glory being the natural measure of the honour which they ought to receive from us4 ,well1 be assured1 ,socrates1 that if ,i could only imagine that the gods had any concern for us1 ,i should not neglect them4 ,and do you really mean to affirm that they actually have no concern for us8 ,why1 consider what they have done for you2 in the first place giving you an erect stature1 which they gave to no other animal1 a stature by virtue of which you not only see better before you1 but can look upwards also1 and defend yourself in many ways which with downcast eyes were impossible2 and in the next place1 not content with giving you feet1 like other animals1 they have furnished #ge you with hands also1 the organs by which we practise most of those acts which manifest our superiority to them2#ge4a and1 to crown all1 while other animals have a tongue1 man alone possesses this organ of such a nature that by touching the hollow of the mouth with it in various ways he can mould the emitted voice into articulate speech1 significant of what thought wishes to communicate to thought4 ,again1 the love which is a passion that stirs other animals only at certain seasons of the year1 man is capable of enjoying at all seasons2 and not only do our capacities of bodily efficiency and enjoyment so far surpass those of other animals1 but ,god 7 7 has implanted in man a soul of the most transcendent capacity4 ,for what other animal1 ,i ask1 has a soul which enables it to own and to acknowledge the existence of the gods1 who have disposed all this mighty order of things of which we are a part8 ,what race of animals except man pays any worship to the gods8#ge4b ,what animal possesses a soul so fit as that of man to guard against the inclemencies of the weather1 to prevent or cure disease1 to train to bodily strength or to intellectual acuteness8 and what animal when it has learned anything can retain the lesson with equal tenacity8 ,is it not rather plain that1 compared with other animals1 men live really as gods upon the earth1 so strikingly superior #gf are they both in bodily and intellectual endowments2 for neither could a creature with man's reason1 but with the body of an ox1 have been able fully to execute its purposes2 nor1 again1 could a creature with human hands1 but without human intellect1 be able to go beyond the brute stage of animal life2 and after all this1 heaped up as you are with bounties and blessings from all sides1 will you still persist in thinking that you are a creature neglected by the gods8 ,what1 ,i ask1 do you expect them to do for you before they shall have any just claim to your regard8 ,i shall expect them1 replied ,aristodemus1 to do for me what you say they do for you1 to send me advisers as to what ,i ought to do and what ,i ought not to do4 ,be it so2 and do you think that your case is not already provided for1 when the gods on being consulted through divination give an answer which concerns all ,athenians8 or do you imagine when the ,greeks1 or the whole human race1 are warned of coming evil by a portent1 that you are specially excluded from the benefit of that divine indication8 ,do you imagine that the gods would have implanted in all human breasts the feeling that they are able to do us good or evil1 if they did not possess this power1 or that men constantly being deceived by this notion would not by this time have discovered the delusion8 ,have you not observed also that the wisest nations and the most stable governments are those which are the most religious1 and that individual men are then most piously inclined when their reason is strongest and their passions most under control8 ,believe me1 my dear young friend1 that as your soul within you moves and manages the body even as it wills1 so we ought #gg to believe that the ,intelligence which indwelleth the whole of things makes and designs all things according to its good pleasure1 and not to imagine that while our human eye can reach many miles in vision1 the ,divine eye should not be able to see all things at a glance1 nor that1 while your soul can manage matters not here in ,athens only1 but in ,egypt and ,sicily1 the intelligence of the ,divine ,being 7 7 is not able to exercise a comprehensive care at once over the whole and each individual ,in the same way therefore as by performing acts of kindness to men you come to learn those who are disposed to show kindness to you in return1 and as by conferring with men on important matters you know who are able to give sound advice on such matters1 if with this disposition you approach the gods1 making trial of them if belike they are willing to reveal to you any of those things which are naturally unknown to men1 then you will certainly learn by experience that the ,divine nature 7 7 is of such a kind as to be able to see all things1 and to hear all things1 and to be everywhere present1 and to have a providential care of all things40 ,so concludes this interesting dialogue1 and the sympathetic reporter in winding it up adds1 8,the tendency of such discourses appears to me plainly to induce men to abstain from unholy and unjust and foul deeds1 not only when they are seen of men1 but also in a lonely wilderness1 living constantly under the conviction that whatever men do1 and in whatever place1 they can in nowise escape the eye of the ,omniscient40 ,let us now make a few remarks on the theological argument1 or the argument from design1 here sketched #gh in such broad and masterly lines4 ,it is an argument1 when taken in the gross1 and in its grand outline1 so striking and so convincing1 that it is only by confining the eye to a few minute and unessential points that certain precise and puzzling minds have conceited themselves that they were able to blunt the edge of its force4 ,one class of objectors1 unfortunately not at all uncommon in recent times1 have imagined that they have refuted ,paley's famous argument from the watch found on a waste heath1 by saying that there is no analogy between a piece of human manufacture like a watch1 and a living growth like a plant or an animal4 ,very true1 so far2 a growth is a growth1 and a manufacture is a manufacture2 the one possesses inherent divine vitality1 the other no vitality at all2 but what follows8 ,not that an animal and a plant have nothing in common1 but only that they have not the principle of vitality in common2 not that the animal may not be constructed on the same principles of design and adaptation on which the watch is constructed1 but that the animal to the curious machinery has something superadded which we call life4 ,the fact of the matter is1 that ,dr4 ,paley's argument would hold equally good if the designing soul that made the supposed watch1 instead of being outside in the shape of a watch-maker1 had been inside1 as the principle of vitality is in a plant2 then we should have called the watch a plant or an animal1 and the design would have spoken out from its structure as manifestly as before4 ,there is therefore no difference1 so far as design and calculation are concerned1 between a cunningly constituted growth and a curiously compacted machine4 ,another class of objectors are fond to tell us that things are not #gi what they are by virtue of any inherent calculated type1 but by a combination of complex conditions and circumstances1 which in the course of millions of millions of ages work themselves happily into a consistent organism4 ,this is just ,epicurus back again in his naked absurdity1 almost indeed in the same senseless phraseology2 as we may see1 for instance1 in the following passage from the ,westminster ,review1 on which in the course of my reading ,i accidentally stumbled3--8,the positive method makes very little account of marks of intelligence2 in its wider view of phenomena it sees that these incidents are a minority1 and may rank as happy coincidences2 it absorbs them in the singular conception of ,,law40 ,let us attempt to analyse this utterance4 ,it is the boast of the ,comtian philosophy to find intelligence in the works of ,auguste ,comte1 but not in the works of the ,architect of the universe4 ,let that pass4 ,in the next place it is indicated that it is a narrow view of things which discovers ,,design in creation2 a larger view reveals ,,law2 and the few incidents that may seem to indicate design are perhaps better explained by the old ,epicurean method of the 8fortuitous concourse of atoms40 ,never was a greater amount of incoherence crammed into a short sentence4 ,the inference which ,dr4 ,paley drew from his watch is not in the least affected by the narrowness of the view which the inspection of a watch necessitates2 nor would the striking evidence of a design in the structure of that little telescope the human eye1 be diminished in the least by extending the view to the largest telescope ever made1 or to the largest human body in the watch-tower of which a human eye was ever placed4 ,the only legitimate consequence of #hj mounting from the contemplation of an eye1 merely as an eye1 to its consideration as part of a large organism called the human body1 would be to increase admiration by the discovery that the little design of the instrument was subservient to the large design of the body1 as if1 after admiring a small chamber in a vast building1 and praising the cunning of the architect1 we should walk through the whole suite of rooms and then discover some new beauty in the chamber having reference to the great whole of which it was a part4 ,but instead of this our author informs us that this wider view 8absorbs the original feeling of design into the singular conception of ,,law40 ,applied to the supposed case of the small chamber in the large palace1 this is flat nonsense4 ,for the 8singular conception of ,,law10 in this case1 is just the large plan of the whole building1 which1 along with the small plan of each part1 proceeded from the comprehensive intellect of the architect4 ,what is ,,law8 ,the reasoning in the above passage implies that it is something contrary to design1 something that absorbs it1 nay more1 something that reduces it to the category of a 8happy coincidence40 ,but ,law is only a steady self-consistent method of operation1 which explains nothing2 it is only a fact2 and if in this method of operation there be manifest order and purpose of producing a reasoned and consistent result1 the law then becomes a manifestation of design1 as in the original application of the word to the work of a lawgiver1 a ,solon or a ,lycurgus whose laws certainly implied a calculated purpose of reform and re-organization2 or1 to take again the watch1 the law by which this tiny worker goes1 is only the single word which1 describes that #ha ordered complex of calculated movements which the design of the maker puts into play1 for the purpose of marking the regular lapse of time4 ,the discovery of a great law1 therefore1 in an ordered and calculated system of things1 such as the world1 may enlarge the field in which design is exhibited1 but1 so far from absorbing1 can only tend to make that design more prominent4 ,so much for ,comte4 ,but what shall we say of ,darwin8 ,if that original and ingenious investigator of nature really does mean to say that there are no original types of things in the ,divine mind 7,i use ,platonic language purposely1 because it is the only language that satisfies the demands of the case71 and that a rose became a lily1 or a lily a rose1 by some external power called 8natural selection10--,i reply that ,i shall believe this when ,i see it2 that a modifying influence is one thing1 and a plastic force another2 and that1 as an able ,hegelian philosopher remarks1#ha4a a selection producing not a random but a reasonable result always implies some principle of selection1 and a selecting agency--that is1 the ,socratic designing ,intellect4 ,but there are greater names than those of ,comte and ,darwin1 who have been quoted as oracular denouncers of all teleology--two of the greatest indeed of all modern names4 ,bacon and ,goethe4 ,the dictum of the great father of modern physical science1 that teleology is a barren virgin1 has been often repeated4 ,now1 as ,bacon was a pious man1 at least a religious philosopher1 he certainly cannot have meant ,atheism by this2 what then did he mean8 #hb ,this question will be best answered by considering what ,bacon's attitude as a philosopher was4 ,he was not1 like ,aristotle1 a calm judicial speculator1 making a tabulated register of all knowledge2 he was rather like ,martin ,luther1 a man of war2 and as the ecclesiastical reformer's life and doctrine derive all their significance from the abuses of the ,papacy which they overthrew1 so ,bacon's position as a polemical thinker is to be interpreted only with reference to the school of thinking which he attacked4 ,that school was a school fruitful in theories1 discussions1 and sounding generalities of all kinds1 which afforded ample exercise to intellectual athletes1 but produced no practical result4 ,to put an end to this vague and unprofitable talk1 the ,british ,bacon1 with the same practical instinct which guided the ,attic ,socrates1 though in an opposite direction1 set himself to establish a scientific method1 a method specially calculated by the interrogation of nature to ascertain facts1 and from the careful comparison of facts to educe laws4 ,with these investigations into elementary scientific facts the general philosophical principle of final causes had nothing directly to do2 nay1 it might even act perniciously in an age which had not yet learned the art of careful experiment by accustoming men in an indolent sort of way to spin ingenious theories about the final causes of certain arrangements in the universe1 before they had taken pains to ascertain what these arrangements actually were4 ,and when we consider how vast a machine the ,cosmos is1 and how great the ignorance of us curious emmets who set ourselves to interpret its hieroglyphics1 and to spell its scripture1 it will be obvious that a warning against the ready luxury of speculating on final #hc causes was one of the most necessary utterances that might come from the mouth of a reformer of scientific method4 ,however far men may rise through the long gradation of secondary causes up to the ,first ,cause1 and by the slow steps of progress which we call means to a final result1 the preliminary question of course always is1 ,what are the facts8 and till these be accurately ascertained ,bacon was fully justified in saying that speculation about final causes is a barren virgin and produces no offspring4 ,but this wise abstinence from assigning final causes at any particular stage of physical research is a quite different thing from saying absolutely that there are no marks of design in the universe1 and that those most obvious things which from ,socrates downwards have been generally esteemed such1 may in the phraseology of a higher philosophy 8rank as happy coincidences40 ,the humble admiration of final causes in the world by the intelligent worshipper is one thing1 the hasty interpretation of them by every forward religionist is another thing4 ,the works of ,god are not to be expounded1 nor ,his ends and aims descanted on by every talker who may discourse with fluent propriety on the works of a human toy-maker like himself4 ,such we may feel confidently was ,bacon's point of view in reference to teleological questions4 ,as for ,goethe1 who was a scientific investigator of scarcely less note than a poet1 his remark to ,eckermann on this subject shows that his point of view was exactly the same4 ,not ,,why1 or ,,for ,,what ,,purpose1 or ,,with ,,what ,,object1 he says1 is the way of putting the question by which science may be profited2 the true scientific question is always ,,how4 ,of this there can be no doubt1 8,felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere #hd causas60 the physical inquirer is primarily concerned to know--how did this come about8 by what curiously concatenated series of operations1 starting from a certain point beyond which we cannot rise1 are certain results produced8 ,answer this and science is satisfied2 but in being so satisfied it proves itself to be a thing of secondary and ancillary significance1 resting1 like the mathematician's demonstrations1 on principles which it belongs to a superior science to evolve4 ,the whole doctrine of causes1 efficient as well as final1 belongs to philosophy1 to that grand doctrine of fundamental realities which dictates to mere science both its starting-point and its goal4 ,but not even in this view is it altogether correct to say that the consideration of design has nothing to do with purely scientific investigations1 and by the purely scientific man had better be ignored4 ,all we can say is1 that it is better that it should be ignored in certain cases than falsely presumed4 ,but in a world where everything is under the government of ,law1 which is merely the expression of reason and the manifestation of design1 nothing could be more ,arbitrary and more perverse than the systematic exclusion of final causes from the philosophy of nature4 ,so far from this1 it is certain there can be no philosophy of nature without them2 if indeed atheism can be called a philosophy1 and in this nineteenth century1 ,moses and ,plato and the ,apostle ,paul may be cast from their throne to make way for a resuscitated ,greek ,epicurus in the person of a conceited ,french dogmatist6 ,we shall therefore conclude1 in accordance with the teaching of ,socrates1 that an open eye for final causes not only belongs to wisdom1 but may often advance science1 when proceeding #he cautiously upon the due observation and connexion of facts2 inasmuch as1 in the words of an able metaphysician1 8this universe is not an accidental cavity in which an accidental dust has been accidentally swept into heaps for the accidental evolution of the majestic spectacle of organic and inorganic life4 ,that majestic spectacle is a spectacle as plainly for the eye of reason as any diagram of the mathematician4 ,that majestic spectacle could have been constructed1 was constructed1 only in reason1 for reason1 and by reason2 and therefore everywhere1 from the smallest particle1 to the largest system1 moulded and modelled and inhabited by ,,design40#he4a ,the theological convictions of ,socrates being so strong and so decided1 it followed as a necessary consequence1 in a person of so practical a character1 that he should be a pious man1 and that he should practise those rites and services by which the dependent position of man towards the gods is most naturally and effectively expressed4 ,if man1 as was taught in the above extract1 is the only animal capable of religion1 then the worship of the ,supreme ,intelligence becomes the peculiar sign1 privilege1 and glory of his humanity4 ,an irreligious man1 a speculative or practical atheist1 is as a sovereign who voluntarily takes off his crown and declares himself unworthy to reign4 ,religious worship1 therefore1 being an act which a man is specially bound to perform in virtue of his humanity1 neither ,socrates nor any other pious heathen thinker could have any doubt as to the peculiar forms and ceremonies that ought to constitute this act4 ,for all the heathens1--certainly #hf all ,greeks and ,romans1--held that religion was an essential function of the ,state1 that ,church and ,state1 as we phrase it1 are one and inseparable1 consequently that every good subject owed allegiance to the religious traditions and observances of his countrymen1 just as he did to the civil laws4#hf4a ,the gods were to be worshipped by every good citizen in every state1-- 1--or1 as we would say1 according to the law of the land2 and as the religions of ,greece and ,rome were not fenced with bristling dogmas in the shape of what we call a #hg ,creed and ,church ,articles1 but floated quite freely in the region of reverential tradition1 while1 at the same time1 in those days1 no man ever dreamed of haying a religion for himself any more than of having a civil government for himself1 the conformity even of great thinkers to the popular faith was not naturally accompanied by any taint of that species of insincerity which has so often attached to the subscription of modern articles of belief4 ,the right #hh of private judgment was exercised by the ,greeks only in the domain of philosophical speculation2 for teaching the results of these speculations they established schools2 but the idea of protesting and dissenting and making a private business of religion1 for the maintenance of certain ceremonies1 forms of church-government1 or favourite doctrines1 could never have occurred to them4 ,neither are we to think it strange if1 even as a matter of speculation1 minds of great original power1 like that of ,socrates1 should feel no intellectual repugnance to the main principles of a polytheistic faith4 ,there is nothing fundamentally absurd in ,polytheism1 provided only a wise superintendent ,providence be established somewhere to overrule the democratic assembly of subordinate gods2 and this the ,greeks had prominently in the person of ,zeus4#hh4a ,the other gods1 like the angels in the ,christian theology1 however much their power might be exaggerated by the reverence of particular localities1 were in the comprehensive survey of a philosophic mind only the ministers of his supreme will1 working harmoniously along with him in the sustainment of the divine fabric of the universe4 ,with this view of ,polytheism1 pious-minded men such as ,socrates1 ,xenophon1 and ,plutarch could be perfectly satisfied2 and the extravagant and immoral stories about the gods1 which excited the bile of ,xenophanes and ,plato1 needed not necessarily to give them any offence4 ,for why8 these stories were #hi matter of popular belief1 not of intellectual decision or of sacerdotal dictation4 ,a great national poet1 like ,pindar1 might explain1 or explain away1 in the public assembly of the ,greeks1 any legends that appeared to him to contain matter unworthy of his lofty conception of the gods4 ,so of course might a philosopher like ,socrates4 ,the peasants round ,athens believed that the ,wind ,boreas came down in human form1 and carried off the nymph ,oreithyia from the banks of the ,ilissus2 this might or might not be true2 ,socrates certainly was not bound te believe it2 and1 as he himself tells us in the ,phdrus1 he was too busy with more important matters to trouble himself with inquiring into the truth or falsehood of sacred legends in a country where every fountain had its peculiar worship1 and every river its divine genealogy4 ,this easy dealing with questions about legends1 however1 did not in the least imply any want of sincerity in the attitude of doubting thinkers towards the main articles of the ,polytheistic creed2 on the contrary1 the more pliable the legend the less danger was there of its standing in the way of an honest acceptance of the broad fundamental points of the general creed2 and it is an altogether gratuitous supposition in a late distinguished writer#hi4a to suppose that when ,socrates at his death gave as a dying injunction to his friends to sacrifice a cock1 which he had vowed1 to sculapius1 he did this merely from the effect of habit1 and that he really did not believe in the existence of the god whom the injunction immediately concerned4 ,while the general evidence of the adherence of ,socrates both #ij in theory and practice to the popular creed is so strong1 we have no right in any particular instance to set him down as insincere4 ,of his general sincerity on these matters there certainly can be no doubt4 ,it is set forth distinctly in more than one dialogue of ,xenophon1 and harmonizes exactly with all that we read in ,plato4 ,the philosopher used the common kinds of divination practised by his countrymen1 and gave special directions as to the subjects on which a wise man should consult the gods1 and on which he should seek for direction from them rather than from his own reason4 ,we have special testimony to the fact that on one occasion 7see above1 page #aa7 he1 after a long period of pious meditation1 offered up a prayer to the ,sun2 and one of the ,platonic dialogues concludes with a prayer of ,socrates in the following curt and significant style3-- 8,o dear ,pan1 and ye other gods who frequent this spot1 grant me1 in the first place1 to be good within2 and as for outward circumstances1 may they be such as harmonize well with my inward capacities4 ,grant me ever to esteem the wise man as the alone wealthy man2 and as for gold1 may ,i possess as much of it as a man of moderate desires may know to use wisely40 ,so much for the theological belief and unaffected piety of this great man4 ,how intimately he held ,religion and ,morality to be bound together will best appear from the following dialogue with the ,sophist ,hippias1 on the foundation of natural right and positive law4 ,we give it at length1 as it has a direct bearing on some fundamental principles of general jurisprudence which have been largely debated in this country1 from ,locke down to ,bentham and ,mill4 8,is it not strange1 ,hippias1 said ,socrates1 that #ia when a man wishes to have his son taught shoemaking or carpentry or any trade1 he has no difficulty in finding a master to whom he may send him for instruction8 nay1 ,i have even heard that there are training masters who will teach a horse or an ox to do what they ought to do4 ,but if ,i wish for myself or my son or my servant1 to know the principles of what is right and just1 ,i look in vain for any source whence ,i might get instruction in these important matters4 ,there you are1 said ,hippias 7who had just returned to ,athens after a long absence7--there you are saying exactly the same things that you were saying when ,i left you6 ,very true1 said ,socrates1 and not only do ,i say the same things always1 but always about the same things1 while you1 ,i presume1 on account of your multiform knowledge1 on no occasion require to repeat any old truths4 ,well1 ,i readily confess that ,i always prefer1 when ,i can1 to bring out something new4 ,do you then mean to say that even when you know a thing thoroughly1 and have occasion to speak about it frequently1 you can always continue to say something new8 as1 for example1 if any one were to ask you with how many letters to spell ,socrates1 would you give one reply to-day and another to-morrow8 or again1 if he should ask if twice five are ten1 or any other question of arithmetic1 would you give different answers at different times8 ,with regard to matters of that kind1 ,o ,socrates1 there can be no variation2 but with regard to what is ,,just and ,,right a man may constantly make new discoveries1 as ,i think ,i am in a condition to say something on that subject today1 to which neither you nor any man in ,athens could put in a demurrer4 ,now1 by ,hera6 said #ib ,socrates1 if you have really discovered anything important in this province1 any charm that might save a jury from the pain of giving a divided verdict1 or good citizens from the necessity of brawling and wrangling with one another1 or mighty ,states from ruining each other by wars1 you have made a discovery indeed for which ,i envy you--and ,i really do not know how ,i can let you quit me at present till ,i have drawn from you the secret of this discovery4 ,that you shall not do1 by ,jove6 said the ,sophist1 before you first tell me what your own views are on the subject of ,,right2 for this is an old trick of yours1 by captious questions to worm answers out of other people1 and laugh at them when they are made to contradict themselves1 while you refuse to stand question1 or pronounce a definite opinion on any point4 ,how can you say this1 ,o ,hippias1 when you perceive that ,i am continually employed in doing nothing but bringing to light my notions on right and wrong8 ,in what discourse did you bring this to light1 ,o ,socrates8 ,if not in a set discourse1 replied the philosopher1 certainly by actions2 or do you not think that a deed is a much more effective way of declaring a man's moral principles than a word8 ,more effective unquestionably2 for of those who say what is just many do what is unjust2 but if a man's actions are just there is no injustice in him4 ,well then1 ,hippias1 ,i ask you1 did you ever know me either bearing false witness or playing the informer1 or exciting discontent among the people2 or doing any other wrong action8 ,certainly not4 ,but is not abstaining from what is wrong the definition of what is right8 ,there you are again6 said ,hippias2 ,i catch you in the act2 you are #ic wriggling cunningly out of the position1 and instead of telling me what just men do1 you tell me what they don't do4 ,i did so because ,i honestly thought that to abstain from all unjust deeds was a sufficient proof of the existence of justice in the breast of the actor4 ,but if a negative answer does not satisfy you1 then take this--,i say that ,right is conformity to the laws 7 74 ,do you then literally mean to say that ,right and ,law are identical8 ,i do4 ,well1 then1 ,i must tell you1 in the first place1 that ,i do not understand what you mean by ,law and ,right4 ,you know the laws of the ,state1 ,i presume8 ,of course4 ,what then are the laws of the ,state8 ,the laws of the ,state1 said he1 are all the enactments which the people have made when they have agreed among themselves as to what things ought to be done and what things ought not to be done4 ,then1 said ,socrates1 that person would act according to law who obeyed those enactments1 and he would be a lawless person who transgressed them8 ,unquestionably4 ,then ,i presume the man who did according to law would act according to rights while the man who transgressed the law would do wrong8 ,of course4 ,then you admit that the man who observes law1 and the just man1 or the man who acts according to right1 are identical1 and the transgressor of law and the unjust man in the same way8 ,this sounds very well1 said ,hippias2 but how can rectitude1 or right1 be measured by the standard of laws which the very persons who make them are often the first to repudiate1--enacting the exact contrary8 ,that is not so very strange1 said ,socrates1 for the same parties who declare war to-day may #id make peace to-morrow4 ,of course they may1 he replied4 ,well1 then1 ,i do not comprehend with what distinction you maintain that1 whereas persons who observe the rights of war to-day and the rights of peace to-morrow are not charged with inconsistency1 persons obeying any other laws to-day which may be reversed to-morrow are chargeable with unsettling the principles of right2 or do you really mean to stand up as a universal peacemonger1 and to say that those who serve their country well in war are guilty of a crime8 ,far from it1 said he4 ,right1 said ,socrates2 for obedience to the laws is really in every good citizen the one thing needful2 and ,lycurgus1 the famous ,spartan1 would have been not a whit better than other legislators had he not by his institutions worked into the very blood of the people a habit of obedience to the laws2 and is it not plain that in all ,states those governors are universally esteemed the best who know how best to make their laws obeyed1 and that the ,state where the habit of obedience is most confirmed is always the most prosperous in peace and the most invincible in war8 ,nay more1 is not concord universally praised as the greatest good of ,states1 and do not our venerable senators and our best leaders of the people continually exhort men to this virtue8 and is it not a fact that in every ,greek ,state there is a special oath taken by the citizens that they will cultivate concord1 and above all things shun strife and sedition among themselves8 ,now ,i do not conceive that in the prominence thus given to concord it was held forth as desirable that all the citizens should be of the same mind with regard to choruses or flute-players or poets and their performances1 but what was intended is that the citizens #ie should above all things obey the laws3 for so long as these are generally acknowledged1 ,states will be strong and prosperous1 but without concord neither house nor family can stand4 ,each individual also of a community can thrive only in this way2 the man who obeys the laws will always incur less loss and gain more honour than the lawless man2 and in the courts1 having the law on his side1 he will more readily gain his case4 ,and to whom1 ,i ask1 would you intrust your property1 or your son1 or your wife1 preferably to the man who fears to violate the laws8 in whom will the public authorities more readily confide8 ,from whom more than from the observer of the laws may parents or relations1 or friends or citizens or guests1 reasonably expect to receive their due8 to whom would enemies rather commit the negotiation of truces and treaties8 with whom preferably would any ,state wish to form an alliance8 to whom would his allies with greater security intrust the defence of any position1 or the command of any detachment8 from whom would a benefactor sooner expect to receive a grateful return for the benefit conferred8 whom would a man sooner choose for his friend1 and more wisely shun as an enemy8 ,in every situation of life the man who respects law is the person whom one would be most benefited by having for his friend1 and most damaged by having for his enemy2 and1 on these grounds1 ,i consider myself justified in concluding generally1 ,o ,hippias1 that the man who obeys the law1 and the just man1 or the man who does the right1 is one and the same character2 and if you have any objections to this doctrine1 ,i should like much to hear them4 ,by ,jove6 said ,hippias1 ,i think ,i am not able to #if state any valid objections to what you have said6 ,tell me1 ,o ,hippias1 did you ever hear of what we might call ,,unwritten ,,laws8 ,yes2 those laws ,i presume you mean which are the same in all countries4 ,can we say1 then1 do you imagine1 that men made such laws8 ,how could that be8 men could neither come together for such a purpose1 nor1 if they did1 could they ever agree4 ,who1 then1 do you think laid down these laws8 ,in my opinion1 the gods2 for amongst all men the universal instinct is to acknowledge the gods4 ,reverence to parents1 ,i presume1 falls under the same category--for this is a universal practice4 ,i agree4 ,then shall we say that the gods are also the authors of the law forbidding sexual intercourse between parents and their offspring8 ,no2 ,i cannot call this a law coming directly from the gods4 ,why not8 ,because ,i see certain1 men transgressing this law2 it is not universal4 ,but the transgression of a law does not make it less a law2 men break many laws2 but in the case of the divine laws a penalty waits on the transgressor which it is impossible to escape1 as men may1 and not seldom do1 escape the consequences of violated human laws1 whether by persistently undermining or violently overriding them4 ,but what penalty1 ,socrates1 ,i should like to know1 do parents and children incur who practise incestuous intercourse8 ,the greatest of all penalties1 the begetting of children in a bad way4 ,but how bad8 for being good themselves1 that is in good health and of a good stock1 what comes from good must of necessity be good4 ,but you forget1 rejoined ,socrates1 that in the procreation of children we must consider not only the original goodness of the stock1 but also #ig that the bodies of both individuals concerned in the act should be in their prime2 or do you perhaps imagine that from unripe bodies1 or bodies sinking into decay1 an equally vigorous and healthy seed can flow1 as from those which are in their best condition8 ,certainly not1 said ,hippias4 ,then it is plain1 said ,socrates1 that the offspring of such intercourse would not be procreated under favourable natural conditions1 and according to the unwritten law of nature are for this reason bad and wrong4 ,take now another instance3 ingratitude1 ,i presume1 you will grant is always and everywhere wrong1 while to repay kindness by kindness is everywhere an act in harmony with law4 ,certainly2 but this law also is frequently transgressed4 ,yes2 and the transgression brings with it its own punishment1 in that the violators of this law are at once deprived of good friends1 and forced to cultivate the goodwill of those who they know must hate them2--for are not those who confer benefits on their friends good friends1 and do not those who never return obligations to such friends1 make themselves hated by them1 while1 at the same time1 on account of the benefits which may accrue from such connexion1 they are obliged to go on courting those very persons by whom they are hated8 ,now1 by ,jove1 said ,hippias1 ,i must confess that here ,i do see plain traces of a divine law2 for that laws should bring along with them their own penalty when broken1 is a most rare device1 to which no mere human legislator has ever yet been able to attain4 ,well then1 ,hippias1 do you think that the gods1 when they make laws1 make them in accordance with right1 or with what is contrary to right8 ,not with what is contrary1 assuredly2 #ih for if laws are to be made in accordance with absolute right1 the gods are the only powers that can make them perfectly4 ,and so1 ,hippias1 to finish our long discourse1 we conclude that ,,with ,,the ,,gods ,,law ,,and ,,right ,,are ,,identical40 ,now1 without maintaining the perfect propriety or sufficiency of all the examples put forward in this argument1 the general principles of it state the fundamental axioms of moral philosophy in a way which might have saved a certain modern school of ethical writers volumes of ingenious sophistry1 if they had but possessed the natural amount of reverence and knowledge which would have enabled them to appreciate what was good and true in the discourses of the great fathers of their own science4 ,for the unwritten laws whose authority the ,athenian evangelist here so eloquently asserts1 in goodly harmony with the noble ,hebrew prophet 7,jeremiah xxxi4 #cc7 before him1 and the heroic apostle of the ,gentiles 7,romans ii4 #ae7 four centuries and a half later1 are just the natural and necessary fruit of those innate human actions and divinely implanted instincts in the region of emotion and volition1 which ,locke1 in an evil day for ,british philosophy1 thought it incumbent on him to deny1 and by the denial of which a whole school of meagre moralists1 from ,hume to ,john ,stuart ,mill1 have either dragged themselves ingloriously in the mire1 or entangled themselves in a tissue of the sorriest sophistries4 ,in this dialogue also we see how ably the common sense of the great logical missionary of ,greece fought its way through that most inconclusive argument against the immutability of moral distinctions derived from the strange and abnormal habits of certain savage tribes4 #ii ,a law is not the less a law1 replied ,socrates to the sophistical ,hippias1 because it may be sometimes or frequently transgressed2 and a divine instinct is not the less divine because there are found false instincts and morbid sensibilities in individual men1 or even in whole tribes4 ,the type of any race of animals is not to be taken from monsters1 nor is the law of the variations of the magnetic needle near ferruginous rocks or in an iron vessel to be paraded as a proof that there is no such thing as magnetic polarity4 ,according to the argument of ,socrates1 as ,aristotle also teaches1 the aberrations from the norm of human morality in certain persons or tribes1 which so confounded ,locke1 are no more to be held as arguments against the eternity of innate moral distinctions than the existence of sporadic disease or degenerated types of body can be considered as disproving the fact of health1 or the braying of an incidental ass1 or even a troop of asses1 can be taken as a refutation of one of ,beethoven's symphonies4 ,on the political opinions and conduct of ,socrates a very few words will suffice4 ,we have seen above 7p4 #ad7 that1 like the apostle ,paul1 and the preachers of the gospel generally1 he kept himself out of all political entanglement2 nevertheless as a notable and prominent citizen in what1 notwithstanding its great celebrity1 we cannot but call a small democratic ,state1 he could not avoid occasionally talking on subjects of public interest1 and giving his opinion freely on the conduct of public men4 ,to have done otherwise indeed would have been to have imposed silence on himself in regard to not a few matters which belonged as much to his moral mission as anything that concerned the conduct of private #ajj individuals2 it would have been also to incur the charge of apathy1 indifference and cowardice1 than which nothing could have been more hurtful to his influence as a moral teacher4 ,accordingly1 in the book of ,xenophon there are not wanting indications of his political tendencies1 which we shall here attempt summarily to state4 ,his fundamental position in regard to all political duties was1 as we may have gathered from the conversation with ,hippias1 the supreme obligation on every good citizen to obey the existing laws4 ,in this sacred1 and sometimes1 one might feel inclined to think1 over scrupulous reverence for law1 he agrees with the apostle ,paul1 but runs directly counter to the received maxims of all democracy1 both ancient and modern2 for reverence is not an emotion which democracy cherishes2 and an impassioned majority is apt to consider every law a usurpation1 which applies a drag to its impetuousness or a bridle to its wilfulness4 ,whether he was in heart a republican after the ,attic type1 like ,aristotle1 or1 like his illustrious disciples ,plato and ,xenophon1 cherished a reactionary partiality for the ,spartan or monarchico-aristocratic form of government1 is difficult to say4 ,certainly in the ,memorabilia there is nothing that savours of an admiration of absolutism1 or a blind reverence for ,sparta2 and though there was in his time a current notion--arising out of recent political misfortunes--that the ,athenian character had degenerated1 we find him1 in a remarkable conversation with young ,pericles1 rather disposed to vindicate than to exaggerate the faults of his democratic fellow-citizens4 ,at the same time1 it is quite certain that as a philosopher1 and a man free to look at #aja public affairs from an impartial position1 he did not approve of certain principles fondly cherished in the practice of the democracy of which he was a member4 ,if therefore in his heart he wished a democracy at all1 he must have wished it1 as ,aristotle also did1 under those checks1 and with that tempering admixture of the aristocratic element which would constitute it what ,aristotle calls a 1 and what we should call a moderate republic1 or a popular government not founded on mere liberty and equality1 and not subject to the overbearing sway of a mere numerical majority4 ,for in the existing democracy of ,athens we find him attributing the military mishaps of his countrymen to the circumstance that their officers had no professional training1 and the generals of the army were in fact for the most part extemporized4#aja4a ,this was no doubt a very vulnerable point of the democracy2 for we find ,philip of ,macedon in the next century telling the ,athenians sarcastically that they were surely a very wonderful people1 inasmuch as they found ten generals to elect every year1 whereas he in his whole life had been able to find only one1 ,parmenio4 ,and in the same spirit the pungent father of the ,cynics had told them1 after a general election1 that they had better go and vote publicly that asses were horses1 which would certainly be more reasonable than to vote that certain persons whom they had just stamped with the title of generals were soldiers4 ,as little could ,socrates1 as a thinking man1 and a man of lofty self-reliance1 with a more than common amount #ajb of moral courage1 approve either of the democratic device of choosing important public officers by the blind chance of the ballot1 or of that unreasoned usage of all democracies1 that a mixed multitude1 huddled into the vote1 under the influence of sudden passion or subtle intrigue1 shall1 by a mere numerical majority1 decide on the most critical questions1 which require comprehensive survey1 cool decision1 and impartial judgment4 ,again1 as a man of truth1 he had a special objection to the method of governing in democracies by pandering to the prejudices of the people rather than by opposing them2 and above all things he hated1 and was constantly denouncing and exposing1 that meretricious and essentially hollow oratory which the man of the people always must practise when the electors1 on whose favour he is dependent1 have their opinions dictated by local interests and personal passions1 rather than by large considerations of public right and the general good4 ,lastly1 as a moralist1 he knew that there is no bait more seductive to the human mind than the love of power2 to this strong passion democracy applies a constant and potent stimulus2 and thus acts directly in bringing the worst and not the best men into situations of public influence and trust2 for good men are modest1 and more apt to feel the responsibilities than to covet the advantages of political power4 ,thus far ,socrates was decidedly1 if not anti-republican1 at least anti-democratic2 but we must bear in mind also that he and1 we may add1 all the wise ,greeks were equally or even more opposed to the cold selfishness of a narrow oligarchy governing for their own aggrandizement2 and that1 like every man with ,hellenic blood in his veins1 he had an instinctive hatred of #ajc tyranny and oppression in every shape2 and proved this1 as ,xenophon informs us1 in the most decided way1 by publicly bearding two of the thirty tyrants1 and pursuing quietly his labours of love in their despite4 ,the prosecution and death of ,socrates1 which we must now sketch1 is one of the most interesting events in history1--useful also in a special degree as a warning to that large class of persons who are inclined to follow the multitude in all things1 with unlimited faith in the motto ,,vox ,,populi ,,vox ,,dei4 ,never did a people1 in this case a particularly shrewd and intelligent people1 cased in the hard panoply of unreasoned tradition1 under the distorting influence of prejudice1 the exaggerations of personal spite1 and the smooth seductions of popular oratory1 commit an act of more daring defiance to every principle of truth and justice4 ,happily we possess evidence of the most distinct and indubitable description with regard both to the nature of the charges brought against the philosopher and the delusions which blinded his judges4 ,in reference to the first point1 we have the very words of the indictment1 given in the same terms by both ,plato and ,xenophon4 ,with regard to the second point1 wherein the real key to his condemnation lies1 we have an ancient comedy--the ,clouds of ,aristophanes--in which the state of public feeling and popular prejudice in ,athens in reference to the philosopher is brought as vividly before us as if it had been a matter of yesterday4 ,in this play--one of the wisest certainly1 and one of the most humorous1 that ever was written--,socrates is put forward as representing the ,sophists2 and a picture is drawn of that class of persons1 calculated to stir up a whole host #ajd of indignant feelings1 patriotic and personal1 against the philosopher4 ,no doubt the whole affair1 so far as ,socrates was concerned1 was a tissue of the grossest lies2 but neither those whose business it is to make jokes for the public1 nor the public1 who find their pleasure in these jokes1 have ever displayed any very scrupulous care in sifting the materials of their mirth4 ,a popular comedy on any event of the day is popular1 not because it is true1 but because it cleverly tricks out that view of the matter which the multitude delights to think is true2 it is the proper pabulum of popular prejudice2 and as such there can be no doubt that the gross caricature of ,socrates represented in ,athens #dbc ,b4,c4 with great applause1 was one of the principal feeders of those local feelings and prejudices by which1 twenty-three years afterwards1 the great preacher of righteousness was condemned4 ,for we must bear in mind that ,socrates was not condemned by a bench of cool lawyers1 such as decide cases of heresy in the ,english ,church1 but by a jury or popular assembly1 most of whom had already prejudged the case2 and trial by jury1 as large experience in this country has shown1 may as readily be made the willing instrument of popular passion1 as the strong bulwark against autocratic or oligarchic oppression4 ,and all these sources of evidence bring us to a conclusion which agrees exactly with what might a priori have been predicated from what we know both of the special proclivities of the ,athenian people and the general tendencies of human beings1 when acting in masses1 under the spur of great political or religious excitement4 ,to state the matter more articulately1 the view of the philosopher's guilt taken by his accusers and the #aje majority of the jury who condemned him1 may be comprised under the following five points3-- 7#a47 ,socrates was one of the ,sophists2 and to the superficial undistinguishing eye of the general public of ,athens1 like any other public1 constitutionally impatient of distinctions1 it was as natural to confound the philosopher with his antagonists as it was to ,tacitus and other intelligent ,romans to confound the first ,christians with their greatest enemies1 the ,jews4 ,whatever odium therefore in public estimation attached to the profession and principles of a ,sophist1 necessarily attached to ,socrates1 as one of the most prominent of the class4 ,he was accordingly assumed to be guilty under the following heads of offence1 all of which were truly applicable to the majority of the class of men with whom he was identified4 7#b47 ,the ,sophists generally did not believe in the gods of their country1 and1 more than that1 they were sceptical1 and even atheistical1 in their whole tone and attitude4 7#c47 ,they did not believe in the immutability of moral distinctions1 teaching that all morality is based on positive law1 custom1 fashion1 association1 or habit4 7#d47 ,and their profession of these principles was the more dangerous1 that it was supported by a specious and plausible art of logic and rhetoric1 of which the professed object was1 with an utter disregard of truth1 to make the worse appear the better reason4 7#e47 ,the natural and actual effect of this teaching was to corrupt the youth and undermine both domestic and civic morality4 #ajf ,this is the full view of the case1 as one may gather it from the whole pleadings2 but more definitely and succinctly the actual indictment is given by ,xenophon in this single sentence3--8,,socrates ,,behaves ,,wrongfully ,,in ,,not ,,acknowledging ,,those ,,as ,,gods ,,whom ,,the ,,state ,,holds ,,to ,,be ,,gods1 ,,and ,,in ,,introducing ,,new ,,gods ,,of ,,his ,,own2 ,,he ,,acts ,,wrongfully ,,also ,,in ,,corrupting ,,the ,,youth40 ,now the first question which arises on this charge is1 whether such a prosecution1 according to the law of ,athens1 was justifiable at all2 and on this head we are happy to agree with the view of the case so ably stated by ,professor ,zeller in his excellent work on the ,philosophy of the ,greeks4 ,the prosecution1 we think1 was not justifiable2 that is1 even though the points had been proven1 there was no indictable offence4 ,for though unquestionably both by ,hellenic and ,roman law a public action lay in theory against all who did not acknowledge the gods of the country1 and no man was entitled to entertain private gods without ,state authority2 and though as a matter of fact several eminent persons1 such as ,anaxagoras and ,diagoras1 had even in the lifetime of ,socrates been tried and banished for the offence of impiety1 yet the spirit of toleration was now so large1 and the license everywhere assumed had been so great1 that to condemn an honest thinker to death for simple heterodoxy1 in the year #cii ,b4,c41 in ,athens1 was altogether inexcusable1 and could be attributed only to intense personal spite on the part of his prosecutors1 and to the crassest prejudice on the part of the jury who tried him4 ,but the case assumes a much more serious aspect1 #ajg when it stands proven in the most distinct terms that1 even had the prosecution in point of legal practice been justifiable1 the defendant as a matter of fact was entirely innocent of all the charges in the indictment4 ,of this ample evidence shines out in almost every page of the above sketch2 and more may be found by whoso cares to seek in almost every chapter of ,xenophon4 ,there is no philosopher of antiquity in whom a cheerful piety1 according to the traditions of his country1 and a reasonable morality1 were so happily combined4 ,in this view he stands out in remarkable completeness when compared whether with ,confucius in the far east1 or with ,aristotle in his own country4 ,he stands also as a representative man in this respect above ,plato1 and incarnates fully both the piety and the philosophy of ,athens1 just as ,chalmers was the incarnation of the religion1 the science1 the fervour and the practical sagacity of ,scotland4 ,plato1 on the other hand1 though a man of profound piety1 as a transcendental speculator was too lofty in his point of view to be able to reconcile himself to the familiar and sensuous theology of ,homer2 while ,aristotle was defective altogether in the emotional part of his nature1 and1 like a true encyclopdist1 was content to register the gods whom he had not the heart to worship4 ,as to the new gods whom ,socrates was said to have introduced1 this charge could only have arisen from some gross popular blunder about the or genius by whom he used to assert his conduct was often guided4 ,what this really was we shall see by and by2 but even had it been a real familiar spirit1 as was crudely supposed1 there was nothing in the idea of such spiritual intercourse contrary to the #ajh orthodox conceptions of heathen piety4 ,the third charge against him of corrupting the youth1 was merely an application of the charge of irreligion1 with the obvious intention of rousing the tender apprehensions of ,athenian fathers who believed in the stout old ,marathonian sturdiness1 and hated the subtle glibness of the rising generation2 for in fact1 like the late distinguished ,baron ,bunsen1 ,socrates was peculiarly the friend of young men1 and specially zealous for their good4 ,the answer to such a charge was plain1 and was similar to that which might have been made by the ,methodists of the last century1 when they were charged with leading away the people from the ,established ,church3 ,if you1 the ,churchmen1 had taken care of the people in the remote corners of ,cornwall and ,wales1 we certainly should never have interfered4 ,so ,socrates might well ask his accusers1 as we find in ,plato's ,apology he did3 8,if ,i corrupt the young men1 who improves them8 ,it was simply because there was no person who cared to instruct them in the principles of right that there was room for me to come forward as a teacher at all4 ,your accusation of me is a proof that you neglected your own work40 ,why then1 we are now prepared to ask1 was he condemned8 ,the answer to this is unfortunately only too obvious4 ,the causes of his condemnation were five3-- 7#a47 ,because his freedom of speech as a preacher of righteousness had made him not a few enemies in influential quarters4 ,though entirely free from every taint of bitterness or ill-will1 and even playfully tolerant to human weaknesses1 the very reverse1 as we have seen1 of a modern ,calvin1 the moment an argument was started he spared no party1 who1 by #aji the application of the searching logical test1 was found to be a dealer in hollow superficialities or pretentious shams2 poets1 orators1 and politicians equally were made to feel the keen edge of his reproof4 ,against all and each of these he had spoken more truth than they could easily bear2 and of that dangerous seed he was now to reap the natural fruit4 ,truth1 which was a jewel of great price to him1 was a nauseous drug to many2 and the man who administered it could not be looked on with friendly eyes4 8,am ,i become your enemy because ,i tell you the truth80 was the question directed more than four hundred years afterwards by the great apostle of the ,gentiles to some of his perverted churches4 ,so it was also in the days of ,socrates1 and so it must ever be4 ,men are by nature not lovers of truth1 in the first place1 but lovers of themselves1 of their own wishes1 of their own fancies1 of their own belongings4 ,to become lovers of the pure truth they must undergo a process of moral and intellectual regeneration--the new birth of oriental philosophy and of evangelical doctrine4 7#b47 ,because the religious antipathies of an orthodox public 7and the ,athenians prided themselves specially on their religiousness7 towards a person accused of heterodoxy1 scepticism1 and atheism are so strong as readily to overbear any evidence that may be adduced to prove the personal piety1 and even the literal orthodoxy1 of the accused party4 7#c47 ,because in a democracy1 where the judges1 or1 as we would say1 the jury1 are a mixed multitude of ignorant and prejudiced people1 such motives are apt to be particularly strong4 7#d47 ,because ,socrates1 as a man of high principle1 #aaj and of a perhaps over-strained sense of honour1 would not condescend to use any of those intrigues1 tricks1 and supple artifices which are often applied successfully to overcome the prejudices of an adverse jury4 ,nay1 his attitude seemed more that of a man willing to find in death a noble opportunity for putting a seal upon the great work of his life4 ,he pleaded his own case1 which no prudent man does who is anxious merely to gain his case2 and his speech is rather a proud assertion of himself against his judges than a politic deprecation of their displeasure4 7#e47 ,because1 no doubt1 a certain excitement of the public mind arising out of the troubles of the recent revolutionary government established by the ,spartans1 and the restoration of the democracy by ,thrasybulus1 was favourable to the bringing of a charge against a person belonging to a class generally suspected by the people1 and one who had unquestionably at times spoken his mind freely enough on the defects1 absurdities1 and blunders of the local democracy4 ,this political element may certainly have helped2 but the charge against the philosopher was not mainly--formally indeed not at all--political1 as the pleadings both in ,xenophon and ,plato sufficiently show4 ,taking all these things together1 remembering how many follies and ferocities have everywhere been perpetrated in the name of religion1 and impressed with the full force of what the poet says of the reward wont to be paid by the world to persistent speakers of truth-- 8,die wenigen die von der ,wahrheit was erkannt ,und thricht genug ihr volles ,herz nicht wahrten ,dem ,pbel ihr ,gefhl1 ihr ,schauen offenbarten ,hat man von je gekreuzigt und verbrannt10-- #aaa some persons may perhaps feel inclined to think with ,mr4 ,grote that 8the wonder rather is that the wise man was not prosecuted sooner4 ,it was only the extraordinary toleration of the ,greek people that prevented this40 ,there is a great amount of truth in this remark2 but the exercise of polytheistic toleration in the case of ,socrates was rendered more easy by the undoubted innocency of the accused1 and the host of friends whom his wisdom and goodness had created for him as his champions4 ,had ,socrates really been as heterodox in ,athenian theology as ,michael ,servetus was in the theology of the ,christian world at the period when1 in harmony with universal ,european law1 he was burnt by the ,genevese ,calvinists1 we might then have drawn a contrast between monotheistic intolerance and polytheistic toleration in two perfectly similar cases2 but as matters really stand1 while the execution of ,servetus was only a great legal and theological mistake1 the death of ,socrates must be stamped by the impartial historian as a great social crime4 ,it was equally against local law and human right1 a rude invasion of blind prejudice1 overbearing insolence1 and paltry spite against the holiest sanctities of human life4 ,the details of the death of ,socrates1 sketched with such graceful power and kindly simplicity by ,plato in the concluding chapters of the ,phdo1 are well known2 but the present paper would seem imperfect without some glimpse of that last and most beautiful scene of the philosopher's career4 ,we shall therefore conclude with that extract2 and to make the picture of his last days as complete as possible1 introduce it by an extract from ,plato's ,apology1 in which the dignified self-reliance and serene courage of the sage #aab is described with all that rich fulness and easy grace of which the writer was so consummate a master3-- 8,i should have done what was decidedly wrong1 ,o ,athenians1 if1 when the archons whom you elected ordered me1 at ,potida1 at ,amphipolis1 and at ,delium1 to accept the post given me in the war1 and stand where ,i was ordered to stand at the risk of death1--if then1 ,i say1 ,i had not obeyed the command1 and exposed my life willingly for the good of my country2 but when the order comes from a god--as ,i had the best reason to believe that a god did order me to spend my life in philosophizing1 and in proving myself and others1 whether we were living according to right reason1--if in such circumstances ,i should now1 from fear of death1 or from any other motive1 leave my post1 and become a deserter1 this were indeed a sin2 and for such an offence any one might justly bring me before this court on a charge of impiety1 saying that ,i had disobeyed the voice of the god by flinching from death1 and conceiting myself to be wise when ,i was not wise4 ,for to be afraid of death1 ,o ,athenians1 is in fact nothing else than to seem to be wise when a man is not wise3 for it is to seem to have a knowledge of things which a man does not know4 ,for no man really knows whether death may not be to mortal men of all blessings perhaps the greatest2 and yet they do fear it1 as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils4 ,and how1 ,i ask1 can this be other than the most shameful folly to imagine that a man knows what he does not know8 or perhaps do ,i differ from most other men in this1 and if ,i am wiser at all than any one1 am ,i wiser in this1 that1 while not possessing any exact knowledge of the state of matters in ,hades1 ,i do not #aac imagine that ,i possess such knowledge2 but as to right and wrong1 ,i know for certain1 that to disobey a better than myself whether man or god1 is both bad and base4 ,on no account therefore will ,i ever fear and seek to avoid what may or may not be an evil1 rather than that which ,i most certainly know to be bad2 in so much that if1 on the present occasion1 you should be willing to acquit me1 and refuse to listen to ,anytus1 who maintained that ,i either should never have been brought before you at all1 or you could not do otherwise than condemn me to death1 because your sons1 putting in practice the lessons of ,socrates1 must needs go on without redemption to their ruin--if1 notwithstanding this declaration of my prosecutor1 you should still be unconvinced1 and say--,o ,socrates1 for the present we discharge you1 but on this condition1 that for the future you shall not go on philosophizing and proving1 as you have hitherto done2 and1 if you are caught doing so1 then you shall die--if on these conditions you were now willing to acquit me1 ,i should say to you1 ,o ,athenians1 that1 while ,i cherish all loyal respect and love for you1 ,i choose to obey the gods rather than men1 and so long as ,i live and breathe ,i will never cease philosophizing3 and exhorting any of you with whom ,i may happen to converse1 and addressing him as ,i have been wont1 thus1--,o my excellent fellow-citizen1 the citizen of a ,state the most famous for wisdom and for resources1 is it seemly in you to feel no shame if1 while you are spending your strength in the accumulation of money1 and in the acquisition of civic reputation1 you bestow not the slightest pains to have your soul as well furnished with intelligence as your life is with prosperity8 ,and if any man to #aad this question should reply1 that1 so far as he is concerned1 he really does bestow as much care on wisdom as on wealth1 then ,i will not forthwith let him go1 but will proceed1 as ,i was wont1 to interrogate1 and to prove1 and to argue2 and if1 as the result of the discussion1 he shall appear to me not to possess virtue1 but merely to say that he possesses it1 ,i will then go on to reprove him in that by his deeds he prefers what is base to what is noble1 and foolishly sets the highest value upon that which has the least worth4 ,and in this wise ,i will speak to every man whom ,i shall converse with1 be he citizen1 or be he stranger1 and the rather if he be a fellow-citizen to whom ,i am bound by nearer and more indissoluble ties4 ,for this is precisely what ,i am commanded to do by the god2 and if the god did indeed give forth this command1 then must ,i distinctly declare that no greater blessing could be to this city than that1 so long as ,i do live1 ,i should live to execute the divine command4 ,for what ,i do day after day treading your streets is simply this1 that1 speaking to both young and old1 ,i exhort them not to seek in the first place money or anything material1 but to stretch every nerve that their soul may be as excellent as possible2 for that virtue and all excellence grow not from gold1 but rather that gold and all things truly good1 both in private and public life1 grow to men from the possession of virtue as the root of all good4 ,if by preaching this doctrine ,i corrupt the youth1 let such teaching be declared corrupt3 but if any one asserts that ,i teach other doctrine than this1 he is talking unreason4 ,therefore1 ,o ,athenians1 do as seemeth you good2 listen to ,anytus1 or listen to him not2 acquit me or acquit me not1 ,i can do no otherwise than #aae ,i have done1 though ,i should die a hundred times4 7,at these words murmurs of dissent and disapprobation are heard from the jury47 8,be not surprised1 ,o ,athenians1 nor express displeasure at what ,i have said2 listen rather and hear1 for you will be the better and not the worse for anything that ,i have said1 and ,i have some other things to say also of a nature to bring out similar expressions of your dissent2 but hear me1 ,i beseech you1 with patience4 ,this ,i must plainly tell you1 that if you put me to death1 being such an one as ,i have described1 and doing such things as ,i do1 you will not hurt me so much as you will hurt yourselves2 or1 more properly speaking1 no man can hurt me1 neither ,anytus nor ,meletus nor any one else2 for it is not in the nature of things that a better man should receive essential harm from a worse4 ,no doubt a worse man may kill me1 or banish me1 or brand me with statutable infamy--evils these the greatest possible in the estimation of some1 but not certainly in my conviction1 who hold the greatest infamy to be even that which this man has brought upon himself1 in that wrongfully he endeavours to take away the life of his fellow4 ,i am not therefore1 in making this present defence1 pleading my own cause so much as speaking in your behalf1 ,o ,athenians1 lest ye should be found sinning against the god in condemning a just man unjustly4 ,for if you put me aside you will not easily find another 7though it may excite a smile when ,i say so7 who may be able or willing to perform the same service for the public good2 for even as a large and mettlesome1 though from the size of its body somewhat slow1 horse requires #aaf a goad to make it run1 even so the god seems to have attached me to you1 that by spurring and goading1 and exhorting and reproving you day after day with a pious persistency1 ,i should rouse you to the performance of what your dignity requires4 ,such an honest counsellor1 and one who shall as faithfully apply when necessary the profitable pain that belongs to the successful treatment of your malady1 you may not so readily find again2 for which reason ,i say1 fellow-citizens1 hear me and spare my life2 but if1 as is natural enough1 you take offence1 and1 like other sleepers1 begin to kick and to butt at the man who rouses you from your lethargy1 nothing is easier than killing me2 and then when ,i am gone you will be allowed to sleep on in uninterrupted sloth1 unless indeed the god shall be pleased to send some other messenger of grace to pluck you from destruction4 ,and that ,i truly am such a person as ,i here profess to be1 a real messenger of the gods to you1 you may gather from hence that no mere human motive could have induced me now for so many years to have neglected my own affairs1 and devoted myself to your good1 looking upon every man as my father or my brother1 and exhorting him by every possible suasion to seek for virtue as the only good4 ,and this also ,i may say1 that if in the exercise of this my vocation ,i had exacted any payment or received any pecuniary reward my accusers might have had some ground for their charge2 but as the case stands you perceive plainly that1 while my enemies have brought forward every possible charge against me with the most shameless effrontery1 to substantiate which they might imagine themselves in possession of some #aag shadow of proof1 none of them has produced a single witness to the effect that ,i ever either received or sought a wage of any kind for the instructions which ,i imparted4 ,but there is one witness which ,i can produce to rebut such a charge if it were made1 a witness which will not fail to silence even the bitterest of my accusers1--even that poverty in which ,i have lived and in which ,i shall die4 8,so much for the character of my teaching4 ,but perhaps it may seem strange to some one1 that1 while ,i go about the city giving counsel to every man in this busy fashion1 with all my fondness for business ,i have not found my way into public life1 nor come forward on this stage to advise you on public affairs4 ,now the cause of this is none other than that which you have frequently heard me mention1 namely1 ,,that ,,something ,,divine ,,and ,,superhuman to which ,meletus in his address scoffingly alluded2 for this is the sober truth1 ,o ye judges1 that from my boyhood ,i have on all important occasions been wont to hear a voice which1 whenever it speaks in reference to what ,i am about to do1 always warns me to refrain1 but never urges me to perform4#aag4a ,this voice it is1 #aah and nothing else1 which forbade me to meddle with public affairs1 and forbade me very wisely1 as ,i can now clearly perceive1 and with a most excellent result2 for of this1 ,o ,athenians1 be assured1 if ,i had essayed at an early period of my life to manage your public business1 ,i should without doubt have perished long ago1 and done no good either to you or to #aai myself4 ,and be not wroth with me if in this ,i tell you the truth2 the man does not exist who shall be able to save his life anywhere1 if he shall set himself honestly and persistently to oppose you or any other multitude of people when you are violently bent on doing things unjust and unlawful2 whosoever therefore would live on this earth as the champion of right and justice1 if only for a little while1 amongst men1 must make up his mind to do good as a private person1 and forego all ambition to serve the public in a political capacity40 ,this is not the tone certainly which any accused person anxious to save his life in pleading before a democratic jury would have adopted1 whether at ,athens or ,new ,york4 ,by the majority of his judges1 who came predisposed to condemn him1 such language could only be interpreted as adding insult to injury4 ,if he thinks himself too good to live amongst us1 why1 then1 let him die6 ,and in accordance with this sentiment a verdict was brought in--only by a small majority however--that he was guilty of the charge4 ,this verdict1 according to ,athenian law1 did not necessarily determine the punishment2 the accuser asked for death2 but from the smallness of the majority there was every reason to believe that a less punishment would have satisfied the jury1 if only the accused had shown any willingness to accept it4 ,but in the short address which he made after the verdict of guilty had been given in1 though he professed himself willing to pay a fine of thirty min1 which his friends had guaranteed1 for himself was too poor1 yet he made this declaration with such an air of calm superiority1 and accompanied it with such a proud claim of reward #abj for great public services as his proper civic due1 instead of punishment for any public offence1 that his judges1 being1 as they were1 made of the common human stuff1 under the feelings of the moment could scarcely do otherwise than take it as an insult1 and so they passed sentence of death upon the philosopher for contumacy towards themselves1 not less than for blasphemy against the gods4 ,the fate of ,socrates was now fixed2 nor did he show any desire to have it altered4 ,to such a strict observer of the laws1 and a person to whom his moral position before men was of infinitely more consequence than his life1 any attempt to escape from prison could have been suggested only to provoke refusal2 so he remained in ward thirty days1 till the sacred ship should return from the ,delian festival1 during the absence of which ,attic usage forbade the infliction of capital punishment on any citizen4 ,through all this period he is represented as preserving the same tone of cheerful seriousness and playful dignity which characterized him in his defence before the judges4 ,he discoursed with his friends on the immortality of the soul2 and the record of this conversation1 no doubt1 in the argumentative part largely ,platonized1 but in the fundamental scheme substantially true1 has been preserved to the world in the well-known dialogue of the ,phdo2 the closing chapters of which1 exhibiting with a graceful and graphic simplicity1 never surpassed1 the last moments of the revered teacher's mortal career1 supply all that is further required to complete the present sketch3--8,well1 friends1 we have been discoursing for this last hour on the immortality of the soul1 and there are many points about that matter #aba on which he were a bold man who should readily dogmatize2 but one thing ,i seem to know full certainly1 that whosoever during his earthly life has flung sensual pleasures behind him1 and been studious to adorn his soul1 not with conventional and adventitious trappings1 but with its own proper decoration1 temperance and justice1 and courage and freedom and truth1--the person so prepared waits cheerfully to perform the journey to the unseen world at whatever period ,fate may choose to call him4 ,you1 ,simmias1 and ,cebes1 and the rest of you1 my dear friends1 will go that road some day1 when your hour comes3 as for me1 to use the phrase of the tragic poets1 #8,destiny even now calls me1' and it is about the hour that ,i should be going to the bath2 for ,i think it better to take a bath first before ,i drink the drug1 so that the women may not have the trouble to wash my body when ,i am gone4 8,here ,crito interposed and said1 ,be it so6 but have you no last commands to give to these your friends or to me1 in relation to your children1 or any matter by attending to which we might do you a pleasure8 ,nothing but what ,i am always saying1 ,o ,crito3 if you will seriously attend to your own lives and characters1 you will do what is most pleasurable to me and mine1 and to yourselves1 even though you should not be able to agree with me in all that we have been discoursing2 but if you live at random1 and neglect yourselves1 and do not strive to follow in the traces of a virtuous life1 such as we have marked out now1 and in many former conversations1 you will do no good either to me or to yourselves4 ,well then1 said ,crito1 we will apply ourselves with all our hearts to this matter2 but in #abb what way do you wish that we should bury you8 ,any way you like1 said he1 if you can only get hold of me6 then with a quiet smile1 and looking round upon us1 he said3 ,i cannot persuade this good ,crito that ,i who am now talking to him1 and marshalling the heads of my argument1 am the veritable ,socrates2 but he persists in thinking ,socrates is that body which he will see by and by stretched out on the floor1 and he asks how he is to bury me8 but as to what ,i have been asserting with many words1 that after ,i have drunk the hemlock ,i shall be with you no longer1 but shall depart to some blessedness of the blest1 this ,i seem to have spoken all in vain1 so far as he is concerned4 ,only1 for a little comfort to you1 and to myself1 ,i beseech you1 dear friends1 give ,crito security for me1 and pledge yourself to the opposite effect of the pledge he gave in my behalf before the jury4 ,for he stood guarantee that ,i should remain and wait the result of the trial2 but from you ,i request that you give him security that1 after ,i die1 ,i shall not remain1 but forthwith depart1 that1 in this way1 my excellent friend may suffer less grief1 and when he sees my body either burnt or inhumated1 may not grieve for me1 as if ,i were suffering maltreatment1 nor say in reference to my body1 that they are either laying out ,socrates on a bier1 or carrying him forth to the place of the dead1 or laying him in the ground4 ,for be assured of this1 most excellent ,crito1 that to use words in an improper sense is not only a bad thing in itself1 but it generates a bad habit in the soul4 ,be of good cheer therefore1 and talk about burying my body1 not burying me2 and as to the manner1 manage this business as it shall seem best to you1 or as may be most in accordance with law and custom4 #abc 8,with these words he rose and went into a side chamber for the bath1 with ,crito following2 but the rest of us he requested to remain4 ,accordingly we remained1 conversing with one another on the subject of the recent discourse1 and considering sorrowfully our unhappy condition1 destined as we were to spend the rest of our days as orphans deprived of a beloved father4 ,then after he had bathed1 and his children were brought to him--for he had two sons1 one full-grown1--and the women also came in--he spoke to them for some time in the presence of ,crito1 and gave his last commands1 and having sent them home1 came back to us4 ,and now it was near sunset1 for he had been a considerable time within2 and he came and sat down1 and after that did not speak much2 and then the officer of the ,eleven came in and said to him1 ,o ,socrates1 ,i shall not have to blame you as ,i am in the way of blaming others1 because they reproach me for giving them the draught--me1 who have nothing to do with the offence1 but who only execute what ,i am commanded to do by the ,archons4 ,but you1 as during the whole time that you have been here1 you showed a nobility and gentleness of disposition which ,i never knew in another1 so now ,i am convinced that you will accuse not me but those who are the real authors of your death4 ,now therefore1 for you know my message1 farewell6 and endeavour to bear what must be borne with a light heart4 ,and with this he wept1 and turned and went out4 ,and ,socrates1 looking after him1 said1 ,fare thou1 too1 well2 and we will do even as you say4 ,then turning to us4 ,what a kind-hearted fellow this is6 ,during the whole period of my abode here he would often come #abd up to me1 like the best of men1 and now he weeps for me with such generous tears4 ,but come1 let us do his bidding1 and let some one bring in the drug1 if it is rubbed down2 if not1 let the man grate it4 ,but ,i think1 said ,crito1 that the sun is yet on the mountains1 and is not set2 and ,i have known others in your condition who delayed the drinking of the draught till the latest moment1 and1 even after the officer had made his intimation1 continued eating and drinking and talking with their friends1 whom they desired to have beside them4 ,be not therefore in a hurry2 there is abundance of time4 ,likely enough1 said ,socrates2 and they did wisely what they did1 thinking that they would gain something thereby2 but it were not seemly in me to follow their example1 for ,i should gain nothing by delaying the draught for a few moments except to laugh at myself for having clung so eagerly to the remnant of a life that had already run its course4 ,but come1 do as ,i bid you1 and not otherwise4 8,on this ,crito gave a nod to the boy who was standing near2 and the boy went out1 and after spending some time in grating down the herb1 returned1 bringing with him the man whose duty it was to administer the drug mingled in a bowl4 ,well1 said ,socrates1 my good fellow1 do you understand this affair1 so as to give directions how we are to proceed8 ,you have nothing to do1 said the man1 but to drink the draught1 and to walk about till you feel a heaviness about your limbs1 and then lie down2 after that the drink will work for itself4 ,and with this he gave the bowl to ,socrates2 and he1 taking it very graciously1 and without trembling or changing colour1 but in his usual way looking the man broadly #abe in the face1 said to him1 ,what do you say as to this draught1 may one make a libation of a part of it1 or not8 ,we grate down just what we think is a proper measure to drink1 and nothing more4 ,i understand1 said he2 but at all events it is lawful to pray to the gods1 that our migration hence may take place with good omens1 even as ,i pray now2 and so be it4 ,and with these words1 bringing the bowl to his lips1 he quaffed the draught lightly and pleasantly to the dregs4 ,whereupon we1 who had hitherto been able to repress our sorrow1 now that we saw him drinking the poison1 and not a drop remaining in the bowl1 in spite of every effort burst into tears2 and ,i1 covering my head with my mantle1 began to bewail my fate--my fate1 not his1 considering of what a man and what a friend ,i was now deprived4 ,but ,crito1 even before me1 not being able to restrain his tears1 rose up2 and as for ,apollodorus1 who had been weeping all along1 he now broke out into such a piteous wail as to rend the hearts of all present and crush them with sorrow1 except only ,socrates himself1 who quietly remarked--,what is this you are about1 my good sirs8 ,did ,i not send the women away expressly for this purpose1 that there might be no extravagant lamentings at my exit1 for ,i have always heard that in a sacrifice it is a good omen when the victim receives the blow peacefully4 ,be quiet1 therefore1 and possess your souls in patience4 ,whereat we1 being ashamed1 made an effort to restrain our tears4 ,then he walked up and down1 till1 feeling his legs become heavy1 he came1 according to the direction1 and laid himself down on his back2 whereupon the man who gave the bowl came up to him and touched him1 and at short intervals examined his feet1 and #abf his legs1 and then1 pressing his foot closely1 inquired if he felt anything1 to which he replied1 ,no2 then the man gradually brought his hand further and further up1 first to his shins and then along the leg1 asking always if he had any sensation2 and when he gave no sign we saw that his limbs were cold and stiff4 ,then he himself likewise touched his body with his hand and said1 ,when the numbness comes up to my heart then ,i shall depart4 ,and after that1 when the numbness had reached the lower part of the belly1 he suddenly uncovered himself--for when he lay down he had thrown his mantle over his face--and said1--which were the last words he uttered--,o ,crito1 we owe a cock to sculapius2 pay the vow and do not forget2 and with that drew the mantle again over his face4 ,it shall be done1 said ,crito2 have you nothing else to say8 ,but now there was no reply2 and1 after a short interval1 a convulsive motion shook the body1 and the man going up uncovered his face1 and we saw that his eyes were fixed4 ,then ,crito going up closed his mouth and his eyes4 ,and this1 ,o ,echecrates1 was the end of our beloved companion and friend1 a man of whom we may truly say1 ,,of ,,all ,,men ,,whom ,,we ,,have ,,known1 ,,he ,,was ,,the ,,best1 ,,the ,,wisest1 ,,and ,,the ,,most ,,just40 ,,aristotle4 #abg ,,there is a natural sequence in the processes of social culture which is well illustrated by the history of ,moral ,philosophy among the ,greeks4 ,the man of action comes before the man of literature1 the man of literature before the man of science4 ,in ,greek ethics ,socrates was the man of action1 ,plato the man of literature1 and ,aristotle the man of science4 ,not1 of course1 that ,plato was merely the literary man1 in the trivial modern sense of that word2 he was eminently the philosopher--not merely but --but he put forth his philosophy in a popular form2 he addressed himself to the imagination as well as the reason2 he appealed1 as we would say1 to the general public2 and speaking to men in a human way1 on the most interesting of human topics1 through the medium of language artistically handled1 he falls manifestly under the broad category of the literary as opposed to the scientific man1 who works on a special subject1 and with a special faculty4 ,but ,aristotle was pre-eminently1 and with very marked features1 the man of knowledge2 he came with the dissecting knife in hand and addressed himself to those who were willing to make special dissections with him for the mere purpose of knowing1 and drew a broad line of #abh demarcation between the speculative and the practical world4 ,nevertheless the ,stagirite was something more than a knowing machine2 he was a man1 and by virtue of his ,hellenic birth also a citizen4 ,he could not therefore avoid occupying to a certain extent the province of the practical man2 and so it has come to pass that in three great works1 the ,ethics1 the ,politics1 and the ,rhetoric1 he has transported himself from the teacher's chair1 and entered into competition with ,socrates and ,plato as a preacher of social morals and a guide to civic conduct4 ,this was well both for him and for us3 well for him1 because mere knowing can never exhaust the riches of a nature so essentially practical as that of man3 well for us1 because otherwise we could scarcely have imagined the phenomenon of an intellect at once so complete in all the categories of scientific cognition1 and so strongly marked with all the sagacity that belongs to the so-called practical man1 the man of society1 the man of business1 the accomplished citizen4 ,and it is to this walking out into the realm of common life1 instead of confining himself like so many erudite ,germans within the limits of a library or a laboratory1 that ,aristotle owes no small part of the influence which he has so long exercised1 not only in the schools but among intelligent men of all classes4 ,in ancient times1 when ,moral ,philosophy was justly regarded as the principal part of that wisdom which it concerns all men to possess1 the ,philosopher of the ,lyceum never would have been able to assert his place as a public teacher alongside of ,socrates and ,plato had he bestowed only a secondary consideration on the grand arts of living and governing4 ,as it was1 the poet-philosopher of the ,academy could not but remain #abi the more popular and the more effective moral teacher of the two2 but if ,plato was more attractive and more interesting1 and by these qualities commanded a wider audience1 it was a great consolation to the lesser circle of the ,stagirite's disciples that1 though in his discourses on moral matters he was more angular and more severe1 he was at the same time more shrewd1 more sagacious1 and more practical4 ,the reputation which ,aristotle thus maintained among ancient ,greeks and ,romans1 both as a speculator and as a wise guide in the conduct of life1 was increased rather than diminished when brought into contact with the new moral force of ,christianity4 ,no doubt ,plato at first was the natural vestibule through which the cultivated ,greeks of ,alexandria entered the temple of ,christian faith2 but after that faith1 partly in league with ,plato1 and partly in spite of ,plato1 had achieved its natural triumph1 ,aristotle1 the clear1 cold1 and keen1 but by no means devout master of all knowledge1 by a sort of reaction1 as it should seem1 in the middle ages began to assert an exclusive dominance in the schools1 both of ,christian ,europe and1 through the ,arabians1 in the ,east4 ,to all who were anxious for clear and exact knowledge in matters visible and tangible1 the ,stagirite was the only guide4 ,as the high priest of science he acted in those days of sacerdotal direction as the natural complement of faith1 not as its antagonist2 and for this reason he is praised by ,dante among the solemn forms of the mighty dead that pace through the dim halls of the unseen world1 as 8,il gran maestro di color chi sanno40 ,the dethronement which he afterwards suffered at #acj the hands of those twin innovators ,luther and ,lord ,bacon was again a mere matter of reaction1 and could in its nature be only temporary4 ,honest ,martin raged in his own way very furiously against the great dictator of the schools1 almost as if he had been the ,pope3--8,aristotle1 that histrionic mountebank1 who from behind a ,greek mask has so long bewitched the ,church of ,christ1 that most cunning juggler of souls1 whom1 if he had not been accredited as of human blood and bone1 we should have been justified in maintaining to be the veritable devil40#acj4a ,but this we plainly see to be the language of a man not with the balance of truth in his hand1 but with the sword of sacred wrath in his tongue2 and1 indeed1 the sword was at that time very needful1 and wielded with a wise hostility1 not against the true4 ,aristotle whom we now read and admire1 but against the so-called ,aristotelian fence of the schools1 used oftener for subtle and shadowy exercitation and in defence of the grossest abuses than in the honest search after truth4 ,of the real ,aristotle ,luther knew as little in those days as not a few ,christians at the present hour know of true ,christianity1 coming as it does to them through the strangely distorting media of scholastic subtleties1 sacerdotal usurpations1 and pure human stupidities of all kinds4 ,as for ,lord ,bacon1 he was no doubt equally right in stoutly protesting against the then ,aristotelian logic as a hindrance rather than a help to the true knowledge of nature2 while1 at the same time1 he was no less certainly in the wrong if he imagined1 or led men to imagine1 either that induction was the only method which leads to the discovery of important truth1 or that #aca ,aristotle's writings lent any countenance to those baseless and unfruitful methods of speculation which were presented under the authority of his name4 ,it was necessary1 however1 that the human mind should be thoroughly emancipated from the dictatorial oppression of the false ,aristotle before the true ,aristotle could be reinstated on his throne2 and this required time4 ,accordingly we find that some of the most original thinkers and ingenious scholars of the last century seem to have imagined that ,aristotle and the ,pope were two great usurpers1 the one in the intellectual1 the other in the religious world1 whom the great ,protestant movement of the sixteenth century1 in the interest both of learning and religion1 had rightfully dethroned4 8,mr4 ,harris1 for example10 says his biographer1 8had imbibed a prejudice1 very common at that time even among scholars1 that ,aristotle was an obscure and unprofitable author1 whose philosophy had deservedly been superseded by that of ,mr4 ,locke40#aca4a ,and in perfect harmony with this1 ,mr4 ,burton1 in his life of ,hume1 remarks that 8the name of ,aristotle is not once mentioned in ,hume's treatise of human nature40#aca4b ,strange revolution of thought in a country where1 in the days of ,john ,knox1 it had been customary for famous academical teachers to say--8,stultum est dicere ,aristotelem errasse60 ,and1 indeed1 not only ,hume1 but ,bentham1 ,james ,mill1 and all the thinkers of that century1 manifested a strange lust of spinning knowledge out of their own bowels1 so to speak1 with a careless or insolent neglect of the great truths handed down for the use of all ages by the master #acb thinkers of ancient times4 ,but not even in ,scotland1 never famous for ,greek1 could such ignorance last for ever4 ,the ,french ,revolution of #aghi shook all men violently out of their old complacencies1 and blew their dainty conceits of all kinds to the winds2 things were now to be built up from the foundations1 not in the political world only1 but in the intellectual and religious world no less2 torpid ,churches were suddenly fevered with hot activity2 in literature the forgotten language of a natural and passionate poetry was to be restored2 and in philosophy the ancient foundations of stable knowledge were to be laid bare4 ,under such a violent volcanic action it could not be but that both ,plato and ,aristotle should be made to stand out before lesser names in their true dimensions4 ,aristotle especially revealed himself to many thoughtful ,germans1 and a few thoughtful ,englishmen1 as the precursor of ,bacon in the use of the great organon of induction2 and the hard and cautious genius of the ,scotch1 under the guidance of a polyhistoric ,hamilton1 found in the ,stagirite a more dignified corner-stone than in ,reid for the erection of a philosophical edifice which rather sought safety in narrowing than glory in extending the bounds of human speculation4 ,in ,oxford1 the stiff conservatism of the ,college tutors1 men trained to the exact knowledge of a few traditional books1 more certainly than any profound philosophical insight1 preserved the ,ethics1 along with the ,logic1 of ,aristotle as one of the general instruments of juvenile drill2 while1 outside the academic precincts1 liberal statesmen like ,cornewall ,lewis and democratic historians like ,grote continued to quote the ,stagirite as the wisest at once and the most cautious of all #acc ancient political speculators4 ,thus the natural balance of judgment was restored2 and ,aristotle1 redeemed at once from the ignorant idolatry of pseudo disciples and the local conceit of men who spurned to learn from any but themselves1 took his place for ever as an intellectual dictator of the first rank1 with whom if a man did not happen to agree1 it was always more likely that the dissentient had wandered into error than that the authority from whom he dissented had failed to fasten his glance upon the truth4 ,before attempting to set forth in its great salient points the ethical system of ,aristotle1 it will be at once interesting and useful to sketch shortly the leading events of his life1 omitting altogether1 as a matter of course1 those hundred and one points of uncertain report and slippery slander which are wont to attach themselves to the fame of any great man as to a natural nucleus4 ,and when a man like ,aristotle is not only a great man according to the common measure of human greatness1 but an altogether extraordinary man1 it is as natural that he should be spoken against from all sides as that dogs should bark at a stranger4 ,the epiphany of an intellectual giant in any assembly of men of average talent makes those appear dwarfs who had previously1 not without reason1 accounted themselves of reputable stature2 and as no man likes to be dwarfed1 the necessary result of such an apparition is to set men's wits agog to find out cunning devices1 whereby the overwhelming stature of the huge intruder may seem to be curtailed4 ,so ,aristotle1 we are told1 had 8a whole host of enemies20 and we shall therefore1 as just judges1 be justified in throwing out of court1 as vitiated in its source1 the greater part of the merely anecdotal #acd accretions that cling to the name of the mighty ,stagirite4 ,the adjuncts of high social position and freedom from pecuniary pressure1 always advantageous to wise men1 hurtful only to fools1 ,aristotle enjoyed in a remarkable degree4 ,born #chd ,b4,c4 in a ,greek town1 but under ,macedonian influence1 his father1 who belonged to an old ,asclepiad family1 as court physician to ,king ,amyntas1 had ample opportunities of launching him into the world with all the training1 equipment1 and supports that are the natural harbingers of a prosperous career4 ,he was not therefore a ,greek in the strict sense of the word2 and1 though he borrowed his language and culture from ,attica1 and sympathized mainly with popular institutions1 as his great work on ,politics shows1 he had good reason to congratulate himself that he did not lose his original citizenship when the eloquence of ,demosthenes thundered in vain against the gold and the iron of the ,macedonian4 ,in the period of ,aristotle's youth there was nothing in ,greece proper to make any thoughtful person lament that he had been born a subject of a sturdy and semi-barbarous but rising monarchy1 rather than a citizen of an exhausted and decaying democracy2 for though the victories of ,chabrias had restored in some sort the supremacy of the ,athenians at sea1 the brilliant career of ,epaminondas had elevated ,thebes for a moment only to make general ,greece more divided and less able to resist the growing power of ,macedonia4 ,whether his father had destined him to follow his own profession is uncertain2 there are however in the ,ethics1 and elsewhere in his works1 frequent allusions to the medical art1 such as might have been expected from #ace the associations of his parentage2 and the prominent place given to physical science in his writings seems to indicate a tendency partly favoured by the circumstances of his birth1 partly evoked by the natural progress of the ,greek mind in the then stage of its development4 ,this only we know certainly1 that at the age of seventeen1 about the time when young men in ,scotland generally leave school for the university1 the future father of encyclopdic science was sent to ,athens1 where he remained for twenty years as a pupil of ,plato in the ,academy4 ,but though a pupil1 he was anything but a disciple4 ,naturally of an inductive rather than a speculative habit of mind1 and disposed to dissect and to tabulate rather than to collect and to construct1 he displayed from year to year a more marked divergence from the great ideal thinker who at that time was impressing his type on the rising intellect of ,greece4 ,the reported gossip of antiquity has much to say about some bitter rivalry that arose1 and unseemly quarrel that broke out1 between the dictatorial master and the independent pupil2 but we need believe nothing of this1 except in so far as it may be an indication of a radical difference of intellectual character in the two men1 which could not but make itself felt in various ways1 more or less inconsistent with the relation of a merely receptive and responsive discipleship4 ,nothing is more common in the intercourse of cultivated men1 than that one of the parties finds himself in a condition to respect profoundly what he cannot at all agree with1 and what he feels bound1 ever and anon1 decidedly to controvert4 ,so it fared no doubt with young ,aristotle in relation to old ,plato4 ,confluence between two souls so differently constituted there #acf could be none4 ,they cannot be compared as one rose may be compared with another1 or even as one flower may be contrasted with another flower1 but only as things of a totally different nature1 may be named in the same sentence to make their incommensurability more patent4 ,the intellect of ,aristotle was a granite palace1 that of ,plato a garden of paradise2 ,aristotle's wit was like a sharp knife and a weighty hammer1 ,plato's like a rolling river and a shining ocean2 the one bristled with all carious knowledge1 the other blossomed with all lofty speculation2 ,aristotle analysed all things great and small2 ,plato harmonized all things beautiful and grand4 ,along with this inborn diversity of intellectual character1 we have reason to suppose that there were certain habits of life and social peculiarities about the ,stagirite1 which were not without offence to the more strict and devoted ,platonists4 ,for that there was a certain tinge of ,puritanism1 and even a sort of lofty pedantry1 occasionally manifested in the great architect of ideas1 can1 ,i think1 scarcely be doubted by any one who has read his great work--the ,republic--with an unbribed judgment4 ,now if ,plato was somewhat of a philosophical ,puritan1 in ,aristotle there was presented that combination of a philosopher and a man of the world1 of the man of principle with the man of practice1 which1 because it is difficult to produce1 is always rare1 and because it is rare is always admired4 ,a physician1 and above all a court physician1 must be a man who enjoys and who understands society3 such was ,aristotle's father2 and the son1 while betaking himself to the quiet bowers of the ,athenian ,academy for the cultivation of thought1 could not forget that there was a large busy world without #acg which imperiously asserted itself1 and from which not even a philosopher could be allowed to withdraw with impunity4 ,it was a characteristic tenet of the ,peripatetic school that the external trappings and decorations of life are not to be looked down on with a lofty contempt1 but rather cared for as serviceable1 and in some cases necessary1 aids to a perfect life2 and so those ,quaker-like affectations of plain garb1 and those over-virtuous abstinences from 8cakes and ale0 and other delights of the merely sensuous part of our nature1 which some ,platonic and ,stoic philosophers affected1 could not but meet from ,aristotle with a practical protest1 of which some significant hint peeps out here and there among the scraps of ancient anecdote-mongers and memoir-writers4 ,plato1 we are told1 8was not pleased with ,aristotle's manner of life1 nor with his dress4 ,for indeed he was somewhat nice and curious in his apparel1 and there was a particular tidiness about his shoes2 and his hair also he had cut after a jaunty fashion1 not approved of by men of ,plato's following2 and he made a display of many rings on his finger4 ,moreover1 there was a peculiar sarcastic play about his mouth1 and1 when he spoke1 he could prattle away with a notable fluency2 all which things seemed not to be quite in keeping with the character of a philosopher1 and were the occasion that ,plato preferred ,speusippus and ,xenocrates1 who afterwards became his successors in the ,academy40 ,this picture is1 no doubt1 in the main true2 and it can only excite our admiration when we consider that the same man of whom this is told was also noted as the most severe and persistent reader in ,athens2 his house1 indeed1 was called by ,plato 8the house of the reader20 and the #ach learned geographer ,strabo notes him as the first ,greek who collected books on a large scale1 and supplied to the ,ptolemies of the succeeding age the model of those systematic stores of books with which they made ,alexandria famous4 ,aristotle therefore may justly be regarded as the great prototype of those modern ,germans who1 like the mailed knights of the middle ages1 stand up in our libraries1 cased in the invulnerable panoply of polyhistoric and encyclopdic erudition2 and he gave birth to that curious sort of intellectual laboriosity1 which when divorced from his genius and his sagacity1 produced those accumulations of written and printed record1 under which the shelves of so many libraries groan1 by which also1 we may justly say1 not a few strong intellects have been lost to the living world1 smothered beneath heaps of cumbrous babblement1 in extent infinite1 in value infinitesimal4 ,after the death of ,plato in the year #cdg1 ,aristotle retired for a few years to the court of his fellow-student and friend ,hermias1 then ruler of ,atarn1 on the coast of ,asia ,minor4 ,this change of scene was necessary for him1 while on the one hand his scheme of establishing a new school of philosophy was yet immature1 and1 on the other hand1 the political relations between ,macedonia and ,athens were not such as that it would be pleasant for him to be identified with a city which might soon be forced into hostility with his natural sovereign4 ,it was fruitful also1 no doubt1 in those shrewd observations on men and manners which stamp so many sagacious pages in his moral and political treatises4 ,from this judicious retirement after a few years he was called to a field of more #aci honourable and influential activity4 ,in the year #cdb he received a letter from ,philip of ,macedon1 requesting him to undertake the office of tutor to his young son ,alexander4 ,the duties of this position he performed with such results to his royal pupil as in such circumstances were to be expected2 and with the great advantage to himself of adding the resources of an absolute monarch and a great conqueror to his own private instruments for the prosecution of scientific research4 ,the unexpected death of ,philip by the hands of an assassin1 called ,alexander prematurely to dash into that brilliant career of ,asiatic victory which has made his name no less famous than that of his tutor1 who by this event relieved at once from personal responsibility and political apprehension1 found himself in a position to establish that independent school of wisdom at ,athens1 which now for more than two thousand years has propagated itself in the world as the natural and necessary complement to the ,platonic style of thought4 ,in the year #ccd he pitched his intellectual camp at the ,lyceum1 in the eastern suburbs of ,athens1 under ,mount ,lycabettus1 and here during the space of thirteen years he remained exercising towards his scholars the diverse functions of fatherhood and fraternity1 which in the ancient philosophical associations1 as in the early ,christian ,churches1 were so happily combined4 ,after the death of ,alexander1 in the year #cbb1 he left ,athens and retired to ,chalcis1 in ,euba1 where he had a small property2 a migration to which political considerations must have been the main inducement1 for so distinguished a dependant of the ,macedonian court could scarcely look upon himself as safe in #adj the ,attic capital the moment that the death of the great conqueror opened up to the most distinguished people whom his arms had subjugated the prospect of political liberation4 ,the philosopher1 accordingly1 when leaving the city of his adoption1 as it turned out for the last time1 with an obvious allusion to the fate of ,socrates1 is reported to have said that he did so in order that the ,athenians might not again have the opportunity of signalizing themselves by the murder of a philosopher2 for1 indeed1 in unlimited democracy generally1 and specially in the extreme democracy of that time1 he had no faith1 observing sarcastically that while the ,athenians had discovered two useful things1 wheat and freedom1 they understood how to use the one1 but the other they had possessed for a short time1 only to abuse4 ,and no doubt he acted wisely in retreating from a scene where no weight of character or reputation for grave wisdom could have shielded him from the combined assault of personal malignity and political rancour so ready in every democratic soil to rise with jealous spite against individual eminence and independence4 ,the philosopher was threatened1 we are told1 with prosecution for atheism2 a charge which1 however unfounded to the eye of reason1 might have been brought against the ,stagirite from the orthodox ,athenian point of view with much more justice than about eighty years before it had been brought against the great father of moral science4 ,an atheist certainly1 in the strict sense of the term1 ,aristotle was not1 but a pious believer in the polytheistic theology of his country he was even less2 piety indeed of any kind is not at all a pronounced feature in the composition of his character4 ,like many a #ada modern man of science1 he had cultivated acuteness at the expense of wonder2 and1 while indulging in the omnivorous lust of knowledge1 had starved veneration1 and stunted the growth of some of the most delicate emotions of the soul4 ,for devotion is of the very finest fragrance of the emotional life2 and as there are some flowers without smell1 so there are some souls without piety4 ,in point of religious feeling1 beyond all question1 both ,socrates and ,plato were infinitely superior to ,aristotle4 ,such are the few trustworthy notices that have been preserved to us of the outward fortunes of this great hierarch of encyclopdic knowledge4 ,he died shortly after his retirement to ,chalcis1 at the early age of sixty-three1 followed immediately by his great contemporary ,demosthenes4 ,on his deathbed he named ,theophrastus as his successor in the chair of the great school of philosophy which he had founded4 ,we now proceed to place before the reader a short statement of the most striking characteristics of the ethical philosophy of ,aristotle as they are set forth in that compact little book1 the ,nicomachean ,ethics4 ,and the first observation proper to make here is the extreme practicality that appears not more in the general colour and tone than in the individual chapters and paragraphs of this remarkable volume4 ,in criticising the sermons delivered in our ,christian pulpits we are accustomed to distinguish between doctrinal and practical preaching1 and to believe that while1 in ,scotland at least1 the former is the more popular and the more easy1 the latter is always the more difficult and the more efficient style of moral address4 ,now what we have to say of ,aristotle1 as he appears in the ,ethics1 is that he is not a mere #adb writer on ethics1 an acute speculator or a subtle casuist1 but he presents himself with all the seriousness of a preacher1 and an eminently practical preacher4 ,no doubt in this capacity he must be regarded both by natural genius and in the general tone of his ethical writings as second to his great master ,plato2 but his influence on the moral culture of the world has not for that reason been less4 ,a large class of men1 especially in this practical country1 are apt to suspect ,plato of nonsense2 and these are unwilling to take advice in the affairs of common life from a man who1 in his flights of ideal constructiveness1 so far transcends the narrow range of their own hard-faced realism4 ,but ,aristotle is a man whom no man can suspect of nonsense4 ,he takes what lies before him1 and in the most cool practical way conceivable proceeds to analyse it1 and to spell out its significance4 ,he is not ambitious--at least not in the department of morals--of piling a grand system1 or of tabulating an exhaustive scheme4 ,he is a practical man1 as much as you or ,i am1 and sees with marked distinctness always what lies in his way4 ,there is no fear that under his guidance you will lose yourself in a mist or be carried off your feet in a balloon4 ,he is therefore peculiarly fitted for being put forward as a lay-preacher to a ,british public2 and the ,oxford scholars have done good service to the ,english youth by giving his famous work on ,ethics such a prominent place among classical books of the first rank4 ,he is as sensible as ,dr4 ,paley1 and a great deal more profound2 while1 on the other hand1 it never occurs to him that it is necessary to prepare the way for a plain practical discourse on the conduct of life by abstract discussions #adc on the liberty of the will and the responsibility of free agents4 ,this omission ,principal ,grant considers a weakness2 ,i consider it a sign of good sense1 or1 at all events1 a remarkable piece of good luck4 ,he assumes morality in the moral world1 just as he assumes light and air and water in the physical2 he describes a moral man with strong lines and a firm hand1 just as he would describe a healthy man as contrasted with a diseased man4 ,if you have a single eye and an honest purpose1 you will not fail to know what he means2 if you have not1 his book is not for you4 ,there never was a more practical preacher4 ,this word practical1 therefore1 ,i desire the reader to emphasize doubly when he applies himself to the thorough comprehension of the ,nicomachean ,ethics4 ,there are1 no doubt1 in this treatise1 as in almost every ,greek book1 some half-dozen curious questions raised1 which1 like the subtle casuistry of the ,jesuit doctors1 have little practical value2 for ,aristotle was a ,greek1 and as such a habitual dealer in 1 or knotty points1 in the solution of which a hard practical ,scot or a broad burly ,englishman would think a single sentence wasted4 ,these however belong to the soil1 grow up like weeds among the best wheat1 and1 like bad puns in ,shakespeare1 must be taken with the lot4 ,in the gross and scope of his handling1 as we have said1 the ,stagirite systematically waives all unpractical questions2 and in the very arrangement of his book an attentive reader will not fail to discern that there are certain scientific deficiencies which can be explained fully only from the consideration that the writer had vividly realized the difference between what we could call an academical lecture and a sermon1 and was #add determined to make it felt that a lecture on morals1 through which the undertones of seriousness that belong to a sermon are not heard1 is one of the most absurd and unmeaning of all human performances4 ,no doubt this defect in respect of strictly scientific method may arise partly from the fact that the treatise seems to have been composed at different times1 and packed up1 so to speak1 in bundles rather than reared up architecturally into a jointed structure2 it is also plain enough to any one who can read with a discerning eye that the work was left incomplete by the great author1 and that the fifth1 sixth1 and seventh books1 as we now have then1 are from a different hand1 and of manifestly inferior workmanship2 but ,i consider it not less certain that1 had it not been for the dominance of the practical point of view1 not a few chapters in this most valuable treatise would have been compacted more aptly into the firmness of a complete organism4 ,once and again in the first two books of his treatise does he repeat the solemn warning that our object in inquiring into the nature of virtue is1 not that we may know what virtue is1 but that we may be virtuous4 ,once and again does he enter a protest against the supersubtle tendencies of his countrymen1 always ready to stand and debate1 even where the solution of the problem was to be found only in motion and in action4 ,subtleties of any kind1 indeed1 are not suitable for a moral discourse2 the entertainment of them shows that the inquirer has not yet conceived what the purport of the inquiry is2 ethical philosophy refers as distinctly to a deed as a sword refers to a cut2 and all questions about morals are idle1 and even pernicious1 that do not bear directly on some practical result4 #ade ,we must therefore1 so ,aristotle argues1 in our method of discussion here1 not insist on having always those exact proofs and nice definitions which in the sciences of measurement and number may fairly be demanded4 ,we should rather seek for an analogy to moral science in such arts as medicine1 and say that propriety of conduct1 like the health of the body1 is liable to much indeterminateness and variation2 that to seek for scientific rules which might apply with exactitude to all cases is absurd2 that no wise man will attempt to cut logs with razors1 and that in such matters of complex practice we must content ourselves with stating some such broad general principles as suit the great majority of cases1 and which every man must be left to apply for himself in the experience of life4 ,of the deep tone of practical seriousness which underlies the whole of the ,nicomachean ,ethics1 ,i know no more striking proof than an utterance of ,maurice1 in the preface to his exposition of the ,epistles of ,john1 which ,i shall here extract4 8,i owe unspeakable gratitude10 says that truly evangelical moralist1 8to the ,university of ,oxford for having put ,aristotle's ,ethics into my hands1 and induced me to read it1 and to think of it4 ,i doubt if ,i could have received a greater boon from any university or any teacher4 ,i will tell you what this book did for me4 ,first1 it assured me that the principles of morals cannot belong to one time or another2 that they must belong to all times4 ,here was an old heathen ,greek making me aware of things that were passing within me1 detecting my laziness and my insincerity1 showing how little ,i was doing the things which ,i professed to do1 forcing me to confess that with all the #adf advantages which ,i enjoyed he was better than ,i was4 ,that was one great thing4 ,next1 ,i could not but learn from him--for he took immense pains to tell me--that it is not by reading a book or learning a set of maxims by heart that one gets to know anything of morality1 that it belongs to life1 and must be learned in the daily practice of life4 ,english and ,christian writers no doubt might have told me the same thing4 ,but ,i am not sure that their words would have gone as much home as ,aristotle's did4 ,i might have thought that it was their business1 part of their profession1 to utter those stern maxims1 and to hold up such lofty ideals of conduct40 ,and what adds immense force to ,aristotle's preaching1 especially with young men1 is the feeling that they have here to do not only with a non-professional preacher but with a thorough gentleman1 and a shrewd man of the world1 the friend of princes1 and of great statesmen and mighty captains4 ,it is seldom indeed that young men in the heat of their blood and the glow of their fancy will listen with much attention to sermons of any kind1 even from the best preachers2 but if they will not receive the word of warning from such a prophet as ,aristotle they will at least have no excuse for sneering either at the doctor or the doctrine4 ,in him they will find no sarcastic ,cynic1 content with the negative pleasure of snarling from his private kennel at the faults of men1 instead of rising to help their infirmities2 no sickly devotee whose principal occupation through the dreariness of the present life is to dream and maunder about the glories of the future2 no curious registrar of morbid frames of mind or dainty nurse of unproductive sentiment4 ,such caricatures of the spiritual man1 #adg justly odious to the vigorous1 generous1 and sanguineous temper of youth1 may be found cropping out largely in the histories both of philosophical and religious sectaries2 but not a hint of them appears in the thoroughly masculine1 thoroughly manly1 and thoroughly healthy ,ethics of ,aristotle4 ,the corner-stone of ,aristotle's moral doctrine1 as in that of ,socrates1 lies in the single word 1 which1 whether in its internal side as ,reason1 or with its outer face as ,discourse1 was so peculiarly the watchword of the ,hellenic race4 8,the ,greeks seek after wisdom20 and wisdom1 or 1 is in all cases the result1 and the only possible result1 of the just exercise of or reason4 ,we shall not therefore expect to find in the ,stagirite any fundamental principle different from that on which the moral doctrine of ,socrates rests--nay1 just as some of the most characteristic maxims of the ,new ,testament can be pointed out in1 and no doubt were actually borrowed from1 the ,old ,testament1 even so1 and in a much greater degree1 was the ethical doctrine of ,aristotle borrowed in its great leading points from ,socrates and ,plato4 ,this borrowing1 however1 was not in the style of patchwork2 it was an affair of natural growth4 ,what we find in ,aristotle is not a new ethical doctrine1 but the emphasizing and systematizing of certain important aspects of an old doctrine4 ,now the aspect which ,aristotle strongly emphasizes as the starting-point of his ethical teaching is the and the 4 ,all men profess to have some object after which they strive in their life and by their deeds2 no man in this world1 as ,goethe says1 can safely live at random3 the ship that sails at random will be wrecked #adh even in a calm1 and the man who lives at random will be ruined without the help of any positive vice4 ,what then is it that men must propose to themselves as the 1 the end1 object1 or purpose of their existence8 ,generally1 all men profess to be seeking for the 1 or the ,good4 ,the question1 therefore1 which ethical science has to answer is1 in the words of the ,westminster ,catechism1 ,what is the chief end of man8 ,what is the ultimate aim and highest ,good1 the summum bonum1 of which the creature called ,man is capable8 ,how are we to discover this8 ,plainly in the same way that we discover the chief good of any special kind of man1--a man exercising any special professional function4 ,what is the summum bonum of a flute-player8 ,of course to play the flute1 and to play the flute well2 of a soldier1 to fight well2 of a shoemaker1 to make good shoes2 of a brewer1 to brew good beer2 of a fowler1 to snare birds2 and of an angler1 to hook fish4 ,the chief end1 therefore1 of any creature is found by discovering his natural work or business in the world1--for all things are full of labour1 and a man's duty is always some kind of work4 ,as1 then1 there is a special work for the flute-player or the fowler1 which determines his chief good1 so1 if we are to find the chief end of man1 we must put our finger on some general work or business1 which belongs to all men as men1 and not as engaged in special occupations and practising particular arts4 ,how is this work found8 ,of course by fixing our attention on the differentiating element in the human creature4 ,the differentiating element in birds is wings1 in fish fins1 in worms rings4 ,by this differentiation1 stamped on every creature by the absolute dictatorship of #adi ,nature1 the destiny and the duty1 the privilege and the glory1 of each type of organized existence is inevitably determined4 ,the creature has nothing to do in the matter but to recognise and to obey2 unreasoning creatures unconsciously and blindly1 choice4 ,the proper work of man1 therefore1 can lie only in what in him is most distinctively human2 not therefore of course in any function of the merely vegetative life which he has in common with the plant2 nor again in any function of the merely sensuous life1 which he enjoys in common with1 oxen2 but in the exercise of that faculty which he alone possesses1 and which alone stamps him as distinctively human1 viz41 ,,reason4 ,the work of a man1 accordingly1 and the chief end of all men1 will be an energizing of the soul1 according to reason1 or not without reason2 and a life according to reason will be good1 and the chief good2 and not only so1 but it must also be the pleasure1 and the highest pleasure1 of the reasonable being who leads such a life2 for the pleasure of every creature lies in acting freely and without hindrance according to its distinctive nature2 and as horses are the pleasure of the rider1 and views of the landscape painter1 so good actions are the pleasure of good men1 and reasonable actions the delight of all who live by the use of reason2 so much so indeed1 that he cannot even claim to be numbered amongst good men who1 besides doing good deeds1 does not likewise rejoice in doing such deeds4 ,charity given with an unwilling hand is not charity2 it is a boon extorted4 ,this statement taken almost literally from the first eight chapters of the first book of the ,ethics1 will1 it is hoped1 make the moral attitude of ,aristotle #aej sufficiently intelligible4 ,he does not say1 with ,bentham and the modern utilitarians1 8,look round about you for what is pleasurable2 and that which affords pleasure to you1 and to the greatest possible number of creatures with whom you are socially connected1 is your duty20 but he looks about to find your distinctive excellence1 your peculiar faculty among all creatures1--8,exercise that10 he says1 8and you fulfil your destiny1 and attain your chief good4 ,as for pleasure1 that you will have also1 not as an amulet hung about your neck1 but in the very necessity of your energy exercised according to your special nature4 ,cultivate what is noblest in you1 and you cannot fail to find what is most agreeable4 ,the doing of this1 however1 is by no means so simple a matter as in the mere abstract statement might appear4 ,it is the business of a man1 no doubt1 to act reasonably1 that is virtuously1 just as much as it is the business of a bee to bag honey2 but it is a much easier thing for the bee to suck honey from the flowers than for a man to force fragrant deeds from the stuff that daily life presents4 ,how is this8 ,the difficulty lies in the compound nature of man3 a nature not compound only1 but composed of parts of which one is found to be often strangely at variance with the others2 so much so1 indeed1 that while reason is the distinctive faculty of man1 and to act reasonably is at once his safety1 his happiness1 and his glory1 he bears within himself likewise a principle of unreason1 an opposed to his 1--a principle in the normal state of man altogether dependent and servile1 but which1 as things are1 has a strong tendency to rebel1 assert an unruly independence1 and even cast down from his throne #aea the lawful regent of the soul4 ,this1 the reader will remark1 is exactly the doctrine of ,st4 ,paul1 with regard to the contrariety of ,flesh and ,spirit1 in the eighth chapter of the ,romans1 and expressed in almost the same terms4 ,the exact words of ,aristotle are3 8,there appear manifestly in human beings some strong natural tendencies different from reason1 and not only different1 but fighting with and resisting reason40 ,but this remarkable peculiarity in the complex creature ,man does not in the least change the nature of human good2 it only adds to it another element which makes it in the end more glorious--the element of resistance1 struggle1 victory1 and triumph1--of course always with the necessary alternative of possible feebleness1 cowardice1 and defeat4 ,and the same fact1--the same original sin1 as our theologians term it1--nicely considered1 raises a noticeable question about the origin of laws and moral obligation2 that old question so often discussed by the ,sophists1 and argued1 as we have seen1 by ,socrates1 in his discourse with ,hippias1 whether right and wrong exist by nature or by institution1 as they expressed it1 or 2 and the answer given to this question by the ,stagirite1 characterized by his usual good sense1 is that1 while the determination of right and wrong is not a matter of arbitrary1 compulsory imposition1 according to the selfish theory of ,hobbes1 but lies deeply rooted in the innermost recesses of human nature1 it is nevertheless true that it is the nature of man1 more perhaps than of any other animal1 to require training and discipline to bring out what is in him2 and that virtue1 in fact1 is not virtue till the inborn impulses towards excellence have been fostered and strengthened by those social #aeb appliances which lie in the very primary conditions of human life4 ,we are made virtuous1 therefore1 neither by nature1 nor contrary to nature1 nor independently of nature1 but we grow virtuous by repeated acts of living according to reason1 as we learn to see by using our eyes4 ,virtue is1 in fact1 a habit2#aeb4a and as one fit of drunkenness does not make a man a drunkard1 so one act of generosity does not make a generous man1 and the whole roll of the virtues practised only once or twice1 however completely1 does not make a virtuous man4 ,hence the immense importance of education1 which other animals may dispense with1 but not man1 and on which1 accordingly1 both ,plato and ,aristotle insist1 as the one thing needful for the well-being1 whether of the individual or of society4 ,the existence of innate tendencies towards the ,good does not in the least imply that human nature in its early stages may be safely left to itself4 ,these good tendencies may be counteracted by opposite tendencies2 they may be overwhelmed by adverse circumstance2 they may be extinguished2 and experience proves that they not seldom are extinguished4 ,having laid this sure foundation in the differentiating element of man1 the philosopher might naturally have proceeded to prove that1 assuming man to be naturally a social animal1 and widowed with those instincts which make social organization necessary to his normal existence1 any application of reason to social existence1 that is1 every assertion of practical reason in a creature so constituted1 is what we call #aec right1 and every omission to assert it1 or direct assertion of the contrary1 is what we call wrong4 ,a right action is an action according to the real constitution of things1 which reality it is the business of reason to discern2 a wrong act is an act in contravention of the real constitution of things1 and can be performed only when reason is undeveloped or asleep1 or by some violent impulse or blind illusion led astray3 it is an act insulated1 contumacious1 and rebellious1 issuing necessarily in confusion and chaos and ruin2 for no single unit in a complex whole can assert its mere capricious independent self in practical denial of the totality to which it belongs1 without producing discomfort at first1 and ultimately being crushed by the firm compactness of the mighty machinery which it has recklessly dared to disturb4 ,how this might have been demonstrated in detail the reader of the preceding discourse on ,socrates cannot be ignorant2 but however much it lay in his way1 the ,stagirite in his ,nicomachean treatise did not choose to enter upon this theme4 ,for this procedure he may have had two sufficient reasons2 for1 in the first place1 he may have thought that view of the matter lay too obviously in the whole scheme and handling both of ,plato and ,socrates1 to be susceptible of much novelty at his hands2 and in the second place1 he may have considered such a demonstration1 however cogent in a book1 to be less practically useful than some test of right and wrong1 which he might be able to formulate4 ,and in the test which he hits upon1 as we shall presently see1 it is quite evident that practical utility rather than theoretic invulnerability was his main object2 and this is precisely what1 in consistency at once with the nature of the #aed subject1 and his own introductory observations1 he was directly led to do4 ,his test was simply this1 that virtue1 or right conduct1 is generally found in the mean between two extremes2 for though there may be the same difficulty in pronouncing about the quality of particular actions1 sometimes1 as there is in pronouncing about the state of bodily health in any individual1 yet1 upon a broad view of both cases1 nothing seems more obvious and more certain than that the unhealthy condition1 whether of body or soul1 is chiefly indicated by some deficiency or excess4 ,in other words1 virtue is a medium1 a balance1 a proportion1 a symmetry1 a harmony1 a nice adjustment of the force of each part in reference to the calculated action of the whole4 ,now1 it will at once be seen that this principle is not put forth as anything new2 its truth rather consists in its antiquity1 and in the deep-rooted experience of all human individuals and all human associations4 ,it is a principle which forms part of the proverbial wisdom of all peoples2 and the ,greeks especially from the oldest times were strong on this point4 -- -- --were maxims familiar to every ,greek ear long before ,aristotle2 and in the realm of speculation1 the 1 or number of ,pythagoras1 when applied to morals1 really meant nothing else4 ,so in the ,proverbs of ,solomon we find the well-known utterances--8,hast thou found honey8 eat so much as is sufficient for thee1 lest thou be filled therewith and vomit it40 ,and again3 8,be not righteous overmuch1 neither make thyself overwise2 why shouldst thou destroy thyself8 ,be not overmuch wicked1 neither be thou foolish3 why shouldst thou die before thy #aee time80 ,and our ,shakespeare1 whose plays are a grand equestrian march of all wisdom1 says to the same effect in his own admirable style-- 8,these violent delights have violent ends1 ,and in their triumph die3 like fire and powder ,which1 as they kiss1 consume4 ,the sweetest honey ,is loathsome in his own deliciousness1 ,and in the taste confounds the appetite3 ,therefore love moderately2 long love doth so2 ,too swift arrives as tardy as too slow40 ,what ,aristotle enunciated therefore was merely the most commonplace wisdom2 and so much the better4 ,commonplace wisdom is the best kind of wisdom for common needs and every-day occasions4 ,it is too late in the day now1 and was too late in ,aristotle's time certainly1 to be discovering altogether new rules for keeping the consciences and the stomachs of the human millions in good order4 ,things absolutely necessary to healthy existence were necessarily known from the earliest ages1 unless indeed we imagine that the primeval man was created in a state of physical and moral disease1 that he might grope and blunder his way into health1 as some theorists assert that he groped and blundered his way from a tiger into a moral being1 and from a monkey into a man4 ,so far unquestionably1 ,henry ,thomas ,buckle was right3 there are no discoveries to be made in morals4 ,we do not discover the sun2 we only recognise it when the clouds are blown and the rain has exhausted itself4 ,so it is in morals--in the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world4 ,we do not discover moral principles by a fingering induction1 or in any other way2 we merely remove obstructions2 we can apply the #aef bellows also and blow the small spark into a mighty flame4 ,our endeavours therefore as preachers1 and as philosophers1 like ,aristotle1 are not in vain4 ,we have much to do1 if not in the way of discovering absolutely new principles1 certainly in a thousand and one ways of applying those principles4 ,a burning-glass when first invented did not discover the sun2 it utilized the sun4 ,and in the same way the institution of every new church or the establishment of every new school is an invention in morals1 though not a discovery of a new moral principle4 ,sabbath-schools were a discovery in morals2 ,voluntary ,churches were a discovery in morals2 ,reform ,bills were a discovery in morals4 ,and in the world of books1 we must say also that the principle of the mean asserted and systematically set forth in the ,nicomachean ,ethics was a great discovery in moral philosophy4 ,the discovery consisted in the sagacity which seized1 among a thousand others1 a floating proverb1 as alone fit1 or mainly fit1 for being made the corner-stone of a comprehensive canon of human conduct4 ,to pick up a rough stone from the road1 and polish it1 and set it in a ring1 and carve upon it the signature of the king's imperial will1 is no small achievement2 and this simile precisely appraises the merit of the ,stagirite1 in reference to that old maxim 1 which we have just quoted4 ,he has stamped it with the authority of his own regal intellect1 in a manner appealing not less effectively to the analytic habits of the scientific man1 than to the broad views so dear to the so-called practical man4 ,and that he was grandly right in seizing upon this rule of conduct1 no person who has ever seriously applied1 himself to the wisdom of life1 as to the one #aeg thing needful1 will hare any difficulty in admitting4 ,for there is hardly a man of any self-knowledge who will not be willing to confess that the greatest blunders he has made in the difficult game of life have arisen from the neglect of this rule1 as his most signal successes have sprung from the observance of it4 ,the attainment of this golden mean1 indeed1 in one shape or another1 is the constant problem of existence2 and it will be difficult to point out any defects of moral character which do not arise either from a certain feebleness and deficiency of some necessary practical energy1 or from the exaggeration and misapplication of virtues--a misapplication1 be it observed1 which almost always proceeds from an excess2 for as a mother is apt to have her pet child1 and an old maid her green parrot1 her ,skye terrier1 or her tortoise-shell cat1 on which she spends the overflow of her non-utilized sympathies1 so every man is apt to have his pet virtue1 his idol excellence1 on which he prides himself1 and of which he is fond of making a parade on all proper and improper occasions4 ,it is the excessive sway of the favourite affection that makes a man blind to discern and weak to prevent its improper application4 ,this is a great truth--and somewhat of a comfortable truth1 too2 for to sin by excess of good is always better than to offend from pure viciousness2 and man is upon the whole 7notwithstanding the floating lies of the hour1 and the ,devil's ,paradise in ,new ,york7 a blundering rather than a diabolical creature4 ,the importance of ,aristotle's rule arises from the fact that it is a regulative principle of universal application2 and in this way it may well be taken in the left hand1 along with the golden rule in the right #aeh hand1 8,do unto others as ye would that they would do unto you20 for this sacred sentence is founded on a just1 delicate1 and broad sympathy1 and belongs rather to the emotional element--the moral steam1 so to speak--of our nature1 which1 to avoid great perils1 must always be associated with the regulative principle of the mean1 or something to that effect4 ,these two famous maxims indeed may1 for practical purposes1 be regarded as complementary of each other4 ,for persons in whom the sympathetic emotions predominate are often deficient in the regulative faculty2 while those whose power of regulation is great have sometimes little to regulate1 and like a great commander with few soldiers1 make a very poor appearance in the battle-field4 ,in the struggle of life1 the man whose sympathetic unselfish impulses are strong will perhaps find more benefit from the constant reference to ,aristotle's mean than even to the ,scriptural golden rule2 while the well-tempered ,aristotelian will1 on the other hand1 find it for his advantage to inquire whether the even pace at which he goes is not as much owing to the dullness of the charger's blood as to the skill with which the rider wields the rein4 ,for there is no single maxim in morals that will conduct a man through all practical difficulties without the consideration of some other maxim qualifying it1 and perhaps1 for the nonce1 giving it a flat contradiction2 as ,i have known a gentleman who confessed to me that by nothing had he been led into so many serious blunders as by the indiscriminate application of this very text1 8,do unto others10 etc42 for1 being a man of a peculiar idiosyncrasy1 and not having learned that the golden rule applies only to that which we #aei hold in common with our fellow-men1 and not to those points on which we differ1 he was constantly led into a course of behaviour towards certain persons1 meant by him as a great kindness1 but taken as a serious offence4 ,while he wished not to be troublesome1 he was considered to be neglectful2 while he abstained from mentioning certain subjects for fear of rousing painful feelings he was accused of coldness and indifference2 while he meant to be frank and confiding1 he was met with a rebuff that he was rude and impertinent4 ,all this shows how little mere preaching and parading of general maxims has to do with the difficult task of the formation of character2 and no writer deserves greater praise for having gravely enunciated this truth than the author of the ,nicomachean ,ethics4 ,in order fully to realize the value of the ,aristotelian mean in the conduct of life1 we may follow the method of the great moralist himself1 and cull a few examples at random for its verification4 ,we shall take three virtues--courage1 truthfulness1 self-esteem--and see how distinctly they stand out each as the middle-point of two vicious extremes4 ,that courage is the mean between cowardice and rashness does not require to be told3 but what a wide field of operation does this triad open to us1 while we proceed to realize it in education1 and in the conduct of public affairs1 and in the events of life6 ,what a nice judgment is required to know at what exact point the too much and the too little commences1 where the right way swerves into an error of which the consequences may be incalculable6 ,for the mean point is variable2 and the hesitation which would be prudence in one person1 or on one occasion1 is cowardice in another4 ,a sailor sailing without a #afj chart among blind reefs and strong currents--such as occur everywhere in the ,shetland seas--can scarcely be too cautions2 with a soldier1 a bold dash into a difficulty with a fearlessness which can1 scarcely be distinguished from rashness is sometimes the nearest road to a brilliant success4 ,and as good amusements are a mimicry of life1 there is a moment at bowls1 or croquet1 or backgammon1 or even deliberate whist1 when the fortune of a whole game may depend on a move which at other times would be either the most stupid ignorance or the most reckless folly4 ,the wisdom of life1 considered as a battle1 depends at every moment on the skill to know when to advance and when to retreat1 when to dash on with the spear1 and when to crouch behind the shield2 to know this moment is to know the just mean between rashness and cowardice1 which the ,greeks by a very significant name called manhood 77 or courage4 ,take another virtue4 ,of all commodities in the world1 the most difficult to deal with is truth4 ,if1 indeed1 all men went about the streets1 like ,socrates1 in search of nothing but truth1 and thanking everybody most fervidly for any contribution to his stock of it1 even in the most disagreeable shape1 truthfulness would be an easy virtue2 as easy for a human being1 one might imagine1 as for a quick fountain to spout water1 and for an eager fire to spit flame4 ,but we all know it is not so--rather quite otherwise1 for truth is an article to which1 except in so far as particular truths may happen to prop up their prejudices1 to flatter their vanity1 and to inflate their conceit1 many persons have serious objections4 ,to fling it in their face is to insult them2 to put it down their throats1 #afa even with a silver spoon and sugar-candy1 a difficult operation4 ,hence1 in the conduct of life1 the great importance of not speaking too much truth1 lest we frighten people1 and not speaking too little1 lest we learn altogether to live upon lies4 ,in mixed society1 on account of the extreme sensitiveness of all sorts of vain and self-important persons1 the rule is generally adopted of speaking as little truth as possible--that is1 as little serious truth about important matters2 for truth about trifles will discompose no one4 ,but this conventional reticence is by no means the which a reasonable compliance with the ,aristotelian rule in this case would require2 for though a surplus of truth is sure to make society uncomfortable1 and a deluge of it makes it impossible1 a great deficiency will certainly make it tame and stupid2 and this is the extreme to which1 in this country1 we have lately been drifting with a gentle1 but not the less a dangerous1 current4 ,even in our pulpits we find a sort of cowardice sometimes formally enthroned1 and a tame coldness set up as the standard in a place where1 above all others1 an indiscreet fervour might occasionally be allowed to pass for full cousin to the greatest excellence4 ,take again1 self-esteem1 which is partly an instinct1 partly with wise men the result of that self-knowledge which long and varied experience ought always to produce4 ,this is a moral mean perhaps even more difficult to strike than truthfulness2 for in speaking1 or rather not speaking1 the truth1 the principal difficulty a wise man has to deal with is the weakness of a brother2 whereas1 in estimating himself1 the wisest man is constantly liable to be bribed by that love of self which1 indeed1 is the necessary root of #afb our vitality1 but never can be the blooming crown of our glory4 ,in reference to this quality1 the general tendency of the world is towards overestimate2 most persons are apt to measure too highly the value of their own particular strong point1 and to under-estimate1 or altogether misprize1 that of their neighbours2 as a gentleman in the month of ,august scouring the moors in triumph with a gun will be apt to think himself a much more sublime character than a poet lying lazily on a heather brae1 and spinning out pretty fancies to the tune of a brown burn that eddies lazily round an old granite boulder2 while the rhymer1 on the other hand1 thinks it a daintier occupation to sympathize quietly with feathered life than to take it away with powder and shot4 ,so it is with us all1 women as well as men-- 8,if a fair girl has but a pretty face1 ,she has the wit to know it40 ,and there is no reason why she should not know it4 ,if a woman does not know her points1 according to a high authority1 she cannot even dress well2 only1 experience has proved that the less men and women think about their strong points1 except1 of course1 when they are dressing1 the better2 for there is no more certain way of committing suicide on the higher moral nature than by falling in love with ourselves4 ,in reference to this matter1 therefore1 it may be thought that the other and less common extreme is the more safe--it is better to think too lowly of ourselves than too highly4 ,and it is a fact1 capable of being proved from a hundred biographies1 that the greatest men have been the least given to self-glorification2 that modesty1 as is commonly said1 #afc is the invariable accompaniment of genuine power1 while forward conceit1 and empty inflation1 and boastful exhibition of all kinds1 are the natural characteristics of the young1 the superficial1 and the small4 ,the under-estimate of self often found in connexion with the highest genius1 especially in the early period of its experiments1 arises naturally from the high ideal of perfection1 by the contemplation of which excellence grows4 ,no young man who puts a few well-adjusted and well-toned figures together on a piece of canvas can know1 and certainly ought never to imagine1 that he carries ,raphael and ,michael ,angelo1 and something better than both perhaps1 in his bosom4 ,but though this be true1 ,i do not know whether ,i have not seen more sad mistakes made in life by persons who were rather depressed by too little than elevated by too much self-esteem4 ,i have sometimes thought that the conceit so natural to young men is given to them by a gracious provision as a superfluity that is sure to be pruned off4 ,the world is constantly employed in pulling down outrageous conceit2 but when a poor fellow starts in the hot race of life1 afflicted with that disease which the ,greeks call 1 or difficult-facedness--that is1 so modest as not to be able to look a fellow-being in the face--,i must confess1 though ,i have a kindly feeling towards a person so deficient which ,i never can have to the smart and pert self-conscious mannikin1 ,i feel that the defect of the one is a much greater misfortune1 and a malady much more difficult to cure1 than the excess of the other4 ,with some persons1 and indeed whole families1 the tendency to underrate their own capacity acts like a positive taint in the blood2 it cuts the wing from hope1 dulls the nerve #afd of aspiration1 and palsies the arm of action4 ,it makes an honest man useless where ,god has put him1 and opens the door for a dishonest man with a little natural confidence to do badly what the honest man for sheer lack of confidence has not been able to do at all4 ,the man of defective self-esteem thus commits two great wrongs--he wrongs himself1 because he allows himself to be shunted out of his natural sphere1 and becomes a hindrance where he might have been a help2 and he wrongs the public1 which lacks both the insight and the leisure to drag modest merit from its den and to look with an unwinking eye on the juggling glamoury of the bold pretender4 ,but it is not only in the phases of individual character and the experiences of personal life that the validity of the ,aristotelian standard of well-being is strongly asserted4 ,in every sphere of existence through the various drama of the cosmos1 we find the same principle in operation4 ,and we may1 without qualification1 broadly pronounce that the world is a 1 an ordered and garnished whole1 only in so far as it is held together by the harmonizing law of the mean2 otherwise it jerks asunder1 and through violent excess bolts into chaos4 ,take what we call ,health1 for instance2 what is it but the rhythmical medium1 of normal pulse between the excess of fever and the defect of feebleness8 which two extremes1 as the common saying is1 necessarily meet2 for they are both equally removed from healthy life1 and sisters-uterine to death and dissolution4 ,then1 again1 what is ,beauty8 ,a power which all feel1 but few can define2 neither shall ,i attempt to define it now4 ,but one thing at least in reference to it is quite plain1 that it is always a medium #afe betwixt two extremes1 or1 what comes to the same thing1 a marriage of extremes4 ,for by such a marriage1 as we see in the commonest processes of chemical action1 a mean product is produced of a comparatively mild and innocuous character4 ,the corrosive acid or alkali is annihilated and a neutral salt comes to view4 ,exactly so in works of nature or art on which the imagination can pleasantly dwell4 ,no extreme is beautiful4 ,the extreme of force overwhelms2 the extreme of gentleness enfeebles and enervates4 ,therefore1 to make a handsome man1 we must borrow a few tricks of grace from the female2 and to make a woman who shall be more than an animated rose or primrose1 we must find her infected with a certain dose of firmness and energy from the male4 ,a mere masculine creature1 composed altogether of the extreme of strength and force1 is disagreeable1 and often unbearable2 a mere feminine creature in the extreme of delicacy1 however finely tinted with the 8dolce mistura di rosa e di ligustro10 which ,ariosto lauds1 if she is capable only of a gentle smile and a soft caress1 very soon becomes tiresome4 ,she is the extreme of the mere woman1 and1 like a cooing turtle-dove1 soon satiates2 and at the apparition of such an unfeathered pigeon we yawn1 as from the fully-developed unmitigated male bear we shrink4 ,but it is in the great movements of the social world--in the rise and fall of stock and commercial speculations--no less than in the slow changes and violent revolutions of ,churches and ,states1 that the operation of the ,aristotelian mean is most strikingly exemplified4 ,moderation1 indeed1 both in ,church and ,state1 and on ',change1 is the one great condition of safety--no proposition #aff in ,euclid is more certain than this3 but though this be the wisdom of government and of trade1 it is a wisdom which political1 commercial1 and ecclesiastical adventurers in all ages have been slow to learn2 and in public life we constantly meet with persons who act and speak as if they believed that the triumph of an extreme view is ever the triumph of right1 and that the well-being of communities consists in the unlimited sway of one party and the complete annihilation of all others4 ,and it may be said also1 that1 notwithstanding all the warnings of centuries of bloody experience1 the man or the party that takes the strong one-sided violent view has1 on critical occasions1 the best chance to succeed4 ,wisdom in the days of ,solomon lifted up her voice in the streets1 and was not heard4 ,it is even so now4 ,the streets are not the place for wisdom4 ,wisdom requires calm reflection2 but the streets are full of hurry and bustle4 ,aristotle had a serene contempt for the multitude1 and the multitude have an instinctive aversion to ,aristotle4 ,when you bring a multitude of men together to be harangued1 violent and extreme opinions pronounced in the strongest language are apt to be the most popular4 ,a one-sided view taxes thought less2 a one-sided speech flatters an ignorant audience1 who are capable only of one idea--at least only of one at a time--and who delight to hug themselves in the fancy that there is no other idea in the universe4 ,and the natural leader of a multitude so affected is not1 of course1 your man of many thoughts1 your ,aristotle1 your ,shakespeare1 your ,goethe1 but your well-packed1 self-contained1 little man1 full of bottled fire impatient to burst forth1 who marches from his cradle to his grave capable only #afg of one aspect of things1 and who1 if the notion by which he is governed happens to jump with the humour of the time1 shall become the demagogue of the hour1 or1 if circumstances favour1 the dictator of the age4 ,when1 indeed1 we consider the undeniable fact that great social changes are generally effected through the agency of excited multitudes and highly stimulated parties1 we shall not be surprised at the result so often exhibited in history4 ,that result shows bloody civil wars instead of peaceful arrangement2 faction instead of patriotism2 and an oscillation between feverish extremes1 instead of a well-calculated balance of social forces4 ,the revolutions and reforms which fill the most interesting pages of history teem with examples of this kind4 ,these revolutions and reforms are of two kinds--remedial and constructive1 or disintegrating and destructive2 and the history of both equally illustrates the hopelessness--perhaps it were more correct to say the impossibility--of expecting wisdom and moderation to perform a prominent part in the management of the congregated millions of diverse and hostile-minded men under the passionate influences that accompany organic change4 ,for these things are generally done in the manner of a battle3 parties get heated2 the blood is up2 first ink is shed in oceans1 then gall1 then blood2 and who expects moderation from men with partisan pens or poignards in their hands1 and carrying on a systematic trade in all sorts of misrepresentation1 slander1 and lies8 ,we read sometimes1 indeed1 of a whole people having by a happy accident found out their wisest man--as in the notable example of ,,solon--and oligarchs and democrats voluntarily submitting themselves to #afh him as a just and legal arbiter4 ,the result in this case1 as we read1 was what might have been expected4 ,the wise man produced a wise constitution4 ,the contending claims of the adverse parties were adjusted with moderation2 and a mingled polity1 presenting a just medium between oligarchy1 the cold selfishness of the few1 and democracy1 the overbearing insolence of the many1 was the result4 ,but nothing human is permanent2 and the next changes did not proceed so comfortably4 ,the democracy1 inflated with their military successes at ,marathon and ,salamis1 would tolerate no check2 their ,areopagus1 or ,house of ,lords1 was shorn of all influence2 the extravagant ambition of their popular assemblies was fooled to the top of its bent by the unprincipled brilliancy of adventurers like ,alcibiades2 the constant necessity of maintaining political influence by flinging sops to a greedy multitude produced1 as we see in ,america at the present hour1 a corruption of public morals1 and a deterioration of the character of public men1 against which all patriotic remonstrances were weak3 faction assumed the helm2 venality became law2 and at the moment of danger1 when the young ,macedonian snake might yet have been crushed1 there was found only one honest man among the noisy haranguers of the ,pnyx4 ,and to him they listened only when it was too late4 ,thus1 by the excess of democratic polity fostered by ,pericles1 the insolence of democratic ambition spurred by ,alcibiades1 the languor that followed the over-exertion of the ,peloponnesian ,war1 and the corruption that belongs to every extreme form of government1 ,athens forfeited her short lease of brilliant liberty1 and became a slave for more than two thousand years4 ,a similar scene #afi was exhibited in the ,roman ,forum1 which1 however1 ,i must refrain from painting out in detail here4 ,suffice it to say that1 so long as a moderate balance between patricians and plebeians was maintained1 the ,aristocratic ,republic of ,rome prospered at home and conquered abroad2 but no sooner had the democracy1 by the ,hortensian law of ,b4,c4 #bhf1 asserted the right of acting alone in legislative measures1 without the co-operation of the ,roman ,house of ,lords 7that is1 the ,senate71 than the seed of destruction was sown4 ,the two parties were now planted face to face on independent ground2 two masters in the same house claimed equal power2 the peaceful balance became a battle-field2 assassinations in the ,forum were the harbingers of butcheries in protracted dramas of civil slaughter2 violence was followed by exhaustion2 and on the bloody steps of a democratic ,tribunate the armed nursling of the democracy mounted the throne of universal despotism4 ,so the public life of ,ancient ,rome ended with faction and a native military monarchy1 as that1 of ,greece in faction and subjection to a foreign power4 ,there are some people of a happy innocence of mind who believe that we in modern times1 by the help of ,christianity and schoolmasters1 may haply escape all these evils and flourish in a green immortality on the earth1 if not under present circumstances exactly1 at least by and by with the help of manhood suffrage1 ballot-boxes1 unbearded politicians1 and a few other democratic imaginations4 ,i am sorry to say that ,i do not in the least share in these anticipations3 only under one condition is it possible that modern ,states should escape the disintegrating process which annihilated the constitutions of ,ancient ,greece and #agj ,rome--they must study moderation2 they must be converted to the doctrine of ,aristotle2 otherwise they must perish4 ,that in free constitutions public affairs should be managed by the oscillations of opposing parties is necessary and natural3 the annihilation of parties is possible only with the prostration of liberty2 but the eternal truth still remains1 that if parties will not acknowledge certain wise limitations1 but push their hostility to extremes1 the preservation of national liberty is impossible4 ,if1 when organic reforms are necessary1 the wise and moderate men of all parties will unite together to make such changes as will satisfy the just demands of new claimants1 without destroying the equally just rights of the old1 then1 so far as political forces of corruption are concerned1 the durability of a constitution may be looked upon as secured2 but if the parties1 instead of working for a patriotic purpose1 are more concerned for the momentary success of a parliamentary manuvre than for the ultimate triumph of a great principle--if1 instead of wisely and courageously confronting a violent and unreasonable clamour and quashing outrageous folly with statesmanlike firmness1 they waver1 and flinch1 and yield1 and even condescend to the base game 7practised in ancient ,rome and medival ,florence7 of outbidding one another in cowardly concessions to an untempered multitude--in this case1 neither ,christianity nor schoolmasters can save any modern ,state from perdition1 either on this or on the other side of the ,atlantic4 ,for there is not one law of morality for the individual and another for public men1 but they are both the same2 and it is not so much the form of government as the tone of political morality1 #aga and the character of politicians1 that saves or ruins a ,state4 ,if in any country the management of public affairs falls into the hands of men who make a trade of politics1 and employ an organized machinery of violence1 and lies1 and intrigue1 for the purpose of getting into power2 and if they consider power valuable1 not for the purpose of moderating popular passions and exposing popular delusions1 but for keeping their party in place by spreading full sails to the popular breeze1 then that country is already in the hands of the destroying ,siva1 and no constitution can save it4 ,political wisdom is not to be expected from men who enter the game of public life with the recklessness of professional gamblers2 and that army will scarcely be looked to for noble achievements in the field which1 with ,selfishness for its god1 has chosen ,cunning for its captain1 and planted ,cowardice for a guard4 ,in these last remarks we have wandered beyond the strict bounds of the present essay into the domain of ,politics1 and the ,art of ,government1 but not without design2 for the ,politics and the ,ethics are with the ,stagirite only two parts of the same work2 as indeed with the ,greeks generally1 personal ethics were always conceived of in connexion with the ,state1 in the same way that with thorough and consistent ,christians the fruits of social virtue cannot be divorced from the root of theological faith of which they are the consummation4 ,and whoever studies the great treatise on the ,art of ,government with that care1 which more than any other work of antiquity its weighty conclusions demand1 will not fail to observe that the key-note to the whole political system lies in that 1 or just mean1 #agb which is the prominent principle of the ,ethics4 ,but this by the way4 ,what remains for us now1 in order that the modern thinker may have a full view of the attitude of ,aristotle as a moral philosopher1 is that we exhibit him discoursing in his own person on some one of those types of social character1 which in his third and fourth books he has so skilfully analysed4 ,for this purpose we shall choose the section on or great-mindedness1 a chapter eminently characteristic both of the writer and of the people to whom he belonged1 and presenting also1 one of the most striking of those contrasts between the attitude of ,hellenic and that of ,christian ethics1 which it is one object of the present volume to set forth4 ,the ,chapter is the third of ,book ,,iv4 8,that great-mindedness has reference to something great is plain from the name2 let us inquire therefore1 in the first place1 to what great things it refers2 and here it is of no consequence whether we talk formally of the moral habitude itself1 or of the person who possesses that habitude4 ,now1 a great-minded person is one who esteems himself worthy of great things1 being in fact so worthy2 for the man who claims for himself what he does not deserve is a fool2 but in virtue there can be nothing foolish or unintelligent4 ,this therefore is the great-minded man4 ,for though a person's estimate of himself should be just1 for example1 if1 being worthy of little consideration1 he esteems himself accordingly1 such an one we call sober-minded1 but not great-minded2 for without a certain magnitude there is no greatness of soul1 just as beauty demands a certain stature1 and little people may indeed be pretty and well-proportioned1 but they #agc are never called beautiful4#agc4a ,on the other hand1 the man who esteems himself worthy of great things1 being not so worthy1 we call pretentious and conceited2 though not every one who over-estimates in some degree his real worth is justly charged with conceit4 ,and in the opposite extreme to this1 the man who claims less than he deserves is small or mean-minded1 whether his real desert be something great or something moderate2 and he remains small-minded also1 if1 while he is worthy of little1 he rates himself at less4 ,but the greatest offender in this case is he who1 being worthy of great things1 nevertheless considers himself worthy of little or of nothing2 for how deep might such a man's self-esteem have fallen if he had been really as devoid of moral desert as even with so much real merit he rates himself8 ,now the great-minded man1 in respect of comparative magnitude1 seems to stand at an extreme1 but in respect of self-estimate he is the just mean2 for his estimate of himself falls neither within nor beyond the mark of truth1 while the others fail on the one side by excess1 and on the other by defect4 ,further1 the man who deems himself worthy of great things1 being so worthy1 of course deems himself worthy of the greatest things1 and of one thing1 whatever that be1 pre-eminently great4 ,what then do we mean when we say that a man is worthy1 that he may justly claim great things or small things8 ,we use #agd this language always in reference to something external4 ,and the greatest of external things is that which we pay to the gods1 and that which men in the highest situations chiefly desire1 and for which among men there arises the most noble struggle of the most noble4 ,this1 of course1 is honour2 for honour is the greatest of external goods4 ,it is in reference therefore to demonstrations of honour and dishonour that the great-minded man comports himself as a wise man ought4 ,and indeed this is a point which requires only to be stated1 not argued2 for it is manifest that great-minded men everywhere are spoken of as being great-minded in reference to honour2 for it is honour above all things of which truly great men think themselves worthy1 and that in the measure of their desert4 ,but the small-minded man is deficient both in relation to himself and in relation to the dignity that belongs to the great-minded1 while the conceited man no doubt sins by excess in reference to his own merit1 but not in reference to the high estimate of himself justly entertained by the great-minded man4 8,again1 it is obvious that the great-minded man1 if he is worthy of the greatest consideration1 must be not only a good man1 but one of the very best2 for always the better a man is the greater is his desert1 and the best man alone may claim the most4 ,the really great-minded man1 therefore1 must be good2 or rather1 let us say that to be entitled to the praise of great-mindedness a man must be great in all virtue4 ,least of all1 certainly1 is it consistent with the character of a great-minded man to droop his crest at the face of danger and run away1 or to do any act of injustice2 for why should a man do anything dishonourable1 #age to whom even the greatest things in the world are small measured by the estimate that he entertains of his own worth8 ,and1 indeed1 it is quite ridiculous to imagine a man of genuine great-mindedness who is not at the same time a virtuous man4 ,for1 if he is bad he is certainly not worthy of honour1 honour which is the reward of virtue1 and is given only to the good4 ,let us say therefore that great-mindedness is a sort of crown and blossom of the virtues1 for it elevates all the virtues1 and without them it cannot exist4 ,for which reason it is a hard thing to be truly great-minded2 for this elevation of the soul is not possible without general goodness4 ,we see therefore that it is with demonstrations of honour and dishonour that the great-minded man is principally concerned2 and it is characteristic of him1 that when great honour is done him by good persons1 he is pleased1 but always moderately1 because on every occasion he only gets what he deserves1 or perhaps less2 because1 in fact1 virtue never can receive a proper equivalent for itself in the shape of anything external3 he will not1 however1 reject any such offering1 however inferior to his merits1 because he will consider that people have given the best they had to give4 ,but the honour that he receives for small services1 and from persons of no excellence1 he will hold very cheap2 for it is not of such respect that he considers himself worthy4 ,exactly similar is his relation to dishonour2 for disrespect in no kind can under any circumstances have reference to him4 ,but honour1 though the principal1 is not the only external thing that belongs to the great-minded man2 money1 and power1 and prosperity1 and their opposites1 affect him also in their proper place and degree1 in such a #agf fashion always as that he shall neither be much elevated by their presence1 nor much depressed by their absence4 ,for not even the absence of that honour1 which he justly claims1 will he allow to affect his peace very deeply1 much less the withholding of that wealth and that influence1 which are desired by the good only for the sake of the honour which they bring with them4 ,he therefore who can look calmly on the absence of that which is most desired1 will not break his heart because he finds himself destitute of those things which are valued only as they contribute to the attainment of that desire4 ,for this reason it is that men of a high self-esteem are apt to appear proud and contemptuous4 ,it would appear also that the accidents of birth and fortune contribute in some degree towards great-mindedness2 for persons of noble birth are considered worthy of honour1 and persons of great influence1 and wealthy persons2 and there is a superiority belonging to all such persons1 which brings a certain amount of honour along with it that is grateful to a good man4 ,and it cannot be denied that such things have a tendency to engender a certain loftiness of soul1 for they are never without honour from some quarter4 ,nevertheless the only thing really deserving of honour is virtue1 though where virtue is conjoined with these external advantages it will always command a latter share of public respect4 ,but those who possess such external advantages without virtue have neither any reason for thinking themselves deserving of great consideration1 nor are they properly called great-minded2 for it is only of those who possess virtue that such things can be predicated4 ,on the contrary1 those who possess such external goods are apt to #agg become insolent and haughty4 ,for without virtue it is by no means easy to bear prosperity well2 and1 not bearing it well1 such persons are apt to conceit themselves better than their neighbours1 and to despise them1 while themselves spend their lives at random1 and do what chance throws in their way4 ,for they imitate the manner of the great-minded man1 not being like him in soul2 and1 while they do nothing on which a lofty estimate of themselves might justly be founded1 they find it easy to usurp an apparent superiority by looking down upon their fellow-men4 ,this superiority belongs of right to the great-minded man1 for his opinion of himself is founded on reality2 but these1 as chance may have thrown some exceptional tag of distinction in their way1 despise their neighbours4 ,again1 the great-minded man is not fond of running petty risks1 nor indeed is it by rash and hasty ventures in any shape that he would catch a small breath of honour2 but when a great risk presents itself then he willingly confronts danger1 and spares not his life1 as deeming life secondary when higher interests are concerned4 ,moreover1 in reference to benefits1 he is more given to confer than to receive them2 for he who confers a benefit always stands in a position of superiority1 while he on whom it is conferred feels inferior4 ,and when a benefit is conferred on him1 he will repay it in larger measure2 for thus the benefactor will seem to be put under a new obligation1 having received more than he gave4 ,he seems also to have a more wakeful memory for those on whom he has conferred benefits1 than for those from whom he has received them2 for the person benefited is always inferior to the person conferring the benefit1 #agh and the great-minded man always wishes to feel superior4 ,and he does not hear of benefits conferred on him with the same pleasure as benefits which he has conferred on others1 for which reason in ,homer ,thetis does not commemorate her services to ,jove2 and in the same way the ,spartans do not speak to the ,athenians of the benefits they have conferred on ,athens1 but of those which they have received4 ,it is also a mark of the great-minded man that he will either not ask a favour at all1 or do it with difficulty2 on the other hand1 he is ready to do a service to all1 but with this difference1 that while he bears himself loftily to those high in position and worldly fortune1 he is of easy access and condescending to the common man2 for not to bow before the mighty is not easy1 and is possible only to those who are inspired by a high sense of personal worth1 whereas with common men any man may plant himself on an equality2 and indeed even a little excess of pride in the presence of the proud is never ignoble1 while to be haughty to those beneath us is always the sign of a vulgar mind1 and a person of low ambition1 as when one makes a vaunt of strength before the weak4 ,again1 the great-minded man will not be the first to seize on honourable distinctions when offered1 but he will gladly let others precede1 being slow and backward1 except1 indeed1 where a difficult thing is to be done1 and a very rare honour achieved2 generally he will meddle with few things1 but what he does put his hand to must be something great and nameworthy4 ,we may further note that he will be open and above ground1 whether in his hatreds or his friendships1 for to conceal a man's feelings is usually a sign of fear4 ,and in every case he will #agi be found more concerned for truth than for opinion1 and he will shrink as little from an act as from a word that the occasion may demand2 for his contempt of small men and small things makes him indifferent as to results1 and inspires him with a lofty confidence4 ,for which reason also he is much given to speak the truth1 except indeed when he wishes to speak ironically2 and it is his delight to use a little humorous self-concealment or self-misrepresentation when he speaks in mixed company4 ,neither is he able easily to adapt himself to another person1 unless1 indeed1 that person be a special friend1 for in this ready adaptability there is generally implied something slavish1 as we see that flatterers have always something menial in their character1 and low persons more readily condescend to flatter4 ,nor again is the great-minded man much given to wonder2 for to him there is nothing great4 ,as little is he apt to store up a grudge2 for a great-minded man will not remember trifles1 especially petty offences1 but will rather overlook them4 ,nor will he indulge in personal remarks of any kind1 speaking little either about himself or others2 for neither is he careful to be praised1 nor pleased that others should be blamed2 as little is he given to laud other people1 or1 on the other hand1 to speak evil of others1 even when they are his enemies1 except perhaps occasionally1 when insolence requires to be chastised4 ,further1 about necessary evils1 or vexatious trifles1 he is not the man to make many bewailings and beseechings1 for to behave in this manner a man must take these things much to heart1 which he never can4 ,and oftentimes he will be found preferring what is noble and brings no profit1 to what is useful and gainful1 #ahj for his self-dependence stands out the more thereby4 ,finally1 as to his appearance and manner1 it will be noted that the great-minded man is slow in his movements1 that his voice is deep1 and his discourse weighty1 for it is not natural that one who is not anxious about small matters should be in a hurry1 or that a person should be very much excited on common occasions1 to whom common matters are unimportant4 ,such then is the great-minded man4 ,the two extremes between which he represents the mean1 are1 as we have said1 the man of low self-estimate and the man of large pretensions and conceit4 ,now these two are manifestly not bad men1 for they are not evil-doers2 they only miss the ideal of what is true and noble in character4 ,for the man who thinks meanly of himself1 depriving himself of what he might justly claim as his due1 though not a vicious man1 suffers under a great vice of character1 the defect of not knowing himself2 for had he known himself1 he would certainly have desired to possess the good things to which he has a natural right4 ,at the same time such a person is not to be called foolish2 he is only backward4 ,but such a misprision of one's self1 however removed from flagrant viciousness1 has unquestionably a tendency to deteriorate the character2 for the imagination of their own unworthiness1 by which these persons are possessed1 not only cheats them of valuable external good which might naturally have fallen to their lot1 but it causes them also to retire from many noble and excellent spheres of usefulness1 and to shrink from the performance of most excellent actions4 ,a conceited man1 on the other hand1 is both foolish and self-ignorant1 and exhibits himself in a more #aha ridiculous fashion to the general eye2 for deeming himself fit for some honourable office1 the moment he appears in public his inefficiency is exposed1 and he parades himself in showy dress1 and puts himself into attitudes1 and wishes that the whole world should take notice of his good fortune1 and claims honour as rightfully due to him for such display4 ,there is1 however1 a greater opposition between the man who thinks meanly of himself and the great-minded man1 than between this man and the conceited1 person2 for in truth the mean abnegation of self1 the cheapening of a man's capabilities1 and despair of all lofty achievement1 is of more common occurrence amongst the masses1 and on account of its negative character leads in the practical warfare of life to more sad results40#aha4a ,for commenting on some of the remarkable characteristics of this chapter1 hovering as they do so delicately on the slippery border that separates a justifiable pride from a salutary humility1 more apt occasion may present itself in our next discourse2 in the meantime it will serve more the purpose of the present inquiry to ask1 whether there may not be grave objections to a system of ethics based on the mere prudential calculation of a mean8 and whether1 granting this calculation to be wise and salutary1 so far as it goes1 it may not require to be strengthened by some stronger force than any which the philosophy of the ,stagirite supplies8 ,now1 in the first place1 here there is one very common class #ahb of objections to the doctrine of the 1 to which we hope the whole tone of our previous remarks has already supplied the answer4 8,is it possible10 some one has often asked1 8to possess too much love8 ,of what good emotion is envy the exaggeration8 ,can any modification of spite be virtuous8 ,can any mere deficiency of the quality of truth account for the viciousness of a positive lie80 ,to some of these objections ,aristotle has himself supplied the answer2 but the best general answer to all is their impertinence as bearing upon a treatise which does not pretend to set forth a curious definition1 proof against every subtle objection1 but only to supply a useful practical rule4 ,whosoever accepts the ,nicomachean ,ethics in the practical spirit in which it was written1 will soon find1 perhaps by no very pleasant experience1 that there is nothing more common among good people than to have too much even of such a rare virtue as ,christian love2 for there is too much always when there is too much for the occasion1 or too much for the use or the abuse that is likely to be made of it2 and unchastened generosity1 inconsiderate philanthropy1 and indiscriminate kindness are certainly not among the rarest of social faults4 ,equally certain is it that some of our most odious vices are only the despotic usurpations of certain instincts1 natural and healthy in themselves1 and when acting under the habitual check of other instincts equally natural1 so as to preserve the just balance of a harmonious whole4 ,thus envy is merely the natural fruit of a salutary rivalry1 when a generous sympathy is wanting2 it is an odious state of mind arising out of an excess of rivalry on the one hand1 and a deficiency of sympathy on the other4 ,let this style #ahc of objections therefore pass4 ,but a more serious deficiency in the ,aristotelian doctrine seems to reveal itself1 when it is said1 ,this morality is merely prudential and calculating2 it regulates but it does not move3 it supplies the pilot at the helm1 and gives him a curiously marked compass to steer by1 but it leaves the ship in a stagnant ocean without wind and without tides4 ,now there is something in this objection1 but not nearly so much as appears on the surface4 ,aristotle certainly is not an emotional writer2 he does not stir the affections2 he will never be a favourite with women1 or with poets1 or with evangelists1 or with any person--and this is by no means the worst sort of person--whose head requires to be reached through his heart4 ,it is not true1 however1 that he commits the folly of attempting to construct a steam-engine without steam4 ,he finds the steam there1 and the engine too ready-made1 and his only object is to supply a regulator1 because a regulator is the chief thing wanted4 ,whatever an unprincipled or paradoxical ,sophist here and there might assert1 neither ,aristotle nor any notable philosopher of antiquity ever thought it necessary1 to commence his moral theory with a systematic controversion of the ,hobbesian doctrine that man is naturally all selfish1 a creature that if left without policemen and executioners would necessarily grow up into a mere intellectual tigerhood4 ,aristotle assumed1 and expressly asserts1 that man is naturally a social animal2 the social instincts which form families and friendships1 clanships and nationalities1 being among the most marked peculiarities of his complex nature3 these instincts1 he knew well1 constantly exist in sufficient and more #ahd than sufficient strength2 they bubble out like streams from the mountain side1 which require only a calculated control to make them useful2 they are the luxuriant overgrowth of a rich soil1 which demands1 not the stimulus of a strong manure1 but the check of a wise pruning-hook4 ,that this was ,aristotle's view is quite plain2 for he not only believes in nature generally1 as opposed to the institutions and conventions 77 so much in favour with the ,sophists1 but he devotes two whole books to what he calls 1 a word commonly translated 8friendship10 but which in the ,nicomachean ,ethics is used in the widest sense to designate all the social sympathies and feelings implanted in man by ,nature1 with the relations springing therefrom2 and this part of his work1 as ,grant well observes1 is treated with a depth and moral earnestness that makes the reader feel the supreme importance attached to it by its illustrious author4#ahd4a ,aristotle therefore is not to be blamed for ignoring the great motive powers of moral life2 he only does not directly address them2 it was not his vocation2 he was no poet1 no apostle2 and even without poets and apostles1 ,nature1 he might well imagine1 was always strong enough for that part of the business4 ,but even without the fervid wheels of passion there lies in the ,aristotelian philosophy1 at least for a certain class of noble minds1 a driving power of the most approved efficiency4 ,that driving power is simply the love of perfection4 8,be ye therefore perfect1 even as your ,father which is in heaven is perfect40 ,to live in the most excellent way1 according #ahe to the true excellence of man1 is the constant ideal of an ,aristotelian philosopher4 ,and so long as the lofty consciousness of this ideal bears him up1 he requires neither whip nor spur to incite him to continue in a virtuous career4 ,he acts in the true spirit of the poet when he says-- 8,i would do all that best beseems a man2 ,who would do less is none40 ,or1 as ,burns has it in the well-known lines1-- 8,the fear o' hell's the hangman's whip ,to haud the wretch in order2 ,but whaur you feel your honour grip1 ,let that aye be your border40 ,this is not a bad driving power by any means in the world1 as things go4 ,true1 it may not make a man a missionary1 but it will keep him out of the mire1 and teach him sooner to die than to do a base action4 ,certainly it will not confine him to the performance of virtues of mere prudential calculation4 ,so far well4 ,but there is another view which1 if we honestly take1 we shall find it impossible to acquit the ,aristotelian morals of a very serious defect4 ,this defect is the want of the religious element4 ,in saying this ,i do not mean to assert that ,god--or rather the gods--are not mentioned from beginning to end of his famous book2 they are alluded to in several places1 but merely in the form of a passing remark1 as a pedestrian with a long day's journey before him may pick up a primrose from a moist bank1 or a fragrant orchis from a dry brae1 and fling it away4 ,now1 there is nothing more nobly characteristic of ,christianity than this1 that piety is identical #ahf with morality2 that faith and works--not ritual1 or ceremonial1 or externally imposed works at all1 of course1 but genuine works of moral fervour and moral firmness--are one2 stand to one another1 at least1 as the root does to the flower1 or the fruit of a wholesome plant1 of which not the root but the fruit is the valuable part4 ,that this is the only true and philosophical relation of the two great moral potencies no thinker will deny4 ,or1 to take another simile1 which will suit equally well3 ,every arch must have its keystone2 and the keystone of every solid doctrine of ethics1 as of every close compacted system of speculative philosophy1 is ,god4 ,that there is a great defect here in the ,aristotelian ethics is plain4 ,a man might as well write a treatise on the ,affections without mention of reverence1 as set forth a system of morals without mention of ,god4 ,as the discipline of a well-ordered family implies the recognition of the father as the great source from which the family flows--as the prime power by which it is regulated--so a treatise on human ethics implies a chapter on human piety1 or rather a pervading soul of human piety1 without which all other chapters want their highest inspiration4 ,and in this view the ,aristotelian author of the 8,magna ,moralia0 is wrong in blaming ,plato for mingling up the doctrine of ,virtue with discussions on the ,absolute ,good--that is1 ,god4 ,it is important to inquire what was the cause of this defect4 ,that the subject was not altogether ignored by our philosopher is plain from the single sentence of allusion in ,book viii4 #ab4 #e2 and1 indeed1 that a man of such reach of intellect should by mere accident or carelessness have omitted such an important factor in all moral calculations #ahg seems in the highest degree improbable2 but so far is the idea of ,god from giving any colour to his system of ,moral ,philosophy1 that the very occurrence of the phrase1 1 in the last section of the ,eudemian ,ethics1 has been justly adduced by ,grant among the many proofs of the inauthenticity of that treatise4 ,that ,aristotle was a theist is certain1 both from other places of his voluminous writings1 and specially from a famous passage in the ,metaphysics which has lately been brought forward with due prominence by the noble-minded ,bunsen in his great work1 ,god in ,history2 it seems impossible1 indeed1 for such a profound thinker as ,aristotle to be an atheist1 because1 as ,schleiermacher well remarks1 8,philosophy cannot inquire into the totality of things1 without at the same time inquiring into their unity1 and as the totality of things is the world1 so the unity of things is ,god20 or1 as ,spinoza has it in one of his propositions--8,quicquid est in ,deo est1 et nihil sine ,deo neque esse neque concipi potest40 ,but it is one thing to be a theist as a matter of speculative belief1 and another thing to be a man of devout temper and pious practice4 ,and herein1 if ,i mistake not1 lies the real cause of the defect in the ,ethics now under consideration4 ,for if ,aristotle had been a man of any fervour of religious sentiment1 he had two courses before him with regard to the ,greek religion1 neither of which he has followed--he might either1 like his great master ,plato1 or ,xenophanes of ,colophon among the pre-,socratic thinkers1 have attacked the ,homeric theology1 and shown how its general tendency and some of its most distinctive features were inconsistent with a pure and elevated morality1 or1 like ,socrates1 #ahh ,xenophon1 ,pindar1 schylus1 ,plutarch1 and many other far-sighted and large-hearted men1 he might have taken ,jove as the impersonated ,providence of ,hellenic piety1 and1 allowing the immoral deities quietly to drop1 shown how all the highest qualities of the moral nature of man are collected and concentrated in the supreme sovereign of gods and men4 ,in the one case1 he would have shown his zeal for true religion by his zealous iconoclasm of false gods2 in the other case1 he might have shown a still nobler form of piety by his kindly exhibition of the soul of good in things evil4 ,but he did neither of these things2 and the conclusion plainly is that the omission arose from a defect in his mental constitution1 which curtailed the reverential faculties of their fair proportions4 ,from all which we learn a most important lesson3 that the analytic work of the mere understanding1 even when practised by a ,titan like ,aristotle1 is an inadequate method of reaching the highest form of vital reality1 or1 to use the words of ,grant1 it forces even the greatest minds at times to degenerate into a sort of smallness2 and1 generally1 that mere intellectual culture never can of itself produce a complete and healthy manhood--never can elaborate for a human soul that rich blood which then only appears when the watery element of the understanding is thoroughly permeated by the red particles of the moral and emotional nature4 ,so true is it1 to use ,st4 ,paul's language1 that 8knowledge puffeth up1 but charity edifieth20 and of charity there is no perfect form except that reverential recognition of the common fatherhood of ,god1 and the common brotherhood of man1 which we call religion4 ,let this want of the devout element1 therefore1 stand #ahi strongly pronounced as a defect in the ethical system of ,aristotle2 he is less than ,socrates and ,plato as a moralist1 principally because he is less in this4 ,omitting from his calculation one element of that ,nature which is stronger than all philosophies and wider than all churches1 he has so far failed2 and the failure of such a man in such a field should teach our modern philosophers1 physical1 mechanical1 and utilitarian1 to beware of following his example4 ,,christianity4 #aij ,,an ancient ,greek poet1 of grave thoughts and weighty words1 describing the character and functions of one of the great primeval divinities of his country1 says that she is 1 ,one shape of many names1 an expression which might have been varied with equal truth1 as ,one ,power of many shapes1 and indicating that the motley polymorphous harlequinade1 as it appears to us1 of a polytheistic ,pantheism1 is at bottom reducible to a few fundamental forms2 and if this be true of such a shifting kaleidoscopic exhibition as popular mythology1 it holds good much more of popular morals4 ,all moral philosophies are fundamentally the same1 and cannot indeed be otherwise1 being only the variously emphasized expression of the one self-existent and self-organizing ,reason--the of ,plato--which makes either a physical or a moral world possible4 ,we shall not expect therefore to find absolutely new principles in the laws which regulate human conduct any more than in the laws of those primary vitalizing forces--,light and ,heat--which #aia shape and regulate all organism1 immutably and infallibly1 by the inherent necessity of the great ,being of sleepless underived energy of whom they are the manifestation4 ,we shall1 on the contrary1 believe with an assured faith1 that the principles of morals1 and the primary forces of the physical universe1 are as immutable and self-congruent in the essential nature of things1 as the laws of measure and of magnitude traced out by the mathematician2 with this advantage in favour of what has been sometimes ignorantly talked of as contingent truth1 that whereas the certainty of mathematical propositions depends on the fact that they are founded on self-limiting definitions of mere thoughts1 with which no disturbing condition1 not even the fiat of ,omnipotence1 can interfere1 the certainty of physical and of moral laws flows from this1 that they are facts1 subject to no man's definition1 and necessarily existing as normal manifestations of the great primary fact1 which we call ,,god4 ,the variations therefore which undoubtedly are observed in human morals--variations peculiarly notable in the infancy and in the decline both of individuals and of races1--are not contradictions1 but only partial1 feeble1 and inadequate expressions of immutable morality4 ,the ebb of the tide1 looked at from a local and narrow point of view1 is a contradiction to the flow2 but both flow and ebb are parts of the grand harmonious motion of the sleepless waters of ancient ,ocean4 ,morals vary under varying conditions of society1 as plants vary under more or less favourable conditions of growth1 or landscapes under more or less happy incidences of solar light2 but these variations1 so far from contradicting each other1 could not even exist without #aib a fundamental identity2 as the element of likeness in the different members of a large family could not exist without a common parentage4 ,and where there may not be a striking unity of expression1 traceable through all the varieties of popular morality1 there is always at least1 as ,mr4 ,lecky has well pointed out1 a unity of tendency2#aib4a even as a plant1 when it first spreads out the green lobes of its radical leaves1 may present a very different appearance from the distinctive leafage of its perfect growth2 but the type nothing the less is one1 and the necessary law of the whole congruous growth lay in the unity of the germ4 ,there is nothing accidental in nature2 so neither in morals4 ,all things are necessary2 all things are self-consistent2 all things are harmonious2 all things upon a whole view of the whole are complete4 ,the distinctive character therefore of such an ethical system as ,christianity is to be sought not in the fundamental invariable absolute types of right and wrong1 which are the same everywhere1 but mainly in the following two things--,first1 ,in its method of operation and in the steam power1 the strong convictions and fervid passions by which the moral machinery is set in motion2 or1 to adopt another simile1 in the fountainheads from which the necessary water-courses of a systematic social irrigation are supplied4 ,secondly1 ,in the particular virtues which its method of operation and its moral steam1 in conjunction with the nature of the materials acted on1 brings on the stage with a certain preference4 ,for though a moral system may1 or rather must1 include theoretically all #aic the virtues1 and is justly blamed if it exclude one1 even the smallest1 yet from the narrowness of finite natures1 and the laws of habit1 it seems practically impossible that as soon as any moral system becomes a traditional law for great masses of men1 there should not be manifested a strong tendency to put certain virtues into the foreground1 while others are left to find their places without favour1 or even with a certain amount of discouragement4 ,all soils are not equally favourable to all plants2 and the most healthy climates1 where human beings of the greatest amount of robustness and grace are produced1 have never been free from peculiar diseases1 springing from a source indissolubly intertwined with the conditions of their remarkable salubrity4 ,another influence also materially tends to give even the most large and comprehensive system of ,ethics a certain apparent narrowness and one-sidedness in practice4 ,a world-regenerating system of ,ethics1 such as ,christianity1 is not a thing1 like a treatise on ,logic1 written in a book and laid on the shelf1 and allowed quietly to work its way with whosoever may choose to take it up4 ,it is an active1 aggressive1 invasive power2 it is a strong medicine to knock down a strong disease2 it is a charge of cavalry dashing onwards1 like a storm1 to break the solid squares of an opposing infantry1 bristling with many spears4 ,such a movement is necessarily one-sided2 all movement is one-sided2 speculation only is catholic4 ,we must not therefore expect ,christianity1 of all moral forces the most impetuous and the most imperious1 to be free from this fault4 ,it had to swoop down1 so to speak1 on violent wings from the spiritual side of our nature upon the sensualism of #aid the ,greeks1 otherwise it could not succeed2 and its most distinctive features will be found to spring mainly from this necessary attitude of imperious hostility4 ,there is no time to temper blows in the moment of battle4 ,a great victory is never gained by moderate blows2 though1 when gained1 a wise general will always know how to use it with moderation4 ,i will now proceed to attempt a sketch of ,christian ,ethics from the two points of view here indicated4 ,,first1 ,let us inquire what is the steam-power1 the lever1 the motive force of ,christian ,ethics4 ,and here at once the most distinctive part of the ,christian moral system meets us in the face2 it is presented to us prominently1 essentially1 radically as a religion4 ,it is not merely connected with religion1 not only1 like the moral philosophy of ,dr4 ,paley1 willing to stamp its precepts with a religious sanction1 and to found moral obligation upon the will of the ,supreme ,being2 much less1 like the philosophy of ,socrates1 ready to fraternize with religion1 and eager to prove with ,heraclitus1 the profoundest of the pre-,socratic thinkers1 that all human rules of conduct are derived ultimately from the necessity of the divine nature4#aid4a ,it is more than all this2 it is a religion2 by its mere epiphany it forms a church2 in its starting-point1 its career1 and its consummation it is 8a kingdom of ,heaven upon earth40 ,in its method of presentation1 though not certainly in its contents1 it is as different from its great ally ,platonism #aie as ,platonism is from its great enemy1 the ,homeric theology2 for ,platonism1 however nearly allied to ,christianity1 is a philosophy and not a religion2 a philosophy which did not even propose to overthrow the ,polytheistic faith1 whose poet-theologer it had so rudely assaulted4 ,the moral philosophy of the ,greeks1 indeed1 generally was either a simple wisdom of life in the form of precepts loosely strung together1 as in the early ,gnomic poets1 or it was a wisdom of life deduced from principles of reason1 as in all the ,socratic and post-,socratic teaching4 ,but the ,ethics of the ,gospel came down upon men like a flash from ,heaven2 suddenly1 violently1 fervidly and explosively1 not with a curious apparatus of slowly penetrating arguments4 ,there is no talk about reasons here at all2 the of ,st4 ,john came afterwards and meant a very different thing4 8,repent ye1 and be baptized1 for the kingdom of ,heaven is at hand60 is the form of the ,evangelical appeal1 in which no argument is attempted or indeed required4 ,your conscience tells you that you are rebels against ,god2 as rebels you can only live under a curse2 the whole sense-besotted ,greek and ,roman world is evidently lying under a curse2 repent and be converted2 return to ,god and be saved2 to man there can be no safety anywhere except in ,god1 who is the source of all good1 and in ,christ1 who gave himself a living sacrifice that we might be redeemed from all evil4 ,this is the whole style of the greatest moral ,evangel the world has ever heard2 absolutely and simply an act of religion2 all immorality is departure from ,god1 all morality return to ,god4 ,in the ,christian ,ethics ,god is not a secondary figure2 he is not brought in merely for a sanction3 he is the central sun of the #aif whole system1 from whose bright fountain of perennial excellence all the little twinkling lamps of our minor moralities are lighted up4 ,the individual virtues of a ,christian man are merely the flower and the fruit of a living plant1 of which the root is theology and the sap piety2 nay more1 the piety accompanies the flower and the fruit1 and imparts to them a fragrance and a flavour1 which gives them more than half their charm4 ,a rose without smell would still be a rose2 but what a world of difference to the sense and to the sentiment would the absence of that fine invisible essence imply6 ,christian virtue1 in fact1 can no more exist without piety than ,socratic virtue can exist without logic4 ,socrates was1 no doubt1 a remarkably pious man2 but1 while the piety of ,socrates was a strong shoot from his reason1 the virtue of a ,christian is the fair issue of his piety4 ,the distinct proof of what we have here stated will be found everywhere in the ,new ,testament1 but in the ,acts of the ,apostles specially rather than in the ,gospels4 ,for the ideal of ,christian character we refer naturally to the ,sermon on the ,mount and to the character of our ,lord as exhibited in the evangelic narrative2 but for the manner in which ,christianity was presented to men1 for the method of operation by which in so short a time it so wonderfully overcame the stern ritualism of the ,jew and the fair sensualism of the ,greek1 we must look to the actual facts of the great early conversions as they are presented to us in the apostolic memoirs of ,luke4 ,let us see therefore1 in the first place1 what we can learn from the early chapters of that most interesting narrative4 ,now1 the starting-point here plainly is the effusion of the ,holy ,ghost1 an influence which1 #aig whether we take it on this first occasion as miraculous1 according to the traditional understanding of the ,church1 or as something extraordinary but in the course of nature1 is a phenomenon altogether different in kind from the action of arguments upon the ratiocinative faculty of the mind1 and had indeed been preceded not by inductions or deductions1 or analytic dissections1 or any scholastic exercitations at all1 but by meetings for social prayer 7i4 #ad7--prayer which is the great feeder of the moral nature of man when reverting to the original source of all moral life in the form of religion4 ,it was therefore not in the philosophic way of debate and discussion1 but in the religious way of inspiration that the regenerative afflatus of the first ,christian ,ethics came upon the ,jewish and ,hellenic world2 and it worked1 let us say1 by a fervid moral contagion1 not by the suasion of cool argument4 ,and there can be no doubt1 that if even in the intellectual world a wise ancient might justly say1 ,nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit1 much more in the world of moral and political action it is by the infection of noble passions that men are moved to any grand issues1 not by the cogency of strong arguments4 ,melanchthon was as good a reasoner as ,martin ,luther1 perhaps a better1 but he had not the volcanic fire of his fellow2 and it was an eruption of this fire only that could prevail to shake the stout pillars of the ,popedom4 ,and it was by an influence manifestly quite akin to the impetuous energetic eloquence of the great ,saxon reformer1 that by the first sermon of the ,apostle ,peter1 as we read1 great masses of men were suddenly pricked in their hearts1 conscience-stung as we phrase it1 and in one day three thousand #aih human beings1 previously indifferent or hostile1 were added to the new moral community afterwards called the ,christian ,church4 ,precisely similar in modern times has been the action of the so-called religious revivals1 which1 from the days of the ,methodists downwards1 have done so much in this country to rouse from a state of moral lethargy the most neglected and the most abandoned portions of the community4 ,of ,martin ,boos1 the celebrated ,bavarian evangelist1 we are told that his 8sermon was as if he poured forth flame20#aih4a and not less striking were the moral effects of the eloquent ,whitefield when he drew the tears in white gutters down the grimy cheeks of the congregated ,bristol colliers1 and1 what is even more significant of his power1 in ,savannah elicited from the prudential pockets of sage ,benjamin ,franklin1 sitting before the preacher with a stiff determination not to contribute1 first a handful of coppers1 then three or four silver dollars1 and then five golden pistoles6#aih4b ,preachings of this kind have been the subject of scoffing with light-witted persons in all ages2 but they stand firm as grave attestations of the fact that the ,christian method of conversion1 not by logical arguments1 but by moral contagion and the effusion of the ,holy ,ghost1 has1 with the masses of mankind1 always proved itself the most effective4 ,socrates did much more perhaps as a reformer of sinners than any preacher in the guise of a philosopher ever did2 but he could not have done what ,whitefield did with the colliers4 ,the arguments of ,socrates convinced the few2 but the fervour of ,peter1 the loftiness of his religious position1 and #aii the felt firmness of his historical foundation converted the many4 ,and this brings us to the second important point in the original attitude of ,christianity1 and the manner in which it moved the moral world4 ,this point is the historical foundation on which the moral appeal stood2 and this historical foundation was the miraculous life1 death1 and resurrection of the ,founder of the ethical religion4 ,it concerns us not to inquire here1 whether ,christ was a real person1 or1 as certain ,germans with their ingenious whimsicality will have it1 a mere myth2 as little need we ask whether the miracles were really suspensions of the laws of nature1 or were mere acts of remarkable power somewhat exaggerated by the wondering narrators2 much less can it be necessary for the present argument to weigh the evidence for the great crowning miracle of the resurrection4 ,concerning these matters1 every man must either judge for himself or take the authority of nearly two thousand years of effective ,christian teaching as a sufficient guarantee4 ,but what we have to do with here is simply this3 that these facts were believed1 that the ,apostles stood upon these facts1 and that the ethical efficiency of ,christianity was rooted in these facts4 ,take the facts away1 or the assured belief in the facts1 and the existence of such an ethico-religious society as the ,christian ,church becomes1 under the circumstances1 impossible4 ,consider what an effect the personality of ,socrates had in establishing what we with no great license of language may call the ,socratic ,church in ,athens4 ,the various schools of philosophy1 first in ,athens and then in ,rome1 were sects of that ,church4 ,had ,socrates not lived and died #bjj with visible power and effect before men1 the existence of these schools1 fathered by this great teacher1 would have been impossible4 ,a person is the necessary nucleus round which all social organisms form themselves4 ,but the personality of ,socrates was a much less important element in the formation of the ,socratic schools than that of ,christ was in the formation of the ,christian ,church4 ,socrates was only a teacher--one who1 like other teachers1 might in time create disciples as wise1 perhaps wiser than1 himself2 ,christ was a redeemer1 whose function as such could be performed by no vicar1 and transmitted to no successor3 the one was a help and a guide1 the other a foundation of faith and a fountain of life4 ,socrates taught his disciples to become independent of him1 and rely on their own perfected reason2 from ,christ ,his disciples always derive nourishment1 as the branches from the vine4 ,and if the relation of ,christ to ,his disciples1 conceived only as a living ,saviour walking on the earth1 was so much closer than that of ,socrates to his disciples1 how much more intimate does the relation become1 when ,he who lived and died to redeem humanity from sin rose from the dead as a living guarantee that all who walked in ,his ways1 should follow up their redemption from sin by a speedy victory over that yet stronger enemy4 ,death6#bjj4a ,from the moment that the resurrection stood amongst the disciples as an accepted fact1 the ,founder of the religion was not merely a wonder-working man1 a prophet and the greatest of all the prophets1 but ,he was an altogether exceptional and miraculous ,person1 either #bja ,god in some mysterious way combined into an incorporate unity with man1 or at least a ,person that1 compared with the common type and expression of humanity1 might pass for ,god4 ,the influence which the belief in the actual existence of such a human1 and yet in so many regards superhuman1 character as the ,founder of their faith1 must have exercised on the early preachers of the gospel1 cannot easily be over-estimated4 ,plato and ,plotinus often talk of the raptures with which the human soul would be thrilled if not only1 as now1 the shadows and types of the ,beautiful1 but the very absolute ,beautiful itself1 the 1 stood revealed to mortal sight4 ,but granting for the moment that the manifestation of such a vague abstraction is possible1 it is quite certain that1 when manifested1 it could not possibly act upon men with anything like the power of a human ,christ actually risen from the dead4 ,man1 with all his range of imagination1 is at bottom as much concrete as any creature1 and as little capable of being moved by mere abstractions4 ,jesus ,christ1 and ,him crucified2 ,christ risen from the dead2 believe in ,him--this was the short summation of that preaching of the gospel which regenerated the then world1 lying as it did in all sorts of wickedness4 ,see how emphatically the resurrection is alluded to as the main anchor in all the early preachings of the ,apostles 7,acts ii4 #cb2 iii4 #ae2 iv4 #b2 v4 #cj1 etc47 ,and as to ,st4 ,paul1 he declares again and again that if ,christ be not risen1 the faith of ,christians is vain1 and those to whom the world was indebted for its moral regeneration were justly to be accounted amongst the most miserable of men2 a method of speaking which plainly implies that1 in the ,apostle's #bjb estimation1 the firm fact of a risen ,saviour was the only real assurance that ,christians had of a life beyond the grave4 ,so true is the utterance of a distinguished modern divine that 8the resurrection was the central point of the apostolic teaching1 nay more1 the central point of history1 primarily of religious history1 of which it is the soul4 ,the resurrection is the one central link between the seen and the unseen40#bjb4a ,let this1 therefore1 stand firm as the main principle of any just exposition of the machinery by which the ethics of the gospel achieved the conquest of the world4 ,the ,church--8the peculiar people zealous for good works10 of whom ,st4 ,peter speaks--was formed out of the world not by the clear cogency of logical arguments1 but by the vivid belief in miraculous facts4 ,but the miraculous personality of the teacher1 however essential to the proclamation and reception of the teaching1 was not the teaching itself4 ,there were doctrines of an essentially theological character1 and strong emotions that only religion could excite1 which operated along with the unique personality of the ,founder in laying a firm foundation for the ethics of the gospel4 ,the most important of these doctrines was the doctrine of the unity of the ,godhead4 ,this is a matter with which in ,christian countries we are now so familiar that not a few find it difficult to realize how prominent an element it was in the ,christian creed1 and how powerful must have been its action in the creation of a new school of morals in the midst of the heathen world4 ,by the ,fathers of the ,church1 however1 in the first and second centuries1 the ethical virtue of this element #bjc was never overlooked2 they knew only too well1 from their own personal experience most of them1 and all of them by what they saw written in the habits and maxims of a corrupt society1 how easily ,polytheism had lent itself to draw a beautiful veil over what was ugly1 and to stamp the most debasing vices with consecration4 ,philosophers1 like ,xenophanes and ,plato1 in whose breasts these things had long ago roused a rebellious indignation1 might well despair of converting to a pure morality a people who1 though they might be sober on all the other days of the year1 would think it necessary1 as an act of piety1 to appear publicly intoxicated on the feast of ,dionysus4 ,the salt of goodness1 it is quite true1 which kept the body of ,polytheism so long from rotting1 has often been overlooked1 principally by the exaggeration of ,christian writers1 seldom remarkable for candour2 and the early ,fathers of the ,church1 engaged1 as they were1 in actual warfare with the many-headed foe1 may well be excused if their zeal was not always accompanied by that fairness to which even error is entitled4 ,but with the most honest purpose to do justice to the moral element of ,polytheism1 as we may find it exhibited most favourably perhaps in the living pictures of the ,homeric poems1 it cannot be denied that the obvious deduction from the ,polytheistic creed was1 in all cases to palliate1 in some cases even to justify1 vice2 and that this deduction was often made we may gather from the familiar fact that the most illogical people even now suddenly become very acute reasoners1 the moment it is necessary to defend their prejudices1 or to protest against the amendment of their faults4 ,in a system of faith1 where every #bjd instinct had its god1 and every passion its patron-saint1 it required either a rare training1 or a remarkably healthy habit of mind to keep the low and the high in their just seats of subordination and supremacy4 ,no doubt the more imperative moral virtues to a well-constituted ,heathen mind were conceived as represented by ,jove1 who was the real moral governor of the world2 and the supremacy of ,zeus in ,olympus was a sufficient assertion of the superiority which belongs to the moral law in the little republic of the soul3 but as the son of ,kronos in the ,greek heaven was only a limited monarch1 and often1 as the ,iliad plainly indicates1 obliged to wink at the contravention of his own commands by the unruly aristocracy of the skies1 so ,polytheism could never invest the --the regulating principle of the soul--with the absolute sovereignty which to its nature rightfully belongs4 ,christianity1 as an essentially monotheistic faith1 applied a perfect remedy to this evil4 ,the highest part of man's nature was now the only sacred part4 ,the flesh1 so far from being glorified and worshipped1 was denounced1 degraded1 and desecrated as a synonym for all corruption4 ,the deification of mere sensuous pleasures1 which with ,polytheists had passed for orthodox1 was now impossible2 the moral law became supreme2 and surely the sanction which this law requires can never be conceived in more imperative terms than as the distinctly enunciated command of the all-powerful1 all-wise1 and all-beneficent ,father of the human family4 ,no sanction1 deduced from a mere reasoning process1 can ever approach this in broad practical efficiency4 ,it is the impersonated1 incarnated1 and enthroned ,reason1 to which all #bje reasonable creatures owe an instinctive and a necessary obedience4 ,but there is another corollary to a monotheistic creed1 which1 in estimating the influence of ,christian faith on ,christian ,ethics1 is by no means to be overlooked4 ,if there is only one ,god1 the father of the whole human race1 then there is only one family2 all men are brethren2 nationality ceases2 philanthropy1 or love of men in the widest sense of the word1 becomes natural2 mere patriotism has now only a relative value2 ,leonidas is no longer the model hero2 the ,jew is no longer of the one chosen people2 and the ,greek1 full of wisdom1 and full of conceit1 must condescend to call the ignorant barbarian his brother4 ,this breaking down of the middle wall of partition between ,jew and ,gentile1 between every nation and its neighbour1 removed two of the greatest obstructions which have ever stood in the way of a generous morality1 in the shape of what ,lord ,bacon would have called idols of the place and of the race2 these idols could be worshipped no longer2 and no shibboleth of separation could be mumbled to consecrate the unreasonable prejudices which every nation is so apt to entertain against its neighbour4 ,no doubt towards the propagation of these catholic and cosmopolitan principles1 ancient philosophy also1 and specially ,stoicism1 contributed its share2#bje4a the consolidation of the ,roman empire and the policy of the ,roman emperors worked in the same direction2 #bjf but the monotheistic creed of the ,christian ,church1 proclaimed with such dignity and moral courage by ,st4 ,paul in his discourse on the ,hill of ,mars1 supplied the only effective leverage4 ,compared with what the preaching of ,st4 ,paul did for the grand idea1 of humanity and fraternity1 all that modern science1 modern political theories1 modern commerce1 and modern philosophies have achieved or may yet achieve1 can only be counted as a very small supplement4 ,the immortality of the soul1 the second coming of ,christ1 and the final judgment of the world1 form together a group of doctrines1 the relation of which to moral practice is too deeply felt to require much discussion in this place4 ,perhaps1 however1 everybody does not sufficiently consider how peculiarly ,christian these doctrines are1 and how the belief in them1 and the moral issues of such belief1 must necessarily stand and fall with the faith in some such historical religion as has hitherto formed the framework of the ,churches of ,christendom4 ,for however these doctrines might be dimly conceived and vaguely believed by the people who wrote ,d4 ,m4 upon their tombstones1 and however solemnly imagined and grandly depicted they were in the eloquent discourses of the great philosopher of ,idealism1 there are few mistakes greater than to accept these dim conceptions and grand imaginings as a proof that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul1 as a point of ,polytheistic faith1 performed the same function in moulding the morality of the ancient ,greeks and ,romans that it does at the present day among modern ,christian peoples4 ,a single quotation--one of the most trite--from ,homer #bjg will suffice to show how utterly unfounded such an idea is4 ,in the ,cimmerian visit to the unseen world1 the wandering king of ,ithaca is made to encounter the hot thane of ,thessaly1 pacing with a stately fierceness through the ,elysian fields1 like a king among the shades4 ,on being complimented to this effect by his visitor1 the son of ,peleus replies-- 8,name me not death with praiseful words1 noble ,ulysses2 ,i ,would sooner be a bonded serf1 the labourer's tool to ply ,to a small cottar on the heath with wealth exceeding small1 ,than be the ,lord of all the ,shades in ,pluto's gloomy hall40 ,a people who could think and speak thus of the state of souls after departure from the body1 could not derive much practical advantage from belief in immortality4 ,that belief indeed was held so loosely by the mass of the ,greek people that it may rather be described as a dim imagination than as a definite conviction4 ,people were rather unwilling to believe that their beloved human friends had vanished into the realm of nothingness1 than convinced that they had gone to where on any account it would be at all desirable to go4 ,to a few select heroes no doubt1 men like ,menelaus1 of divine extraction1 and divine affinity1 a really enviable abode after death in the cloudless and stormless islands of the blest was by popular tradition assigned2 a few perpetrators also of enormous crimes1 red-hand murderers1 open blasphemers1 and traitors who sold their country for gold were consigned for ever to the ensanguined scourge of the ,furies in those flaring regions which the genius of ,virgil and ,dante has so vividly portrayed2 but if the belief in these exceptional cases inspired some to acts of unwonted heroism and #bjh deterred others from deeds of abhorred foulness1 the very good and the very bad in the world are too few in number to admit of the idea that the motives which either stir them to acts of exceptive virtue or deter them from acts of abnormal crime should have any influence in determining the conduct of the great masses4 ,and as for the philosophers1 it was ,socrates only and ,plato who in their teaching gave any special emphasis to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul2 and no man who has read the most familiar accounts of the defence which the former delivered to the jury at his trial1 or of his last moments as reported by ,plato in the ,phdo1 can have carried off the impression that the great father of moral philosophy taught that doctrine with any dogmatic decision or certainty4 ,we must say therefore1 with ,dr4 ,paley1 who1 though incapable of sounding great depths1 had a very clear head1 and was a very sensible man1 that it was the gospel1 and the gospel alone1 which 8brought life and immortality to light10 and with it introduced whatever real power in elevating or strengthening the moral nature of man such a doctrine1 when held as a habitual conviction1 must exercise over the masses of men4 ,what ,socrates contemplated calmly as a probable contingency1 ,st ,paul and the early ,christians gloried in as a grand culmination and a triumphant result4 ,and the effective influence of this firm faith on society has been to give an infinitely greater dignity to human life1 to increase infinitely the moral worth of the individual1 and to add a support of wonderful efficacy to those states and stages of toilsome existence which stand so much in need of such hopeful consolation4 ,that it has always acted1 and #bji must always act1 as a strong aid to virtuous conduct can scarcely be denied1 though they of course are poor philosophers and ignoble men who think that virtue could not possibly exist in the world without the belief in immortality4 ,there are many motives that force the masses of men to be virtuous1 according to the respectable righteousness of the ,scribes and ,pharisees1 altogether independent of any prospect of rewards and punishments in a future state2 and as for men of a more than commonly delicate moral sensibility--persons to whom a life in baseness and foulness would under any conditions be intolerable--it is not to be imagined that they would be more virtuous from the prospect of an eternity of bliss1 than they are from the fear of a short season of shame4 ,these men will always live nobly1 for the same reason that whatever they do they must do well4 ,if they play cricket1 they will play a good game2 if they ride1 they will ride well2 and if they boat1 they will boat well2 and1 for the same reason1 if they live1 they will live well--not because they expect a reward1 but because they have no pleasure in living badly4 ,to them vice is always rottenness1 putrescence1 and loathsomeness2 and no man will consciously condemn himself to these who knows what soundness means4 ,there is one marked peculiarity about ,christian ,ethics1 growing directly out of a religious root1 and closely connected with certain theological doctrines1 which1 though indicated in some of the previous paragraphs1 demands special mention here4 ,we mean what ,dr4 ,chalmers called its aggressive attitude4 ,the idea of ,duty is not necessarily aggressive2 a man may perform his duty quietly1 as the spheres #baj move in their orbits1 without daring1 or even desiring1 to meddle with the movements of other members of the great social machine4 ,even ,christian ,churches in quiet and flat times1 as the last century for instance1 have been known to content themselves with the unobtrusive performance of a certain round of familiar pieties1 undisturbed by any desire to make moral inroads into the domain of remote or even adjacent heathenism4 ,but this is certainly not the normal or flourishing state of any ,christian ,church2 not the natural state indeed of any sect or society1 whether religious or philosophical1 professing to possess a healing medicine for the cure of diseased souls4 ,we accordingly found in the first discourse that ,socrates was in his attitude1 however pleasant and playful on the surface1 at bottom very earnestly aggressive2 it was this aggressiveness1 in fact1 that raised up against him the hostility of those spiteful little individuals to whom more than to popular ill-will he owed his martyr-death4 ,he asserted1 as we have seen1 a divine mission1 and acted as a missionary1 though always in the manner of a reasoner rather than as a preacher4 ,but the aggressive element in early ,christianity was much stronger than in ,socrates2 as any one may see at a glance by comparing the biographical career of ,st4 ,paul with that of the ,athenian philosopher4 ,and the causes of this were more than one4 ,in the first place1 the whole ,hebrew nature was more fervid1 more impassioned1 more prophetic than the ,hellenic2 and again1 the autocratic character which belongs to all monotheism1 imparted to the moral message of the missionaries an urgency and a lofty intolerance1 which in an atmosphere compounded of polytheism in its lower #baa sphere and of logic in its upper sphere was impossible4 ,a divine command superadded to fervid human sympathies necessarily creates a mission in the person who is the subject of them2 but the divine command is much more stringent from an autocratic ,jehovah than from a limited monarch like ,jove1 and the fervour of human sympathy is more intense in proportion as the offence of the rebels against the sovereign authority is looked upon as more heinous4 ,we are brought back therefore again to the great doctrine of the ,divine ,unity1 if we would make it fully evident to ourselves why ,st4 ,paul was so much more aggressive than ,socrates3 ,socrates was only partly a missionary1 and the messenger of a god whose authority was limited by an inferior but acknowledged authority in other gods2 ,st4 ,paul was a missionary of the one true ,god1 to whose authority there could be no limit1 and to whose command there could be no contradiction4 ,from this principle of divine autocracy there necessarily grew up the conception of sin1 not as folly merely and imperfection1 but as contumacy1 rebellion1 and treason2 and the conviction of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the exceeding misery of the sinner became the strongest spur to the missionary activity of the ,christian preachers1 and gave a true moral sublimity to an aggressive attitude1 which in a mere reasoner had appeared impertinent4 ,nothing indeed is more remarkable than the contrast between the strong colours in which sin is painted by the writers of the ,new ,testament and its more venial aspect in the mild regard of the philosopher4 ,aristotle can surrender a whole generation of young men to the dominion of and think nothing more about it4 #bab ,they are as incapable of moral ideas1 these young sensualists1 as swine are of cleanliness2 let them wallow in the mire for a season2 we shall speak to them1 when they have outgrown their animalism4 ,but the converted ,pharisee who wrote his burning epistles to the young ,christian churches in magnificent ,rome and luxurious ,ephesus used very different language4 ,sin with him is a very serious offence1 on account of which the curse of ,god lies on the whole world4 ,sinners1 whether old or young1 are by nature the children of wrath2 and by the act and fact of the transgression of divine law1 so utterly cast down and degraded from the proper human dignity1 that they require to be born again1 and baptized with a fire-baptism before they can be purified from their foulness and restored to the original rights and privileges which belonged to them1 as to all men1 in right of their divine fatherhood4 ,hence the strongly accentuated opposition between flesh and spirit 7,romans vii4 viii42 #a ,pet4 iv4 #c1 #d7 which no doubt ,aristotle1 as we have seen above1 also mentions2 but in the ,stagirite it is only an incidental recognition2 in the ,new ,testament it is a pervading and overwhelming power1 a force which possesses the atmosphere1 a moral storm1 which1 swooping violently down from the dark-throned seat of the ,supreme ,regent1 tears the cloak of self-righteousness from the shivering sinner1 and exposes him in all his bareness4 ,plato also and ,plotinus use very ,christian language when they tell us that to be partakers of true moral beauty the soul requires a or purification from its natural or acquired foulness1 and that the necessity of this purification was symbolically indicated in the #bac mysteries4#bac4a ,very true2 but here again ,plato wrote calmly for the few1 ,paul preached fervidly for the many4 ,and this word purification1 as connected with the ,christian idea of the exceeding sinfulness of sin1 and the necessity of an ingrafting of a higher moral life by the operation of the ,divine ,spirit1 leads me necessarily to specialize the doctrine of the ,atonement as performing a peculiar function in the ethical attitude and moral efficiency of the gospel4 ,the doctrine of the ,atonement arises as the necessary consequence of the ,christian conception of sin as a polluting1 perverting1 rebellious1 and treasonable principle4 ,an error is reasoned away1 but filth must be washed away2 guilt must be atoned2 the offender must pray for forgiveness2 and the free grace of the ,sovereign must restore the traitor to the place and the protection which belong to him as a loyal subject4 ,put into a strictly articulate form1 this doctrine of atonement1 not less than its correlative the exceeding sinfulness of sin1 especially when pushed to its extreme of logical consistency by the so-called federal theologians1 is apt to give1 and has always given1 more or less just cause of offence to speculative minds2 but in that broad practical aspect in which it was originally presented to the world1 before men began to turn a fervid faith into a curious theology1 there can be no doubt that it operated most beneficially in intensifying that hatred of sin which is the mother of all #bad holiness1 and in enabling many a guilt-laden soul to start on the career of a regenerate life with a comfortable lightness and an unfettered speed1 which from no other source could have flowed so readily4 ,the plan of this discourse leads us in the next place to consider the individual virtues to which1 by their radical connexion with religion and a theological creed1 ,christian ,ethics have shown a preference4 ,but before attempting this it is obvious to remark how1 by the atmosphere of piety in which they grow1 and the theological soil in which they are rooted1 the ,christian virtues1 as a whole and individually1 are elevated to a much higher platform than belongs to any system of mere moral philosophy2 and from this point of view we can understand how the divines of the school called ,evangelical have been led to look down with such contempt as they generally do on every form of ,christian preaching in which a round of mere moral duties is held up as in itself capable of performing the functions of a truly ,christian life4 ,the ,evangelicals1 narrow and bigoted as they too often are1 especially in points of artificial and traditional orthodoxy1 which they are unable to separate from the essence of the gospel1 were quite right in this matter4 ,it is not the mere duties performed1 but the motives from which1 and the inspiration by which1 they are performed1 that make the moral life of a truly ,christian man so excellent4 ,it is not merely that he is morally correct in all his intercourse with his fellow-men2 not merely that he is richly furnished perhaps with all those born amiabilities which an acute ,scotch speculator has designated as but the painted masks of virtue2#bad4a #bae the world may shower its plaudits on such cheap forms of native goodness as loudly as it pleases2 ,christian morality1 by virtue of its lofty religious inspiration1 aims at something more2 the mere righteousness of the ,scribes and ,pharisees it looks upon as an attainment utterly unworthy of a high moral ambition1 as a vulgar something1 the contentment with which would indicate an entire absence of that pure moral ideal1 with the acknowledgment of which a religious morality--a system of ethics founded on the worship of the one true ,god--must necessarily start4 ,whatever morality the world may possess1 as absolutely indispensable for the common movements of the social machine1 ,christianity1 of course1 accepts1 but makes no account of in its characteristic appeals4 ,it is rather the low maxims1 the false authorities1 and the spurious virtues1 mixed up with the vulgar morality of the many1 that it most mercilessly exposes and protests against4 8,be not conformed to this world1 but be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds40 8,but you are an elect people1 a royal priesthood1 a holy nation40 ,such is the lofty tone which it assumes1 and from the days of ,st4 ,paul to ,xavier and ,howard has justified the assumption amply by its deeds4 ,it aspires not merely to be moral2 it would be the poetry of morality in a world where prose is the common currency4 ,it intends to hold up to the whole human family a divine ideal of social heroism1 which may some day be universally admired but which never can be universally enacted4 ,let us now look at the beautiful portraiture of the ,christian man in the detail of his most characteristic virtues4 ,and first1 as the starting-point here1 we must #baf observe that the ,christian is pre-eminently equipped with that self-denial and self-control1 and what we generally call strength of character1 which are the necessary postulates of all moral excellence4 ,a man who will take the world easily will never take it grandly2 omnia prclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt3 all excellent things are difficult2 the ,christian recognises the difficulty1 but delights in it as the stout old ,roman did in the foes which added fuel to his victories1 or as the strong modern engineer does in mountains1 that he may show the triumph of his art in boring through them or winding round them4 ,modern sensualists and preachers of the low doctrine that pleasure is the only good have delighted to fling discredit on this grand ,christian virtue of self-denial1 as if anything great ever was performed without it4 ,the man of genius denies himself in a thousand ways that he may work out a perfect body for the imaginary ideals which possess him2 the great soldier denies himself through leagues of hardship that he may repel the rude invader and preserve the honour of his country unstained2 and the man of virtue must deny himself also1 if virtue is a thing which a creature of high enterprise and lofty purpose may reasonably have to do with4 ,to lie in the lap of pleasure may be the highest enjoyment of which a feeble character is capable2 the alternation betwixt sensuous languor and sensuous excitement may be the only grateful change of which a predominantly sensuous nature can be made to partake2 but a strong man must have something difficult to do2 and the strong ,christian man has to 8work out his salvation with fear and trembling20 to mortify the body1 lest being overindulged #bag it should learn to be the master instead of the servant of the soul2 and 8laying aside every weighty and the sin which more easily besets him10 learn to 8run with patience the race which is set before him40 ,what race8 ,the race of realizing as much goodness as possible in his own personal life lend in the life of that society of which he is a part1 by the twofold process of nursing virtues and weeding out vices3 an ideal which never can be reached by those who commence life1 after the ,epicurean fashion1 with a low calculation of pleasures and pains1 but by those only who we inspired by the vision of what ,plato preached as divine ideas1 and ,paul as divine commands4 ,the recognition of a divine ideal in some shape or other is the first step to the prosecution of a divine life2 and this alone can supply the inspiration which makes difficulty easy1 educes pleasure from pain1 and converts the most severe acts of self-denial into the materials of an elevating warfare1 and the occasion of a glorious triumph4 ,very closely connected with the stern self-denial and the manly strength of character so conspicuous in the first ,christians was their moral courage4 ,it requires very little knowledge of the world and experience of life to be made aware1 in the case of those who are capable of being made aware of these things1 that the general habitude of the world is not moral courage1 but moral cowardice4 ,the majority of men1 like the majority of dogs ,i presume1 are not physical cowards2 the dog is naturally a fighting animal1 and so is man4 ,but that the majority of men are moral cowards is certain4 ,no consideration is so powerful with schoolboys as that of being laughed at for any singularity in dress or appearance2 the slavery of #bah fashion among grown-up persons is founded partly on the same dread2 and the fear of standing in a minority restrains many a man in public life from giving voice to a salutary truth1 and planting a gag on the barking mouth of popular error4 ,i have myself been present at meetings of corporate bodies1 where ,i gave my suffrage1 confident that ,i was right in acting consistently on a plain principle of common honesty2 and after the vote was taken ,i was told confidentially by some of those who had voted against my views1 that they had a strong conviction ,i was in the right1 only they could not venture to vote with me in the face of such an overwhelming majority6 ,this is the moral courage of the world4 #8,have any of the ,scribes and ,pharisees believed in him8 ,if so1 we will speak out2 if not1 we keep silence4' ,this tendency to follow authority is in many persons1 no doubt1 the necessary consequence of their own ignorance2 ignorance is always afraid1 and it knows by a sure instinct that its only safety lies in being led by superior knowledge4 ,this no one can blame4 ,but when a man acts against his own conviction in giving his vote as a member of a corporate body1 or in a political assembly1 to shield himself from the indignation or to gain the favour of an unreasonable multitude1--when1 as in pure democracy1 the question of right and wrong never comes before a man at all1 but the one rule of political life simply is to submit to what such and such a local majority may choose to dictate1--this is sheer cowardice and simple slavery1 from which a man of honourable and independent mind1 not tainted with the baseness of democratic life1 must shrink with abhorrence4 ,and so in fact we do find that in democratic countries1 where all #bai things are controlled by political cliques1 who dictate the local policy1 to which the puppet called a ,member of ,parliament1 or a ,deputy1 is expected to swear1 men of independent spirit1 manly courage1 and large intelligence are found systematically to shrink from the arena4 ,how different from this demoralizing miasma is the atmosphere which we breathe in the ,new ,testament6 ,there a single manly individual stands forward1 and in the name of ,god solemnly calls upon men to renounce the dearly-cherished errors1 and to trample under foot the warmly-worshipped idols of a whole people4 8,if it be lawful in the sight of ,god to hearken unto men rather than unto ,god1 judge ye60 ,this is what ,peter said1 speaking the truth boldly1 in the face of roaring multitudes1 frowning dignitaries1 and lines of bristling lances4 ,a religion in which such rare manhood was as common as cowardice is common in general society1 if it was not crushed in the bud1 as ,protestantism was in ,bohemia1 could not but grow up to a mighty tree in the end4 ,the stoical death of the gladiators in the ,colosseum was wont to draw admiration1 and sometimes even to extort pity1 from the spectators2 but their death was compulsory1 and the stoicism of their last moments only a theatrical grace to fall decently before an applauding multitude4 ,the ,christian1 on the other hand1 whether as a fearless preacher or as an unflinching martyr1 made a voluntary protest1 and chose a self-imposed torture4 ,if he was not a fool or a madman1 he was a hero2 and the heroism he displayed was of such a high order1 that being repeated only for a generation or two1 it caused the combined force of popular prejudice and traditional authority in the heathen world to blush itself into a #bbj not unwilling subjection4 ,so much of lofty courage and of genuine manhood did subtle ,greece and powerful ,rome learn from the moral missionaries of poor and despised ,palestine6 ,let us now cast a glance on that most characteristic and most widely bruited of all the ,christian virtues1 viz41 ,,love2 which under the name of ,charity 7not 1 the old satellite of ,venus1 but 71 ,st4 ,paul in a famous chapter eulogizes as at once the crown and the epitome of all virtues most peculiarly ,christian4 ,we read also that 8,love is the fulfilling of the law20 and a watchword so deliberately chosen and so emphatically sounded must always be pregnant with significance as to the moral character and efficiency of the religion to which it belongs4 ,now the plain significance which this blazon bears on the face of it is this1 that if ,love be the blossom of all virtue1 the root of all vice is the opposite of ,love1 viz41 ,selfishness4 ,and whosoever has looked into the moral world with any faculty of generalizing1 will not fail to have observed that every form of vice is only a diverse manifestation of that untempered1 voracious1 and altogether monstrous egotism1 which1 in order to purchase for itself a slight advantage or a momentary titillation1 would not scruple to plunge a whole universe into disorder and ruin2 while1 on the other hand1 the virtuous man lives as much by sympathy with the desires of others as by the gratification of his own1 and is ready at any moment to dash the bowl of blessedness from his lips1 if he must purchase it by the consignment to misery of a singly human soul4 ,and if we look at the lower organism of society1 we shall find1 that as in the republic of science knowledge prospers exactly in proportion as #bba the pure love of truth prevails1 so in communities of human beings1 the measure of the amount of that brotherly love which man feels to man1 taken in its intensity and in its diffusion1 furnishes an exact test of the amount of moral excellence and consequent happiness--as distinguished from mere material prosperity--which is found in any place4 ,the greatest difficulties1 indeed1 which society has to encounter1 spring fundamentally from a deficiency of brotherly love1--from every grade of carelessness1 indifference1 and coldness1 down to niggardliness1 shabbiness1 and the wretched mania of hoarding jealously what he who hoards is afraid to use4 ,poor-laws1 for instance1 which are generally looked upon as a necessary evil1 exist only because those social associations to which the administration of charity naturally belongs1 viz41 in a ,christian country the ,christian churches1 are not powerful or zealous enough adequately to do their duty in relieving human misery2 that is to say1 because ,love1 which is professedly the soul of those associations1 is either not intense enough where it exists1 or not sufficiently diffused1 to provide the necessary aid2 and thus people are driven to supply the want of voluntary love in the community by the exaction of compulsory rates1 which may1 indeed1 save a few individuals from starvation1 but which certainly produce the double evil of weakening the healthy habit of self-support through all classes of the community1 and of stopping the fountain-heads of that natural flow of brotherly aid1 which is a virtue only so long as it is voluntary4 ,now to this selfishness1 which may without exaggeration be termed the endemic taint of all human associations1 ,christianity has applied the antidote of ,love1 in the #bbb triple form of love to ,christ1 love to the brethren1 and love to the human race2--love to ,christ as the incarnate type of unselfish benevolence and noble self-sacrifice2 love to the brethren as fellow-soldiers in the same glorious human campaign2 love to all men1 as sheep of one common fold1 which the further they have strayed the more diligently they are to be sought for4 ,how much more intensely and extensively than in any other association this ,love has operated in the ,christian churches1 from the days of ,dorcas and her weeping widows down to ,florence ,nightingale and her ,crimean campaign1 need not be told2 nine-tenths of the most active benevolence of the day in this country are ,christian in their origin and in their character2 and even those persons the favourite watchwords of whose social ethics are borrowed not from ,christ but from ,epicurus1 will be found to have added a strange grace to the philosophy which they profess by a light borrowed from the religion which they disown4 ,and if we inquire what are the causes of this superior prominence given to active benevolence in the ,christian scheme of ethics1 we shall find1 as in other instances1 that the peculiar character of the ethical fruit depends on the root of religion by which the plant is nourished1 and the theological soil in which it was planted4 ,for surely it requires very little thought to perceive that the root of all that surpassing love of the human brotherhood lies in the well-known opening words of the most catholic of prayers--8,our ,,father which art in ,heaven20 the aspect also of sin as a contumacy and a rebellion1 and a guilt drawing down a curse1 necessarily led to a more aggressive philanthropy1 with the view #bbc of achieving deliverance from that curse2 but1 above all1 the doctrine of the immortality of the soul1 and the terrible consequences necessarily involved in the idea of an eternal banishment from the sunshine of the ,divine presence1 has created an amount of social benevolence and missionary zeal which under any less potent stimulus would have been impossible4 ,the miseries of the more neglected and outcast part of humanity present an entirely different aspect to the calm ,epicurean and to the zealous ,christian4 ,to the ,christian the soul of the meanest savage and of the most degraded criminal is still an immortal soul4 ,as when a conflagration bursts out in a high turret1 where a little child is sleeping within the near enswathment of the flames1 some adventurous fireman boldly climbs the ladder1 and rushing through the suffocating smoke1 snatches the little innocent from the embrace of destruction2 so the ,christian apostle flings himself into the eager host of idolatrous worshippers1 and rejoices with exceeding joy when he saves if it were but one poor soul from the jaws of the destroying ,siva to whom he was sold4 ,but1 as men's actions are the offspring of their convictions1 the ,epicurean will find no spur strong enough to shake him out of his easy-chair at such a spectacle of human degradation4 ,let the poor sinner be worshipping ,siva on the banks of the ,ganges1 or committing slow suicide by what1 in the language of the ,celtic islands1 is strangely called the water of life1#bbc4a your easy sensuous philosopher needs not vex himself about the matter4 ,poor idiot6 poor sot6 poor devil6 with his little feeble flame of smoky light which he calls life1 let him flicker on another moment1 or let him be #bbd snuffed out1 it matters not2 another bubble has burst on the surface of the waters1 and the mighty ocean of cosmic vitality flows on as full and as free and as fathomless as before6 ,in the estimation of ,christian love one of the most interesting points is its strongly pronounced contrast with what has been called ,platonic love4 ,as for that which is commonly called love in novels and in life1 though capable of affording a very exquisite bliss in its little season1 it is a matter with which mere puberty and the bloom of physical life has so much to do1 that except in the way of regulation 7which is anything but an easy matter71 it does not come under the category of morals at all2 only this general remark may be made with regard to it1 that in all well-conditioned human beings it springs originally from a certain affinity of souls shining through the body1 as much as from the mere attractions of physical beauty2 and in so far as this is the case1 the purely physical instinct is elevated into the sphere of genuine ,platonic love4 ,now1 what is ,platonic love8 ,as described by the great philosopher of ,idealism in the ,phdrus1 its root lies plainly in the rapturous admiration of excellence1 and its consummation in the metamorphosis of the admirer into the perfect likeness of that which he admires2 whereas ,christian love1 most characteristically so called1 has its root in an infinite depth of divine tenderness1 and for its fruit broad streams of human pity and grand deeds of human kindness4 ,platonic love is more contemplative and artistic2 ,christian love more practical and more fruitful2 the one is the luxury of an intellectual imagination1 the other the appetite of a moral enthusiasm4 #bbe ,it would be doing injustice to ,christian love1 however1 to suppose that it has nothing at all in common with intellectual admiration1 and that its only spring of movement is pity4 8,visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction10 though in our present imperfect state the most characteristic1 is not absolutely the most essential1 feature in its exercise4 ,if it were so1 indeed1 the ,christian would never be comfortable except in the midst of misery2 as a nurse can ply her vocation only at the bed of the sick or the wounded4 ,but in fact his infinite tenderness for the lost sinner is produced and heightened by his experience of joy from communion with saints2 and the contemplation and imitation of the image of moral perfection in the person of the great ,captain of his salvation sustains him in his unwearied and often apparently hopeless endeavours to gather in recruits to serve under that so glorious captainship4 ,we shall therefore justly say that without a ,platonic love1 that is1 a fine spiritual passion for the character and person of ,christ1 the performance of the thousand and one works of social charity and mercy for which the ,christian is so famous would be impossible4 ,but we may say further1 that the picture of ,charity given in that wonderful chapter of ,st4 ,paul is very far from confining the sphere of ,christian human-heartedness to that field of healing and of comforting in which so many charitable institutions in all ,christian countries are the watch-towers4 ,his picture evidently exhibits the ideal of a human being1 not merely in the habit of lifting the fallen1 healing the sick1 and ministering1 as the good ,samaritan did1 to those who may have fallen into the hand of robbers--these are extraordinary #bbf occurrences1 which will excite even the most sluggish to extraordinary demonstrations of human sympathy1--but the apostle of the ,gentiles will have it that in our daily intercourse with our fellow-men we learn to live their lives sympathetically as intimately and as completely as we live our own2 that we study on all occasions to identify ourselves with their position and feelings and interests1 and then only pass a judgment on their conduct4 8,charity suffereth long1 and is kind2 charity envieth not2 charity vaunteth not itself1 is not puffed up1 doth not behave itself unseemly1 seeketh not her own1 is not easily provoked1 thinketh no evil2 rejoiceth not in iniquity1 but rejoiceth in the truth2 beareth all things1 believeth all things1 hopeth all things1 endureth all things40 ,what a problem is here1 what a lesson of humanity1 of catholicity1 and of something far more human than that mere toleration1 which the nations of ,christendom have taken now nearly two thousand years to learn1 since the first preaching of the gospel1 and are scarcely learning even now6 ,how much of our daily judgments1 spoken and printed1 seems leavened in any degree by the genuine humanity and manifest justice of this divine ideal8 8,speaking the truth in love0 is the acknowledged law of ,christian intercourse2 speaking lies in hatred were often a more appropriate text for certain large sections of ,british practice4 ,we ought to pass judgment against our brother on our knees1 fearful to offend2 we do it rather1 not seldom with pride and insolence and impertinence1 mounted on the triumphal car of our own conceit1 riding rough-shod over the real or imagined faults of our brother4 ,so far does the ideal of ,christian love1 in the preaching of the #bbg ,christian apostle1 transcend its reality in the lives of men who1 if not ,christians1 at least breathe a ,christian atmosphere1 and ought to have received some benefit from the inhalation6 ,,forgiveness ,,of ,,injuries is one of the special fruits of ,christian charity1 which has never been denied its due meed of acknowledgment1 though not unaccompanied sometimes with the sarcastic observation that the pious zeal of ,christian men has generally been more apt to flame into hatred than their love to blossom into forgiveness4 ,no man has yet been able to say of ,christians generally1 as one may often have remarked justly of ,quaker ladies1 that they have too much milk in their blood2 nor do ,british and ,french and ,german wars seem to have abated very much in intensity for the want of a ,christian text saying--,thou shalt love thy friends and hate thine enemies6 ,perhaps1 also1 some scholar may be able to string together from the pages of rare old ,plutarch a longer chain of pretty specimens of lofty forgiveness of enemies than can readily be picked from modern ,christian biographies4 ,in the life of ,pericles1 by that mellow old ,botian1 ,i remember to have read that on one occasion this great statesman had to endure for a whole day in the agora a succession of impertinent and irritating attacks from one of those waspish little creatures who love to infest the presence of goodness2 and he endured it with such untroubled composure that1 without taking the slightest notice of his assailant1 he executed quietly some incidental matters of business1 whose urgency demanded immediate attention4 ,in the evening the orator returned to his house1 still pursued by the gibes and scurrilities of his spiteful #bbh little adversary4 ,but the great man remained unmoved2 and as he entered his own gate1 quietly said to the janitor--,take a lamp and show that gentleman back to his home6 ,a similar but more serious instance of large-minded forgiveness of enemies is recorded by the same author in his life of ,dion1 the noble ,syracusan who about the middle of the fourth century before ,christ made a brilliant dash upon ,sicily1 similar to that which in the middle of the last century ,prince ,charles ,edward ,stuart made upon ,great ,britain1 with this difference1 that while the one succeeded gloriously in his well-calculated enterprise1 the other with his mock-sublime rashness ludicrously failed4 ,this ,dion1 after having planted himself on the seat of power abandoned by the worthless usurper1 found the cause of constitutional order1 of which he was the champion1 suddenly endangered by the intrigues of an ambitious demagogue called ,heracleides2 but his plots were timeously discovered1 and political wisdom sealed to call upon the representative of public order to prevent the recurrence of such dangerous dissensions by the death of the conspirator4 ,but the generosity of the disciple of ,plato prevailed over the severity that would have guided a common politician4 ,dion forgave the offender2 only1 however1 as it soon appeared1 that the fox chased out of the hole might begin to burrow in another4 ,in this case the ,syracusan ,platonist behaved like a modern ,quaker--nobly as concerned the sentiment of the man1 foolishly considering his position as a statesman2 but while no sensible man might improve of such conduct in a ruler1 every man feels that the heathen here performed an act of which1 so far as motive is concerned1 #bbi the most accomplished ,christian might be proud4 ,let the ,greeks and ,romans therefore have their praise in this matter2 let 8seekers after ,god0 in heathen times be put forward prominently as ensamples to those who in ,christian times rejoice to think that they have found ,him2#bbi4a nor let sympathy be refused to noble deeds because performed from somewhat different motives4 ,the great heathen forgave his enemies because he was too high-minded to allow himself to be discomposed by petty assailants1 and because a great indignation seems wasted upon a paltry offence2 the true ,christian forgives his enemies because he loves them too fervidly to have any room for hatred1 and because his sidling pity overwhelms his wrath4 ,there is no sin in the magnanimous pride of the heathen2 there is more humanity in the quick sympathy of the ,christian4 ,anyhow1 ,christianity may claim this peculiar merit1 that it has set up that type of conduct as a general law for every man1 which among the ancients was admired as the exceptive virtue of the few2 and ,voltaire certainly revealed one source of his uncompromising hostility to the ,christian faith1 and showed himself as far below the ideal of heathen as of ,christian magnanimity1 when he acted so that one of his most illustrious disciples could say of him that 8he never forgives1 and never thinks any enemy beneath his notice40#bbi4b ,one of the most interesting of the contrasts generally drawn between ,christian and heathen ethics1 is that which concerns the very difficult virtue of ,,self-,,estimate4 8,let every man10 says ,st4 ,paul1 #bcj 8strive not to think of himself beyond what he ought to think1 but soberly1 according as ,god has divided to every man the measure of faith40 ,and accordingly we find that in the lives of eminent ,christians1 as well as in formal treatises on ,christian ethics1 humility has always had a prominent place assigned to it in the roll of the virtues4 ,but here again we must beware of running into a vulgar extreme1 by imagining that the ,greeks and ,romans knew nothing of this virtue1 and that they systematically fostered pride and self-importance4 ,it is no doubt true1 as every schoolboy knows1 that the word 1 which in classical ,greek signifies mean and paltry1 in ,new ,testament ,greek is used to designate that sort of person who thinks of himself modestly1 or1 as ,st4 ,paul in the verse quoted says1 8soberly20 but the mere change in the shade of colour belonging to certain words when passing from ,attic into ,alexandrian ,greek1 proves nothing in such a case2 and if the matter is to be settled by words1 the phrase used by ,st4 ,paul1 taking the place of the of other passages1 is the very word by which the ,greek moralists constantly express that golden mean between a high and a low estimate of self1 which ,aristotle their spokesman lauds as the habitual tone of the perfectly virtuous man4 ,so far indeed was the ,hellenic mind from recognising no sin in pride1 that it looked upon self-exaltation and ramping self-assertion in every form as not only a great sin1 but the mother of all sins4 ,this sin they designated by the significant term --a word which etymologically signifies beyond the mark1 and which1 if it had not already existed1 might well have been coined by #bca ,aristotle1 had he been given1 like ,bentham1 to the pedantry of making a language for himself4 8,est modus in rebus1 sunt certi denique fines ,quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum40 ,pride1 indeed1 is not only the sin by which ,lucifer falls in ,christian angelography1 but it peoples ,tartarus also in heathen legends2 and the boastful ,salmoneus1 whose insane ambition aspires to mimic the thunder of ,jove1 is always the first to be blasted by the bolt4 ,wherein then shall we say lies the difference--for a difference there certainly is--between the humility of the ,christian and the of the ,greek8 ,the common root of the virtue in both is plain2 it is the contrast between mortal and immortal1 which belongs equally to ,polytheism and to ,monotheism2 pride was not made for man2 let him worship one ,god or many gods1 he is a poor weak creature at the best1 and only the more called upon to practise a sober-minded humility because his winged schemes so often end in creeping deeds4 ,the luxuriant pride of our young leafage grows up so frequently into a shrivelled blossom and a hollow fruit4 ,yet there is a difference4 ,in ,monotheism there is an impassable gulf betwixt ,god and man which exists not in ,polytheism4 ,there are steps which lead up with not a few gradations from ,pericles to ,zeus2 the son of a ,theban ,semele may be raised into a god1 and the son of a god1 like ,hercules1 may indulge grandly in many of the stout carnalities of a mortal man4 ,here therefore lies the primary ground of the more profound humility of the ,christian4 ,but there is another1 which in practice has proved even more potent1--the intense #bcb feeling of the ,christian already noted with regard to the exceeding sinfulness of sin4 ,every ,christian looks upon sin habitually as a healthy man looks upon the plague2 in some popular catechisms it is even laid down that 8every sin1 even the smallest1 deserves ,god's wrath and curse both in this world and in that which is to come20 nay1 more3 certain theologians1 deemed by some peculiarly orthodox1 have taught that the whole world lies under a curse on account of the guilt of the great progenitor of the human race1 in violating a special divine command1 a guilt incurred some six thousand years ago1 and transmitted in due course of generation to his hapless progeny4 ,these dogmas1 of course1 are only strong caricatures of the great fact that every deed1 whether good or evil1 by the eternal constitution of things1 necessarily transmits its influence from the earliest to the latest times2 families and races therefore may lie for generations under a curse2 the ,greek tragedy acknowledges this in the strongest terms2 but1 as in the other cases that we have been considering1 ,christianity here not only intensifies a moral sentiment familiar to the heathen world1 but it extends immensely the surface over which it is diffused4 schylus and ,sophocles could represent a heavy curse hanging for ages over the royal houses of ,pelops and ,labdacus as the consequence of monstrous sins committed by the founders of their families2 but ,christianity makes no selection in this matter1 and flings the blackness of a moral blight in the most unqualified phrase over the whole race of ,adam4 ,so far as we are sinners we are all under a curse1 all children of wrath2 and no man is supposed to be so virtuous as that he cannot #bcc honestly join in the humble response of the ,litany1 ,lord have mercy on us1 miserable offenders6 ,these words repeated constantly in the weekly or daily service of a whole ,church should alone be sufficient to prove how much more the virtue of humility is stamped1 so to speak1 into the ,christian soul1 than it was into the ,hellenic4 ,one cannot imagine either ,socrates or ,pericles using any such strong language4 ,and ,i must confess1 when coming out into the fresh air from the long ,morning ,service of the ,anglican ,church1 ,i have often wondered how far the humble prostration of soul expressed in the refrain of the ,litany had been cordially repeated by the great majority of the worshippers4 ,the ,english1 as is well known1 are a peculiarly proud and often somewhat insolent people2 and for myself1 ,i honestly confess that ,i have always experienced in reference to my own feelings not a little exaggeration in the expressions of soul-prostration employed whether in the spoken ,presbyterian or in the printed ,episcopalian formularies4 ,i do not see why ,christian worshippers should so constantly avoid the language of a reasonable virtuous self-satisfaction used by ,king ,david in not a few places1 and by ,nehemiah4 ,but however this be1 and allowing that many ,christians habitually employ phrases in their church service which are plainly at variance with the whole tone and temper of their lives1 it is after all true that ,christianity1 if it errs here1 errs on the safe side1 and errs only as the medical men do1 by using a very drastic drug to combat a very violent disease4 ,for it is only too obvious that self-importance in various forms1 not rarely under the decent mask of modesty and diffidence1 #bcd is the dominant vice of the human character4 ,young men are apt to glory in their strength1 young women in their beauty1 fathers are proud of their offspring1 scholars of their learning1 metaphysicians of their subtleties1 and poets of the iridescent and evanescent bubbles of a luxurious fancy and an unpruned imagination4 ,men of science too are apt to be proud of their knowledge1--whether a knowledge of what is high or what is low matters not2 it is the knowledge which puffs them up1 not the thing known1 which indeed1 if well weighed1 were oftener the motive to humiliation than to exaltation4 ,we are therefore much in need of getting as much humility from the gospel as it is naturally calculated to inspire2 and it may be observed that the public pulse is always ready to beat in unison with the sacred text whenever a man of great original genius stands forward1 signally marked with the peculiarly ,christian type of humility4 ,such a man was ,michael ,faraday1 the subtle investigator of those secret laws which regulate the molecular action of particles of matter among themselves4 8,yet living face to face with these great laws1 ,great truths1 great mysteries1 all who saw him near1 ,knew him how childlike1 simple1 free from flaws ,of temper1 full of love that casts out fear4 ,untired in charity1 of cheer serene1 ,careless or gold or breath of praise to earn2 ,childhood or manhood's ear content to win1 ,and still as glad to teach as meek to learn40#bcd4a ,here we have the general type of a chaste and #bce beautiful ,christian humility in the shape of a living man4 ,to this no one objects4 ,it is the dogmas and the doctrinal paradoxes of the professional theologians that are so apt to fret us2 to which1 accordingly1 here as in other cases1 in judging of ,christian ethics1 we shall be wise in not attributing too much importance4 ,but it were a very great mistake to imagine that in reference to the estimate of personal worth ,christianity exercises only a repressing1 and as some may picture it1 a depressing1 influence4 ,on the contrary1 there is no religion that has done so much in creating and fostering the feeling of personal worth and dignity4 ,how is this8 ,plainly because1 while the ,christian doctrine prostrates every man in a humble equality before ,god1 that very equality makes every man conscious of an equal personality as compared with any other man4 ,all men are sinners2 if that be a difficult doctrine to swallow there is one closely connected with it1 which is more comfortable3 all men are brethren2 and if brethren1 equal--a wise father has no favouritism4 ,this is another consequence of that monotheistic fatherhood of which we have already spoken2 it not only abolished nationalities1 it created personalities4 ,in the preaching of the gospel each individual is appealed to as a person with separate responsibilities2 he has sinned individually1 he repents individually1 he is redeemed individually4 ,in this affair of ,christian salvation there is nothing done by proxy4 ,priests are not known in the ,church4 ,the people only are the priesthood2#bce4a each individual in the congregation has the value and the dignity of a #bcf priest4 ,from this equality of personal dignity before ,god two remarkable phenomena have flowed1 both specially characteristic of modern society--the abolition of slavery and the rivalry of religious sects4 ,slavery1 of course1 must appear an intolerable anomaly to a man who believes that all men are brethren and all sons of ,god2 to call a man brother and to sell him as a chattel is a lie too gross to be tolerated even by a world accustomed to cheat itself with the authority of all sorts of mere names4 ,and as to the rivalry of multifarious sects and churches1 which some people bewail as the one great gangrene of ,christendom1 it is really somewhat shallow not to see that in the moral as in the physical world diversity of form only proves the richness and the variety of the vital manifestation4 ,the external unity after which some religious persons sigh existed naturally under heathenism1 where the individual conscience was merged in the ,state2 exists now also in ,popish countries1 where the same conscience is merged in the ,priesthood2 but in the ,christianity of the early ,church1 founded as it was on a direct appeal to the conscience of the individual sinner1 such a purely external and mechanical idea could find no place4 ,the right to exist at all as a ,church established the right to dissent from other ,churches1 by asserting its own convictions when such assertion seemed necessary4 ,this assertion1 indeed1 might often be made foolishly1 forwardly--then it was a sin1 the sin of schism2 but the right to dissent was inherent1 it was part of the indefeasible birthright of spiritual liberty wherewith ,christ had made his people free4 ,in this sense1 to talk of humility were to establish slavery2 while1 on the other hand1 to send #bcg out branching suckers1 which anon take independent root1 is merely to prove the rich vitality of the stem4 ,christianity has thus become the great mother of moral individualism2 and the many sects1 which are so apt to annoy us with their petty jealousies1 are1 when more closely viewed1 merely a true index to the intensity of our spiritual life4 ,on the relation of ,christian ,ethics to civil ,,authority1 on the one hand1 and to the sacred right of ,,liberty on the other1 much has been written1 but most frequently by partisans too interested to be capable of an impartial judgment4 ,the wisdom of the original preachers of the ,gospel was in nothing more manifest than in the care with which they avoided mixing themselves up in any way with the social and political questions of the hour2 while at the same time they did not omit to enunciate principles and to exhibit conduct opposed equally to the servility which despotism demands and the licence in which democracy delights4 ,it would be easy to marshal forth an array of texts by which the doctors of divine right on the one hand1 and the preachers of the sacred right of insurrection on the other1 have endeavoured to enlist the ,saviour of mankind as a recruit in the internecine wars which they have waged4 ,but however ,churchman and ,puritan might expound and denounce1 the serene face of the ,son of ,mary looked always strange through the smoke and sulphur of such struggles2 his name was invoked on both sides with most vehement protestation2 but it was difficult all the while for the impartial spectator to perceive that he was part of the battle2 he seemed always to belong to both sides1 or to neither4 ,but sensible men of all parties #bch have at length become convinced that to attempt to stamp the name of ,christ as the special patron of our little partisan cliques and warfares is as absurd as to expect that the sun should come down from heaven and confine his illumination to our private parlours4 ,as for purely secular parties1 it is quite certain that both the extremes which divide the political world are equally remote from the spirit of moderation and toleration which is the very atmosphere that ,christian charity breathes4 ,absolute despotism1 or the unlimited authority of one man over his fellows1 is a condition of things which1 as ,aristotle remarks1 could only be natural and legitimate in cases where the one absolute ruler happened to be both the strongest and the best man in the community2 but to acknowledge as absolute rulers those who have no authority for their rule but their own imperious will1 and are always more likely to be the worst than the best members of the society to which they belong1 is manifestly as directly opposed to the sense of righteousness in the ,christian code of morals as to the dictate of reason in the ,greek4 ,on the other hand1 the right of the mere numerical majority to rule1 which is the characteristic principle of pure democracy1 never can be admitted by a religion which teaches that the majority are bad1 and that we ought not to follow a multitude to do evil4 ,the equality which belongs to all ,christians is not so much an equal right to rule as an equal duty to obey2 an equal right only to participate in those privileges and obligations which belong to an independent human being1 not a mere chattel1 as a member of a moral society called the ,church1 and of a legal society called the ,state4 ,the ,christian #bci rejoices indeed in his liberty2 but it is not in the liberty to do what he pleases1 much less in the liberty of a majority to outbawl and to overbear a minority by the mere power of numbers4 ,he is free from the pollution of sin1 from the slavery of the senses1 from the forms of a cumbrous ritualism1 and the exactions of a lordly priesthood2 but he is not free1 and never dreams of being free1 from the homage which vice ought always to pay to virtue1 from the natural subordination that ignorance owes to intelligence1 and from the sacred authority of law4 ,here ,christ and ,socrates agree4 8,render unto ,csar the things that are ,csar's1 and to ,god the things that are ,god's40 8,let every soul be subject to the higher powers40 ,if laws are bad or impolitic1 the guilt of their viciousness lies at the door of those who made them1 or who gave themselves no concern to have them altered4 ,but so long as they are laws let them be obeyed4 ,the first duty of the ,christian is obedience to all existing laws1 respect for all established authorities1 and a reverence generally for those gradations of dignity and excellence into which the fair proportions of the social architecture have been piled4 ,generally speaking he is not an eager politician2 the inspiration of large human love which possesses his breast tenders him incapable of entering warmly into those party struggles in ,church and ,state with which large human love has seldom much to do4 ,he can neither despise the lowly majority of his fellow-men to please the oligarch1 nor trample upon the intelligent minority to please the democrat4 ,he has no great appetite for power2 he does not covet office2 he will not intrigue for place2 he will not grasp the sceptre of civic rule with a forward hand1 #bdj but wield it when it naturally falls to him with firmness as respects others1 and with a holy jealousy as respects himself2 and he will rejoice with trembling then chiefly when the victorious car of his party friends is riding over the prostrate army of his foes4 ,ambition is with him the love of usefulness1 not the love of power2 he comprehends the spirit which dictated the answer of a pious ,english clergyman when he refused the cure of a parish which was offered him1 for the singular reason that 8the emoluments were too large and the duty was too small20#bdj4a and he fears the dangers which may flow from the abuse of authority more than he desires the pleasures which are connected with its use4 ,let us now1 in the last place1 inquire how the ,christian law of right conduct has approved itself in the history of society since the first institution of the ,church4 ,and we seem certainly justified in starting here with the expectation that1 moved by such a fervid steam-power1 strengthened with such lofty sanctions1 and displaying a scheme of virtues at once so manly and so gentle--virtues not preached merely in sermons or discussed in ethical treatises1 but set forth in the living epistles of two such opposite and yet both eminently ,christian types of character as ,st4 ,paul and ,st4 ,john--so accoutred surely1 and clad with the perfect panoply that belongs to a great moral warfare 7,eph4 vi4 #ac71 ,christianity could not but go forth conquering and to conquer1 especially when the living faith in extraordinary1 and miraculous demonstrations everywhere accompanied its march2 and if it has in any considerable degree failed to fulfil its bright promise in regenerating the #bda face of the moral worlds this1 in those who accepted the religion1 must have proceeded mainly from one of three causes3 either because the ideal was too high for them1 as we are accustomed to observe that certain nations are not socially far advanced enough for free constitutions1 and thrive best under despotism2 or from1 the neglect of a regulative force which might check the natural tendency to excess1 extravagance and one-sidedness1 to which all human movements are liable2 or again1 from the disturbance of the proper healthy action of the regenerative virtue of the doctrine by the admixture of certain foreign1 incompatible1 and corrupting elements4 ,of the first cause of failure nothing need be said2 it is with high morality as with high art1 it is and it always must be above the average reach of the great mass of men2 and it may be that in morals1 as in art1 some nations have tacitly agreed to let the high standard drop1 and content themselves with attaining a manifestly inferior but more generally attainable ideal4 ,but however such compromises and refuges of despair may be the necessary wisdom of politicians and of lawyers1 who have to deal practically with the selfish element in the masses of mankind1 in the theory of morals1 as of art1 they can certainly find no place4 ,the ,church and the ,academy must always set up the highest ideal2 if they fail to do so it is only because the inspiration which created them was originally feeble1 or has waxed faint2 and if the members of the ,church or the scholars of the ,academy fail to realize in their lives and in their works the perfect pattern which has been set before them1 it is the defect of the learner1 not the fault of the teacher4 ,no one thinks of elevating the character of art by lowering #bdb the standard4 ,and so if ,christianity is too good for mankind it must just remain too good1 till in the slow process of the ages men shall become more worthy of it4 ,but the two other causes of failure require to be looked into more seriously4 ,to the danger of excess ,christian morality is peculiarly liable1 just because its steam-power is so very strong and its action so efficacious4 ,i read but the other day in a newspaper of a girl1 studious1 as girls are apt to be1 of personal beauty1 who1 having picked up somewhere a fact well known to horse-dealers1 that arsenic has a specific beneficial action on the skin1 set to work of her own motion to mingle her daily potations with an infusion of the potent metal1 and did this so assiduously that in a very short time1 instead of improving her complexion1 she had well-nigh removed herself for ever from the society of the living4 ,now this is exactly what has happened with ,christian ,ethics4 ,men have taken too much of a certain virtue1 say ,reverence--which is the virtue most closely bound up with religion--and have changed it into stupidity4 ,that which was meant to elevate human beings out of their finite littleness has been used to depress them below the level of their meanest selves4 ,and not only have ,christians by the excessive culture of favourite virtues turned them into caricature1 but they have assumed that because they have learned to be ,christians they should forget to be men4 ,there are certain human instincts1 either purely physical1 or closely connected with our animal existence1 so strong that the first preachers of the evangelic ethics seem to have thought they might be safely left to take care of themselves2 but these same instincts certain high-pressure ,christians #bdc who came afterwards1 with more zeal than sense1 thought it their duty studiously to repress1 or even violently to extirpate4 ,the result has been that we have seen ,christianity set at work systematically to maim that humanity which it was intended to heal4 ,as to the third cause of failure1 the admixture with foreign elements1 it is of the same nature as the water which dilutes the milk and the sand which debases the sugar in the adulterated traffic of low traders4 ,that such adulteration should exist to a large extent in ,christianity was unavoidable1 so soon as the profession of a religion so high above the measure of vulgar ethics became respectable4 ,when everybody was born and baptized and bribed into ,christianity1 the morality which each ,christian of this external type professed must have been something as cheap as the blood from which he was procreated1 the water with which he was washed1 and the work by which he gained his livelihood4 ,the first1 and in its epiphany one of the earliest and most wide-spread excesses of ,christian morality1 was ,,asceticism4 ,the temptation to this lies very near1 in the practice of the ,christian life1 and is suggested in the strongest manner by its very language4 ,if sin is the flesh1 and some of its most shameless and rampant exhibitions are characteristically designated the lusts of the flesh1 it would seem that the simplest way to get the mastery of such lusts is to keep the body under1 as ,st4 ,paul has it1--to frown upon cakes and ale1 and perhaps even to extirpate certain passions1 as you would pull up dock by the long tape root1 to make more room for the grass4 ,nor was this altogether an unreasonable procedure4 ,it might be very admissible1 in certain cases1 to #bdd become a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake2 8for the present need0 he who abstained from marriage might save himself from much incumbrance and from some misery4 ,the error lay in setting up that as a general ideal which was valuable only as a device for special occasions1 and possible only in a rational way to persons of a peculiar temperament4 ,our ,saviour showed himself publicly at marriage-feasts as well as retired into the mountains2 he was found eating and drinking1 and even changing water into wine4 ,st4 ,paul also never denied that a glass of wine was a good thing2 but ,christians afterwards very soon began to act as if the stern ,baptist of the wilderness1 and not the social ,jesus of the waysides1 had been the pattern set up for their imitation4 ,this degeneration1 no doubt1 was the fruit of the anti-sensuous impulse which it had been necessary to give them2 and they saw daily in the streets of ,rome and of ,corinth unseemly spectacles enow1 of which the lesson seemed to be3 it is better to abstain than to be poisoned4 ,add to this that ,plato and his ,alexandrian successors had thrown the whole force of their ethics of reason on the spiritual side1 and spoken of the body often in terms of greater contempt than the ,christian apostles had ever done of the flesh4 ,of ,plotinus1 his biographer ,porphyry tells that 8he lived like a man who was ashamed of being in the body at all20 and ,clemens of ,alexandria1 one of the most intelligent of the ,fathers1 though not going to the extreme of these ,platonic devotees1 speaks of a good dinner in a style calculated to lead by a violent plunge on the other side into an artificial appetite for dry pease and hard crusts4 8,we must not10 he says1 8have any care of external things1 but be #bde anxious rather to purify the eye of the soul and to chasten the flesh4 ,other animals live that they may eat2 man eats that he may live2 for neither is eating his business nor pleasure his good4 ,therefore those are strongly to be condemned who seek after ,sicilian lampreys1 ,mandrian eels1 ,pelorian mussels1 oysters from ,abydos1 sprats from ,lipara1 ,attic flounders1 ,mantinean turnips1 ,ascran beetroot1 thrushes from ,daphne1 and ,chalcedonian raisins40#bde4a ,of course the sensible old ,father meant this partly as a protest against the monstrous gastronomic luxury of the ,romans1 of which we read in ,suetonius and other ,latin writers of that age2 but it seems no less true that he was carried away in these matters by an ideal of extravagant anti-sensualism1 which had then strongly taken possession of the ,christian ,church1 and was indeed a rank native growth of the ,east1 specially of ,syria and ,egypt1 as ,church history largely testifies4 ,nay1 even in modern times1 and in ,western ,europe1 where the cold climate partly excuses1 partly necessitates1 high feeding1 we find young persons1 in the first start of a religious life1 not unfrequently led into a course of ascetic practice1 as prejudicial to their bodies as the excessive bookwork of the colleges is to the mind4 ,young ,whitefield1 we are told1 suffered not a little from exercises of this kind2 and the prolonged formal fastings prescribed as ,god-pleasing by recent ,ritualistic clergymen in this country1 have on more than one occasion enfeebled for a whole lifetime the bodily functions of their virgin devotees4 ,this is sad enough2 but it is not the worst4 ,such absurdities make ,christianity ridiculous1 and force revolted nature into the #bdf school of a benign ,bentham or an easy ,hume1 where one may at all events be moral and reasonable4 ,when we read in the biography of some modern ,anglo-,catholic saint that he feared nothing so much as the soft seduction of a slice of buttered toast1 and the golden deliciousness of a glass of ,madeira1 we begin to sigh for ,aristotle2 it were better to have no religion at all as an inspiring soul of morality1 than a religion which lends importance to such puerilities4 ,but if these things have been done by certain pseudo-,christians1 and are paraded even now1 there was one belief1 very common in the early ages of the ,church1 which tended not a little to intensify the tendencies which lead to them4 ,at all times it is possible for the expectation of a future life to encroach on the enjoyment of the present2 and the growth of the asceticism of the first centuries was beyond doubt powerfully aided by the overwhelming influence of a newly promulgated and greedily accepted immortality1 and yet more perhaps1 by the belief in the speedy second coming of ,christ4 ,the renunciation of the world1 and the more characteristic worldly enjoyments1 becomes of course much more easy when the machinery of the world is shortly expected to stop4 ,and thus the weakness of human nature concurred with a number of accidental causes to make the ascetic caricature of ,christian ethics one of the most wide-spread diseases1 and an altogether astounding phenomenon in the moral history of man4 ,the ascetic oddities of ,diogenes and a few ,greek cynics were nothing to it4 ,the multitude of strange1 and ridiculous1 and even disgusting forms which it assumed1 will be found amply detailed in the second volume of ,mr4 ,lecky's excellent ,history #bdg of ,european ,morals1 and need not be enlarged on here4 ,one of the strangest fancies that was ever begotten by the translation of sense into nonsense is the idea of the ,society of ,friends1 that ,christianity forbids war1 and that self-defence is a sin4 ,unquestionably ,christianity forbids the spirit of hatred and the desire of revenge2 for the religion of ,christ is a religion of motives1 of purity of heart1 and of humanity of purpose1 and could not but forbid every spring of action that had in it the least tincture of selfishness2 but hostility between diverse interests is a fact which ,christianity could not deny1 and common sense would not attempt to explain away4 ,what ,christianity denounced was the spirit from which wars generally arise--8,from whence come wars and fightings among you8 ,come they not even from your lusts that war in your members80 ,and so far as this is the case1 if these lusts were regulated by ,christian principle--that is1 if love and sympathy took the place of selfishness and jealousy1 the wars that spring from their feverish ferment and fury would not take place4 ,but this is a quite different thing from the natural right of self-defence2 there are wars where the aggression is all on one side1 and where to yield to the assault would be to offer a bribe to brigandage2 there are wars also of pure stupidity1 where both parties don't know what they are about1 and where it is not a pure heart but a disciplined intellect that is necessary to prevent the fray4 ,but whatever be the cause1 wherever there is a fermenting bed of conflicting interests of divergent opinions and of antagonist passions1 even amongst good men wars are unavoidable2 unless1 indeed1 such a court of impartial #bdh arbiters could be appointed1 as it has hitherto proved beyond the reach of human wit to realize2 and what ,christian ,ethics in this case requires is1 that1 contests of right being unavoidable1 after every attempt at peaceful adjustment has failed1 men should go to war with a certain mutual self-respect1 and with a generous chivalry such as the knights of the middle ages systematically fostered1 carrying on hostilities like men1 and not like tigers4 ,in this sense it has been proved perfectly possible to love our enemies without betraying our rights1 and will become more and more practicable in the degree that international recognition becomes more common1 and a large ,christian philanthropy more diffused4 ,but the idea that ,christian love should become so intense as absolutely to annihilate the instinct of self-preservation1 and to train every creature to love every other creature a great deal better than itself1 is pure maundering1 and will then only be tolerated among men when a decadent humanity shall have entirely divorced piety from reason1 and ,buddhism instead of ,christianity shall have become the religion of the most advanced pioneers of civilisation4 ,but the most general excess which runs1 so to speak1 in the blood of ,christian ethics1 arises from the overflow of zeal without knowledge1 at one time boiling over in floods of the most savage intolerance1 at another ossified into the rigid features of the most unrelenting bigotry4 ,this is an evil which springs naturally from the connexion of morality with religion2 and it is an evil of so enormous a magnitude that it seems in some sort to supply an excuse for those inadequate ethical systems of recent growth which take no cognisance of the reverential and devout #bdi instincts of human nature1 and1 after the model of ,aristotle1 would build up an architecture of ,ethics without piety4 ,and if religious zeal generally is prone to run into intolerance1 it is specially so in the case of monotheism4 ,for monotheism is naturally intolerant2 it will bear no assessor on the supreme throne2 if true1 it is exclusively true4 ,and this is indeed no more than what it is entitled to2 but it should be intolerant only of polytheism as a system1 not uncharitable to polytheists as men2 whereas it has become almost a proverb that the zeal of ,christian theologians stands divorced not only from charity1 but from truth2 of all disputants men of the clerical profession are the most unfair1 so much so1 that among churchmen as a class candour is scarcely a mentionable virtue4 ,a candid evangelist is generally a black sheep to his brethren2 assuredly he will not be found prominent in ,church debates1 or forward as a leader of ,church parties4 ,but neither must we bear too hard upon the clergy in this matter4 ,it is human nature1 in fact1 more than clerical inoculation that is to blame2 and we shall find if we look round with an impartial eye1 that humanitarian democrats1 anti-church ,radicals1 scientific crotchet-mongers1 mathematical formulists1 and conceited young poets1 are equally intolerant in their own way2 only religion1 like love1 by the very intensity of its excellence1 raises the natural intolerance of human nature to its highest power2 it is so pleasant to stamp the name of ,god upon our passions and ride triumphantly over the world in the character of armed apostles of the most sacred truth4 ,hence religious wars1 which1 as all the world knows1 have generally proved the most bitter and sanguinary2 hence conquests1 robberies1 #bej and oppressions in the name of the ,god of ,christians2 which for systematic cruelty1 treachery1 and all manner of baseness1 have not been surpassed in the annals of ,spartan helotage or ,venetian espionage2 hence assumptions of infallibility which make reason blush1 and consecrations of absurdity which petrify common sense4 ,and when this flaming zeal1 in more quiet times1 has settled down1 it does not therefore always cease to exist1 but stiffens into bigotry1 and1 united with that self-importance which is so natural to man1 produces an exclusiveness and a ,pharisaism of which all ,christian ,churches1 in seeming rivalry of the ,jews1 whom they revile1 have presented a very sharp and well-marked adumbration4 ,if the religious ,hindu will not eat from a ,christian's platter1 the religious ,episcopalian will not dine in the same room or stand on the same platform with the religious ,dissenter4 ,the hissing fervour which originally forbade the approach of two adverse churches has now been changed into a dead wall or partition1 which keeps those who ought to know1 and love1 and co-operate with one another1 habitually as far apart as ,greeks and ,turks2 so that it has become the most difficult of all social operations to unite two ,christian churches1 separated perhaps by some notion more political than religious1 in the prosecution of some common object which they both confess to be supremely desirable4 ,that which makes the ebullition and overflow of religious zeal so fatal in its effects1 is not merely the excess of the zeal itself1 which like all excess is bad1 but the tendency of all religions to subordinate the moral element which they contain to the religious3 to make religion a separate business instead of an ethical instrument2 to hang it as an amulet round #bea the neck1 not to breathe it as an atmosphere of social health1 to nurse it as a sacred fire in the heart1 and to feel it as a power which purifies every passion1 ennobles every motive1 and braces the nerve to the robustness of all manly achievement4 ,if there is one characteristic of ,christianity more prominent than another1 it is certainly this1 that it is essentially an ethical religion2 other religions favour certain virtues1 or give a certain sanction to all virtues1 but ,christianity is morality2 the moral regeneration is the religion4 ,there are religions which profess to possess a power by which its priests can bring down rain1 banish the pestilence1 make the devil speak truth1 and charm a murderer into heaven4 ,christianity knows nothing of these tricks4 ,its ministers supply no passports by which knaves and sluggards1 when they escape from the body1 may pass the celestial police without question4 ,the ,christian religion is not a special training which pious persons are to go through in order to prepare themselves for a future world2 it calls upon every man with a loud voice to do the work of ,god in this world1 here where alone work is possible for us2 and not until our assigned task has been bravely done here1 can there be any question of what promotion may await us there4 ,had the gospel been intended according to the vulgar prejudice now under consideration1 as a religion having an existence apart from the details of everyday morality1 ,john the ,baptist certainly would never have been sent as its precursor1 nor the ,sermon on the ,mount been given forth as its manifesto4 ,neither again does the famous doctrine of ,st4 ,paul1 that men are saved by faith not by works1 in any wise contradict the essentially ethical character #beb of the faith which he preached4 ,the works which in the ,epistle to the ,romans he so unconditionally denounces1 are works either of self-conceit or of sacerdotal imposition1 by which persons uninspired by a lofty moral ideal seek to recommend themselves to ,god4 ,from such a germ no moral good can possibly grow2 for as in the realm of speculation the oppressive sense of ignorance is the commencement of true knowledge1 so in the practical world1 the honest confession of sin is the commencement of sanctification4 ,but how little ,christian faith can have any significance apart from works1 the same ,apostle shows largely in the #aath chapter of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 the only part of the ,new ,testament by the way in which a formal definition of faith is given1 and a chapter at the same time from whose copious historical illustrations1 it is plain to any child that faith is merely a religious synonym for what we in secular language call moral heroism1 a heroism peculiarly marked as ,christian only by the distinct recognition on the part of the actor that the moral law which he obeys is the accredited will of the ,moral ,governor whom he serves4 ,clear as this is1 however1 there has always been manifested in the ,christian church a tendency to separate faith from works1 a tendency which1 like other aberrations1 has sometimes had the hardihood to stilt itself up into the dignity of a dogma1 and in this attitude has been known in these latter times under the name of ,antinomianism4 ,of a leaning towards this monstrous doctrine1 the ,calvinistic churches have been specially accused2 and there can be no doubt1 that in ,scotland and other countries where a ,calvinistic creed is professed1 notions of this kind will always #bec find an open soil in souls of a certain nature1 notions too that will often be practically acted upon even where they are not theoretically professed2 but it is historically certain1 that of all ,christian teachers the great ,genevan reformer himself was the least chargeable with any absurdity of this kind4 ,on the contrary1 he found himself involved in a serious war with the city to which he ministered1 just because he insisted that his religion should be practical1 and his faith if it meant anything1 should mean good works2 and he carried his point too in the end in spite of those who stoutly protested that the stern limitations of gospel law marked out by the preacher1 should have nothing practically to do with the broad licence that might be convenient for the libertine and the publican4 ,and indeed1 it would be the greatest reform that could be made in the ,christian church at the present moment1 if our popular preachers were to give us fewer sermons1 and when they did preach1 take care1 like ,st4 ,paul in his ,epistles1 to have some distinct practical point to speak to4 ,for the difficulty of ,christian as of all ethics1 lies not in the general rules1 but in the special application of the rules2 and vague condemnations of sin however severe1 and commendations of holiness however fervid1 will have little effect if people are not to be made to understand distinctly what those phrases so awfully sounded forth on ,sunday are meant to signify on ,monday4 ,the dignity of the pulpit1 ,i suspect1 like the dignity of history1 has often made it dull2 certain it is1 that whether from a false sense of dignity1 or from a religious zeal without ethical depth1 or from ignorance of those affairs to which ethical maxims must be applied1 or #bed from fear to offend those whose support is thought necessary1 the ministrations of the ,christian pulpit lose not a little of their efficiency from dealing more in the generalities of sin and holiness1 than in special vices and virtues1 and from yielding to the easy temptation of expatiating on scholastic subtleties or ecclesiastical crotchets1 instead of unravelling the perplexities of social practice1 or unmasking the disguises of individual character4 ,many things are left to be handled lightly by the novel-writer1 which with much more effect might have been handled seriously in the pulpit2 and in fact1 ,i have found not a few excellent sermons in novels1 which ,i should have sought for in vain in our pulpits2 but the misfortune is1 that people read novels mainly to be amused1 and will see the living portrait of their own follies painted in the firmest lines1 and with the most glowing colours1 without making the slightest attempt to amend their faults4 ,but of this enough4 ,one thing is certain1 that no amount of faith1 no amount of preaching1 and no amount of prayer1 can be taken as a true measure of the genuine ,christianity of any country1 unless the faith professed shall be found to be permeating every form of social life1 and elevating every trait of individual character4 ,to any one who wishes to see what real ,christianity can do for a district in the person of a truly evangelic and wise man1 ,i recommend the perusal of the life of the ,rev4 ,john ,frederick ,oberlin1 who1 in the latter half of the last century1 was1 during the course of a long life1 pastor of the mountain district of the ,ban de la ,roche in ,alsace4 ,this remarkable man was not content with the common ministerial routine of preaching and praying2 he saw that in the circumstances #bee in which he was placed1 nothing was to be done by mere talk2 so with pick-axe in hand he set himself to make roads2 he became the forester of his parishioners1 and planted trees2 their schoolmaster1 and built them schools2 their architect1 and reformed their cottages2 their deacon1 and taught them trades2 their professor1 and lectured to them on science2 their physician1 and taught them to live according to the laws of health4 ,thus the faith which he professed turned a neglected parish in a few years into a perfect museum of all good works1 of which a religion of the purest love was the soul2 and the unobtrusive ,christian worker1 who of this wilderness made a garden1 was perhaps the greatest man in ,france at a time when the thunders of ,napoleon were shaking the world from west to east1 while his own fame had scarcely travelled beyond the bleatings of the sheep of his own parish4 ,so little has the noisy applause of the world to do with some of the highest forms of ,christian virtue4#bee4a ,it remains now only shortly to indicate how ,christian ethics has suffered from the admixture of adulterating elements4 ,these are notably three3 ,,intellectualism1 ,,ritualism1 and ,,secularism4 8,there is a strange fascination10 says a living distinguished theologian1 8in reasoning about mysteries40#bee4b ,every religion of course has its mysteries--for a man reverences that only which he has reason to respect1 #bef while he cannot fully comprehend it2 but the faculty of reverence when exercised on sacred mysteries should rather deter men from presumptuous dogmatism than invite them to its exhibition4 ,but it has not always proved so in the ,church4 ,the unsophisticated intellect of the laity might possibly have been content without the vain attempt to define what is in its nature undefinable4 ,it is not the business of man to define ,god at all2 our finite work in reference to all forms of the ,infinite is to acknowledge1 to worship1 and to obey4 ,but the meddling intellect of professional theologians would not allow matters to rest here2 they proceeded to construct certain curious formul of doctrinal orthodoxy1 an intellectual belief in which was substituted for the living ethical faith by which the heathen world had been regenerated4 ,men were now taught to entertain the thoroughly unchristian idea that the acceptance by the cognitive faculty of an array of nicely-worded propositions concerning the ,divine ,nature and the plan of redemption was somehow or other essential to their salvation2 was certainly not the least important element in ,christian faith1 and the non-acceptance of which was held as justly excluding the recusant from the communion of the saints4 ,this was a sad mistake4 ,the fiery denunciations which ,st4 ,peter 7#b ,pet4 ii4 #a7 and the other apostles uttered against those who 8privily bring in damnable heresies10 were launched not against intellectual heterodoxies1 but against the lusts of the flesh and all sorts of sensualism2 but now the hated name of heresy was transferred to the imaginary sin of not being able to believe what a conclave of foolish or presumptuous ,churchmen chose to lay down1 and artificial creeds #beg were forged and fulminated1 and flung with stern anathemas and boastful defiance against every honest thinker who could not be brought to believe that faith must show its efficacy principally by its power of blinding reason and smothering common sense4 ,this gigantic dogmatism of the shallow understanding making an alliance with the fervid religious zeal which has been already mentioned1 led consistently to a system of the most organized social selfishness that the history of the world knows1--selfishness only the more horrible that it was dignified by the most venerable names1 and consecrated by the most sacred ceremonial ,the office-bearers of the originally free moral community called the ,church now declared themselves infallible1 and lorded it insolently over the consciences of those within the ,church1 and over both soul and body of those without its pale4 ,to think on any of the subjects most interesting to a thinking man was now a sin2 men who had the misfortune not to think exactly according to the formul prescribed by the ,church were prosecuted as criminals1 condemned as malefactors1 burnt at the stake as monsters1 and refused the humanities of common burial4 ,a compact was made with the civil power that no situation of honour1 emolument1 or trust should be given to any one who was not ready to swear to the established orthodoxy2 and thus1 as human nature is constituted1 not only was thinking forbidden and absurdity enthroned1 but a bribe was held out to public hypocrisy2 the conscience of young persons was systematically debauched2 and the love of truth and the independent searching of the ,christian ,scriptures in many ,christian churches became utterly unknown4 ,such were the fruits of ,intellectualism4 #beh ,but these portentous results were not produced by the impertinence of the meddling intellect alone4 ,such a hideous domination over the liberties of the individual conscience could not have been achieved by one unassisted evil power4 ,during the same period of ,christian corruption the other evil influences of ,,ritualism and ,secularism were both equally active4 ,of these the first1 though with a distinctively religious feature1 was in essential character anti-,christian4 ,christianity is a religion of inward motives1 ,ritualism a religion of outward forms4 ,it was not enough that the hand should shrink from offending2 that the eye should cease from lustful wandering2 the fountains of evil desire had to be stopped in their first wellings2 the lawyer and the police might concern themselves with the completed act and its consequences2 with the evil thought1 which is the germ of all evil deeds1 ,christianity commenced and finished its purifying action4 ,occupied with this radical regeneration1 the preachers of the ,gospel never dreamt of prescribing minute regulations about attitudes1 gestures and postures1 crosses1 crosiers1 candlesticks and change of dresses1 decorations with banners1 flags1 festoons1 gilded shrines1 jewelled images1 and other appurtenances of flaunting ceremonial4 ,these might be matters of decency and taste very proper to be attended to2 but to have made them the subject of special prescription would have been to assign them an importance which they did not deserve2 nay1 would have manifestly run counter to the liberty of that religion which they taught1 and confounded it with the bondage of that ,judaism--a bondage of meats and drinks1 new-moons and sabbaths1 and other externalities--which neither #bei they nor their fathers had been able to bear4 ,and this leads us to remark1 that the oppressive puerilities of ,ritualism in themselves1 perhaps more ridiculous than pernicious1 were1 in the case of the ,jews1 and are indeed naturally everywhere1 closely combined with another evil no less foreign to the genius of ,christianity1 which we may call ,,sacerdotalism4 ,the ,jews and the ,egyptians had a closely banded hereditary priesthood culminating in a theocracy2 the ,greeks and ,romans had a sporadic priesthood of special sacred persons1 colleges and places2 of these a ritual1 often cumbrous1 seldom graceful1 sometimes shameful1 generally ridiculous1 was the legitimate exponent4 ,christianity with the performance abolished the performers2 prayers were declared to be the only incense1 a holy life the only offering1 and a people zealous of good works the only priesthood4 ,but this was too good a doctrine for poor human nature to hold by1 or at least for the then stage of civilisation permanently to maintain4 ,people were only too glad to get theologians to think for them1 and ceremonies to dress up their devout feelings in an imposing though it might be often a tasteless garb4 ,these ceremonies1 originally indifferent1 by the sacred character belonging to the men by whom they were performed1 soon became sacrosanct1 and the performing priest naturally attributed a special efficacy to those rites of which he was the instrument4 ,whatever virtue they possessed was derived originally1 no doubt1 like everything else1 from ,god1 but specially and exclusively through him4 ,he was the conducting rod1 the chosen medium of bringing down the spiritual electricity from heaven to earth4 ,thus he became a wonder-worker more potent than the rainmakers #bfj of ,african superstition4 ,he had but to open his mouth and wine became blood1 and bread flesh at the magic mutter of his lips4 ,in a religion thus made essentially sacerdotal1 where thaumaturgic rites received such prominence1 it was impossible that the ethics of common life should be able to maintain their original place in the idea of its founder4 ,judaism1 in fact1 and ,heathenism1 had been smuggled back into the ,church2 religion was one thing1 moral character another2 brigands might rob and kill1 and1 at the same time1 keep up a converse with ,heaven by the kissing of crosses1 the telling of beads1 and the tramping of pilgrimages2 the poles of right and wrong might be positively inverted1 while piety remained4 ,but a still greater triumph for the evil principle was in store4 ,in the evangelic history of the ,temptation1 it is narrated that the devil1 after trying other methods of seduction1 carried our ,lord up into an exceeding high mountain1 where there was a survey of all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof1 and pointing out these the tempter said1--8,all this ,i will give thee1 if thou wilt fall down and worship me40 ,this argument1 as we know1 did not succeed with our ,lord2 but it succeeded only too well with those who came after ,him4 ,the marriage of worldly power and glory1 to an essentially spiritual and unworldly religion1 gave birth to that last and most potent adulteration which we have called ,,secularism4 ,there is no necessity1 of course1 that a modern bishop should be a poor man1 any more than an ancient patriarch2 ,christian ethics do not forbid a man to have a fat purse any more than a full stomach2 but as a ,christian may not live an epicure mainly for the sake of his stomach1 so neither #bfa may he live for the sake of his purse4 ,and then there is a great difference between the effect of worldly prosperity in individuals and in institutions4 ,an individual may be a man of exceptional virtue1 and in the face of many temptations may become more virtuous the more he is exposed2 but institutions are composed of the majority1 and 1 the majority are not heroes4 ,it was natural1 therefore1 to expect1 that as the ,christian ,church in its first epoch possessed a principal element of purity in the poverty and the social insignificance of its members1 so one great occasion of its corruption would emerge as soon as the profession of the once despised faith became the high-road to wealth1 the badge of social worth1 and the guarantee of political power1 whether1 8as at ,constantinople1 the attempt was made to imperialize the ,church1 or1 as at ,rome1 the ,church waxed into the dimensions of an empire40#bfa4a ,but it was not at ,rome or ,constantinople only that the ,church was thus secularized4 ,wherever official position in a prosperous and popular church presents an open career to persons desirous of making a respectable livelihood1 there must always be a class of people1 more or less numerous1 who are ready to say in their hearts1 though they may not dare everywhere to say it openly1--8,put me1 ,i pray thee1 into one of the priests' offices1 that ,i may eat a bit of bread40 ,only the means by which this bit of bread may be obtained depends always to a great extent on the character of the patrons2 and the corruption of the church office-bearers will always be greater where the appointment to valuable benefices is a mere civil right1 #bfb belonging to private individuals1 than where it remains with its original depositaries1 the congregations of the ,christian people4 ,no doubt where popular election exists in a church there will always be a danger of divisions1 and a sort of ecclesiastical demagogy or mean subserviency to the passions and prejudices of the majority can scarcely be avoided2 but this is a less evil than open simony1 and the usurpation of apostolic functions by men who do not1 like ,st4 ,paul1 work with their own hands that they may preach without fear1 but preach that they may feed themselves1 and dress themselves1 and amuse themselves1 and bring up their sons to play billiards1 and their daughters to dance quadrilles with the aristocracy of the land4 ,this thorough secularisation of religion is one of the most revolting spectacles that the moral history of the world presents2 and to its existence in any country1 along with the other two adulterations mentioned1 must be attributed its full share of guilt in creating that reaction in favour of a morality without religion1 and a ,state divorced from ,church1 which is one of the favourite ideas of the democratic age in which we live4 ,for while ,intellectualism and ,ritualism expose an ethical religion to attack1 the one by planting faith in an attitude of hostility to reason1 the other1 by making its worship puerile and ridiculous1 the secular corruption cuts deeper and proves suicidal to the very essence and soul of ,christianity4 ,for by this infection a religion of the most chivalrous love1 the purest unselfishness1 and the profoundest humility1 is worked up into a monstrous combination of selfishness1 pride1 and hypocrisy1 which tears up the very notion of public virtue by #bfc the roots2 and so in point of fact it came to pass that1 in the lives of some of the most conspicuous of ,christian pontiffs1 there was exhibited to the world a march of scarlet sins1 unsurpassed by the bestialities of ,roman or the ferocities of ,byzantine autocrats4 ,in the holiest courts of the most holy all was rankness1 loathsomeness1 putrescence2 only a theatric show of sanctitude was kept up scarcely with decency1 to deceive those who might be deceived by the good fortune of not living too near the actors4 ,and thus was realized the most sorrowful example of the truth of the ancient adage--corruptio optimi pessima2 ,,the ,,corruption ,,of ,,the ,,best ,,things ,,is ,,the ,,worst4 ,,utilitarianism4 #bfd ,,of recent ,british phenomena in the domain of ethical philosophy1 what is called ,utilitarianism is the most notable1 certainly the most noisy4 ,if1 indeed1 there is anything distinctive in the most recent tone of philosophic thought and sentiment in this country1 apart from speculations springing out of pure physical science1 it is this very thing1 or something that claims close kindred with it4 ,it is talked of in the streets and commented on in the closet2 and numbering1 as it does1 amongst its advocates some of the most astute intellects of the age1 it certainly deserves an attentive examination4 ,no doubt its merits1 whatever they be1 are likely to fall short of its pretensions2 for never was a system ushered in with a greater flourish of trumpets and a more stirring consciousness on the part of its promulgators that a new gospel was being preached which was to save the world at last from centuries of hereditary mistake4 ,at the watchword of the system1 shot from ,edinburgh to ,westminster more than a hundred years ago1 the son of a ,london attorney felt 8the scales fall from his eyes20 all was now clear that had hitherto been dim2 a distinct test was revealed for marking out by a sharp line a domain where1 previous to the arrival of the great discriminator1 all #bfe had been mere floating clouds1 shifting mists1 and arial hallucinations2 the unsubstantial idealism of ,plato and the unreasonable asceticism of the ,new ,testament were destined at length to disappear2 only let schools be established for the creation of universal intelligence to assert itself by universal suffrage1 and the redemption of the world from imaginary morality and superstitious sentiment would be complete4 ,this1 so far as my observation has gone1 is the sort of tone under the inspiration of which the doctrine of ,utility has been proclaimed to the world2 and that ,i am not exaggerating but rather understating the self-gratulation of the school1 is evident from the fact that ,dr4 ,southwood ,smith1 one of ,bentham's most admiring disciples1 actually believed and printed that his discovery of the principle of utility marked an era in moral philosophy as important as that achieved for physical science by ,sir ,isaac ,newton's discovery of the principle of gravitation4 ,nor was ,dr4 ,smith at all singular in this tone of transcendental laudation4 ,the dogmatism which1 as we shall see1 was a characteristic feature in the intellectual character of ,bentham1 was inherited more or less by most of his disciples2 and the importance which they attribute to themselves and their own discoveries is only surpassed by the superciliousness with which they ignore whatever has been done by their predecessors4 ,this ignoring of the past1 indeed1 to the best of my judgment1 seems to be the radical defect1 not only of the ,benthamites1 but of the great body of our ,british philosophers from ,locke downwards2 we do not start from a large and impartial survey of the inherited results of thought1 so much as from some point of local or #bff sectional prominence2 our petty systems are of the nature of a reaction rather than an architecture1 and like all reactions are one-sided in their direction and extravagant in their estimate of their own importance4 ,if scholars sometimes make their learning useless by their ignorance of the present1 the men of the present are not less apt to make their intellectual position ridiculous by ignoring1 misunderstanding1 or misrepresenting their relation to the past2--for a large appreciation of what has been achieved by our predecessors alone can guarantee a just estimate of the true value of our own labours4 ,all judgments are comparative2 and as ,primrose ,hill is a mighty mountain to the boy born within the chime of the ,bow ,bells1 so ,locke and ,hume and ,bentham may be taken for the greatest captains of thinking by men to whom ,socrates1 ,plato1 and ,aristotle are unknown4 ,the first thing that strikes us in attempting a critical estimate of ,utilitarianism is its name4 ,names are sometimes attached to systems accidentally1 and in that case need not be curiously analysed2 but when they are deliberately chosen by the propounder of a new theory1 they are significant1 and provoke question4 8,,why ,,utility ,,pleases0 is the heading of one of ,hume's chapters2 and the answer to it simply is1 that as ,utility consists in the adaptation of means to ends1 and as the recognition of such adaptation is a peculiar function of reason1 it cannot but be that reasonable creatures should receive pleasure from being affected in a manner so suitable to their nature4 ,the eyes1 as ,plotinus says1 are susceptible of pleasure from light1 because an impressibility to light is of the essence of their quality and #bfg the idea of their structure2#bfg4a so reason is necessarily pleased with what is reasonable1 and utility must please a creature whose whole energy1 when he acts according to his best nature1 is expended in discovering and applying means which shall be useful to secure certain ends4 ,but the answering of this question does not advance us one step in moral philosophy2 moral philosophy is a science of ends1 not of means--a science of what ,aristotle calls the 1 or supreme --the ultimate aim4 ,so our new philosophy has taken as a watchword a term that means nothing by itself1 any more than the terms plus and minus in algebra4 ,to give the term a meaning1 the further question must be put1 ,useful for what8 and then the old commonplace comes out--,useful for what all men desire1 ,happiness1 of course2 for 8all men desire ,happiness1 that's past doubt10 says ,locke1#bfg4b and ,aristotle also1 for that matter2 but we do not consult philosophers to hear such truisms4 ,what then comes next8 ,the truism is put into an antithetic shape1 and we are told as the grand result of the profoundest modern thought that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the ultimate principle of moral science1 the pole-star of all social navigation1 by attention to which alone the blinding mists of transcendental sentiment and the sharp ledges of unnatural asceticism can be avoided4 ,but is this maxim really in any way worthy of the applause with which it has been received8 ,may we not well ask1 in the first place1 ,who ever #bfh doubted it8 ,if happiness is desirable1 and if man is naturally a social and sympathetic animal1 as all the ancients took for granted1 then the more that can be made to partake of it so much the better4 ,of this neither ,aristotle nor ,plato ever had any doubt4 ,they wished every country to contain as large a population as was compatible with the conditions of health2 beyond these limits1 indeed1 they saw a difficulty1 and1 to prevent the evil of overpopulation1 were willing to allow certain remedies which1 to modern sentiment1 may appear harsh and inhuman2 but they never doubted that in a well-ordered ,state happiness was the common right of the many1 not the special privilege of the few2 and ,aristotle in his ,politics lays it down expressly as a reason why oligarchy is to be reckoned among the worst forms of government1 that it assumes that power is to be used for the interest of the few1 not for the good of the many4 ,the famous ,benthamite formula1 therefore1 can be regarded only as a very appropriate war-cry for an oppressed democracy fighting against an insolent oligarchy2 to this praise it is justly entitled1 and in this sphere it has no doubt been extensively useful2 but as a maxim pretending to enunciate a fundamental principle of ethical philosophy it has neither novelty nor pertinence4 ,the ,utilitarian school1 therefore1 judged by its name1 and by its favourite shibboleth1 has no distinctive character2 and its chosen appellation merely shows an utter deficiency of the first principles of a scientific nomenclature4 ,to say that morality consists in happiness1 falls logically under the same category with the proposition that a cat is an animal--we #bfi knew that2 but what we wish to know is1 by what differentiating marks a cat is distinguished from other animals1 and specially from others of the feline family4 ,wherein does the special happiness of the creature called ,man consist8 ,aristotle1 to my thinking1 answered that question with as much precision as it ever can be answered1 and neither ,hume nor ,bentham added anything to his definition4 ,so far as these spokesmen of modern ethics said that virtue consisted in acting according to reason1 as necessarily involving the greatest happiness of the reasonable being called ,man1 they said what was quite true1 but nothing that was new2 they merely repeated the ,stagirite1 putting the element of into the van1 which he had wisely kept in the rear4 ,so far as they went beyond this1 they said what was neither new nor true1 but only a refurbishment of the old doctrine of ,epicurus1 that for man1 as for beast1 pleasure is the only good1 and there is no need of a distinctive phraseology for the happiness of creatures so essentially the same4 ,what then is the distinctive character of ,utilitarianism1 if we fail to discover it in its name8 for that the school1 as a matter of fact1 does stand on a very distinct basis1 and in an attitude of very decided antagonism to other systems1 is unquestioned4 ,between ,paley1 the model churchman of the eighteenth century1 and ,bentham1 the stereotyped hater of all churchmen1 churches1 and creeds1 there is no doubt a great gap2 still there is a strong family likeness even between these two extremes of the school2 and the point in which this likeness asserts itself we think may be best expressed by the phrase ,,externalism4 ,from ,thomas ,hobbes of ,malmesbury #bgj down to ,alexander ,bain of ,aberdeen1 the morality of the ,utilitarians is a morality in which the moral virtue of the inner soul is as much as possible denied1 and the moral virtue of outward institutional or other machinery as much as possible asserted4 ,look everywhere for the origin of right and wrong--only not in the soul4 ,the kingdom of heaven1 according to the prophets of this gospel1 is not within you1 but without4 ,this1 if ,i am not mistaken1 is the keynote which gives a unity and a significance to all the variations of ,utilitarianism from ,bentham to ,bain4 ,let us hear it in their own words3 8,what one expects to find in an ethical principle is something that points out some external consideration as a means of warranting and guiding the internal sentiments of approbation and disapprobation30 so ,bentham4 8,conscience is moulded on external authority as its type40 8,utility sets up an outward standard in the room of an inward1 being the substitution of a regard to consequences for a mere unreasoning sentiment or feeling30 so ,bain4 8,the contest between the morality which appeals to an external standard and that which grounds itself on internal conviction1 is the contest of progressive morality against stationary2 of reason and argument against the deification of mere opinion and habit30 so ,mill4 ,the assumptions implied in these last sentences1 no less than the proposition stated1 are peculiarly interesting4 ,they are redolent of all that narrowness1 exclusiveness1 and dogmatism1 which we have already noticed as so characteristic of ,bentham4 ,it is assumed that the advocates of an innate morality hold it to be a thing that acts apart from1 or contrary to reason4 ,it is assumed that moral progress is possible only #bga under the action of an ethical system founded on the doctrine of consequences1 whereas experience has proved that a morality of motives1 such as ,christianity contains1 is as much capable of expansion and of new applications as any other morality4 ,it is assumed that all our sentiments and feelings1 that is1 the whole emotional part of our nature1 is to be supposed false1 till its right to exist and to energize shall have been approved by reason4 ,but what if emotions be primary sources of all moral life1 which reason indeed may examine1 but which it has no more authority to disown than it has power to create8 ,what if the emotions and the sentiments1 which you treat with such disrespect1 really supply the steam without which your curious ratiocinative machinery were utterly worthless8 ,but these questions anticipate part of our coming argument4 ,meanwhile let ,,externalism stand here as the only significant designation for the system of ethics which we are now to examine2 and let the word ,,utility be remitted to that limbo of vagueness and confusion whence it originally came forth4 ,it will be most convenient to treat this subject historically1 because this method will display in the clearest light the operation of that one-sided reaction out of which the ,lockian philosophy1 no less than the ,benthamite ,ethics took its rise4 ,and here it will be manifest that we cannot altogether escape metaphysics1 however odious that word may sound to the general ,english ear2 for in our inquiry we must find or assert certain first principles which form the foundation of all reason1 whether practical or speculative2 and though metaphysics1 like clouds1 are apt to be misty1 they are just as certainly the #bgb fountain of all moral science1 as the clouds are the fathers of the rain1 which supplies the water that moves the useful machinery of the mill4 ,we must therefore start from ,mr4 ,locke1 the acknowledged father of whatever school of ,british thinking deserves the name of a philosophy4 ,no doubt before him came ,hobbes2 but this man stands alone1 like a huge trap-rock bolt up in a flat country2 and therefore we shall let him lie over for a separate treatment1 if opportunity should occur2 but in tracing up the main line of ,utilitarian ,ethics from ,mill to ,hartley1 ,i found that they ended naturally and legitimately in ,locke1 just as a net-work of waters may often be traced to one common well-head4 ,now ,locke is the father of what the ,germans call the empirical philosophy4 ,what does this mean8 ,it simply means1 as any one may see by a superficial glance cast on the first chapter of the 8,essay on the ,human ,understanding10 that he commenced his philosophy by a formal declaration of war against the doctrine of ,,innate ,,ideas inherited by modern thinkers from the ,platonists of ,athens1 ,alexandria1 and ,florence2 and1 if all innate sources of true knowledge are denied1 then there remains for morality1 as for everything else1 only the source of external experience1 which comes to us not by nature but by acquisition2 for according to the use of the ,english language1 whatever things a man does not originally possess1 he acquires4 ,locke1 therefore1 in the language of ,plato and ,aristotle1 denied the existence of 1 or science properly so called1 which is founded on necessary principles of internal reason1 and asserted that all knowledge is to be got by or experience1 in other words1 is what the #bgc ,germans call empirical4 ,that ,locke's ideas on this fundamental question of all speculation were anything but clear we shall see immediately2 but on the face of the matter the very noticeable thing is1 that in rejecting the doctrine of innate ideas the ,englishman does not go directly to ,plato and ,plotinus1 the sources from which this doctrine had come1 but he goes to war with certain floating loose notions of ,herbert and other dreamy speculators of his own or the previous generation4 ,now1 this is evidently a method of proceeding altogether unphilosophical4 ,if a man means to refute ,christianity scientifically1 he does not go to the books of the ,jesuits1 but to the ,new ,testament4 ,so the refutation of the doctrine of innate ideas should have commenced with the examination of ,plato1 its original promulgator4 ,but it was ,locke's destiny to fight against ,plato as ,bacon fought against ,aristotle1 without knowing his adversary4 ,the consequence was in both cases the same2 a real battle against a real adversary1 and a real victory on the one side against a real defeat on the other2 but not the victory and not the adversary supposed4 ,the world1 however1 always willing to be deceived by names1 gave the combatants credit for having done a much greater thing than they had really achieved2 it was not the mock image of neas1 but the real neas that ,diomede had routed in the fight4 ,and so it came to be an accepted fact in this country with large classes of persons that ,locke had driven ,plato out of the field1 just as ,bacon had quashed ,aristotle4 ,and the deception in the case of ,locke has lasted longer2 and that for a very obvious reason4 ,the physical science movement #bgd inaugurated by ,bacon led much more naturally to a recognition of the true ,aristotle than to a recovery of the genuine ,plato4 ,it suited the practical genius of ,john ,bull to regard the severe ,idealist as a transcendental dreamer2 and ,mr4 ,locke taught him to put this shallow prejudice into dignified and grave language4 ,a thinker who does such a service to any nation is pretty sure to be overrated2 and so it fared with ,mr4 ,locke1 who besides being a thinker was a sensible man1 and on public affairs held liberal opinions in harmony with the progressive element of the age4 ,accordingly a recent juridical writer of the ,utilitarian school has not scrupled to call him in the most unqualified terms1 8the greatest and best of philosophers40#bgd4a ,with this partial verdict1 however1 we do not find that foreign writers agree2 and the following estimate of the merits of our typical ,english ,philosopher by a recent ,german writer1 is unquestionably nearer the truth4 8,precision and clearness1 perspicacity and distinctness1 are the characteristic of ,locke's writings4 ,acute rather than deep in thinking1 he is true to the character of his nationality40#bgd4b ,so much for the position of our great ,english 8empiric40 ,let us now look more nicely at his doctrine1 and the reasons of it4 ,the philosophy against which ,locke argues is1 that there exist 8certain innate principles1 primary notions1 1 characters1 as it were1 stamped on the mind1 which the soul receives in its very first being1 and brings into the world with it0--7i4 #b47 ,and the assertion of the belief in these innate ideas1 he afterwards indicates to have approved itself 8a #bge short and easy way for lazy people1 and of no small advantage for those who affect to be masters and teachers4 ,nor is it a small power it gives one man over another to have the authority to be the dictator of principles1 and teacher of unquestionable truth1 and to make men swallow that for an innate principle which may serve his purpose who teacheth them0--7i4 #d4 #bd47 ,from these words it is plain that ,locke protested against the doctrine of innate ideas1 in the same spirit1 and with the same object1 that ,luther did against the doctrine of the infallibility of the ,pope2 his mission1 he considered1 was to rouse reason from its lethargy1 and to teach men to think with open eyes1 not blindly to believe2 and1 in so far as he meant this1 the mission of the philosophical1 as of the religious reformer1 was unquestionably right4 ,but1 as above remarked1 in making this protest1 he was fighting against the language of ,plato without knowing1 or1 so far as we can see1 ever attempting to know the ideas of ,plato4 ,this will be more manifest from the arguments which he uses4 8,if there be such innate principles10 says he1 8it is strange that children and idiots have no apprehension of them2 children do not join general abstract speculations with their sucking bottles and rattles0--7i4 #b47 8,if we attentively consider young children1 we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them0--7i4 #d4 #b47 ,these are ,mr4 ,locke's words1 and they certainly indicate a conception of the doctrine of innate ideas the most crass and crude that could well be conceived4 ,assuredly neither the ,athenian1 nor the ,alexandrian1 nor the ,florentine ,platonists1 ever dreamt of anything so absurd4 ,surely ,plato knew that children #bgf did not march into the world with ,euclid's axioms in their mouth1 nor did he believe that even a miraculous baby1 like himself1 came out of his mother's womb armed cap--pie with all the principles of the ideal philosophy1 like ,pallas ,athena out of the head of ,jove4 ,what ,plato actually said was1 that everything was what it grew to be by virtue of a divine type1 which lay in the germ1 and which type was the expression of an energizing thought in the ,divine mind2 and this type1 form1 or idea 771 he called innate1 because it was possessed originally as part of the internal constitution of the thing1 not acquired from without4 ,who the men were who in ,locke's day or before him1 maintained the existence of ready-made1 panoplied1 and full-grown ideas in the minds of idiots and babies1 ,i do not know2 but1 so far as the ,platonists were concerned1 the ,englishman was fighting with a shadow4 ,idiots1 in any case1 as imperfect and abnormal specimens of their kind1 have nothing to do with the argument2 and as to children1 the things that sleep within them cannot1 in the nature of things1 be known till they grow up into full leafage and burst in perfect blossom4 ,inborn ideas are not the less inborn because they do not exist full-grown at the moment of birth4 ,they did exist for ever in the original self-existent ,divine mind2 they do exist in the derived existence of the human mind the moment it awakens into consciousness of its individualism4 ,in either case they are not acquired2 they are possessed4 ,plato's doctrine1 therefore1 was1 that the germ of all human ideas lies in the human mind1 and is developed from within1 not derived from anything external4 ,in this1 there cannot be the slightest doubt that he spoke wisely2 #bgg as little that ,mr4 ,locke wrote most unwisely1 when1 in accounting for the origin of our ideas1 he said1 8the senses at first let in particular ideas and furnish the empty cabinet40 ,here we fall in with one of ,mr4 ,locke's short similes1 which have proved more effective in spreading his doctrine than his diffuse and somewhat wearisome chapter4 8,one of the most common forms of fallacious reasoning10 says ,mr4 ,mill1 8is that of arguing from a metaphysical expression as if it were literal40#bgg4a ,this is precisely the error which seems to have run away with the wits of the sensation-philosophers1 when they read ,mr4 ,locke's chapter on the ,origin of ,ideas4 ,the mind was 8an empty cabinet10--if empty1 it had merely a holding or containing power1 before it was filled and furnished altogether and absolutely from without4 ,but a single word will show the inadequacy and the utter falsity of this style of talking4 ,the senses 7as ,plato long ago showed in the ,thetetus7 let in no ideas1 they let in impressions1 which the plastic power of mind elaborates into ideas2 and again1 the mind is in nowise like an empty cabinet1 in which the senses hang up ready-painted pictures2 but the mind1 in so far as it creates ideas1 and not merely experiences sensations1 both paints the pictures and hangs them up1 and this it does by an inherent divine power and divine right1 of which no mere sensation can give any account4 ,in fact there is nothing more hopeless than an attempt to explain the genesis of ideas1 connected as it is with the miraculous fact of consciousness1 by any sensuous process4 ,it were much nearer the truth to adopt the strong language of a distinguished ,scotch metaphysician1 and say that #bgh 8man becomes an ,i or a conscious being1 not in consequence of or even on occasion of his sensations1 but actually in spite of them40#bgh4a ,the real fact of the matter is1 as any one may observe in the reasonings of young persons1 that in the formation of ideas the mind is active1 not passive2 and this distinction is strongly expressed in the very structure of some languages1 in which verbs1 expressive of mere sensation1 such as verbs of smelling1 are followed by the case which belongs to the passive voice1 whereas verbs which express both a sensation and an intellectual idea1 imposed on the sensuous expression by the plastic mind1 demand the case which belongs to the presence of an active and transitive force4 ,the healthy instincts of the human race manifested in the common uses of language1 are often more to be trusted in such matters than the subtleties of metaphysicians4 ,nature1 at least1 which the popular instinct follows1 is always complete2 speculation is apt to be one-sided4 ,if we will have a simile that may express both sides of the wonderful fact of knowledge1 we may say sensation supplies the materials1 but the manufacturer of ideas is ,,mind4 ,i said above that ,mr4 ,locke was a sensible man2 and it is nothing contrary to this to admit that by the incautious use of one or two strong similes--8the empty cabinet1 the sheet of blank paper1 and the dark room10--he became the originator of a school which made itself famous by the ingenious maintenance of the nonsense that judgment and sensation are the same thing4 ,a vain ,frenchman1 pleased to utter glittering paradoxes in gay saloons1 might say this1 might even go so far as to parade the proposition #bgi that if horses had only possessed human hands they would have been men1 and if men had been armed with equine hoofs they would have been horses2 such paradoxes were1 no doubt1 a logical deduction from the doctrine that sensation is the father of ideas1 and that all internal faculties are the result of mere external forces2 but ,mr4 ,locke was too much of a solid and sober ,englishman to allow himself to be led into sheer nonsense by the charm of mere logical consistency1 and chose rather to prove his good sense by his inconsistency4 ,after asserting in the strongest terms that the only origin of ideas is sensation1 he goes on to divide ideas into ideas of sensation and ideas of reflection1 which division instantly suggests the question--,what is reflection1 and whence comes the reflecting power8 ,and by raising this question the empirical speculator at once brings in the whole of ,platonism and innate ideas by a side gate1 just after they had been driven out at the grand entrance2 for how can this question be answered except in the well-known words of ,leibnitz--8,nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu1 ,,nisi ,,intellectus ,,ipse40 ,mr4 ,locke's successors1 however1 have shown no inclination to follow his example in this respect4 ,they have been ambitious of the cheap popular virtue of consistency1 which even thieves and murderers may achieve2 and verily they have had their reward4 ,their master may be compared to a man who held out a poison in his right hand1 and administered forthwith the antidote with his left4 ,his followers1 from ,helvetius to ,mill1 thinking--naturally enough perhaps--that the right hand contained the right thing1 instantly snapt it up and ran away with it1 not choosing to encumber #bhj themselves with the incongruous bounty of the left4 ,the fruit has been that climax of nonsense in which half truths always issue when left to blossom by themselves4 ,the one-sidedness of the philosophy taken from ,locke's right hand1 which1 in a popular way we may call ,materialism1 culminates in the ,nihilism of ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,under his cunning manipulation not only mind vanishes but the outward world also4 8,it may be safely laid down as a truth that of the outward world we know and can know nothing1 except the sensations which we experience from it2 ontology therefore is not possible40 ,so what ,plato called the human mind and the ,new ,testament the human soul1 becomes only a bundle of sensations4 ,but the fallacy involved in this phraseology is easily pointed out4 ,instead of saying1 ,we know nothing but sensations1 he ought to have said1 ,nothing but sensations1 and the thoughts or ideas vulgarly called classes of things and laws of nature which we recognise in the outward world1 by virtue of the thoughts and ideas that arise out of the necessary action of the thinking ,unity1 the ,creator of thoughts and ideas within us2 and an ontology therefore is possible1 because we know what we are as thinking beings by the very act of thinking1 and we know what the world is as the general and absolute thought1 or rather the product and manifestation of absolute thought1 by the recognised identity of its working and products with the working and products of our own minds4 ,in other words1 ,thought1 or ,reason1 or ,mind--,god the absolute thought1 and man in his little world of limited thinking1 is the only thing that is or can be meant by an ontology1 and is known partly as direct fact1 partly as indirect1 but #bha assured inference from unequivocal manifestation4 ,this is the common sense of the whole matter2 and whosoever will not accept this may content himself with ,nihilism and ,atheism4 ,i cannot4 ,so much for the strictly metaphysical part of the empirical doctrine4 ,let us now consider shortly its application to morals4 8,moral principles10 says ,mr4 ,locke 7i4 #c71 8are even further removed than intellectual ones from any title to be innate4 ,will any one say that those who live by fraud and rapine have innate principles of truth which they allow and assent to80 ,this question displays in the most vivid manner the extraordinary misconception1 not to say wrong-headedness1 which possessed the ,english philosopher as to this whole matter4 ,the nature of innate ideas implies neither universality nor inaccessibility to corruption4 ,a man may be born with an innate sense for music1 though all his fellows were as harsh as asses or as deaf as stones4 ,if some men are colour-blind1 and others purblind1 and others altogether blind1 these defects1 inadequacies1 or total eclipses of vision1 do not make light intrinsically a less enjoyable thing1 or the healthy eye an organ less marvellously adapted for enjoying it4 ,as with vision so with morals4 ,a whole population given to drunkenness does not make drunkenness a whit less beastly1 nor will the general practice of fraud and rapine render the appropriation of my labour by another man's rapacity a whit more reasonable4 ,again says ,mr4 ,locke 7i4 #c1 #d71 8,there cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason10 from which sentence it plainly appears1 that1 whereas by innate ideas ,plato means the necessary expression of reason in a normally developed #bhb mind1 ,locke understands by them some blind unaccountable impulse independent of and extrinsic to reason4 ,the supplying of a reason for any course of action1 say for speaking the truth or keeping a man's word1 does not in the least make that course of action less the product of a truthful instinct in nature1 or an innate love of truth4 ,morality is not the less innate because it is reasonable2 but inasmuch as it is an essential element in the universal or divine ,reason1 in virtue of this it is necessarily an inborn quality in the individual or human reason1 always of course with the probability of those large exceptions and defections which the very nature of finite existence implies4 ,but we need not detain ourselves with a chapter of such shallow misunderstandings4 ,the immoralities and follies of men1 though a thousand times as many as they are1 no more affect the inborn necessity and absolute immutability of the moral law1 than the false summing of a class of schoolboys affects the relations of number4 ,errors are as common in arithmetic as in morals2 only men hire those special pleaders1 their passions1 to justify the moral law1 while the arithmetical blunder is exposed by the master of accounts4 ,but though ,mr4 ,locke argues against the existence of innate ideas in morals with even more self-gratulation than in his psychological account of the formation of ideas1 we are not to suppose that his ethical theory was in any respect identical with that of the modern ,utilitarians4 ,he sowed the seed for their doctrine1 no doubt1 but himself had his garner well stored with grain from a very different source4 ,he was a ,christian1 and believed in ,divine law2 he was a theist and believed in ,god4 ,the modern ,utilitarian believes only in a bundle of #bhc sensations and in an invariable sequence4 ,by denying innate ideas of morality1 ,mr4 ,locke1 as his illustrations prove1 only meant to proclaim the very obvious fact1 that1 as all men obviously do not agree in their principles of action1 it is reasonable to demand of them some reason for accepting one principle of action rather than another4 ,no man can object to such a reasonable demand4 ,but this does not prevent him in another place 7ii4 #cc4 #aa71 from talking1 as no modern ,utilitarian would1 of 8the unchangeable rule of right and wrong which the law of ,god hath established40 ,this method of speaking1 common to ,locke ,i believe with many of the most solid thinkers of his time1 would lead me to class his ethical doctrine under the rubric of what might be called ,,theocratic ,,institutionalism2 that is to say1 he looks on morality as the result of a law laid down and sanctioned by the ultimate source of all laws1 physical as well as moral4 ,this1 no doubt1 seems to imply something arbitrary1 which neither ,plato nor ,aristotle would allow to be possible in any of the fundamental manifestations of ,divine reason2 but notwithstanding this preference of the word 1 law1 to 1 nature1 had the ,english thinker been cross-questioned on the subject1 he would probably have said that these institutions or laws which ,god lays on man flow necessarily from the excellence of the ,divine nature2 and this would have been pure ,platonism4 ,that he was sound-hearted at bottom no less than sound-headed1 his book amply proves1 notwithstanding the confusion of ideas in which he entangled himself by the assertion of propositions which1 when logically followed out1 lead directly to materialism in philosophy1 atheism in theology1 and sensualism in morals4 #bhd ,the next significant name in the genealogical tree of modern ,utilitarianism is ,,david ,,hartley4 ,as it was the distinction of ,mr4 ,locke to have given respectability to the vulgar ,british prejudice against innate ideas1 so the claim of ,hartley to reputation rests on his having first given prominence to the doctrine of the association of ideas1 a doctrine which from its originator down to the most recent times1 plays an important part in every form and phasis of speculative and practical externalism4 ,hartley was a ,yorkshireman1 born at ,armley1 near ,leeds1 in the year #agje1 educated at ,cambridge originally for the ,church2 but having a thoughtful mind and a tender conscience1 he did not feel himself in a condition to subscribe the ,church ,articles in the offhand way which academical morality sanctioned2 and accordingly betook himself to the study of medicine1 an art which he afterwards practised with success1 first in ,newark and ,london1 and then at ,bath1 where he died4 ,these facts are of great significance1 as indicating the remarkable combination in his character and works of an extremely sensitive evangelic morality1 with a tendency to give physical explanations of spiritual operations1 from which evangelic moralists are naturally averse4 ,the object of his great work1 ,observations on ,man1 published in the year #agdi1 is to give a complete treatise of human nature on the inductive method of ,locke and ,newton2 and accordingly the first volume1 which contains his most peculiar views1 is merely a following into detail of the doctrine of ,locke1 that all our knowledge proceeds from sensation1 and that ideas in the brain are the product of impressions on the sensuous nerves4 ,this one-sided notion ,hartley #bhe pursues into the inmost network and curious membranous wrappings of the brain1 and by the action and reaction and interaction of vibrations and vibratiuncles in that region1 attempts to explain the generation of thought and reasoning2 and this he does through long chapters1 and with not a little iteration1 in language than which the most extreme materialist could desire nothing more crass4 ,in fact1 we find in ,hartley the great precursor of those masters of physical science in the present day1 who seem to expect some important discovery in mental science from the curious comparison of cerebral structure in the monkey and the man4 ,a few short extracts will make this more obvious4 8,simple ideas10 he says1 8run into clusters and create complex ideas0--7i4 #ge47 ,here we have that vague use of the word 8idea10 which serves equally for a sensation and a thought1 and which lies at the bottom of all that strange confusion of thought which runs with such unhappy persistency through all the speculations of ,mr4 ,locke4 ,again1 8,ideas1 intellect1 memory1 fancy1 affections1 will1 all these are of the same original1 and differ only in degree1 or some accidental circumstance2 they are all deducible from the external impressions made on the senses1 the vestiges1 or ideas of these1 and their mutual connexion by means of association taken together and operating on one another0 7i4 #hj74 ,and in harmony with this 7i4 #aja71 he afterwards gives a formal derivation of ideal vibratiuncles from sensory vibrations2 and 7#ajc7 talks of that 8idea or state of mind1 i4e4 set of compound vibratiuncles1 which we term the ,,will20 and again 7p4 #bab7 he says1 8the permanence of sensations is of the nature of an idea40 ,here the great #bhf mystery which puzzled the ,greeks so much1 the mysterious bond which unites the and the --the one and the many--is solved very decidedly1 as it would appear1 on the ,epicurean side4 ,it is not the one which produces the many1 but the many which produce the one2 the one--what ,i call ,mind1 ,will--is only a modification of the many4 ,the radical objection to all this is that every man who is not a professional metaphysician feels it to be nonsense2 the popular feeling protests2 ,shakespeare1 who represents the thoughts and the language of a high and a healthy humanity1 never talks in this style2 and1 more than that1 the profoundest thinkers from ,plato down to ,hegel find in the proposition that thought is manufactured out of sensations a much greater mystery than that which this theory was invented to explain4 ,one feels conscious that sensations might go on for ever1 and not produce anything that had the slightest semblance to a thought2 just as rain and sunshine acting on thistle-down from summer to summer produce only thistles and not roses4 ,it appears1 indeed1 that our inductive philosopher is here involving himself in the vulgar fallacy of confounding the occasion or the condition of a thing with the cause4 ,an accidental occasion1 or an indispensable condition1 are equally remote from the idea of a cause4 ,the accidental occasion1 for instance1 of a house being built on a certain site1 is that a certain gentleman1 happening to take a walk in a certain district1 and being not averse to house-building1 determines to have a house on that site2 the indispensable condition of the house being erected is that there should be a site for it to stand on1 and stone and lime for it to be built with2 but the only proper efficient #bhg cause of the house being a house is the mind of the architect1 the plan which that mind originates1 and the instructions which he gives to the contractor1 and the contractor to the masons4 ,the sensuous tendency which ,hartley's medical studies had given to his thoughts comes out strongly in another passage 7i4 #cdb71 where he attempts to explain the evidence of mathematical axioms3--8,we infer that #bbd only from prior instances of having actually perceived this2 and from the necessary coincidence of all these instances with all other possible ones40 ,this recalls a famous passage in ,j4 ,stuart ,mill's treatise against ,sir ,w4 ,hamilton1 in which he stamps with his authority the ingenious demonstration of a ,london barrister1 to the effect that 8in some possible world two and two may make five0--where1 however1 the more recent is grandly consistent as compared with the wavering double-sidedness of the more ancient speculator4 ,the fact of the matter is1 that ,hartley1 like ,locke1 was swayed at bottom by a sound sense and a lofty religious philosophy which crossed his mechanical theories2 whereas the modern thinker1 not believing in ,mind1 properly so called1 at all1 but only in a bundle of sensations and a thread of associations1 like the ,romanist ,transubstantiation doctors1 had no scruple in flinging open defiance in the face of ,reason1 and making a public ovation of unmitigated nonsense4 ,such is the natural culmination of all one-sided philosophizing4 ,the seed of a favourite fancy grows up into a stately dogma2 the dogma blossoms into a paradox2 and the paradox ripens into an absurdity4 ,the extreme nonsensicality of ,mill1 and the mildly modified error of ,hartley with regard to #bhh the nature of mathematical evidence1 arise from the same cause4 ,they are only the natural expression of the principle that thought is sensation and sensation is thought2 thought the matured sensation1 and sensation the nascent thought4 ,mill denies altogether the existence of thought as a distinct thing from sensation2 therefore he is quite consistent to say that in some possible world two and two may make five2 for it is as a thing thought1 and not as a thing perceived1 that in the science of number #bbd4 ,mill1 in fact1 by this paradox1 with a hardihood of consistency which is almost sublime1 denies the possibility of science altogether2 there is no of any kind possible any more than ontology2 only is possible--an experience of something that is accidentally what it is1 and may have been otherwise4 ,this is the highest power of what the ,germans call the 8,lockian empiricism20 and ,mr4 ,mill in asserting the contingency of all science1 has argued1 as a good logician could not but do1 from that half of the truth of things which it has been the unfortunate destiny of him and his school to mistake for the whole4 ,as for ,hartley1 he qualifies his one-sidedness with a condition which takes the sting from its nonsense1 and1 like ,locke1 saves himself by a very transparent inconsistency2 for he talks of a 8necessary coincidence0 of a certain number of observed equalities with all possible equalities2 interpolating thus into the product of sensations the idea of necessity which belongs to a different region altogether1 and by no possibility could grow out of a mere succession of sensuous impressions and nervous thrills1 however often repeated4 ,a tide-waiter may feel convinced that the tide will #bhi flow to-morrow just as it has flowed to-day1 and has flowed regularly ever since he began to observe its motions2 but no degree of strength in this conviction comes up to the certainty which every sane man has that two and two not only always do make four1 and always have made four1 but in every possible world must make four4 ,the two certainties differ not in degree only but in kind2 and mathematical demonstration having to do only with thoughts1 the creation of pure mind1 cannot in the slightest degree be affected by any complete or incomplete realization of these thoughts in any time1 past1 present1 or to come4 ,when ,i say that all the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles1 or that the angle at the centre of a circle is double the angle at the circumference1 ,i prove this from certain necessary relations of lines to lines drawn under conditions of which my thought is the absolute master4 ,the proof is only the evolution of what lies in the thing1--of what cannot be otherwise1 so long as the figure remains subject to the dictatorial power of my conception4 ,it will be now quite evident from these specimens1 that ,hartley's philosophy is just the sensuous side of ,locke worked curiously into detail1 with a practical rejection of the intellectual side4 ,indeed1 he says expressly 7i4 #cfj7 that 8all our most complex ideas arise from sensation1 and ,,reflection ,,is ,,not ,a ,,distinct ,,source1 as ,mr4 ,locke makes it40 ,this throwing of reflection overboard is the necessary postulate of all the absurdity that afterwards grew out from the ,lockian philosophy2 and ,james ,mill accordingly#bhi4a disowns the 8ideas of reflection0 with #bij the same fatal one-sideness1 and1 it may be added1 with the same transparent superficiality of logic2 for when a man talks of 8generalizing states of consciousness10 what is this but another term for reflection8 ,generalizing is a species1 and one of the most universally practised species1 of reflection4 ,it was necessary to be thus particular about ,hartley's doctrine on the generation of ideas1 because1 as expressed in the above passages1 it is one of the broadest statements of ,externalism possible1 and if consistently followed out1 as it has been by the ,mills1 neither morals nor mathematics can escape from its grasp4 ,according to this doctrine there exists no morality founded on the eternal reasons and relations of things1 but all notions of right and wrong proceed from association alone1 from clusters of ideas which are only modified sensations1--all affection as well as all reasoning being the mere result of association--7i4 #dii47 ,let us now inquire a little more closely what this ,,association is1 which performs such marvels in the transmutation of sensations into ideas2 for surely never was a word so largely used by philosophical writers in recent times1 and so villainously abused4 ,association is a popular term1 and therein precisely lies its large capacity of doing harm1 when sophistically used4 ,now what it means in popular language is pretty plain4 ,when ,i think of ,london ,i think of beauty1 splendour1 magnitude1 multitude1 wealth1 din1 incalculable noise of rattling cabs above ground and of screeching railways under ground4 ,these are my associations with ,london4 ,when ,i think of ,oxford1 ,i think of ,greek and ,grammars and square caps1 of #bia mitres1 and lawn sleeves1 ,high ,church and ,broad ,church1 learning and luxury1 bigotry and boating1 cricket1 cram1 and scholarly conceit4 ,when ,i think of the ,highlands1 ,i think of ,bens and ,glens1 of lochs and waterfalls1 of steamboats and tourists1 of salmon-fishing1 grouse-shooting1 deerstalking4 ,free ,churches1 untrousered legs1 and ,ossianic poems4 ,there does not seem much mystery in this4 ,ideas must hang together somehow or other2 if they did not1 they would be like a swarm of mad bees in our head1 and would reel about in an unmanageable chaos2 if therefore they are to hang together in some way1 what more natural than that those ideas which come in together should remain together1 and that those which have a family likeness and affinity should arrange themselves into companies4 ,add to this the natural tendency of black to recall white1 and of life to suggest death1 and you have the whole three bonds of association among human thoughts and emotions--contiguity1 similarity1 and contrast--of which philosophical writers make parade4 ,now what is the place which belongs to this popular principle of association in a system of metaphysics or mental philosophy8 ,to me its place appears a very secondary one2 and to give it any place at all we must carefully distinguish between accidental and necessary1 between ephemeral and eternal associations1 the confounding of which rather seems to stand out as the prominent employment of the ,sensation philosophers4 ,there are two great classes of associations1 the one principally of external and accidental1 the other of internal and necessary origin2 the one dominant in weak minds1 the other in strong minds2 the one common to us with the brutes1 the #bib other altogether impossible to brutes2 the one more in the manner of a loose bundle1 the other in the style of a stable architecture4 ,with people not much given to think consecutively ideas are apt to hang together by certain mere superficial points of attachment2 like drifted matter on an open beach1 they lie just as they come in2 the most incongruous things together all in a heap4 ,such associations1 subjected to no controlling and discriminating power1 are the fruitful source of all vain opinions1 prejudices1 senseless conceits1 and hollow reasonings4 ,with another class of people1 again1 in whom a strict watch is always kept over the materials with which sense supplies the mind1 we find a totally opposite sort of associations4 ,in this case the influence of the external factor diminishes1 while the internal factor comes largely into play4 ,the mind of such persons is not merely a mirror of such things as may chance to fall upon it1 it is a commander-in-chief and a dictator1 which discriminates1 selects1 and disposes according to an innate ordering faculty1 which rejoices to trace out the cognate order which everywhere lives beneath the diverse surface of external things4 ,the former of these forms of association is always more or less arbitrary2 the latter is imperatorial and absolute2 the one claims kinship with mere fancy and fashion2 the other is reason in the realm of imagination rejoicing in the discovery of what under various guises is only a manifestation of the eternally ,reasonable4 ,now the fault of the ,association theory as used by moralists of the ,utilitarian school1 is that they have left reason altogether out of the account1 and fixed their eyes exclusively on those external associations #bic which form the principal furniture of the lower class of minds2 nay1 they have gone further than this1 and systematically explained away the highest ideas1 such as ,beauty and ,duty1 into mere unsubstantial or monstrous products of some abnormal association6 ,the applause which ,alison received in ,edinburgh by the publication of a treatise on ,beauty1 the drift of which was to resolve all our ideas of what is excellent in form or expression into mere arbitrary association2 is one of the great reproaches of the ,scottish philosophy4 ,similar ideas with regard to ,duty are vented by ,professor ,bain4#bic4a ,here1 as in every other case1 we see that it has been the business of the successors of ,locke in this country to exaggerate his errors and to omit his truths4 ,with regard to association ,mr4 ,locke 7iii4 #cc7 did the wiser thing when he treated it not as the handmaid1 much less as the substitute1 for reason1 but rather as its great enemy2 and in the domain of morals1 particularly1 ,professor ,ferrier does not overstate the matter when he says in his own eloquent way that the ,utilitarian philosophy presents to us 8not the picture of a man1 but that of a weathercock shifting helplessly in the winds of sensibility1 a wretched association-machine1 through which ideas pass1 linked together by laws over which the machine has no control40#bic4b ,and another sturdy ,scotch thinker1 yet alive1 justly indignant at the juggle which has been played with this word1 bursts out into the exclamation1 8,the ,association psychology1--that barren bastard1 between ,materialism and ,idealism1 which1 but intended as a jeer to the priest1 is a disgrace to common-sense40 #bid ,thus the ,scottish interpreter of ,hegel2 but though these strong words1 in the fulness of their meaning1 may be applicable to his successors1 ,hartley certainly never intended by his curious interplay of vibrations and vibratiuncles to jeer the ministers or to damage the cause of ,christianity4 ,in this respect he was a perfect parallel to ,locke4 ,he had inherited the central idea of all true philosophy1--the idea of ,god1--from ,christianity2 and he stuck by that4 ,and if in his first volume he seemed to derive the noblest thing internal from the basest things external1 to turn the whole miraculous world of thought and feeling1 as ,ferrier says1 into a wretched 8association-machine10 it was not so bad after all2 for behind the machine he believed also in the steam1 and the imperial mind of ,him who made the machine2 so in theology he remained a sound theist1 and in morals he went so far as literally to stumble on the paradoxical love of 8self-annihilation10 so prominent in the transcendental ethics of ,budd4 ,hartley was the most pious and the most pure of metaphysical writers2 and while he balanced his first proposition that 8sensations beget ideas0 by a second1 that 8,god is the source of all ,good0 7i4 #aad71 and a third1 that 8,final causes are the key to all mystery0 7i4 #cff71 he might launch his book into the world with a good conscience1 and the sure hope of a good result1 if only people would take him as a whole4 ,this1 however1 unfortunately1 people had not the thought or the will to do2 the fewest people1 ,goethe said1 can comprehend a whole2 so they took up his sensuous association1 and left his spiritual piety to float4 ,he fared in this like ,st4 ,paul1 whose sound sense1 we read1 certain persons lightly dismissed1 #bie who were forward to wrest his more obscure doctrines to their own destruction4 ,there are two points generally discussed in ethical treatises1 which belong most naturally to our present rubric2 first1 whether moral judgments are performed by a separate faculty called ,conscience2 second1 whether all our emotions are not originally selfish2 whether benevolence1 like remorse1 is not a derived and compounded rather than an original and simple element of our nature4 ,to both these questions the ,association theory of ,hartley gave the start2 for with him1 as we have seen1 everything is compounded2 will1 judgment1 conscience1 whatever acts seem most emphatically to proceed from the imperial ,i within1 are radically only transmuted sensations1 the composite result of a curiously interwoven tissue of associations4 ,now there are no questions in ethical science more easily answered than these4 ,conscience is certainly not a separate faculty2 it is an exercise of judgment1 that is1 of discriminating reason1 accompanied with an emotion4 ,you confess to me1 for instance1 as your friend1 that on such and such an occasion1 from a regard to some petty interest1 or a desire to curry favour with some influential person1 you displayed a cowardly reticence1 where an open profession of your sentiments would have been advantageous to the cause of humanity2 and you feel ashamed of your conduct4 ,here is nothing but ,reason applied to action2 and the emotion of self-reproach in reference to an unreasonable action1 which is the exact correlative of the feeling of incongruity which attaches itself to a false proposition4 ,man is not a mere cognitive machine2 he has emotions of delight1 which make him start from his seat #bif and cry out 6 at the naked perception of a purely speculative truth1 much more when he uses his reason on the most important acts that concern the well-being of himself individually1 and the society of which he is a part4 ,let anything very good be done by his tribe1 or nation1 or church1 if he is a complete man he instantly flames up into a noble enthusiasm1 and becomes ambitious of attempting like deeds2 let anything very bad be done1 he fumes1 in grim indignation1 or blushes with shame1 and is ready to reproach and to condemn1 and even to trample his proper self under foot4 ,this is the most natural thing in the world2 the necessary result of applying reason to action at all2 for a man cannot act without motive power1 that is1 without passions1 which may be either noble or base4 ,but though there is no separate faculty called ,conscience1 there is a peculiar sensibility of the soul in reference to moral action1 when judgment is pronounced by any individual on the character of any action which he has performed4 ,self-condemnation1 self-reproach1 and1 in their sharpest potency1 what are called the stings of remorse1 are judgments of reason accompanied by emotions1 which well deserve a separate name2 and just as for the classical ,latin judicium when speaking of the fine arts1 we now use the peculiar word ,,taste1 so for our judgments of actions1 with the peculiar emotions which accompany them1 we use the word ,,conscience4 ,it is not a new word2 it is as old as ,periander and ,bias2#bif4a it has been used #big by both heathens and ,christians for more than two thousand years2 and there is no reason why it should be abolished4 ,the ignoring of its compound character by incurious people can do no harm2 its analysis into practical reason and passion by the more curious can do little good4 ,when1 on the other hand1 it is declared generally to be the mere product of association1 a great deal of harm may be done2 for from this doctrine a consistent one-sided moralist may prove that morals are the mere creatures of habit1 fashion1 fancy1 and caprice1 as readily and with precisely the same warrant that ,alison proved that beauty is an accidental product of the same unreasoning elements4 ,what we ought to say is simply this--there is an enlightened conscience1 and there is an unenlightened conscience2 neither of these can act independently of associations2 for associations supply the bonds by which the materials of thought and feeling are bound into separate parcels2 but the difference is this3 in the enlightened conscience feelings and actions are bound together by associations over which cultivated ,reason has exercised a control2 in the unenlightened conscience1 where the emotions connected with the performance of certain actions are the crude product of all sorts of random influences1 it is natural that moral judgments should exhibit all sorts of inadequacy1 perversity1 and absurdity4 ,to a conscience so constituted the neglect of a piece of insignificant silly ceremonial may cause more pain than the commission of a murder4 ,as to the sophistical refinement that all our social sympathies are fundamentally selfish1 there can be no doubt that1 under the influence of that passion for unity which is the inspiration of system-builders1 #bih ,hartley1 after ,hobbes1 did common sense the dishonour of publicly propounding this theory4 ,but he propounded it1 after his fashion1 in a very innocent way2 in such a way indeed as to show that the whole question arises out of a confusion of language1 or1 what is worse1 a studied affectation of using words in a different sense from that in which they are used by the vulgar4#bih4a ,to the thinker this is a matter of indifference2 not so to the vulgar3 they all insist in using common words in their common sense1 and allow the subtle qualifications of the philosopher to drop4 ,it is strange1 however1 to observe that there are even at the present day writers of pith and judgment who seem to imagine that there is something more than a mere juggle of words in this question4 ,mr4 ,barrett1 in his ,physical ,ethics1 an ingenious and thoughtful work1 says that 8the merit of ,hartley was not only that he showed the ultimate selfishness of all motives1 but that he saw the true subordination among the various emotions1 and their natural evolution from their simple elements40 ,this sentence1 by the simple abuse of a single word1 does great injustice to ,hartley4 ,the word selfishness1 in the classical use of the ,english language1 is a word of a very bad odour2 it is equivalent to the of the ,greeks1 and means that excessive regard to self which leads a man to disregard and to disown the rights and feelings of other selves in the complex social machine of which he is a part4 ,now ,hartley #bii does not use this word2 he uses a word capable also of a good meaning--self-interest1 better still if he had stumbled on ,bentham's phrase1 self-regard4 ,but as it is1 the ingenious association-moralist 7i4 #deh7 divides self-interest into three species-- ,gross self-interest1 ,refined self-interest1 and ,rational self-interest1 which1 when analysed1 turn out to be altogether different things baptized with the same name4 ,if a rational self-interest convinces me that1 when ,i see my neighbour fall into the sea1 it is my duty to jump in after him at the risk of being drowned myself1 it requires an open force put upon language to say that such an action is the result of any kind of deliberate self-regard2 it seems more like the result of a social instinct1 and so far from being the product of any sort of prudential calculation1 it is more likely to be strangled in the first conception than brought to a brilliant birth by the consideration of self in any shape4 ,it seems to me indeed quite unworthy of anything styling itself philosophy to deal in such manifest quibbles4 ,i might in a similar way1 for instance1 classify all religions under a common name1 according as they are inspired by ,gross reverence1 ,refined reverence1 and ,rational reverence2 but though the name is the same in all the three cases1 the feeling may be very different1 and the #cjj product altogether opposed2 for the gross reverence of vulgar superstition may be founded on fear1 while the rational reverence of enlightened piety may be based on philosophic wonder and on that perfect love which casteth out fear4 ,much less ingenious than ,hartley as a speculator1 but more distinct1 perspicuous1 and effective as a writer1 was ,dr4 ,,paley1 a man whose position among the thinkers of the last century1 though somewhat dwarfed by the contemporary magnitude of ,hume and ,bentham1 will ever secure him an honourable place among the preachers of the ,utilitarian doctrine4 ,as an author1 he commanded a wider circle of intelligent readers than any of his contemporaries who handled the same subjects2 he was a ,churchman too1 the only clergyman1 so far as ,i know1 among the ,utilitarian doctors2 and the last of that school--,austin only excepted#cjj4a--who did not think it a disgrace but an honour to keep on friendly terms with ,christianity4 ,the salient points of his moral philosophy are four--,utility1 the doctrine of ,consequences1 the ,will of ,god1 and the ,future life4 ,of the first1 what remains to be said will be said more opportunely when1 in the next section1 we shall have to discuss ,hume2 the doctrine of ,consequences a passing hint under ,bentham will dismiss2 and for the other two points a few sentences may suffice4 8,virtue10 according to ,paley1 8is the doing good to mankind in obedience to the will of ,god for the sake of everlasting happiness40 #cja ,this definition characterizes the man1 the book1 the age1 the country1 and the profession to which he belonged admirably4 ,it is a definition that1 taken as a matter of fact1 in all likelihood expressed the feeling of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand ,british ,christians living in these islands in the generation immediately preceding the ,french ,revolution2 still1 it is a definition which contains as many errors as it contains clauses4 ,in the first place1 as to the doing good to mankind1 it is a principle which lies at the basis of the doctrine of ,utility1 and has its origin doubtless not so much in modern anti-,christian systems as in the prominence which ,christianity gives to works of charity and brotherly-kindness2 than which practically of course there can be nothing better1 but as part of the definition of virtue in this place it is faulty2 for virtue of various kinds may be exercised where no men exist to be the objects of our benevolence1 as with ,adam in ,paradise1 and ,robinson ,crusoe in his desert island1 and the poet ,campbell's ,last ,man4 ,then as to the ,will of ,god1 that no doubt is a power which overrules all2 tides and tempests and thunderstorms must obey that1 and human life of course no less2 but what constitutes the ,divine will1 and how is it to be learned1 in what way by the ,christian1 and in what other way by the unbeliever8 ,properly speaking1 the will of ,god rather expresses the ultimate source of virtuous conduct than furnishes a practical definition of its quality4 ,lastly1 as to the everlasting happiness1 this is the greatest blunder of the three4 ,it may no doubt be very true under the relations in which it was spoken1 that 8if in this life only we have hope in ,christ we are of all men #cjb most miserable30 that was a sentence which applied with the most vivid pointedness to ,st4 ,paul and to many others in similar circumstances2 but it is very far from furnishing a warrant for the general proposition that the sure expectation of an everlasting reward is a motive necessary for the existence of virtue in this mortal life4 ,for if this really were the case1 either the virtue of ,socrates was no virtue at all1 or a virtue far above the standard of any ,christian virtue according to ,paley's definition2 for ,socrates died the death of a martyr with a very doubtful faith of what might happen to him after death4 ,but1 in fact1 the prospect of an external reward is no part of any virtue1 either ,christian or heathen1--rather in many cases would annihilate the very idea of virtue4 ,to give away ten pounds to-day with the sure expectation of getting a thousand pounds for it to-morrow would be no act of generosity4 ,aristotle says that a man is bound to be virtuous by the distinctive law of his nature1 whether he lives seventy years or seven hundred years2 and ,christianity surely ought to say no less4 ,it is plain therefore that ,dr4 ,paley was no great master of definitions4 ,nevertheless he wrote a most useful practical book2 such a book as justly commended itself to the practical ,english mind2 such a book as might have been expected from the finished manhood of a young man of whom when he went to college it had been said by his father1 that 8he had by far the clearest head he had ever met with40 ,a clear head unquestionably is a most useful quality in business and in daily life1 but a quality which of itself will not make a great philosopher1 or even a great man4 ,,david ,,hume1 born at ,edinburgh in the year #cjc #agaj1 was older than ,dr4 ,paley by more than thirty years1 though we have placed ,paley first1 as with ,locke and ,hartley completing the band of decidedly ,christian ,externalists4 ,but in ,hume we find the father of an altogether new school1 the real progenitor of that living sect of philosophers whom the popular memory traces back no further than to ,bentham and ,james ,mill4 ,in him therefore we may reasonably expect to find in one form or another all that came afterwards1 some parts of course less worked out and less consistent1 but the whole more rich1 various1 and complete2 and1 as in the case of ,locke and ,hartley1 we may probably have cause to rejoice that by a certain broad and salutary inconsistency he saved himself from a narrow and pedantic dogmatism4 ,we shall not therefore err in calling him comparatively a great man1 but only comparatively2 compared with the highest style of men1 great with first-rate position and constructive minds1 he is not great2 he is only rich1 various1 and subtle4 ,nevertheless in respect of those who followed him with kindred tendencies1 his stature remains unapproached4 ,he is1 as ,emerson says of ,plato1 8a terrible destroyer of originalities40 ,in the page of intellectual record he stands unquestioned as the man who shook all the easy thinkers of an easy century out of their easy seats with much observation2 but there are two ways of shaking people out of their seats--first in the manner of an architect who pulls down a crazy old cabin in order that he may set quarrymen1 masons1 plasterers1 carpenters1 painters1 and other artisans to work that they may erect a palatial structure in its stead2 secondly1 in the manner of a strong ,samson1 who shakes the pillars of some temple of ,dagon1 and buries himself #cjd and all the ,philistines beneath its roof4 ,that this is too much the manner of ,hume as a philosopher is obvious2 only he does not actually die like ,samson1 but gets himself paralysed for a moment1 and then recovers partially by virtue of that strong infection of common sense which1 as a ,scotchman1 he naturally had4 ,we have called him a rich man2 for unquestionably his treatise on the ,principles of ,morals1 perhaps on the whole the best of his works1 exhibits him as at once a subtle thinker1 a shrewd observer1 and a graceful stylist1 in a combination as happy as it is rare4 ,the man of the world is present here as well as the philosopher2 and perhaps the philosopher is not fully aware how much the acceptance of his abstract speculations is due to his secular shrewdness and his gentlemanly demeanour4 ,but with all his wealth there is a certain meagreness about ,hume arising out of his ignorance and entire misprision of the past4 ,it is difficult for a man to write well on morals with an entire disregard of ,aristotle and ,plato1 and with a fashionable ,parisian contempt for the ,new ,testament4 ,no doubt this was to a great extent the misfortune of the philosopher rather than his fault2 yet the fact remains1 and cannot but weigh heavily with all who would make a true estimate of the permanent value of his contributions to ethical philosophy4 ,in ,hume's time1 as we have seen above 7p4 #aca71 ,aristotle had not yet recovered from the supposed blows inflicted on him by ,bacon--8his fame10 to use ,hume's own language1 8was utterly decayed20#cjd4a and as for ,plato1 ,st4 ,paul1 and ,st4 ,john1 our subtle ,scotch ,david had no organ for them1 and could appreciate their excellence #cje as some kilted piper picked up from ,celtic games at ,braemar might be expected to appreciate the harmonies of ,sebastian ,bach4 ,greek certainly he had--the fruit of private study in his riper years--more than usually falls to the lot of ,scottish philosophers2 and what he had of that noble language he knew how to use more effectively and with more grace and originality than many ,english scholars with ten times his erudition2 but in reading his ,principles of ,morals ,i find no trace of any appreciation of the work done by his great ,hellenic predecessors2 on the contrary1 ,i find the strange delusion possessing both him and ,bentham that they were commencing a new epoch1 and doing for moral science what ,newton had done for physical1 and what ,socrates1 ,plato1 ,aristotle1 ,zeno1 not to mention ,st4 ,paul and ,st ,john1 had altogether failed to do4 ,hume's own view of his relation to the ancient moralists is distinctly stated thus--8,i found that the moral philosophy transmitted to us by antiquity laboured under the same inconvenience that has been found in their natural philosophy1 of being entirely hypothetical and depending more on invention than experience2 every one consulted his fancy in erecting schemes of virtue and happiness1 without regarding human nature1 upon which every moral conclusion must depend40#cje4a ,the complacent conceit of this passage to a man who really knows the ancient moralists1 #cjf is only less ludicrous than the benign self-satisfaction which inspires the well-known overture to the ,deontology of ,bentham4 ,and the conceit becomes the more ludicrous when1 in searching for this new principle which is to redeem ethics from fancifulness and transport it into certainty1 we find nothing but the old ,socratic formula3-- ,reason sentiment virtue happiness4 ,nay more2 he defines this sentiment to be 8an internal sense or feeling which nature has made universal in the whole species40 ,risum teneatis1 amici8 ,here we have the innate ideas of ,plato1 one part of them certainly1 which ,mr4 ,locke was supposed to have blown into smoke4 ,and afterwards1 in language even more distinctly ,platonic1 in the section 8,why ,utility ,pleases10 he says1 8,had nature made no original moral distinctions independently of education1 distinctions founded on the original constitution of the mind1 the words honourable and shameful1 lovely and odious1 noble and despicable1 had never had place in any language2 nor could politicians1 had they invented those terms1 ever have been able to render them intelligible1 or make them convey any idea to the audience40 ,we see therefore in these passages plainly1 that ,hume was by no means a thorough and consistent ,externalist2 he protests stoutly against ,hobbes and all who declare that there is naturally no difference between men and tigers till the policeman introduced it2 and he does not seem to have approached ,professor ,bain's conception1 that ,conscience is always and everywhere modelled on the statute-book4 ,he agrees entirely with ,socrates in assigning to love and the #cjg social affections--the --as strong a sway in human society as to the selfish principle4 ,here his common sense and his knowledge of the world saved him signally from the perverse ingenuity of ,hartley4 ,it will be observed through all his works1 indeed1 that though he was fond of puzzling himself as a thinker1 he had fundamentally far more faith in the common instincts and feelings of the great masses of men than in the conclusions of the metaphysicians4 8,nature10 he says wisely1 8will always assert her rights1 and prevail in the end over any abstract reasoning whatsoever20#cjg4a while with regard to individual speculators he says1 8,it is easy for a profound philosopher to commit a mistake in his subtle reasonings1 and one mistake is the necessary parent of another1 while he pushes on his consequences1 and is not deterred from embracing any conclusion by its unusual appearance or its contradiction to common sense40#cjg4b ,and accordingly he makes no scruple of shelving the whole theory of the ,ethics of ,selfishness by the single sentence that it 8seems to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy40#cjg4c ,what then have we to lay hold of as distinctively ,humian8 ,hitherto all is mere ,socrates4 ,a well-disciplined reason and a well-educated natural instinct of benevolence acting together for the public weal4--,this is ,utility2 this is ,hume2 this is ,socrates also1 and ,aristotle2 for these great ancient thinkers had the and the in their eye and on their tongue as #cjh much as any modern ,utilitarian4 ,where then lies the differentiating element of this great progenitor of the most modern school8 ,the difference1 we must reply1 is partly imaginary1 arising out of the gross misconception of the character of ancient philosophy1 transparent in all the writings of the ,utilitarians2 partly real1 in so far as the ancients1 while acknowledging ,utility as a principle1 kept ,reason in the foreground1 while the moderns push ,utility into the van1 and use ,reason only as an instrument to make that point alone prominent4 ,the modern ,utilitarian accordingly looks more to the consequences of the action1 the ancient ,rationalist to the quality of the actor2 but how this should be looked upon as a great discovery in morals1 or as tending in any way to the elevation of human character or the regeneration of society1 seems difficult to understand4 ,it rather appears to me that the prominence thus given to the results of action has a tendency to turn the eye of men away from the great work of purifying the sources of action1 the foulness of which is the constant cause of foul results2 prudential considerations will be very apt to obtain undue preponderance2 and everywhere1 as ,lecky observes1 8the philosophy of sensation will be found to be accompanied with the morals of interest40 ,the extreme meagreness of the ,utilitarian doctrine as thus produced from the propositions of its great progenitor1 is something so remarkable that one is naturally driven to look about for some cause that may have given artificial importance to a matter in itself so insignificant2 and this cause1 so far as ,i can discover1 lies nowhere so much as in the general reaction against ,christianity which distinguished the #cji age of which ,voltaire in ,france was the great spokesman1 ,hume in ,scotland1 and ,bentham in ,england4 ,reaction is the universal law of all mundane forces3 and it was not to be expected that ,christianity should escape it4 ,christian ethics being based purely1 as we have seen1 on a regard to the will of ,god1 on purity of motive1 and lofty self-sacrifice1 even had they been left to work in all their natural integrity1 would have demanded a doctrine of moral consequences to neutralize the necessary one-sidedness of their action4 ,to have a good conscience was a most excellent thing1 but to have a clean shirt was also a virtue4 ,the ,divine sanction given by ,christian piety to ,christian morals was naturally beneficial1 but it was also possible1 or rather from human weakness almost certain1 that the science of human ethics might lose as much as it gained from alliance with ,christian theologians1 who are only too apt to 8bend every branch of knowledge to their own purposes1 without much regard to the phenomena of nature1 or to the unbiassed sentiments of the mind40#cji4a ,add to this the tawdry mummeries of ritualism1 the insolence of haughty churchmen1 the gross worldliness of fat beneficiaries1 the morbid sanctitude of pietistical devotees1 the unnatural austerities of monkish ascetics1 and the grim severity of damnatory dogmatists1 and we shall easily understand how a revulsion should have taken place1 which would not be content till on the throne of morals it had supplanted ,christ by ,socrates1 and ,socrates by ,epicurus4 ,and this consideration opens up to us the second notable achievement of the subtle ,scot in the important field of morals4 ,not content with #caj withdrawing virtue as much as possible from the region of personal sentiment into the wider domain of social wellbeing1 he determined to strike at the root of the whole evil1 as it appeared to him1 by not only attacking ,christianity1 but by undermining that primary idea of ,,causality on which the idea of religion and the very conception of a ,god reposes4 ,this was a daring business no doubt2 but ,hume was not the man to take things of that nature overseriously2 he would keep himself quite easy as to results2 he would not make himself miserable by any unnecessary enthusiasm even for his own philosophy2#caj4a if he did not choke the ,church-doctors1 he would at least give them something to chew2 and at all events he might effect a permanent divorce between human ethics and that sectarian theology to which it had been so unpropitiously yoked4 ,the foundation of this monstrous doctrine of ,,atheism is laid by our subtle ,scotch ,epicurus in the following way4 ,in his chapter entitled 8,sceptical ,doubts10 speaking of the origin of our ideas of cause and effect1 he says1 8,when we find that any particular objects are constantly conjoined with each other1 as the communication of motion by one billiard-ball to another1 this knowledge arises entirely from experience1 and is not a matter of priori reasoning40 ,again3 8,the effect in this and in every case is totally different from the cause2 the conjunction of every effect with its cause must appear arbitrary2 every effect is in fact a distinct event from its cause4 ,hence we may discover the reason why no philosopher who is rational and modest has ever pretended #caa to assign the ultimate cause of any natural operation1 or to show distinctly the action of that power which produces any single effect in the universe4 ,the ultimate springs or principles productive of natural phenomena are totally shut up from human curiosity and inquiry40 ,then in the next section he goes on to argue against the legitimacy of the common postulate of all scientific thought1 that 8similar sensible qualities proceed from similar secret powers40 8,all that experience can do is to show us a number of uniform effects resulting from certain objects1 and to teach us that those particular objects at that particular time were endowed with such powers and forces40 ,after this1 in the chapter entitled 8,sceptical ,solution of ,sceptical ,doubts10 he lays it down that since our belief that similar effects imply similar causes does not depend on reasoning1 the only1 8principle on which it depends is ,custom or ,habit40 ,in fact1 8,all inferences from experience are the effect of ,,custom1 not of ,,reasoning40 ,cause means only 8customary conjunction40 ,then1 towards the conclusion of the same chapter1 he says1 8,there is a kind of pre-established harmony between the course of nature and the succession of our ideas2 and though the ,powers and ,forces by which the former is governed be wholly unknown to us1 yet our thoughts and conceptions have still1 we find1 gone on in the same train with the other works of nature4 ,,custom is that principle by which this correspondence has been effected40 ,cognate with these chapters on ,causation are some discussions that follow on the idea of power or necessary connexion1 in which he maintains that this idea is not copied either from the observation of the operation of forces #cab in the external world or in the world of volition within us2 that in all cases what we know is only 8the frequent ,,conjunction of objects1 not their connexion20 8all events seem entirely loose and separate2 and at bottom we have no idea of connexion or power at all1 and these words are absolutely without any meaning20 and1 philosophically expressed1 8the sentiment or impression from which we form the idea of power or necessary connexion10 is only 8the customary transition of the imagination from one object to its usual attendant40 ,and so 8we may define a ,,cause to be one object followed by another1 and where all the objects similar to the first are followed by objects similar to the second40 ,lastly1 to crown this whole elaborate edifice of ,scottish atheism1 we have1 in the chapter on 8,providence and a ,future ,state10 the following sentences3--8,when we infer any particular cause from an effect1 we must proportion the one to the other1 and can never be allowed to ascribe to the cause any qualities but what are exactly sufficient to produce the effect4 ,allowing1 therefore1 the gods to be the ,authors of the existence or order of the universe1 it follows that they possess that precise degree of power1 intelligence1 and benevolence which appears in their workmanship2 but nothing further can be proved4 ,the supposition of further attributes is mere hypothesis40 ,this argument is levelled against the perfection of the ,divine workmanship and attributes4 ,he then proceeds to annihilate1 as he conceives1 the ,socratic argument from design in the following fashion3--8,if you saw a half-finished building1 surrounded with heaps of brick and stone and mortar1 and all the instruments of masonry1 #cac you might justly infer from this effect that it was a work of design and contrivance2 and in reference to works of human art this reasoning is good1 because man is a being whom we know by experience4 ,but the case is not the same with our reasonings from the works of ,nature4 ,the ,deity is known to us only by his productions1 and is a single ,being in the universe not comprehended under any species or genus1 from whose experienced attributes or qualities we can by analogy infer any attribute or quality in him4 ,the method of reasoning which we legitimately use in reference to the intentions and projects of men1 can never have place with regard to a ,being so remote and incomprehensible1 who bears much less analogy to any other being in the universe than the sun does to a wax taper1 and who discovers himself only by some faint traces or outlines1 beyond which we have no authority to ascribe to him any attribute or perfection40 ,we have been at pains to transcribe these articulate sentences verbatim1 selected from a sweep of some hundred pages of the ,essays1 because they really contain all that can be said in justification or palliation of that sort of positive or negative atheism which has recently been haunting the intellectual atmosphere of ,europe1 and poisoning the sources of social morality4 ,let us now see what they amount to4 ,in the first place1 then1 with regard to the general source of all our knowledge of matters of fact1 it is quite certain we gain such knowledge only from experience2 but this of course does not mean merely external experience of external objects4 ,whatever exists1 the thinking ,i that is capable of taking cognisance #cad of objects1 no less than the objects cognised1 are known only by experience1 could not be known otherwise4 ,a thing must exist in order that it may be known to exist4 ,nothing is known by mere abstract reasoning independent of existence4 ,if it be said that mathematics are so known1 the answer is1 that mathematics imply the existence of a thinker1 and the existence of laws of thinking1 and further1 that the objects of mathematical science are thoughts1 not existences1 mere hypothetical conditions and arbitrary limitations of space and time4 ,we are not therefore entitled to start with a presumption that whatever is not known by abstract reasoning falls under the category of mere accident or custom2 in the wide range of what we know by experience some things may be accidental or customary1 many things may be necessary2 what things are absolutely necessary the ,supreme ,cause alone may know2 but that customary conjunction is not a sufficient explanation of the order of phenomena which we admire in the outer or inner world1 human reason may be quite strong enough without hesitation to assert4 ,for1 let us inquire how the idea of ,,cause arises4 ,according to ,mr4 ,hume it is nonsense2 it is merely another word for custom2 a constant custom is a cause4 ,now1 according to the general sense of mankind in all ages1 and the use of all languages1--a consent and a use to which ,mr4 ,hume himself1 as we have seen1 in another place attaches the utmost importance1--while the inconstancy of a custom1 by introducing the idea of whim and caprice1 excludes the notion of a cause1 at least of a cause which falls under the category of science1 a constant custom is the very thing which naturally suggests the question1 ,what #cae is the cause of this constancy8 ,it is therefore something different from the constancy2 and whether discoverable or not1 is not to be confounded with the existence of that thing1 or series of things1 of which it is required as the explanation4 ,take an example4 ,i see a certain person pass along the street before my window every morning at a quarter before nine o'clock1 and another person following him regularly at ten minutes before nine4 ,here is a customary conjunction4 ,if it happened once1 or even twice1 ,i should ask no questions1 it might have been what men call accidental2 but it has happened every day for six months1 and ,i ask the cause4 ,am ,i wrong in doing so8 ,is there no cause8 ,or do ,i give a sufficient answer when ,i say it is a customary conjunction1 or an invariable sequence8 ,the invariability of the sequence1 so far from offering any explanation of the cause1 is the very thing that suggests it4 ,i insist on believing that this invariability has a cause1 and that it is neither an accident nor a custom4 ,of course it may be possible that ,i shall not be able to find out the cause2 but that there is a cause ,i believe as firmly as that two and two are four4 ,now why am ,i entitled to demand a cause here1 or in the case of any such conjunction8 and what do ,i mean by it8 ,i mean something that has an inherent and necessary virtue to produce effect2 and ,i am entitled to make the demand1 just because ,i am a reasonable being1 and because the exercise of reason has proved to me directly that invariable sequences are not produced except by the persistent application of some calculated force of which energizing reason is the source4 ,i know by experience that whenever this presidency of reason is abolished1 the #caf world in which ,i move instantly becomes a chaos2 and the living unity of that mind which ,i exercise in thinking1 and which brings its own unity into the wide sphere of my thoughts1 feelings1 and actions1 displays to me in the most direct way that the unity of plan between the different members of an invariable sequence can proceed only from that of which plan and unity can be predicated1 viz41 ,,reason4 ,i derive my notion of cause therefore primarily from the most direct and certain of all sources1 from my own existence2 and if ,mr4 ,hume objects that ,i do not know how my mind acts on my body1 or how my limb does not follow my will in the case of palsy in the motor nerves1 this ignorance does not in the least shake my conviction that a cause is something different from a custom2 a piston or a paddle may be deranged1 but the steamboat is moved by a cause nevertheless1 and that cause is twofold1--the steam1 and the mind of ,james ,watt4 ,these conclusions with regard to the works of man even ,mr4 ,hume seems to regard as perfectly justifiable2 for1 like all puzzle-headed paradox-mongers1 he is forced to forget his own distinctions1 and to speak of a cause after all1 as something different from a custom4 ,we are justified1 therefore1 in finding in the energizing reason of man a cause1 and the only sufficient cause1 for the reasonable works of man4 ,but it is different1 you say1 with the works of ,god4 ,different unquestionably in some respects2 as the ocean1 for example1 is different from a drop of salt water1 or the sun1 as you say1 from a wax taper1 or a scuffle between two ,irishmen at a fair from a great battle betwixt ,prussia and ,france4 ,let it be so4 ,there is an immense difference in magnitude betwixt man and ,god1 betwixt #cag the works of man and the works of ,god4 ,still that will not make a gulf sufficiently large to prevent mutual recognition4 ,a drop of salt water1 the chemist will tell you1 contains every element that makes the mighty ocean a salt ocean1 and not a fresh-water lake4 ,the smallest spark from the largest conflagration is an affair of the same oxygen gas2 and petty differences in the management of the smallest borough in ,great ,britain are the result of the same play of vanities1 jealousies1 stupidities1 and spites that provoke the greatest wars on the battle-field of ,europe4 ,we shall therefore not be deterred by the magnitude of the ,creator's works from recognising the excellence of their cause2 we shall rather feel the more occasion to sing with the royal ,hebrew psalmist1 8,how excellent in all the earth1 ,lord1 our ,lord1 is ,thy name60 ,no doubt there is another difference that separates human work from ,divine4 ,the work of ,god is vital work1 ours is mechanical1 mere puppetry1 all the motive forces of which are borrowed from the exhaustless batteries of the ,divine electricity4 ,but this is only another reason for wondering with so much the more admiration1 and worshipping with so much the more fervour4 ,how healthy-minded1 how noble1 and how sublime1 in reference to this matter1 does that grand old ,hebrew singer appear1 with the flaming wings of his devout ,muse1 compared with this peeping ,scotch metaphysician1 keeping himself jealously free from the contagion of all intellectual enthusiasm1 and discovering in this glorious universe only 8some faint traces and outlines0 of a self-existent ,reason1 enough to lead a man into puzzles but not to lift him into hymns6 ,truly a sorry spectacle6 ,they will not #cah worship ,god1 forsooth1 these philosophers1 because they do not know ,him exactly as they know the machinery of their watches1 because they do not see ,him with their carnal eyes1 because they cannot lay their fingers on ,him4 ,well1 let me ask them1 ,does any man see any man8 ,can any man put his finger upon me1 or you1 upon that which is properly called me and you8 ,no2 he sees only the man as revealed in his flesh1 as manifested in his works4 ,his soul looks through the windows of his eye2 and his eye directs his hand where to strike4 ,we believe in the man2 we do not see him4 ,if his works are full of order and beauty and purpose1 we conclude that the man is reasonable2 if they are mere disorder1 ugliness1 and haphazard1 we conclude he is unreasonable4 ,not otherwise with our knowledge of ,god4 8,no man hath seen ,god at any time1 nor can see40 ,creation is the face of ,god2 the sun is the eye of ,god4 ,everywhere ,i see ,him in his works radiant with reason1 instinct with soul4 ,i know ,him as a child knows his father1 as the shepherd's dog knows the shepherd1 as a common soldier knows the great projector of the campaign1 though he may never have seen him4 ,i may not comprehend many of ,his movements 7it would be a strange thing if ,i did71 ,i may not understand much of that which most nearly concerns myself2 but this necessary inadequacy of my finite faculty shall not prevent my acknowledgment1 my loyalty1 and my obedience4 ,i know enough of ,god always to inspire wonder and to annihilate criticism2 and this is my highest human wisdom4 ,so much for the poor sceptical bewilderment of the celebrated ,david ,hume2 into which den of dust #cai and cobwebs ,i certainly should not have strayed in this discourse1 had experience not taught me that to deny ,god in the macrocosm necessarily leads to the denial of ,mind in the microcosm1 and to deny mind in man is to disown morality1 or at least to stanch it in its principal well-head1 and to poison the purest of its fountains4 ,in forming a judgment of his character1 however1 we must not insist upon applying to him all the logical consequences of his own arguments4 ,that his philosophy is speculative atheism is quite certain4 ,by 8emptying the idea of causation of its efficiency10 to use ,professor ,ferrier's language1#cai4a 8that is1 of the element which constitutes its essence1 he not only denied ,god1 but he struck a blow which paralysed man's nature in its most vital function20 he was not however consistently and thoroughly an atheist2 as a ,scot he had too much sense to remain in his practical moments entangled in the unsubstantial tissue of sophistry and cobwebs which he had spun for himself in speculation1 and his want of piety was a defect of sentiment rather than a revolt of reason4#cai4b ,we must remember also charitably1 that he lived in a flat age1 when it was always impossible for a man to be truly great4 ,a little moral earnestness1 of which the eighteenth century had nothing to give him1 would have saved him from a great part of the barren subtlety which disfigures so many pages of his otherwise sagacious1 pleasant1 and profitable works4 ,when we observe that as the prophet of that age he was in everything acute rather than strong1 that in his literary tastes #cbj he preferred ,sophocles to ,shakespeare1 ,epicurus to ,plato1 ,lucian to the ,apostle ,paul1 and ,leo ,x4 to ,martin ,luther1 we shall not be surprised to find his moral treatise tainted with the notion that ,christian virtue always means asceticism1 and that religion is only a more respectable name for superstition4 ,pity only that in the present age some persons should be forward to use his arguments who have not the excuse of his position4 ,we have now finished our notice of those who are entitled to be called the founders of the ,utilitarian school2 those who follow1 as the mere inheritors of principles already largely discussed1 need not detain us long4 ,of these by far the most distinguished unquestionably is ,bentham2 so distinguished indeed1 as in popular estimate to be accounted1 the founder of the school4 ,but there is need of a distinction here4 ,those men found a school in the proper sense who teach the principles which it acknowledges2 but in another sense he founds it who applies those principles to practice4 ,in the first sense1 the founders of the ethical doctrine which we are considering were ,locke1 ,hartley1 and ,hume2 in the other sense1 ,bentham4 ,his glory lies not so much in expounding as in applying principles2 he is a lawyer and a politician rather than a philosopher4 ,not however that he did not give himself the airs of a philosopher2 this he did with observation1 and was accepted by his disciples accordingly4 ,therein lay the mistake4 ,it is not every man1 not even every great man1 who knows how to recognise the limits which nature has laid down to the exercise of his faculty4 ,napoleon the ,great1 in the pride of imperial command1 overlooked the moral forces that #cba lay slumbering in the heart of the people1 and was punished by a three days' cannonade at ,leipzig1 the prelude to his final chastisement at ,waterloo4 ,jeremy ,bentham1 because he could tabulate ,acts of ,parliament with the astuteness of a barrister1 the purity of a philanthropist1 and the comprehensiveness of a statesman1 conceited himself throned on a moral eminence from which he might look down with contempt on ,plato and ,socrates1 and all the great moral teachers of the past4 ,in the third chapter of the first volume of ,deontology1 or ,doctrine of ,duty1 we read1 8,while ,xenophon was writing history1 and ,euclid giving instruction in geometry1 ,socrates and ,plato were talking nonsense under pretence of teaching wisdom4 ,this morality of theirs consisted in words1--this wisdom of theirs was the denial of matters known to every man's experience1 and the assertion of other matters opposed to every man's experience4 ,and exactly in the proportion in which their notions on this subject differed from those of the mass of mankind1 exactly in that proportion were they below the level of mankind40 ,such an exhibition of ignorance1 insolence1 and impertinence as this in a man of undoubted genius1 were truly inexplicable1 did we not bear in mind that genius even of the very highest kind is often accompanied by a very decided one-sidedness2 and more than that1 there were in the circumstances of ,bentham's life not a few things that tended to raise to a maximum the dogmatism with which he was naturally endowed4 ,he is by no means a solitary example of a great man1 the sublime of whose excellence has been turned into the ridiculous for lack of a little ,christian humility4 #cbb 8,who is that young man who discourses on all subjects with such a wealth of resources80 said a distinguished guest at ,worcester to ,bishop ,stillingfleet one day after dinner4 8,that is my chaplain1 sir10 replied the ,bishop2 8,bentley is his name--,richard ,bentley--a very remarkable man1 a man of gigantic learning1 and who might be the greatest man in ,europe1 had he only a little modesty40 ,young ,bentham had the misfortune to be a spoiled child--and not without cause1 for he was by no means a common boy2 his intellectual and moral endowments were both rare2 this was the good gift of ,god2 but he was brought up as a prodigy2 this was the great blunder of his parents4 ,nor was the blunder mended when at a remarkably early age he was sent to ,oxford4 ,public schools and colleges are often admirable institutions for teaching young men to find their level1 but it was not so with ,bentham2 he had the misfortune to be born in a flat century1 and fell among flat people4 ,everything that he saw in the great seat of ,english learning tended rather to pamper than to prune his conceit4 ,he could write ,latin verses as well as the best of them2 but he rightly judged that at this time of day1 in reference to the highest demands of a rational culture1 this sort of exercise is at best a very pretty kind of trifling1 and anything better did not grow there at that time4 ,he seems to have got a taste of ,aristotle's ,logic--that was part of the academical routine1--but he had logic enough in his own brain1 and could not be expected to reap much benefit from any barren exercitations of a school-book4 ,logic is useful only as a flail1 when it gets corn to thresh from other quarters2 of itself it is utterly #cbc unfruitful4 ,into the real gist and marrow of ,aristotle and ,plato it does not appear he ever entered1 nor amongst the tutors of his college did any one offer a manuduction into these intellectual penetralia2 it was the age of elegant grammarians and low churchmen2 and when the ,articles were duly subscribed and the ,latin verses properly turned off1 there seemed nothing more in prospect for the academical mind but port wine and chapel service1 and1 in pleasant summer weather1 a little languid activity on the bowling-green4 ,but this was not the sort of nutriment which could feed the fine spirit of a young ,bentham1 whose food was mere intellectual truth1 and his drink pure human love4 ,he had been born in a ,tory family2 he was bred in a ,tory college2 he had been kidnapped 7to his life-long horror7 to sign the ,articles of a ,tory ,church2 but from all this ,toryism the best part of his nature had received no nourishment4 ,the consciousness grew1 and one day burst out with a flash upon him1 that ,toryism was selfishness3 that the ,british people1 in common with himself1 were lying languid and downtrodden1 and rotting beneath the selfish dominance of an oligarchy1 an oligarchy perhaps the most powerful that the history of the world knew2 for as he knew it1 it certainly seemed fourfold1--an oligarchy of pedants1 an oligarchy of priests1 an oligarchy of lawyers1 and an oligarchy of peers4 ,against all this the spirit of young ,bentham1 as courageous as it was pure1 rebelled4 ,he would pull it all down2 though he stood alone in the world1 like ,plato's just man1 he would pull it all down4 ,and so he set himself valiantly to protest against the oligarchy of pedants1 founded on a blind reverence #cbd for the letter of dead books2 against the oligarchy of priests1 founded on the real desire of power and the pretended admiration of an ascetic morality2 against the oligarchy of lawyers1 who strangled the rights of the present by the fictions of the past2 against the oligarchy of peers1 which in the government of the ,state preferred the interests of the favoured few to the happiness of the neglected many4 ,and the issue was that young ,bentham returned from ,oxford1 not to prosecute his legal studies at one of the ,inns of ,court1 and advance himself to a position of wealth and honour by practising the curious art of giving a reasonable face to the most unreasonable of fictions1 but as an armed apostle of intellectual1 moral1 juridical1 and political democracy1 and full of that sort of sacred fury which inspired the ,french democrats when they looked forward to a speedy millennium as the time 8when the last king should be strangled with the bowels of the last priest40 ,the state of feeling here sketched is the only thing that1 in my opinion1 can afford a satisfactory explanation of the extraordinary one-sidedness and dogmatism of ,bentham's moral philosophy4 ,it was the creature of a reaction2 and such a reaction as is apt to exhibit itself most emphatically in the case of the most highly-gifted young men1 who however sometimes1 as increasing years bring extension of view1 contrive to work their way to some ,aristotelian mean point which permits the recognition of two opposite truths4 ,but such was not the nature of ,bentham4 ,he worshipped the great goddess ,consistency1 and could see and work only in a straight line4 ,to his dicta there was no limitation1 any more than to those #cbe of the ,pope2 he held himself practically infallible4 ,so the first thing that he determined to do was to re-establish the ,epicurean doctrine that 8,pleasure is the chief good20 for 8,epicurus10 he expressly says1 8was the only one among the ancients who had the merit of having known the true source of morality40#cbe4a ,after this we need inquire no further4 ,the novelty of this sentence is too dear a price to pay for its manifest error in elevating a species into the dignity of a genus1 and for its manifest danger in stamping that which is highest in human nature with a label familiarly used to mark what is lowest4 ,the great ancients whom ,bentham despised made or happiness the genus2 and this happiness1 they said1 one class of men sought to attain by or ,,pleasure1 another class by striving after the or the ,,good4 ,this language1 founded on the healthy instincts of human nature1 the apostles of ,christianity sanctioned with their authority when they talked of persons being 8lovers of pleasure more than lovers of ,god20 and to the present hour 8a man of pleasure0 is a phrase familiarly used in the ,english language to express one of the most trifling1 contemptible1 and useless members of society4 ,and the reason of this use of language is obvious4 ,pleasure and ,good1 so far from being of a kindred nature1 are generally directly opposite2 no doubt they both produce enjoyment1 but the enjoyment in the one case is often passive1 in the other always active2 in the one case generally shunning difficulty1 in the other rather provoking it2 of the former the senses are the main organ1 of the latter the reason2 the sensuous enjoyment man has in common with a #cbf pig1 the rational only as a man4 ,it was therefore a strange service that ,bentham assumed himself to have done to moral philosophy by confounding the poles of moral distinction2 and his conduct can only be palliated1 not justified1 by the tendency of every reaction to swing itself into an extreme4 ,any peculiar provocation in ,bentham's time calling upon him to reinstate the gospel of the flesh in the rights of which it had been deprived by ,st4 ,paul1 one does not exactly see4 ,whatever faults he might have discovered in the morality of the clerical exclusives1 purple doctors1 and minute grammarians of ,oxford1 asceticism certainly was not one2 feastings rather than fastings were the order of the day among the ,dons2 there remains1 therefore1 only the puerile delight of using a strong phrase1 to palliate this gross confusion of the received terminology of moral science which he introduced4 ,as for any other principles of morality that ,bentham might have1 they were merely what every other body had always professed4 ,it did not require ,hume1 or any other sceptical solver of sceptical doubts1 to teach mankind that ,benevolence was naturally a good thing1 and that no virtues were true virtues which did not tend to the public good4 ,it happened therefore to ,bentham1 as it had happened to other promulgators of new gospels1--that what was most new in his system was least true1 and what was most true was least new4 ,the doctrine that ,pleasure is the chief good1 and that ,epicurus was a better philosopher than ,aristotle1 will scarcely now1 we apprehend1 be seriously maintained2 while1 on the other hand1 the maxim1 8the greatest happiness of the greatest number10 has always been the war-cry by which the most generous politicians have #cbg been roused1 and the load-star by which the most far-seeing statesmen have been guided4 ,it is not1 indeed1 in the kingdom of ethics1 strictly so called1 that ,bentham's merit is to be sought2 specially rather in the outlying fields of jurisprudential and legislative economy1 where that doctrine of consequences justly sways1 which ,paley erroneously sought to make regulative in the region of personal purpose1 pure motive1 and noble deed2 and for his services in applying his favourite maxim to various departments of political1 juridical1 and social reform1 the world can scarcely be sufficiently grateful ,it is not often that so pure a philanthropist enters with victorious axe and mattock into domains bristling so rankly with all sorts of professional prejudice and professional selfishness4 ,in this domain let him be loved as a man1 reverenced as a patriarch1 and even worshipped as a saint--7he was a saint in his own peculiar way unquestionably72 but let him not be lifted into ,christian pulpits or academic chairs to indoctrinate the ingenuous youth of this country in a curious moral arithmetic how to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain4 ,not by such teaching1 certainly1 were heroes wont to be made in ,sparta1 in ,athens1 or in ,rome4 ,with ,bentham the edifice of ,utilitarianism is complete1 and there is little more to say about the matter4 ,those who came afterwards were expositors1 not founders2 they employed themselves in explaining the doctrines of their master1 sometimes also in explaining them away2 for1 while bound to maintain the honour of the sect1 they were sometimes dimly conscious and more than half ashamed of the base element out of which it sprang4 ,one #cbh of their foremost spokesmen was ,,james ,,mill1 the father of the present distinguished logician and politician1 ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,this gentleman1 who is much respected by the school to which he belongs1 in the year #ahbi published a work entitled ,an ,analysis of the ,human ,mind4 ,this treatise ,i have read carefully1 and am constrained to say that it appears to me an extremely meagre production2 somewhat as if the mind of the author had been blasted and frosted by the arid and sharp east wind in the face of which--near ,montrose--he was born4 ,from his life it would appear that he studied at the ,university of ,edinburgh in the days of the great metaphysical school there1 and that he devoted considerable attention to ,plato4 ,i have not the slightest reason to believe that the great idealist was much known even to the best thinkers in our ,scottish metropolis at that time2 but if ,mill did study ,plato thoroughly1 it must have been1 as ,grote has done in our time1 for the purpose of not understanding him4 ,certainly in his book ,i have found nothing but the materialistic side of ,locke and ,hartley worked out into a monstrosity2 a cold thin horror of all spiritual mystery1 and the shallow conceit that the primary divine force1 which we call ,,mind1 can be explained by a laboriously minute dissection of a merely physical machinery4 ,whatever that great juggler ,association can be made to do in order to explain knowledge out of sensation1 mind out of matter1 and unity generally out of multiplicity1 has been done in this book4 ,for the special ethics of ,utilitarianism there is nothing in ,james ,mill that the student of ,hume and ,bentham will be likely to think worth remembering4 #cbi ,among living thinkers there is none who stands before the public more prominently as the exponent of the ,utilitarian ethics than ,,john ,,stuart ,,mill4#cbi4a ,but whatever may be the merits of this distinguished writer in the domain of logic1 politics1 and economics1 which seem most cognate to his genius1 there can be little doubt in the minds of thoughtful persons that his book on ,utilitarianism has done more to undermine than to sustain the doctrine which it professes to expound4 ,and the reason of this lies in a cause which is not less condemnatory of the doctrine than it is complimentary to its champion4 ,mr4 ,mill is too good a man to be the consistent advocate of a system which1 as compared with other systems1 is fundamentally bad4 ,he is too earnest an apostle of the real moral progress of man to be a thoroughgoing disciple of a school whose natural element is ,epicurean ease1 sensual indulgence1 and prudential calculation4 ,his heart revolted against the degrading tendency of a philosophy which gave a primary importance only to what is low1 and left the highest elements of human nature to make a respectable show before men with a borrowed and secondary vitality4 ,but at the same time1 he was a disciple of the school1 and the son of his father1 and thus by education and a sort of intellectual heritage1 his head was committed to a doctrine for which his heart was naturally a great deal too good4 ,the consequence was a sort of sophistry which1 while we see through it1 we cannot but admire4 ,departing from the original idea of his school1 that pleasure is the only good1 and that pleasures differ from one another only in intensity1 he interpolates into #ccj the general idea of quantity of happiness the discriminating element of quality2 and thus is thrown back virtually on those innate ideas which it is the characteristic boast of his school to have discarded4 ,for the essential difference in the quality of high and low pleasures is not a matter to be proved by any external induction1 but springs directly out of the intellectual and emotional nature of man1 asserting its own innate superiority precisely as light asserts itself over darkness1 and order over confusion4 ,and thus1 while he defends ,utilitarianism successfully1 so far as results go1 he succeeds only by throwing overboard all that is most distinctive in the doctrine1 and adopting secretly all that is most peculiar to the teaching of his opponents4 ,in ancient times1 between ,epicureanism and ,stoicism there was a distinct and well-marked line of demarcation1 which1 whether in speculation or in practice1 no person could miss2 now under ,mr4 ,mill's manipulation1 this distinction vanishes2 the love of pleasure with which he started is sublimated into the love of virtue1 and an ideal enthusiasm for the greatest possible happiness of all sentient creatures is substituted for the real and direct stimulus of pleasure which every man understands2 and a ,joseph ,mazzini consecrating his whole life with the most intense enthusiasm and the most severe self-denial to the ideal of a possible ,italian republic1 is as much an ,epicurean as ,david ,hume sneering at all enthusiasm1 and pleasing his soul with the delicate flatteries of fair dames in a ,parisian saloon4 ,this is to confound all things1 and to reduce the whole affair to a fence of words rather than to a battle of principle4 ,nor need we be surprised at such a result2 for the whole platform of morality in #cca modern times has been so elevated through the influence of ,christianity that ,epicureanism to win a hearing is constrained to profess a standard which shall not fall beneath that laid down in the ,sermon on the ,mount or in the #acth chapter of #ast ,corinthians2 and to do this with nothing but the individual selfish love of pleasure to start with1 requires1 it may be imagined1 a very considerable amount of dialectic jugglery and shifting glamoury of words4 ,one is forced to explain--keeping ,bentham's language--how the original1 individual1 and personal love of pleasure1 which is and must be selfishness1 manages from mere external considerations1 for such only are left open by the deniers of innate ideas1 to take the shape of benevolence4 ,like theologians who are bound to stick to an unreasonable creed1 and yet1 to save its credit1 must make it appear reasonable1 the ,utilitarians1 in striving to accommodate the principles of the lowest theory of morals to the demands of the highest1 have not escaped the awkwardness of the strategist who1 while making a real retreat1 plays off some movements that look like an advance4 ,only in this case the strategist knows that he is deceiving his soldiers1 and deceiving the enemy2 whereas the logician who dexterously assumes a new position while seeming to maintain his old one is the happy victim of his own fallacies4 ,he has changed front by a manuvre which many persons may be too stupid to observe1 and he has saved himself from the disagreeableness of a formal recantation4 ,such dexterous shifts are the convenient refuge of all one-sided theorists who insist on taking nature to school1 and trimming human souls1 like trees in a fruit-garden1 after their #ccb own favourite pattern4 ,meanwhile nature goes on heaving up her strong moralities from original pure fountains1 regardless alike of the intense one-eyed dogmatism of the founders of ethical schools1 and the ingenious apologies of their disciples1 and makes preachers1 as she makes poets1 by inspiration1 not by induction4 ,after ,j4 ,s4 ,mill1 the only other living champion of the ,utilitarian school who demands special notice here is ,professor ,,bain4 ,this subtle1 various1 and accomplished writer1 while agreeing with ,hume and ,mill in reverting to the old ,socratic principle of original benevolent instincts in man1 and thus denying pure externalism in one important part of the human soul1 is nevertheless upon the whole a much more thorough-going and consistent externalist than ,mr4 ,mill2 so thorough1 indeed1 as not to have hesitated to assert1 in the most unqualified language1 that conscience in the breast is a mere reflection of the external model in the statute-book1 instead of the statute-book being1 as the ,idealists teach1 a very fragmentary and inadequate projection from the moral pattern in a normal conscience4 ,this revival of ,hobbism in one of its extreme forms is not likely to meet with much acceptance in a country where the popular conscience1 from long centuries of combined ,christian and chivalrous culture1 has attained a very high degree of refined sensibility2 and the numerous admirers of ,mr4 ,mill1 who are grateful to that gentleman for the skill with which he has disposed the ethics of ,empiricism in the drapery of ,idealism1 will scarcely be thankful to ,mr4 ,bain for presenting their pet system in the naked prose of its early cradle4 ,the acute northern professor would certainly have #ccc been more consistent1 though less amiable1 if he had asserted in its broadest form the ,hobbesian doctrine of an original war of all against all2 and he would have found no greater difficulty in evolving from the primeval tiger a ,xavier or a ,howard1 than others have found in elevating the primeval monkey into a ,newton or ,la ,place4 ,we have now concluded our proposed survey of the ,utilitarian philosophy1 and the result may be summarily stated thus3--,utilitarianism generally is a method of thinking which1 while professing to clear up dim ideas1 brings confusion and disorder into every region of human thought and action2 and specially-- #a4 ,which1 by deriving thought from mere sensation1 by deducing the one from the many1 instead of the many from the one1 and thus reducing mind to a mere blank impressibility1 confounds the essential distinction between necessary and contingent truth1 and renders all science impossible4 #b4 ,which1 by confounding causation with sequence1 pulls up philosophy by the roots1 disembowels theology of all substance1 and freezes the breath of all natural piety4 #c4 ,which1 in the realm of the fine arts1 for the harmonies and congruities of eternal reason1 substitutes the arbitrary associations of ephemeral fashion1 local habit1 and individual conceit4 #d4 ,and which1 in the all-important science of human life1 degrades morality from a manifestation of true expression1 pure emotion1 and lofty purpose1 into a low consideration and a slippery calculation of external consequences4 ,this may seem perhaps a sufficiently condemnatory sentence2 but it does not by any means follow #ccd that ,utilitarianism has proved utterly useless in the world1 or that its power for good is exhausted4 ,it is only as a philosophy of human thought1 feeling1 and action that it is weighed in the balance and found wanting2 as an aspect of social morals1 and in the hands of good men like ,bentham and ,mill1 as an amiable half of moral truth giving itself out for the whole1 it has done good service in its day1 and may be expected to do more4 ,no man certainly can quarrel with the zealous endeavour to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number1 provided it be made clear1 in the first place1 wherein human happiness and the true dignity of human nature consists4 ,and though thinking men abroad1 who take a cosmopolitan review of our insular sects and parties1 will continue to look upon ,paleyism and ,benthamism as only the natural rank product of the unweeded garden of ,locke's empiricism1 practical men in this country1 who are more politicians than philosophers1 and more anxious to reform their institutions than to remodel their thinking1 will continue to find in the ,utilitarian principle a useful war-cry against traditional abuses1 and a motto of which no lover of his kind requires to be ashamed4 ,scientific men also working correctly with ,baconian tools on the forces of the external world1 may be ready to ally themselves with a system of ethical philosophy which professes to make no assumptions1 to proceed by cautious induction1 and to educe the role of right not from dim feelings1 flaming passions1 and lofty aspirations1 but from statistical tables and other externalities that can be felt and fingered4 ,as a practical power1 therefore1 in this country1 ,utilitarianism cannot be considered as extinct2 on the #cce contrary1 the recent upheaval of the democratic element which ,whigs and ,tories have conspired to produce1 cannot but carry along with it1 for a season1 the glorification of that maxim which so felicitously seems to foretell the doom of all aristocratic privilege and oligarchic abuse4 ,to deal with men in one gregarious mass1 counting them only by units without respect to quality1 seems characteristic no less of ,benthamite philosophy than of democratic policy2 the element of ,,number is made prominent in both2 and both seem to aim at a sort of general level of social bliss which can be most easily attained by taking the superfluities from the few and dividing them amongst the many4 ,the heretical and anti-theological tendencies of the age also1 will aid the ,utilitarian movement2 partly1 no doubt1 because theologians have not always sufficiently considered that a clean cottage is sometimes as necessary for the well-being of a people as a clean conscience1 and partly because those who find in the several creeds of ,christendom ground of moral offence1 may not be unwilling to welcome in the ,utilitarianism of the present day an ethical system which jealously shuns the contagion of piety1 and scarcely with a cold and distant reverence recognises ,god4 ,but this manifest hostility to religion which so characteristically separates the modern ,utilitarian writers from ,locke and ,hartley will in all probability be the first thing that shall cause a salutary reaction against them4 ,for religion is as essential to human nature as poetry2 and however violent men may attempt to stamp it out1 or supercilious men to overlook it1 or meagre men to deny it1 it will always know to assert its own place1 and ever the more powerfully from the void which #ccf its absence has occasioned4 ,with democracy1 presenting as it does1 from every point1 the most flattering appeals to individual self-importance1 the masses of men readily become intoxicated2 but from absolute irreligion1 except in fits of social madness1 they revolt1 and stagger back from the brink of the black abyss which it reveals4 ,the difficulties of the ,church ,articles may be removed by judicious pruning or happy inoculation2 but in ,atheism there dwells no healing2 it is sheer emptiness and despair4 ,the ,end ,,footnotes4 #a4a ,see the splendid eulogy of the philosopher in ,j4 ,s4 ,mill's essay 8,on ,liberty40 #a4b ,see the famous sentence in the ,deontology 7vol4 i471 which a man to believe must have seen1--so gross is the amount of ignorance1 conceit1 and dogmatism that it parades without a mask4 #bf4a ,the reader will not suppose that we have penned the above sentences about the position and character of the ,sophists without having seriously weighed the evidence on the subject1 and especially without having taken into account the very able chapter on ,socrates and the ,sophists in ,grote's ,history of ,greece4 ,on the contrary1 we have read that chapter carefully over several times1 and have on each occasion returned from the perusal with the confirmed conviction that the learned author wrote it as a special pleader rather than as an impartial historian1 and that the light in which he presents this important subject is essentially false1 and distorts1 or rather inverts1 the real position of the principal figures in the picture4 ,the main features in ,grote's account of the matter are that the ,sophists are a much calumniated class of men2 that ,socrates was the head of that class1 rather than their antagonist2 and that not the real facts of the case1 but the imagination of the transcendental ,plato1 and the caricatures of ,aristophanes1 carelessly accepted as true history1 have been the sources of modern ideas on the subject4 ,in all this we think ,mr4 ,grote is decidedly wrong1 running counter at once to the inherent probabilities of the case1 and to the unhesitating and concurrent testimony of all antiquity4 ,the hollowness of the case of ,mr4 ,grote has been shown in detail by ,mr4 ,cope in the ,cambridge ,philological ,journal and by myself in the ,transactions of the ,royal ,society of ,edinburgh2 so that we may content ourselves here by simply stating what appears to be the rationale of the process by which the distinguished author of the ,history of ,greece was led into the maintenance of such an untenable position4 ,now the influences which acted on the learned historian's mind in this matter seem reducible to three--7#a47 ,mr4 ,grote is characteristically a polemical historian2 from beginning to end of his book he has in his eye1 and is writing against1 a class of writers who had made it a business1 in writing the history of ,greece1 to write against the ,athenian democracy1 and through that1 against democracy in general4 ,with such a literary mission1 ,mr4 ,grote1 however triumphant in the main1 was constantly exposed to the strong temptation of vindicating characters that had been previously abused1 and abusing those whose respectability had hitherto stood unquestioned2 7#b47 ,in the course of his sweeping progress of knocking down old ideals and setting up new ones1 no figures were more likely to call his chivalrous faculty of vindication into play than the ,sophists2 for they were1 as we have seen1 the natural guides of the lusty young democracy1 and as such the special favourites of a historian whose business it was to justify and glorify the ,athenians in all the characteristic phases of their social and political life4 ,and to a certain extent no doubt the distinguished historian was right in maintaining that the antagonists of ,socrates were not so black as they had been painted by many1 but represented a considerable element of civic worth and respectability4 ,but he was certainly not justified in wiping out that antagonism altogether from the record1--an antagonism which was just as marked in ,athens as that more famous one in ,jerusalem four centuries later1 between the ,scribes and ,pharisees and the first preachers of the ,gospel4 ,the manner in which ,mr4 ,grote endeavours to confound ,socrates with the herd of ,sophists1 from the mere external resemblance of the weapons which they used1 is unworthy of a great historian4 ,it was enough that such a confusion should have blinded the eyes of the ,athenian vulgar1 and their great jest-maker ,aristophanes1 without being made at this time of day to serve as a serious vindication of the great mass of ,sophistical teachers2 but 7#c47 ,mr4 ,grote was led to elevate the ,sophists1 and so1 comparatively1 to degrade their great antagonist1 not only from his position as the champion of ,athenian democracy1 but from his sympathy with the philosophical principles of the ,sophists1 as opposed to those of ,socrates and ,plato4 ,these principles are those of the ,sensational as opposed to what is commonly called the ,ideal or ,intellectual philosophy1 the philosophy which gathers its conclusions exclusively from what is external1 while looking with suspicion on any categorical intuitions1 ,god-given instincts1 or ,god-seeking aspirations that may assert themselves from within4 ,with this temper ,mr4 ,grote is naturally led to take the part of those ancient ,greek teachers who held similar principles2 and these are to be found not on the side of ,socrates1 ,plato1 and ,aristotle1 but on the side of ,protagoras and the ,sophists4 ,how strongly his speculative tendencies gravitate in this direction the learned historian has amply shown in his book on ,plato1 a work in which the reader will more readily find an eager and acute advocacy of the adversaries of ,plato than an intelligent and loving estimate of the great idealist himself4 ,in expounding ,plato ,mr4 ,grote put himself pretty much in the same position that ,voltaire would have done had he undertaken to write a commentary on the ,gospel of ,john4 ,it is not enough1 in order to see a thing1 that a man have sharp eyes2 he must have a soul behind the eye1 to teach him both what is to be seen1 and what it signifies when it is seen4 #cb4a ,see the singular dialogue with ,theodote1 afterwards mistress of ,alcibiades1 in the ,memorabilia4 #db4a ,professor ,grote says--8,law is the public reason of a society1 participated in more or less by the mass of individuals1 enforcible upon all who will not participate in it40--,on ,utilitarianism4 #dc4a ,the ,communists1 who declare war against ,capital1 can get over this only by saying that every society is entitled to demand of its members that they shall sacrifice any part of their natural rights for the good of the whole to which they belong1 and further1 that man being essentially a social animal has no right to anything except as a member of society4 ,the question will then be1 whether it is good for society to be so exclusively society as to swallow up all individualism and what naturally belongs thereto4 #di4a happiness1 literally1 well-goddedness1--the state of a creature to whom the gods are kind4 #di4b ,so ,austin 7,province of ,jurisprudence1 ,lecture iv47 calls 8,good the aggregate of pleasures10 a language borrowed from ,bentham1 which ,socrates1 ,plato1 and ,aristotle would with one consent have repudiated4 #ff4a ,on the ,philosophy of ,ethics4 ,by ,s4 ,s4 ,laurie3 ,edin4 #ahff4 #gj4a 8,atheism is repugnant to moral and political economy1 for it necessarily destroys the idea of morality4 ,if there is no law in the material world1 there can be no law in the spiritual and social worlds4 ,every motive for self-restraint is removed2 for the idea of an object for which to strive is rejected40--,baring-,gould1 ,development of ,religious ,belief1 vol4 i4 p4 #bhc4 ,an original and powerful work4 #gd4a ,this seems the best way of translating the in the mouth of ,polytheists4 ,it is a sort of vague step towards ,monotheism4 #ge4a ,as if it were the destiny of modern philosophers to pervert the wisdom of the ancients into ridiculous caricature1 so we find in reference to this matter ,helvetius in a well-known passage saying seriously that if horses had had hands they would have been men1 and if men had had hoofs they would have been horses6 ,in this way the ingenious fool always makes a knife out of every instrument to cut his own fingers4 #ge4b ,see this point stated more formally in ,hegel1 ,encyclopdie1 #ej4 #ha4a ,darwin1 by the use of the term selection1 turned accident into design1 and was the first to do so4--,stirling on ,protoplasm 7,edinburgh1 #ahfi71 p4 #fi4 #he4a ,stirling on ,protoplasm1 p4 #cc4 #hf4a ,the opposite and characteristically modern view of the origin and character of religious duties may be stated most shortly in a sentence from a distinguished modern thinker3-- 8,if there be a ,god1 then man bears relations to ,him1 and his duties to ,god are of a private nature1 and therefore not of interest to the ,state1 and in no way coming under the jurisdiction of ,science4 ,and what the duties are which man owes to ,god can only be ascertained by a ,revelation1 for they cannot be discovered experimentally40 ,there are two propositions here essentially anti-,socratic1 and1 in my opinion1 essentially false3--7#a47 ,that religion belongs to man only as a private individual1 and not as a citizen4 ,this is a favourite idea of the most recent times1 and has its only root in the fact that on account of the growth of a certain stout and stubborn individualism in ,christian ,churches it has been found practically impossible to make ,christian men combine socially for the performance of any religious function4 ,this difficulty1 however1 belongs not to the nature of religion1 but to the imperfection of moral culture in our existing ethical associations called ,churches4 ,the social recognition of the ,supreme ,father still remains as much an ideal in modern times as it was a real in ancient times4 ,the ancients sacrificed in this matter the individual to the ,state2 we1 for the glorification of the individual1 allow the ,state to sit shorn of one of its greatest glories4 ,whatsoever a man is bound to do as a moral being individually1 he is bound to do socially1 if it be possible4 ,the so-called ,voluntary system is a mere shift to save the trouble and shirk the difficulty which narrow-minded ,christians feel in working together to give a national expression to common religious feelings and common religious convictions4 7#b47 ,the second proposition here is1 that religious duties can only be ascertained by ,revelation1 and come in no way under the jurisdiction of ,,science4 ,to this ,socrates answers that religious duties are three1 reverence1 gratitude1 and obedience1 and that the first two of these have their root in the commonest instincts and most rudimentary notions of reasonable beings1 while the third1 depending1 as it does1 partly on general science1 partly on special intellectual culture1 falls directly under the jurisdiction of ,science4 ,for to obey the laws of ,god we must know them1 and we know them1 as we know other things1 by observation and reflection2 for they are not hidden1 as some men count hidden1 but written everywhere1 both within us and without1 in the most legible scripture1 and pressed upon us daily by the most cogent arguments2 and no man can escape from their obligation4 ,if by duties to ,god ,mr4 ,gould understands only special religious observances as expressive of our religious sentiments and convictions1 then no doubt it is quite true that these special forms of expression must either be revealed directly from ,heaven1 or vary considerably1 according to the character and condition of the people who use them2 but such a narrowing of the idea of religious duty1 confining it to the accidental instead of the essential1 depriving it in fact of its soul and vital principle1 is most unphilosophical2 and ,i am more willing to suppose that such a thoughtful writer as ,mr4 ,gould should have been led astray by a fashionable phase of modern thought1 than that he should be deliberately guilty of the impertinence of giving his readers the shell of a thing as its definition1 when they had a right to look for the kernel4 #hh4a ,since writing the above ,i have stumbled on an excellent passage on the inherent germ of ,monotheism in ,polytheism1 contained in ,baring ,gould's ,development of ,religious ,belief1 vol4 i4 p4 #bfh1 etc4 ,to the same purpose the reader may consult my notes on ,homer's ,iliad1 viii4 #b4 #hi4a ,baring-,gould on the ,development of ,religious ,belief 7,london1 #ahfi71 p4 #abd4 #aja4a ,this was written twelve months before the startling events of the late ,franco-,german war brought the deficiencies of our ,british military system so prominently into public view4 #aag4a ,this passage teaches us all that can profitably be said on the so-called or familiar spirit of ,socrates4 ,it was plainly nothing but an inward voice dissuading from certain courses of action1 which1 as it rested on no grounds of human argumentation1 and did not pretend to explain itself1 fell to be classed with what we call mysterious instincts and presentiments1 and which1 as a pious man1 ,socrates1 and in my opinion wisely1 attributed to the ,source of all original vital power and spiritual energy1 viz41 ,,god4 ,if men eat and drink1 and sleep and perform other essential functions of vitality1 by a law which the ,creator keeps in ,his own hands1 and over which human volition exercises no control1 there is no reason why in the higher region of our moral and intellectual life1 behind and beyond the domain of our purpose and volition1 the great ,source of all cosmic energy should not reserve for ,himself a field of deeper influence1 and by us necessarily inexplicable4 ,our understanding1 with all its pretensions1 is a petty faculty1 which asserts its power lightly in dissecting what is dead1 but proves itself feeble and powerless in all that concerns vital origination4 ,homer constantly represents his heroes as receiving inspirations of strength1 and wisdom from the ,infinite ,source of all strength and wisdom2 and in accordance with this healthy human instinct ,socrates taught that on great and critical occasions he was often directed by a mysterious voice1 or intimation from the 4 ,the only thing about the matter which ought to require explanation is the method in which this divine power acted4 ,its method of action was negative1 never positive1 and warning on each occasion from what was not to be done1 never inciting to what should be done4 ,the reason of this1 we think1 is not far to seek4 ,socrates was both personally1 and in virtue of the people to whom he belonged1 a reasoner2 logic was his lamp through life1 and by this clear light he was habitually guided in all common cases4 ,but there are dark and doubtful moments in the brightest lives1 when even the wisest and the most conscientious can find no sure direction in the pros and cons that suffice for general guidance2 in such cases one is thrown back on those radical and fundamental instincts of character which underlie all reasoning and all purpose2 and the particular ,god-given instinct which was strong in the nature of ,socrates was not to meddle with certain matters1 from which it was doubtful whether his character would come out unscathed4 ,it was therefore a mysterious instinct of caution that ,god had implanted in the breast of the philosopher1 an instinct of the utmost value to all men who live in the world1 but especially useful to one who1 like ,socrates1 was always in danger of being drawn by his strong and wide sympathies into regions from which1 in the interest of his higher mission1 it was better that he should retire4 #acj4a ,luther's ,briefe1 anno #aeaf4--;,de ,wette1 i4 p4 #af4 #aca4a ,life of ,harris1 by the ,earl of ,malmesbury4 #aca4b ,hume's life1 i4 p4 #ib4 #aeb4a 1 1 1 with which again ,st4 ,paul agrees1 ,heb4 v4 #ad1 where ,aristotle's favourite word is used4 #agc4a ,it is interesting here to observe how ,aristotle1 concurring with ,homer 7,od4 xiii4 #bhi71 makes the distinction1 unquestionably just1 through the neglect of which ,burke fell into his notable error that beautiful things are always small4 ,he ought to have known that there is the same distinction between beautiful and pretty in ,english1 as between and in ,greek4 #aha4a ,the scholar will observe that throughout this passage1 and specially in this last sentence1 ,i have paraphrased the author a little1 to bring out more clearly his meaning4 ,his style is too curt and bald1 not to suffer in some cases by strict literalness4 #ahd4a ,grant's ,ethics of ,aristotle1 vol4 i4 p4 #adg4 #aib4a ,lecky1 ,history of ,european ,morals1 vol4 i41 ,introductory ,discourse4 #aid4a ,see the doctrine of ,heraclitus in ,ritter and ,preller's admirable compend--,historia ,philosophi ,grco-,roman--one of the best manuals of the many that we owe to the erudition and judgment of the great ,german people4 #aih4a ,life of ,martin ,boos1 #ahee1 p4 #be4 #aih4b ,life of ,franklin in the ,encyclopdia ,britannica4 #bjj4a 4--#a ,pet4 i4 #c4 #bjb4a ,westcott1 ,the ,gospel of the ,resurrection1 ,london1 #ahfg4 #bje4a ,to persons ignorant of ,greek1 who may wish to receive a vivid impression of the moral influence of ,stoicism1 ,i recommend ,long's ,translation of ,antoninus1 ,lecky's ,history of ,european ,morals1 and ,farrar's ,seekers after ,god4 #bac4a 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4--,,plotinus1 ,enn4 i4 #f1 p4 #ee2 edit1 ,kirchhoff1 i4 #f4 #bad4a ,professor ,ferrier on ,consciousness2 ,works1 vol4 i4 p4 #bba4 #bbc4a ,usque-beatha--whisky4 #bbi4a ,read ,mr4 ,farrar's delightful little work1 ,seekers after ,god4 #bbi4b ,burton's ,life of ,david ,hume1 vol4 ii4 p4 #aie4 #bcd4a ,lines on the death of ,faraday4--,punch1 ,september #g1 #ahfg--;a periodical which though sometimes unjust is never vicious1 and always knows to appreciate real excellence4 #bce4a 1--#a ,pet4 ii4 #i4 #bdj4a ,the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4 ,fletcher1 ,rector of ,madeley1 ,shropshire4 #bde4a ,pdag4 ii4 #a-c4 #bee4a ,it is to be observed1 however1 that the friends of agricultural improvement in ,strasburg used their interest to get the merits of their pastor known in ,paris2 and the consequence was that he was rewarded with a gold medal after having worked fifty-one years in the unnoticed useful obscurity of his parish4 ,altogether his golden pastorate lasted for the long space of fifty-nine years4 #bee4b ,westcott1 ,gospel of the ,resurrection 7#ahfg71 p4 #if4 #bfa4a ,westcott1 ,gospel of the ,resurrection1 p4 #ih4 #bfg4a 1 4--,,plotinus1 i4 #i2 ,kirchhoff4 #bfg4b ,locke1 ii4 #ba1 #fh4 #bgd4a ,austin4 #bgd4b ,schwegler1 ,geschichte der ,philosophie4 ,translated by ,stirling4 #bgg4a ,logic1 chap iii4 #bgh4a ,ferrier on ,consciousness2 ,posthumous ,works1 vol4 i4 p4 #bee4 #bhi4a ,analysis1 ii4 #acg1 #aci4 #bic4a ,emotions and ,will1 xv4 p4 #bij4 #bic4b ,on ,consciousness2 ,works1 i4 #aie4 #bif4a 4 4 ,,stob,,us1 ,sermon1 cvi4 #bih4a ,bentham said1 8,i am a selfish man1 as selfish as any man can be2 but in me somehow or other selfishness has taken the shape of benevolence0 7,works1 xi4 #ie74 ,this is neither wit nor sense1 but an affectation of humility of which one should have thought ,bentham would not have been guilty4 #cjj4a ,the value of ,mr4 ,austin's work is more juridical than moral1 and the ethical part of it is so entirely identical with ,paley that for the purposes of the present survey it did not seem to demand special notice4 #cjd4a ,on the ,different ,species of ,philosophy4 #cje4a ,from a letter written in #agcd4--;,burton's ,life of ,hume1 i4 p4 #ce4 ,in ,sect4 ,i4 of the 8,inquiry into the ,principles of ,morals10 he says1 8,the ancient philosophers1 though they often affirm that virtue is nothing but conformity to reason1 yet in general seem to consider morals as deriving their existence from taste and sentiment40 ,this is directly contrary to the fact4 #cjg4a ,sceptical ,solutions of ,sceptical ,doubts4 #cjg4b ,on the different ,species of ,philosophy4 #cjg4c ,on ,self-love4 #cji4a ,hume's ,essay ,on some ,verbal ,disputes4 #caj4a 8,there is no enthusiasm amongst philosophers40--,on ,providence and a ,future ,state4 #cai4a ,ferrier1 ,works by ,grant and ,lushington1 vol4 i4 p4 #aaf4 #cai4b ,see the remarkable letter to ,mure of ,caldwell in ,burton's ,hume1 i4 #afb4 #cbe4a ,introduction to the ,principles of ,morals1 etc41 chap4 ii4 #cbi4a ,j4 ,s4 ,mill died on the #hth of ,may #ahgc4 ,end of ,footnotes