Bernard Bosanquet THE CIVILIZATION OF CHRISTENDOM London 1893

^
XTbe JStbtcal Xtbrarg
THE CIVILIZATION
OF CHRISTENDOM
AND OTHER STUDIES
BERNARD BOSANQUET,
M.A.
{Oxon.), Hon.
LL.D.
{Glasscnv)
Collejt
Formerly Fello^v of University
U.
ê4.if^Z:<^.^4y)
Ay^Ct-r
ILortbon
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN
NEW YORK MACMILLAN
:
& CO.
& CO.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works,

Frome, and London.
PREFACE.
The
in
following Addresses are printed so far as pos-
sible in the
form
in
which they were delivered.
But
in
some
cases they were not fully written out before
delivery,
and
have unavoidably been modified
preparation for the press.
My
thanks are due to the
proprietors of the International Journal of Ethics
and
of the Charity Organisation Reviexv for permission to

reprint
two of them.
The
various Societies before
which the addresses were given, including the London

Ethical Society, are of course not responsible for the
views expressed
in
them.
In the paper on Individualism

is
I
and Socialism there

I
one point which
desire to modify.
think that
was wrong
in
favouring a differential
Poor
Law
thrift.
is
treatment of persons
Classification within
who have shown

Poor
signs of
Law
I
institutions,
which
certainly desirable, should,
now
think, be guided
by
present differences
condition,
of age, sex, behaviour, physical
and
sensitiveness.
But
differential treat-
ment on account of past conduct seems

principle not reconcilable with the proper
to
me
working
of the Poor Law, and tending to widen the area of
dependence on
it.
Outside the Poor Law, by pensions
and analogous methods, such treatment may very
850395
vi
PREFACE.
well be provided through the neighbourly kindness
of individuals.
On
another point, that of

I
thrift
or saving as a
working-class policy,
see signs of approximation
between the two most antagonistic opinions.

the advocates of
thrift,
"
We,
in
have always insisted on the

saving,
value of
"
constructive
saving
embodied
the health and well-being of the family, and in the
niceness of the home.
Our opponents,
think, are
beginning to recognise the value of organised insurance,

e.g.
against the breadwinner's illness, from which
the physical and
moral ruin of the family,

takes
its
rise.
if
unstill
prepared,
so constantly
The
in
fundamental difference between us springs
a great
measure from differing experience.

" thrift "
We
mean by
and
"
unthriftiness "
what we see from day
day in the British working-class. Thrift is, for us, germ of the capacity to look at life as a whole, and organise it. It involves a recognition both of the area of life, as including the family and others whose
to
the
security from
disaster
depends on the individual's

duration, as a lapse of time
for a
prudence, and also of

for which,
its
and not merely
few days or weeks,
he must lay his account.
Life thus looked at implies
a higher, not a lower standard of comfort, a more
generous and not a more grudging acceptance of

obligation,
than the
life
of those
who have
never
PRE'PACE.
beyond the passing day and
in
vii
learnt to look
their
most
single
self,
and
whose household there

is
is
no more
care for the family than there

latter are the unthrifty, as
for the future.
The
we
practically
know them.
They do not spend

approve
;
in
the sense which our opponents

" thrifty "
they waste and muddle away their resources.

in
There are other senses

and
"
which the terms
unthrifty
"
may
be used, and upon them our
judgment might be
thrift,
different.
But
it
is
plain that
as
above described, that

is
is thrift
as
we employ
"
the term (and this
the meaning which applies in

individua-
English
life), is
the polar opposite of an
listic " quality.
And
yet,
it
making
life
as a
whole the
standard of comfort,
does not abate, but rather
increases, the worker's just
demands.
I
The
careless current usage of such terms as " indi" socialistic,"

" egoistic,"
vidualistic,"
" altruistic,"
is
a discredit to the popular theory of an age which

professes to be critical.
writers
If
some of our very able

give
all
of
Ethical
manuals would
these
expressions a thorough shaking-out before the public,
they would do a good deed.

these Addresses
besides those
Meantime,
hope that
to
may be of use or interest who have already heard them.
some
Bernard Bosanquet.
August, 1893.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
PAGE
Future of Religious Observance
II.
Some Thoughts on the Transition from

Paganism to Christianity
. .
-27
.
III.
The
Civilization of Christendom
63
IV.
Old Problems under New Names

Are we Agnostics?
. .
.100
.*
V.
VI.
127
The Communication of Moral

Right and Wrong
Training
in
Ideas as a
.
Function of an Ethical Society

..VII.
160
in
Feeling
VIII.
IX.
Enjoyment
Luxury and Refinement
.... ....
. .
208
237
268
X.
The Antithesis between
Individualism
AND Socialism Philosophically Considered

XI.
......
.
. .
304
Liberty and Legislation
-358
I.
THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE.^

I
HAVE no dogma
difficult
to put before
I
you upon
this
very
question,
propose that
it.
we
It is
should simply direct our attention to
well sometimes to let our thoughts play freely
upon such a
tain
subject, to
at
it
walk round the moun-
and look
with a glass, instead of

Suitably to such a purthe
trying to
pose,
I
ascend
will
it.
begin from
outside
of the
problem, by considering
how
certain kinds of
change would
or town.
strike us in
an English village
The
^
question
is
whether we think that any
Delivered before the Progressive Society.
C. C.
FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE.

will
form of distinctively religious observance

long survive our present orthodox
rianism.
I
Sabbata-
mean by
"religious," for our present
purpose,
something
generally and
obviously
;
taken as symbolic of the best

thing
allied
we know
and
somepublic
to
public
worship
;
observance of the Sunday
not anything that
presupposes special training or special knowledge or specially acquired interest.
We
efforts
may assume
and
that
we
and
shall
have
art,
literature
science,
also
will
associated
of
many
kinds,
which
bring people cause

this
together in the sympathy of a
common
But
and a common pursuit of good.

will
all
be
special,
and people
it
will sort
themselves
in
regard
to
according to their tastes and

there,
capacities.
Will
we
further
ask,
be
or
religious
observance,
ceremonial, meeting,
general abstinence from work on
Sunday with
any significance beyond that of a Bank Holi-
day, over and above our private and specialised
endeavours towards the best
life ?
At
present
the
dominant
Sabbatarianism
answers these questions even for us
who have
us and
no belief
in
its
grounds.
It
protects
impresses us more than
we know.
On
Sun-
day we have
either a social
If
and domestic day,
or a quiet day.
we go
out to lecture or to
be lectured
of
to,
we
are within the great analogy

I
Sunday observance.
never pass along the

district
main thoroughfare of
evening,
my
on a Sunday
in
having some such errand
view,
without being reminded, by the sight of the

street preachers,
how
all-pervading
is
the sen-
timent which sends us out on that particular

day.
Where
ethical
meetings are held on a
week-day, their nature has appeared to
me
to
be somewhat
form
rather
different.
They then
discussions
take the
of
special
than of
general appeals.
Owing
to the pervading sen-

what
is
timent which survives, the question

permissible on a
Sunday
is
not yet raised in
extreme forms.
but
We
rail
at
Sabbatarianism,
we have
hardly thought
how we
all.
should
get on without any Sunday at
Now
want
what
is
likely to happen,
what do we
we have
to
happen,
assuming
that
merely to consider the permanent needs and

tendencies of ordinary people, without reference
to
any authority beyond these needs them?
selves
Is
it
likely that
Sunday
will continue
to differ at all from a week-day, on which
we
happen not
to
be at work
To what
use, for
example,
?
will
the fabrics
is
of the churches be turned
If there
Sun-
day worship, that
will
go
far to settle the
whole
matter of Sunday observance.
Therefore the
existence of these fabrics, though in one sense
a mere external
circumstance,
is
yet a
very
important point.

Let us think of a country
village,
with a fine
old church before the very doors of the houses,

in
which there
is
is
a good organ and a
fair
musical
service
held,
forming the centre of a certain

training
amount of musical
among
the people.
in the
There may seldom be any sense talked

pulpit,
but yet the place
is
a sort of social
focus.
The
crises of life
receive
through
it,
as
it
were, a social sanction
infancy, maturity,
brought to
marriage and death are
officially
public cognisance and sympathy.
Now, suppose
as
the
simplest
expression
of complete national neutrality
that the Church

lines.
I
were disestablished on the old Radical
The
fabric
would then belong,

sect,
it.
imagine, to
an exasperated
whose members would
have
to maintain
For a long time
its
old
prestige would continue, and wealthy persons
would be found
ance.
to
meet the cost of mainten-
But one day the actual situation would

its
exert
influence
many would abandon

become
the
nar-
sect in
possession, which would

still
rower and
of discord
more exasperated, and an apple

in
would have been planted
the
centre of the village,
many
of
whose inhabitants
from the old
that
would
feel
themselves
ousted
church at their doors.
One would hope
some
itself
village
hall or
music-room would assert

all
as
a centre, where
of
might unite on
occasions
general
interest,
and that
the
schism would not be intensified by the establishment of a chapel

beside the old
church.
Such a schism would no doubt prolong a definite
observance of Sunday, and definite forms
of worship
business
for
it
competition
is
the soul
of
but
would do so under the most

It
unhealthy conditions.
all
would be better that
the antagonism should be on one side, and
that the village hall should
become the centre
of lectures or music or public ceremonies, and

Sunday observance
simply on
its
should continue
or
not
merits, as the needs of the people
might
If,
dictate.
again, as has
been suggested
in
recent
years, the fabric of the church
were
left to
the
ratepayers, the question
would
it.
arise
whether
they would care to support

building would
If not, the old
become a
ruin,
or would be
of of
kept
in
order by the public
spirit
some
public
individual.
The
general
course
observance in the village would be the same

as in the former case, only without the schism,
unless, indeed,
the
disestablished
sect
should
If
purchase the building from the ratepayers.

the old building
became a
ruin, or
show
place,
and the
life
of
the village centred
round a
lecture hall
or music-room, that would be a
clean cut between old
and new, and
in
some
ways a healthy
thing.
The church
building
it
would be no great
practical loss, for
is
sel-

really well fitted either for speaking
;
dom
for
or
music
and the moral emancipation of the

visibly symbolised.
little
community would be
the
On
other hand,
it
would be
somewhat
ruin,
strange and sad to
have an old
or an
unused
tiquarian
building
interest,
kept
in
up
the
from
merely anhalf the
centre of
villages in England.
But
if
the ratepayers chose to maintain and
use the building, in a
way more
or less conit
tinuous with that previously practised,
might
their
perhaps become a valuable

social life
lic
centre
of
and
religious observance.
The
pub-
element which the Church

its
now
represents,
both in
cognisance of incidents concerning

the
nation,
the individual and
and,
perhaps,
through the Christmas
festival
and the harvest

its
home, would be the typical nucleus of

tions.
func-
There might be weekly musical

persons chosen
services,
and addresses from
by the

community, on the duties of
the significance of great
sonalities
in
citizenship, or
on
movements and
per-
history,
or at
the present day.

life
The
possibilities
of village
;
have not yet
been thoroughly studied
but there are pheno-
mena which
point to a development that will
expel the countryman of comic tradition from

the ideas of our age.
In this alternative
we
should have realised
what has been
called " the disestablishment of
the clergy, and not of the Church."
Whether
all this is
or
is
not chimerical,
am
strongly of opinion that the existence of our
country churches, with their beauty and their

central position
and
traditional
importance
in
our villages, cannot be disregarded
in consider-
ing the future of Sunday observance.

those
Even
who
care least about
them now would be
annoyed
and
to
to see others in possession of them,

in
be excluded from them
those inci-
lo

life
dents of
to
which they communicate a
well-recognised dignity.
And
if
the Athenian
made
his
oath of service to the community

to bear arms,
I
on becoming of age
see
do not
why we
should not have a rational conat
firmation
ceremony,
which the individual

in-
should accept for himself the vows and

tentions which,
whether
in
church or out of
church, his parents have surely conceived on

his behalf.
The
still
question of buildings
in
is,
in
one sense,
as
more pressing
churches
or
such
cities
have
ancient
value.
cathedrals
of
national
We
can neither give up our minsters

to a sect, nor permit
and our abbeys

fall
them
to
into ruins.
Are they then

at
to be
museums,
the
in
like
San
Marco
watches
cell
?
Florence,
where
tourist
gendarme
the
It
passing
Savonarola's
that the
fine
seems more probable
services
and
the addresses of

great preachers for which, say,
ii
Westminster
Abbey has become

their
famous, will gradually lose
dogmatic element, and widen into some-
thing that every

funerals of famous
one
may
value,
while the
men and
other national acts
may
take place there, emphasised, perhaps, by

publicly appointed
like
speakers
Pericles
at
Athens.
Here we have,
in
an
intensified form, the

in
problem which we recognised

the country churches.
will
the case of
These great buildings
always favour a tendency to some kind,

simple, of general
religious
however
ance.
observ-
In the ordinary
life
of our great towns the
matter
is
somewhat
different.
The
dweller in
Its
a city has no relation to his local church.

organisation
is
practically congregational, rather
than
territorial.
An
increasing proportion
of
the church buildings are hideous, and no one
12
FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE. own
could desire to preserve them for their

sake.
Of
the people
who
care for religious
observance, a very large fraction are Nonconformists.
This brings us nearer to the inside of
our question.
Here we have
to
do with bodies
all
of strongly convinced worshippers of

practically
i.e.
creeds,
working on a congregational system,

for the repute
depending
and splendour of
it
their church
itself.
.
upon the position

set
vital
can
make
for
These people are

;
upon
religious
observance
it
seems a
need to them,
altogether apart from establishment, and from
such local influences as operate

village.
It
is
in
a country
a striking sight to see a roomful
of hard-headed mechanics in a factory town,

listening to
in
an address on Pauline theology,
the "adult Sunday-school" of a
Noncon-
formist chapel.
Do we
think,
and do we wish, that Sunday
should become like a Bank Holiday
com-
13
mon non-working day for

men
like these
?
the descendants of
Will something analogous
to our
own
Ethical lectures serve as a meeting
point for them, and as a
means of guiding and

?
concentrating their " cosmic emotion "

the Ethical teacher look for this
?
May
the
There are
is
many
difficulties
on both
sides.
There
question of the young.
Certainly one would
wish that they should be helped and guided
towards the higher side of feeling and

tion.
reflec-
But yet
it is,
perhaps, a
pitfall to try
and
keep up
young.
religious
It
observances only for the

in
life,
tends to a division
and
the
probably to
elders
;
hypocrisy on
the
part
of
to a different version of the

in
view that
is
"Religion, though a virtue
the female,
undoubtedly a defect
schools and healthy
in
the
male."
Good
home
life will
do a great
religious
deal for the young, without specific

teaching.
14

I
will
suggest
my own
ideas merely as an
illustration.
First as to
Sunday
in general.
assume
that
li
it
remains the practically universal holiday.
not,
if,
for
example, different trades take
their holidays
on different days of the week,
that destroys
Sunday so
far as the
law
is
con-
cerned
there would then be no question of
closing shops
and stopping
factories
on one
it
day more than another.

universal holiday,
I I
But, taking
as the
may be
I
old-fashioned, but
to
do not think
It
that
want the present law
be altered.
alone protects Sunday from the
whole set of amusements which are carried on

for
profit
horseracing,
Of
course,
if
cricket,
football,
and
and
dis-
athletics with gate
money, the music

the
halls
theatres.
law could
tinguish,
one would
like
good concerts and,

But the
perhaps,
some
I
theatres to be open.
law cannot,
presume,
distinguish
between

performances carried on for
profit.
I
15
see no
way
of
out of
it
but to maintain the prohibition

profit,
all
entertainments for
while throwing
places
of
open
without payment
public
higher recreation, and providing music in the

parks.
Associations might well be formed to
give musical performances, as at the People's

Palace,
winter.
fair
in public
halls,
especially
during the
The
prohibition of profit furnishes a
negative test of quality.
As
a rule people
perfor-
would not trouble themselves
to give
mances
free,
unless they really
believed that
in
what they gave was worth giving

interest.
the general
Thus
should hope that before our Sabis
batarianism
it
destroyed
we may have
utilised
to
found a new kind of Sunday
an
English
Sunday, not a Puritan nor yet a Parisian Sunday.

in
We
have a great and grave responsibility
this
matter.
We
are working to destroy
i6

Are we or are we not aiming
superstition.
at such a result that the
Derby
will
be run
on Sunday, or the " Gentlemen and Players"

played, or the Oxford
and Cambridge boat?
race rowed on
Sunday
Well,
hope
not.
should like to see grow up a tradition of family

reunion (which
class
is
impossible for the working
on a day when many kinds of labour go

of social reunion, of
on), of the simpler kinds
healthy country recreation, of occupation with

art,
music, and literature, and with the beauties
of Nature.
Games, of
course,
I
would be the
should hope
rule for private
amusement, but
that
the huge
machinery of Lord's and the

set in motion.
I
Oval would not be

one were forced
If,
however,
to choose,
believe the
better
Bank
the
Holiday Sunday would

Puritan Sunday.
be
than
Secondly,
observance.
as
to
more
strictly
ceremonial
it
Out of what needs does
spring
.-*

I
17
have
tried to explain that
have some
belief
in the social recognition of great

in
moments both
I
national
and individual
life.
incline to
think that, whether in a public hall or in a

church,
some
life,
little
solemnity at the
critical
points of
with a few words spoken by a

of intelligence
man
or
woman
and
position,
it
might be of
might be
service.
But again, no doubt,
ridiculous, according to the turn
taken
by the national mind.
As
to the continuance of
any regular system
of meeting
together
of
week by week, among

to
whole
sets
neighbours,
participate
in
music or congregational singing, or to

to lectures or addresses,
to
listen
we have
several points
consider.
Lectures of this kind descend

;
from the sermon
and the sermon,

the preacher
;
presume,
from an age when
was more
educated than his hearers

a time
c. c.
and certainly from
when he
is
supposed to have some

c

they had not, to religious know-
key, which
ledge.
Conditions of this kind are quickly disappearing now, and in the time to which
we
look
it
forward no trace of them

is
will
remain.
Now
in
a great thing merely to meet a few sympathis-
ing friends.
Then we may hope that
the
main
all
society will be sympathetic in a
more
rational standpoint.
Now we
are just breaking
through to free thought, and we are struggling

with great ideas as to the
life
way
of regarding
and duty and what

shall
is
best in the world.
But then we
no longer have the strenuous danger

will lie
virtues of the minority, but our

in
the inertia of our
majority.
lost
Our
general
standpoint will
novelty,
have
the
excitement of
a
and we
shall
be
is
forming
new
orthodoxy.
a
Now
made
there
only beginning to be
first-rate
widespread system of
University
the
teaching
accessible
throughout

country, and the Ethical lecturer,
if
19
he
is
about
as well qualified as an Extension lecturer,
may
break new ground and reach new audiences.
But
then,
sincerely hope, the
Sunday
lecturer
will be, at best,
but one
among
a number of
will
teachers, from
to
whom
any student
no
be able
learn under conditions
less stimulating
than on Sunday, and more solidly and systematically.
teacher
who
tries to deal
with
in
life
in general is
indeed almost certain,

to
an age
of universal education,
be behind a great
part of his audience in every distinct matter he
may
I
touch upon
it,
and
if
this false direction,
as
think
is
adopted, the lecturer of the future

little
will
have as
that can interest his audience
as the preacher of to-day.

It
appears, therefore, very doubtful whether
instruction or oratory can ever take the place
of public worship.
Instruction essentially deals
with
special
matter,
while public worship
is
20

and with the
supposed to meet a general need
abandonment of pubHc worship as a service of

prayer and praise to a
appears to
common
Father,
it
me
that the only general source of

exist,
cosmic emotion has ceased to

the world will have to rely on
and that
more concrete
forms of sympathy depending on more definite
common
experience and
common
interest.
congregation gathered together owincj to mere

local
proximity would hardly

in
if I
am
right
have enough
common
week
to supply matter to a
after
teacher or preacher
week through-
out the year.
We
see the strain and perversion
and
artificiality,
induced by the task of finding

in
something to say about things
general for
years together, even in the clergy to-day,
who
have
at least to
communicate a
definite doctrine
with a oreneral bearinof on
life.
How much
will
worse the
risk of platitude
and rhetoric
tell
be
when
the preacher has nothing to
except
21
what every sensible man knows as well as he

Therefore,
I
should have hoped that Sunday

to be marked, as
it
would come
now
is
in
many
happy households, rather by a peculiar tone

which attaches
distinct habit of
to
its
occupations than by any

ritual.
meeting or of
The
rule
on which
this
tone might be founded would be

if it
suggested by the public authority,

the attitude which
I
adopted
viz, that
have advocated,
the day should indeed be a general holiday,
but
one
on
which,
comparatively
speaking,
families
their
and individuals should be thrown on

resources
for
own
entertainment.
should hope that circles of friends, and families,
would
find out, as so
many
already do, higher
interests
to
pursue,
more appropriate, more

ardent,
profound,
more continuous, and more

for
than
is
possible
general
congregation
broug-ht together at random.

It
may seem
that these suggestions herald a
22

up of culture which
I
Splitting
will destroy unity

so.
and sympathy.
secret of
do not think
life,
The open
is
modern
to
my
mind,
that
we
find the universal not in the general, but in the
individual.
fine art,
If
our interest, for example,
is
in
we need
become
not keep drawing back and

or
history for
fear
dallying with
ethics
we
should
one-sided.
We
should go
right in as
deep and thoroughly as we can,

our ethics and history, though
and we
in
shall find
another form,
when we have gone deep
enoug-h.
So
form
say that
that
hope a
is
definite tradition will
itself,
it
a duty, especially on the

hold, first indeed,
weekly holiday,
if
to
renew our
for those
necessary,
as
it is
who
rarely meet,
on our families and friends, and then on those

works of man and nature which best typify
us the unity of the world.
that
it
to
It
has been said
is
a duty to hear or read or see some-

thing very good every day.
fortunately
situated
23
We
who
are less
per-
might
compromise
haps upon " every week."

to be
in the
But we ought not
governed simply by
historical inheritance
this
form which we give to
aspiration,
and we ought always

others, at
to aim, for ourselves

is
and
an interest which
continuous and
life
penetrating, so that our emotional fed with realities,
may be
and we may
crumble
lay
in
hands on
our grasp.
something which
Especially
I
will not
would suggest that the employto
ment of simple music as an accompaniment

prayer and praise has nothing in
common
with
the strictly aesthetic enjoyment and exaltation
proper
to
the
great
musical
art
which we
concert.
It
delight in for
its
own sake
at a
seems, therefore, altogether a mistake to intro-
duce a concert into a

service into a concert.
service,
or
to
turn a
is
good concert
better
;
a
it
good Sunday occupation,
none
but
24

not appropriate to a mixed congregation, for
of
it
is
many
enjoy
ing
It.
whom
it
is
trial,
while those
who
most do not enjoy an oration follow-
The
as,
literature of religious emotion, again,
for example, the
Hebrew
prophets,
seems
It
to
be rather a stimulant than a food.

it
does
not expand into a world,
does not lead us
continuously forward, but rather subjects us to

recurrent
excitements
of feeling.
is
The
study
of religions,
on the other hand,
of course
dis-
an interesting study, but must be clearly

tinguished
from the employment of religious

worship or the
literature for purposes of public
utterance of a
It
common
feeling.
seems, then, quite possible, that in spite of
a sound tradition as to the use of the weekly
holiday
tradition we
in
part,
perhaps, because of such a

in
may
course of generations
cease to possess or to recognise
any general

external symbol of our
to the reality of
ficial
25
common human
is best.
relation
what
And
may
so super-
and so
ambiguous have such symbols

loss
proved themselves, that the

gain.
well be a
)
Only
let
us
remember
that the abandon-
ment of a symbol may always have two meanings.

It
may
indicate that
it
we have may
surrendered^,
the thing signified, or
indicate that
we
'
have grasped
It
is
it
in
a truer form.
not easy to be sure whether

risk.
we
are
is
wholly free from the former
There
French expression, signifying

sensual
"the average
man,"
which
to.
Matthew
things
if
Arnold
in
fre-
quently refers
life
Many
modern
finding
so,
have an appearance as
in this direction.
we were
it
our level
If
were
in
;
the
world would not be worth living

tendencies
and such
resist
it
;
we must make
see to
it
that
we
for
they would
life
a baser thing than
ever
has been before.
26

But
if
by abandoning the general external

indicate,
felt in
symbol we
at last
and
truly indicate, that
we
in
have
our hands and recognised
our lives the thing signified, the actual spiritual
world
will
in all its various reality, then, surely, life

it
be nobler than
ever has been before.
II.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE TRANSITION FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY}

In spite of Gibbon,
the general idea
St.
we
still
on the whole accept
of the Christian era which
Paul and other writers of that age have
impressed upon the modern mind.
We
have
not thoroughly readjusted our historical notions

to critical
and natural
ideas.
Even
so g^reat a
scholar as
Matthew Arnold does what he can

of the
to perpetuate a mysterious conception
new
birth of the world at the time of Christ's
coming.
Hear
him
in
"
Obermann
Once
More":
^
Delivered at Essex Hall for the
London
Ethical Society.
28
SOM^ THOUGHTS ON THE TRANSITION

" Perceivest thou not the change of day
?
Ah
carry back thy ken,

!
What, some two thousand years
Survey
The world
Like ours
Its
it
as
it
was then.
looked in outward
clear
air,
head was
its its
and
true,
its fare,
Sumptuous
clothing, rich
No
pause
action knew.
Stout was
its
arm, each thew and bone
Seemed
But ah
!
puissant
and
alive,
its
it
heart, its heart
was stone.
!
And
so
could not thrive
On that hard Pagan world And secret loathing fell

Deep
disgust
weariness and sated lust

life
Made human
In his cool
hall,
hell.
with haggard eyes.

lay
;
The Roman noble
He
drove abroad, in furious guise,
Along the Appian way.
He made
feast,
drank
fierce
and
fast.
And crowned his brow No easier nor no quicker

The
with flowers,
passed
impracticable hours.
FROM PAGANISM TO
CHRISTIANITY.
29
The brooding East with awe beheld Her impious younger world, The Roman tempest swelled and swelled
And on
her head was hurled.
The East bowed low

She
let
before the blast

;
In patient, deep disdain
the legions thunder past
And
plunged in thought again.
So well she mused, a morning broke

Across her
spirit
grey
conquering new-born joy awoke
And
'
filled
her
life
with day.
Poor world,' she
cried,
'
so deep accurst.
to pole.
That runn'st from pole
Go seek a draught to slake Go seek it in thy soul

!
thy
thirst,
She heard
She
it,
the victorious
West
!
In crown and sword arrayed

felt
the void which
mined her
breast,
She shivered and obeyed.

She veiled her
eagles,
snapped her sword.
And
Her
laid her sceptre
down
stately purple she abhorred.
And
her imperial crown.
30
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE TRANSITION

She broke her
flutes,
she stopped her sports,
Her
She She
artists
could not please
tore her books, she shut her courts,

fled her palaces.
Lust of the eye and pride of
life.
She
left it all
behind,
strife.
And
hurried, torn with inward
The
wilderness to find.
Tears washed the trouble from her
face,
She changed
into a child
'Mid weeds and wrecks she stood
a place
Of
ruin
but she smiled

idea
"
!
This
general
is
of
the
St.
bankruptcy of
Paul and other
Paganism
early
drawn from
Christian
satirists.
controversialists,
Is
it
and
from
all
Roman
to clear
possible for us at
this
life
up our conceptions on
matter
had,
on
the question
how
far
Pagan
in the
age which we are considering, become devoid

of good,
it
and how
far,
under Christian
influence,
was broken down and flung
aside,
and
re-
placed by convictions and impulses that were
FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY.

wholly new
scope,
?
31
The
issue
is
one of immense
adequate
state-
and demanding
its
for its
is
ment
for
complete solution
not to be looked
I
very rare equipment, which
do not
I
possess, of historical
and
literary learning.
only propose to offer one or two hints as to

points
of
view which may be of
value
in
helping us to take our bearings with regard

to
it.
The unquestioned
facts with
:
which we
exist-
are confronted are such as these
The
ence of very terrible immorality and brutality

in the
wealthy and civilised
Roman Empire
for fully
the lack of the greatest original genius of any

kind,
outside war and

;
politics,
300
years before Christ
and the
startling
pheno-
menon
that a
new
sect, originating
among poor
about three
of the the
and unlettered Jews,

centuries,
did,
after
become the
Empire,
official
relig-ion
Roman
and
nominally ousted
Pagan Polytheism by a Monotheism derived
32

religion,
from the Hebrew
though not
identical
with the form of Monotheism professed by the
Hebrews.
For a thousand
years, moreover, this sect,
now
the victorious Catholic Church, was the
strongest
power
its
in
the
civilised
world,
and
whatever
true intellectual origin
may have
been, acknowledged but a trifling debt to the
previous Pagan civilisation,
its
attitude towards
hostile.
which was
This,
for the
far,
most part professedly

to
little
so
would suggest
us
that
the
previous civilisation had very
of value to
bequeath, and as a fact

in
the
its
art
and philosophy
time
totally
old
form were
for
the
extinguished
by the new movement.
The The
works of
classical sculpture
and painting were
to a great extent defaced or destroyed.
philosophical schools of
Justinian
in
Athens were closed by

the western or Latin
529.
In
world the great Greek poets and philosophers

gradually ceased to be
read,
to
33
and the books

preserved
as
containing their works

things of value,
itself
till
be
finally
the
Greek language
to professed
ceased to be
known even
scholars and philosophers/

A.D,,
In the year 393
we may
add, further to illustrate
Matthew
Arnold's verses,
the famous Olympic sports

after a reputed continu-
had come
to
an end,
ance of eleven centuries.
Hopes and
true,
beliefs,
supposed to be entirely new and
with a
new
literature
and a new music and hymnology,
occupied men's minds.
fragment of such a
in
new chant
words
is
supposed to be preserved
that sleepest,
the
"
Awake, thou
and
give
arise
from the dead, and

light."
Christ
shall
thee
We
are even told,

(9th
by a leading
a.d.),
critic,^
Scotus Erigena
century
really
great
thinker,
was the
last
scholar
who knew Greek
before the
dawn
2
of the Renaissance, and his knowledge was exceed-
ingly imperfect.
Prof.
Harnack
in Encycl. Brit., Art. "
Neo-Platonism."
C. C.
34

Pagan world
into bar-
that the relapse of the
barism had nothing to do with the irruption of

untrained races upon the stage of history, but
was a necessary consequence of the

exhaustion
intrinsic
and
abstractness
at
which
the
ancient culture had arrived.
The
facts are not to
be denied.
But, con-
sistently with
them, very different modes of
conceiving the transition are possible.
The
I
only definite set of phenomena which

bring before you are
am
at all qualified to
those which concern the development of the
sense of beauty in the
Hellenistic or Graeco-
Roman
age,
which
is
commonly thought
of,
from the standard of the greatest original
art,
as post-classical and as a time of decadence.
Now
this
inquiry
is
very suggestive,
for
it
reveals to us in this period
many elements
of
modern
feeling
which are absent, comparatively
speaking, in the great classical art of Greece,
FROM PAGANISM TO
or, at least,
life,
CHRISTIANITY.
35
of Athens.
The deHght
as man,^
all
in family
the interest in
love,
man
phases of
sentimental
sensitiveness to the
beauty
of external nature, both in itself and as height-
ened by the contrast with
city
life,
and by the
idea of a historical or national " mission,"^ and
a new growth of literary sensibility displayed

in the poetic appreciation of poetry,^
all
these
things belong to the later age of minor literature
and widespread culture and refinement

in
within a great world-empire,
a degree un-
known
to the time
when
the greatest individual
genius was concentrated upon the service of

the
commonwealths of Greece.
So, ao-ain, the
philosophers of the age after Aristotle, though

^
Terence:
"I
am
a man, and nothing

i.
human
i.
is
in-
different to
2 ^
me."
Heauton-timorumenos,
25.
Vergil, Georgic II.
and ^neid VI.
close.
As
in the conception of the
Anthology or " Garland of

poetical
verses "
with
the
appreciative
introduction
of
Meleasrer.
36
by no means thinkers of the greatest grasp

and
insight,
touch
new
sources of plain
brotherly
^
human
feeling
and
simple
friendliness.
least to the
Science, even,
was advancing,
b.c.
at
end of the 3rd century

Euclid, Archimedes,
The names
of
and Apollonius (author of
a Treatise on Conic Sections) are enough to
remind us of
this.
What was
irrevocably lost to
the
ancient
world with the liberty of Greece was the career

for the individual
man, the
definite
privileges
and duties
in
which the ordinary
citizen could
will.
express his personality and utter his

spite of this loss,
In
much had been

is
gained.
The
impression
on
my mind
very strong that
Cicero and Vergil, not to speak of Epictetus,
Marcus Aurelius, or
that
Plotinus, belong to a world
has far outstripped the age of Pericles
'
See Wallace's Epicureatiism.
FROM PAGANISM TO
in
CHRISTIANITY.
37
ethical
refinement and
it
human
sensibiHty,
though
inferior to
in
energy and devotion,
and
in
the conditions of individual greatness.

faults
The modern
sciousness
of pedantry and self-con-
had appeared, and the

perhaps to the old
moral
life,
new age
was
inferior
in the central
it
qualities of
while superior to
of
ethical
in
breadth
"
and
refinement
feeling.
Modernism," we must remember, had begun

Socrates
with
and Euripides, while the

this
dis-
tinction
between
and the other world had

religious
been
introduced
into
thought
^
by
Plato, together with the specific simile
under
which the Christian Church often expressed the

conception of visible things as symbols of the
power and goodness of
their Creator.
Drawn from
sun to
the relation of a father to his offspring,

further
illustrated
cf.
and sometimes
visible
by the
relation of the
its
light,
Plato's Republic
and Ep.
to
Hebrews.
38

'Now
it
is
hard to believe, without overthis
whelming evidence, that

current of
broad and deep
humane
culture
and emotion was

in
suddenly turned back, or ended

slough of
evil.
a hopeless
As
to the proportion of vice

in the life of
and corruption existing

direct
collect
any time,
to
evidence
is
exceedingly
difficult
and
to estimate.
We
could
make
out
pretty nearly
what case we pleased
either for
or against the civilization of the present day.
My
contention, however, does
not require
me
to suggest that
we have
in
no degree improved
when compared with
the last days of Paganism.
That would be a despairing view.
Yet when
and conit
we pay
attention
to
what
satirists
troversialists tell us
about the world as
was
then,
we should
not forget what sort of case a
preacher or a journalist can

us now.
make out
against
Doubtless, a gladiatorial
show was a
therefore
more
official,
more murderous, and
FROM PAGANISM
TO CHRISTIANITY.
39
more barbarous proceeding than any modern

prize-fight.
Moreover, a
is
prize-fight,
illegal,
in
most
civilised countries,
now
whereas the
still
gladiatorial
displays
and
any
other
more
public
brutal displays of the

festivals
same kind
were
carried
on before the head of the

one
State.
Nevertheless,
in
who
has
^
travelled
grreat
modern
democratic
country
place,
when
a prize-fight was about to take

at the
must have been surprised

devoted
to
in
is
it
amount
of
attention
by journals and
telegraph
officials,
and
the ordinary society

conversant.
all
with which a tourist
We
are
inclined to say that our vices are at

less coarsely
events
proclaimed to-day
that a
in
demand
for
purity
and decency,
at least
common
social converse, has replaced
the barbarity of
I refer
to a particular experience.
is
do not mean
to
imply that a monarchical country
any
better.
40

who
could go together openly
cultivated classes
to such entertainments as those of the sfames.
But as we speak of any such

of a
antithesis,
echoes
time not very long past come into the

opposition, while,
mind and deaden the
on the
other hand, in the private letters of Epicurus,

or of Cicero,
we
catch glimpses of a family
life,
which, like our own, must have been to

extent a charmed
tional
vice.
circle,
some
broken only
at excep-
crises
by the horrors of surrounding
If
we now
try to frame
some notion of the

is
real junction
by which Paganism
united with
Christianity,
we ought
first
to turn our atten-
tion to the
immense
lapse of time occupied by
the transition.
From
the
first distinct
breach
in naive or natural
Paganism, to the assump-
tion of a definitely doctrinal
and orthodox form an

interval
by Christianity, there
is
which
cannot be reckoned at less than seven hundred

years,
41
from
of
the
death
of
Socrates
to
the
triumph
while,
if
Christianity
desire, as
under
Constantine
we
we
ought, to consider
the contact of the two influences as continuous
down
to the death
to
of
"heathen" philosophy,
this interval to the
we should have
extend
closing of the schools of
Athens
in
529
a.d.,,
1
bringing up the transition to a total of more
than nine hundred years.

In place, then, of our supposing a
chasm
to
have been suddenly bridged

from
trial
for the passage
Paganism
of a
to
Christianity, let
us
make
somewhat
different set of conceptions.
The age
following upon that in which great

is
discoverers have been active

the
confronted by
their
task of applying
and popularising
in
discoveries,
and often acquires,
consequence,
Scholasticism
a somewhat scholastic character.

is in its
essence the subordination of knowledge
to practice,
and
in
this
widest sense our
own
42

I
time has, as
shall point out
more
in detail
below, a scholastic tendency.
Now the
classical
Greeks had made the great

progressive civilisation
discovery with which
begins, the discovery of a free
and reasonable
they
mode
of
human
life
and
this discovery
translated sanely, though not completely, into

intellectual
theory.
But
this
discovery,
first
like
many new
inventions, could at
be worked
only on a small scale, and with reference to the
very limited area
in
which the most favourable
conditions existed.
The same was

morality
the case of
the
with
the
monotheism and
Jewish people, which
in their
combination as
a moral religion were discoveries belonging to
about the same period as that covered by the

greatest time of
Greek
history.
The
task laid
upon the succeeding ages was that of making

available for the world at large these conceptions of
an
ethical
monotheism and of a
free
FROM PAGANISM TO
but organised
life.
CHRISTIANITY.
43
Especially the destruction
of Greek self-government forced these problems
upon the world, because,

of the
in
the rigid machine
Roman
empire, there was
much
in
less
fundamental moral distinction, than
a free
slave.
it
commonwealth,
between
master
and
And
so
among
the Stoics, for example,
was
possible for a slave to be a
good man, and
even to be a philosopher,
an idea which would

virtues
have seemed profane
to Plato or to Aristotle.
The
simple
or
human
virtues of the individual

servile
man
woman
and
the
came
in
to
the front,
combined
of
with the ideas of
human brotherhood and
God
in
humanity,
the
and also with that of a golden age

future,
perhaps the most important contribution

Jewish
religion.
due
to the
Thus, after four hundred years of struggling

with these ideas
in
every shape and form, they

popular and picturesque
were
at last put in a
44
mould, and a new organisation was started to
embody them
in
a visible society.
So
far,
then, from being a
new
thing, contrasting with
the degradation of the Pagan world, this great
growth was the issue of the advance of that

world during four centuries, and thoroughly
completed,
in
it
was not
shape,
until,
it
definite
capable of ruling European civilisation,

in
a further development of five centuries,

the
had adopted from Paganism

almost
all
germs
of
permanently valuable elements that
the latter contained.
The
five
hundred years
were
in
succeeding the
Christian
era
time
during which Christianity was

of Paganism, and
still
the
womb
drew
its its
nourishment from
parent.
is
the
life
and
circulation of
The
great need of the age, as

in Professor
implied
throughout
Wallace's treatment of
for
Epicureanism,
was the need
a practical
being,
recognition of the individual
human
and
45
a possibility of uttering his will in free har-
mony
now
with his fellow-men.
Ultimately, as
we
see, the
modern
little
free nation
was destined
in
to replace the
Greek commonwealth
furnishing this scope and recognition, but in the
meantime the Christian congregations served

the purpose.
In them every
man and woman,

Now,
independently of rank or station, found recognition,
brotherhood, and hope.

faith
this
new
of
hope and
was simply the best
ideal
Greece, translated, by help of Jewish imagery,

into a coarse but popular shape.
The advance,
attended, as the law of such an advance ren-
dered necessary, with a very considerable
loss,
all.
was
It
that
it
should be popularly accepted at
had
needed four
distinction
hundred years
this
to
get
Plato's
between
and the other

;
world into
the
popular
it
consciousness
and
when
it
did get there,
could only do so in
the shape of a coarse material antithesis which
46

itself in
showed and shows
the dominant underof Heaven,"

itself
standing of Christ's
just
"
Kingdom
as
it
showed and shows
in
the
dominant interpretations of
of Ideas."
Plato's " Doctrine
Jewish aspirations, Stoic exaggera-
tions, neo- Platonic dualisms, cutting life in
two
with an axe. were the instruments by which

that naive
and simply sensuous view of
life,
which Plato had rent asunder and re-combined

in a
rational whole,
was
finally
rendered imIf this is
possible for the
European world.
what we mean by the exhaustion of a great

life-principle, if to
be exhausted
is
to be fruitful
in the heart
and mind of a world, which needs

to
more ages than have yet elapsed

full
it,
absorb the
significance
of what has descended upon
then, but then only, can

into
we say
that ex-
haustion and a relapse
barbarism were
inherent in the development of ancient thought
and conduct.
The Dark Ages
are not a proof
FROM PAGANISM TO
that
CHRISTIANITY.
47
the great
for
classical
culture
;
had
lost
its
power
human
welfare
they prove only
how
long a discipline was needed by the mass of
humanity before
the
first
it
could appreciate more than

its
stammering misapprehensions of
great inheritance.
cipline, to
To
frame
first
this practical dis-
impart the
elements of culture
and
dignity, not
merely to new races but to
the whole of those classes
who had been

it,
within
the civilised world but not of
was the work
of the greatest intelligences and characters of
Christendom
for a
thousand years and more.

it
Scholasticism, though
bears an external rein

it
semblance to speculation, has

speculative
elements.^
Its
no true
the
sub-
root
is
Scholasticism
is
a word with a definite meaning, and

mediaeval writings on doctrinal sube.g..,
does not apply to

jects.
all
In as
far as there is true mediaeval speculation,

it
in Scotus Ertgena,
shows
itself as
life.
a struggle towards a
more
free
and complete view of
48

of
ordination
knowledge
to
practice,
life in
the
attempt to find a bearing upon
doctrines
or tradition, not by grasping them as a whole,
but by searching for an immediate application

in
every
part.^
Thus, that
which
all
men
could learn of the great ideas of Paganism was

called Christianity, while as soon as they
had
learnt
something, they necessarily gravitated
back to a new and humanised Paganism.

first
The
ot
transition
is
symbolised by the images
Christ,
which the Gnostics of the second cenplaced beside those of

Plato
tury
A.D.
and
This view may seem to conflict with our received ideal

Let us look at the doggerel verses which
of Scholasticism.
express
its
rule of interpretation,
which even Dante accepts.
"
The
letter
teaches the
facts,
the allegory, what you are to

*'
believe, the
moral
" [interpretation]
what you are to do,

are
to
the
exalting"
[interpretation]
"what you
interpretation.
hope."
vicious
These are the four kinds of

predominance of
ible.
The
practical aims in
them
is
at
once discern-
ignorant
The whole men what
labour and anxiety was to impress on

they were to do.

Aristotle
49
the
second
by
that
set
painting
of
Raphael which seems to
heathen poetry
under Apollo on a level with Christian doctrine
under Christ.
relation holds in the history of art.
The same The Pagan

Arnold
it
sense of beauty
is
not, as
Matthew
implies, destroyed in
Christianity, but
passes
into
form
that
included
such
elements of the older beauty as were suitable

for this
infancy of a
Naturally,
new epoch with

people to
larger
claims.
arts of
among
whom
the
intellectualised
imagination could not
have
effectually spoken, the first
forms taken
were those of architectural and decorative expression.
You
cannot
all
at once raise a
mass
life
of slaves and barbarians to the intellectual
of Periclean Athens.
illiterate
;
They remained
for ages
but their sense of freedom and hope
found
its
new expression
feel
in
a shape that every-
one could
c. c.
the
great churches with their
50
decoration (often pictorial) and their services/
and we can see a more subtle sense of natural

beauty continuing to grow from the
of the Christian era.
first
days
The
history of art
most
strikingly confirms the point of
view suggested
above, that the popular mind was

ing
in
now
grasp-
a coarse and superstitious form, the

to
principle
which
Plato
had
tried
to
raise
Greek thought.
ness repeated, on
For the Christian consciousits
own ground, an
philosophy.
In
error of
the
higher
Greek
a great
wave of
feeling,
about 800
a.d., partly
under
Jewish and Arabian influence, the Christian
mind turned
ture
fanatically against all sacred sculpin the

is
and painting
;
famous
it
" iconoclastic "
movement
as
that
to say,
felt
for a
time,
Plato had
felt,
that
sensuous
portrayals
It is well
worth while to read Mr. Pater's Marius

this
the
Epicurean on
whole subject.
FROM PAGANISM TO
CHRISTIANITY.
51
appeared unworthy of and inadequate to the

spiritual
world.
It
was a mistake, but a mis-
take that could
not have been
made
until
Plato's conception that a spiritual world

reality
was a
had
in
one shape or another penetrated
the popular mind.
And, of course, when a

with
itself
consciousness
imbued
this
in
art,
conception
the result
should finally express
would be
that
If,
all
the deeper for the discrepancy
had been overcome.

in
order to bring the old and the
new
into close comparison,
we
look at the Christian

is
consciousness by the side of that which
pre-
sented in Marcus Aurelius, the radical
differ-
ence between the two
is
merely,
life.
think, in the
sense of hope or value in

has, for every
The
Christian
human
being, the
same sense of
belonging to a spiritual body, which a Periclean

others.
Athenian had
for
himself
and a few
is
Only
in
the Christian this feeling
52
deepened by being generalised, and he considers
himself to be of infinite value,

of a
as
member
community
in
which the divine

all
spirit is inherent.
Marcus Aurelius has

of
the
Christian
cheerful
sense
duty and
but
it
goodwill
is
and
resignation,
conjoined
throughout with an indescribable languor and

weariness.
We
see
it,
so
cannot help think-
ing, in his face, the face of
a weary man.
And
so there
if
is
something grotesque to our views,

in the
also
something noble,
picture of the
great general occupying the Senate with discussions on problems of philosophy for three
days before departing on his
last
campaign.
The same tendency shows

topic of comfort
itself in his favourite

life
is
that human
so small a
is
thing in the universe that our fate
really a
is
matter of indifference.
not really helpful
;
This consideration
and such world- weariness

in
might, no doubt, turn to serious corruption
FROM PAGANISM TO
minds of a low order.
better
CHRISTIANITY.
'
53
All that
was not getting
would be getting worse.

the root of this difference in feel?
What was
ing,
explained in the language of philosophy
Clearly, the assumption of the self-sufficingness
of the
individual
human being
the
hopeless
attempt to make the individual independent of
an external response to his
will.
Plato and
Aristotle, in conformity with the
phenomena of
and ex" society
is
Greek
plicitly
life
at
its
best, start definitely

this
from the opposite of
idea
comes
into existence, because each
one of us
not self-sufficing but in want of
many
things."^
The
had
intermediate age of practical speculation

tried hard, in accordance with the isolated
life
external
of the time, to escape this truth,

in
but had only succeeded

individual's
bility of
making
clear the
need, and
revealing the impossi-
maintaining the inner will without an

^
Plato's Republic^ 369.
54

and
reality corresponding
is
external organisation
to
it.
Plato's
**
righteousness "
the
germ of
Christian faith
the accepting as one's real self

is
a purpose which
at
once rooted
society.
in
reality
and represented by an actual

In
the
philosophy
of
the
last
age
of
Paganism there may be discerned a similar

approximation to the theological principle of
Christianity.
Gradually the idea of emanation

derivative
is
that
may
the
the
inferior
passes
it
into the
idea of evolution, that the derivative
reveal
more than
that from which
is
derived.
its
And
the doctrine of Athanasius,
by
insistance
on the omission of a single iota/
Insisting that the
Son
is
of one substance, "hom<?ou-
sios,"
and not merely "of
like substance," "hom^/'-ousios,"

is,
with the Father.
The
point
that the latter phrase leaves
open the supposition that the Son, the medium of communication with
man and
the world,
may have
a lesser
degree of divinity as compared with the Father, while the
orthodox doctrine absolutely excludes
this.
FROM PAGANISM TO
may be
said
to
CHRISTIANITY.
55
have vindicated the central
principle of evolutionary science as the central

principle
of
Christianity.
The
"
give
and
take
"
between Christian and Pagan philosophy

epoch was very considerable, and
I it
in this
is
not possible,
believe,
to
judge from
the
purely philosophical writings of an author of

the age
in
question,
whether he should, or
should not, be reckoned as a Christian.
The
tendency of the whole period,
in
which Pagan
and Christian thought cannot as yet be firmly

distinguished,
was
to begin the
long task of
reconciling the popular Platonic
and Hebraic
dualism by at least recognising that the good
was capable of appearing
in the actual life of
man
without deterioration.
look at this great historical delike these in
When we
it
velopment with ideas

is
our minds,
impossible not to be struck by a parallel
between the age of early Christianity and the
56

The Dark Ages, we
are sug-
present day.
gesting,
were brought on by a new

for
possibility
and
necessity
recognising the
in
rights
art
of
common human
worship,
feeHng
virtue
and
and
and universaHsing a
certain inheri-
tance of simple good, while sacrificing for the
time almost the whole of the vast culture from
which that good had sprung.

forced
to
Are we not
see
something of the same kind
within the area of our boasted universal intelligence
of
to-day
Let the dawn of
the
French Revolution and the outburst of ideas

contemporary with
tian
it
stand to us as the Chris-
era stood to the
middle
aoê.
For the
in that
universal form of
human
feeling,
which
all
age ousted for the time being

classical
regard to
let
learning,
in
literature,
and
science,
us
substitute
our consideration of to-day
the universal form of
human
republic
intelligence, the
membership
of
the
of
letters,
the
FROM PAGANISM TO
power and
right to
CHRISTIANITY.
57
have an
articulate opinion,
to be heard in the court of science
and
literature,
and
in
the argumentative deliberation which
now
rules
the destinies of civilised mankind.

not, as
Have we
a consequence of the great
renascence of a hundred years ago, attained
an advance which no one has rightly estimated,

at the
cost of a retrocjression
?
which no one
at\
has rightly understood

tained
is
What we have
the universal right to argue, to have

to
an opinion,
be heard through the speech
on the platform, the book, the pamphlet, and

the newspaper
the
recognition that civilised

birthright the form
man
of
this
is
its
enjoys as his
common
we have
articulate
human
intelligence.
What, by
Nj
very advance,
lost for the time,
',
the adequacy of the substance of culture to

form.
Never
before, in the history of the

facilities
human
race,
have the
of thought and
as
to
expression
been so
distributed
render
58

and immeasurable an ocean
possible so wild
,
of error.
For
positive error
and
this is the
simplest statement of
my meaning has now

Far from having
a
taken the place of ignorance.
reached
its
climax, the
movement towards
probably but
took
modern
;
Dark
If
Age
has
just
its
begun. ^
early
Christianity
on
shoulders the spiritual welfare of the masses

in
a very narrow sense, the nineteenth century

its
has taken on
shoulders their intellectual

in
and moral welfare

deepest sense.
the very broadest and
Do we
suppose that
sacrifice
?
this
can
be attempted without a
Do we
?
imagine that enormous benefits to the race

can be obtained without paying a price
glance at those countries where education, in

the general or formal sense,
is
most universal
us
i.
and best appreciated,

^
will
assure
in
vol.
of the
See some striking observations
of Jowett's
Flato, 3rd edition, p.
424
ff.
FROM PAGANISM TO
contrary.
tions
CHRISTIANITY.
59
There
is
nothing which large sec(in

all
of the educated populace

will
ranks
is
of
society)
not believe.
as
There
find
is
no
able
absurdity so gross
not
to
its
journalistic supporters.
There
no opinion
which
with
is
not maintained, by persons equipped
full
powers of articulate expression, with
a granite obstinacy and indifference to reason
and experience.
art
There
it
is
nothing so bad
in
and
literature that
will not
be welcomed
with exultation by an enthusiastic crowd, quite

capable of
language, to
the
maintaining their conceptions

all
in
appearance, not unworthy of
republic of letters.
all
Of
are
this
republic,
in
repeat,
civilised
men
it
now
theory
for
qualified
citizens,
and
the
wants but
little
them
to
take up
external
privileges
of
citizenship.
Is all this
a ground of despair
and
?
in
I
speak-
ing thus strongly
am
a pessimist
do not
6o
accept this inference.

clear that there
all
is
My
object
is
to
make
now
a duty incumbent on
who
believe in the organised substance of
culture as a
body of
science, art,
laid
and
literature,
parallel to that
which was
on the advocates
of Christianity in the Middle Ages, but at a
higher
level.
Their duty, and their hope,
lie,
according to the point of view here adopted,

in the direction
of an ultimate reanimation of
the form of culture
by
its
substance.
The
so-called bankruptcy of the
Pagan world was

It
not
its
defect, but its merit.
had generated
need and a
so we
universal
versal,
may
suggest
a universal
for the
mode
of feeling, which, because uni-
were incompatible
moment
with
the highest culture which had generated them,
but were destined ultimately to combine that

culture itself with something beyond.
In just
the
same way the Revolution epoch has made

a universal need and formal capacity of
known
FROM PAGANISM TO
an
intellectual kind,
CHRISTIANITY.
6i
but possessing, and likely

a long generation, only the
its
to possess for
many
form of
intellect,
and not
substance.
To
one,
illustrate
the problem
more
clearly,
to.
an
obsolete conception
it
may be
in
alluded
No
for
may be
hoped,
addressing himself to
an Ethical Society, would express a regret
the disappearance of authority in intellectual
and
spiritual
matters.
But where there

if
is
no
authority,
we
are badly off

is
the positive con-
tent of intelligence
wanting.
Authority, in
these matters,
of
may be
culture
defined as the influence
organised
exerted
by
irrational
,
means.
this
Now
between the disappearance of

influence,
irrational
and the
acquisition,
by
culture, of
an influence operative through

there
is
rational
means,
a transition
stage
which
of the
constitutes
our peculiar modern form

"
Dark Ages.
Reverence," an able and
intelligent
gentleman from one of the British
62
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE TRANSITION,

is
colonies once said to me, "
a thing
cannot
understand."
is
Well, the reverence of mystery

the reverence of knowledge has
doomed
not yet come.
To work
for the completion of the universal
form of intelligence by a content adequate to

it
is
the next duty of
all
who have
a faith in
man's rational nature.
III.
THE CIVILISATION OF CHRISTENDOM}
When we
try to
embody
in
a characteristic
phrase those central
purposes which animate

there
our modern moral

pressions
that
life,
are
three
into
ex-
immediately spring
the
mind.
tion,"
"Culture,"
"Humanity,"
"Civilisa-
are the watchwords
of the nineteenth
written
century.
In
romance
by Ivan
of
Turgenieff,
who was
"
the prophetic voice
a slowly awakening people,
we
read the noble
sentence
My
call
faith
is
in
civilisation,
and
require no further creed."

I
wish to
^
your attention
this
morning
Delivered at South Place Chapel, Finsbury.
64
THE CIVILISATION OF CHRISTENDOM.

the profound and
definite
to
is
meaning which
which
really involved for us in these terms,
we employ
in
so readily, without always bearing

specific
mind
their
and particular
is
force.
It is
is
a mistake to suppose that what

finite,
definite
is
therefore
or that
what
is
individual
therefore narrow.
infinite
Nothing can be noble or

not definite
is
;
which
is
nothing can be
not deeply and
broad or universal which

pregnantly individual.
Which do we suppose
content,
has the more
fertile
and the larger
comprehensiveness of relations
logical for-
mula that
istic
is
true of
all
things and character-
of none, or a distinct idea that sums up
both for thought and for feeling the essence

of
some great human endeavour

Especially in the chaotic
condition
of the
age
in
which we
live,
it
is
to
be desired that
the main track of our advance, and the main

outlines
of
our work,
should
lie
plainly
in

our view,
in
65
order that
we may
not be blown
about with every wind of doctrine, nor hurry

to
new
;
superstitions wherewith to replace the
old
but that
we may
rather
and
;
" Build to-day, then, strong
sure.
On a firm and ample base And ascending and secure

Shall to-morrow find
I
its
place."
will
comment
in
order on the terms which
have mentioned.
What
thought
is
culture
Is
it
to
expose ourselves,
passively, to the influence of all that
men have
and
and
;
written,
or
are
thinking
writing to-day
" interesting,"
to find all ideas
and
activities
and
to
maintain to them
the
attitude of the spectator
and
dilettante
'^
Oh,
no
Culture
purpose,
in in
is
the habit of a
mind
instinct
with
cognisant
of a
tendency and
able and
connection
industrious
trivial.
c. c.
human achievement,
discerning
the great
from the
if
Everything, no doubt, has a value,

F
66
rightly apprehended, but to
apprehend things
in
rightly
we must apprehend them
due sub-
ordination.
\
He who
would
be, or do, or
know
anything great, must have the penetration and

resolution to limit
and control
idea
his endeavours.
So too with the

rightly
"
I
of
humanity.
We
:
welcome the saying of the Latin poet

nothing
am human, and
Yet,
if
human
is
alien
from me."
"
it
we ask
ourselves frankly,
consist
Does the import

consist, for
of humanity
in
all
can
me
human
their
beings, past,
present
and
lives,
future,
with
wicked and
lives
wasted
for
and even with those
which
ex-
my
personal knowledge have had no

at
all,
istence
being of course the enormous

?
numerical majority
"
if
we
frankly and can-
didly ask ourselves this question, the answer
must certainly be
/
negative.
Humanity, as
all
a moral idea, does not signify to us

beings,
actual
in
human
and
the
present
or
past,

possible in the future, and
is
67
not in fact equally-
applicable
to
all
human
beings.
And
those
who by
an
a confusion of thought, together with

effusiveness
unguarded
in part
of
feeling,
have
wholly or
imagined
if
this to
be the case
Count
Tolstoi,
not
I
misreported, furnishes
an example of what
to
mean
have
from
been led
aims
turn
their
backs upon the noblest
of
humanity,
and
to
counterwork
hear
culture
its
most
essential
purposes.
To
a great
re-
teacher that
intellectual
must be
nounced as a mark and cause of exclusiveness
and caste
the pity of
divisions
it,
among mankind,
it
"
Oh,
the pity of
"
!
For, in reality,
without culture there cannot possibly be any

progress towards the solidarity of
man
as
man.
This sad error simply arises from not noting

the distinction
between the unoroânised

beings, and
aof-
gregate of
human
those
definite
coherent characters and
achievements which
68

life.
alone give hope and value to

old, old
It
is
the
for
difficulty of
not seeing the
wood
the trees, or again of not seeing the trees for
the wood.
Sentimentalism
;
loves
all
human
beings simply as they are
doctrinairism loves
;
them only
foe the sake of the general purpose
rational enthusiasm loves

are,
them indeed
as they
but as seeing
in
them a
relation to
the
general purpose.
similar contradiction
reigns in our idea
of civilisation.
Earnest and able
men have
;
pronounced
it
civilisation
a hateful thing
all
and
is
certainly clear that not
the
artificial
life
of wealthy and ingenious nations can enter
into the idea
which comes home to us as right

saying of Turgenieff s clear-
and noble
in the
sighted Russian.
Let
me
read you the lines
of our English woman-poet, which state this
contradiction in a way, that, once realised, can
never be forgotten.
Mrs. Browning writes

*'
69
The age
culls simples
With a broad clown's back turned broadly

the stars
;
to the glory of
We
are
Gods by our own reckoning, and may
well shut
up
the temples
And
wield on, amid the incense-steam, the thunder of our

cars.
For we throw out acclamations of self-thanking,

miring,
self-ad-
With, for every mile run
faster,
'Oh
the wondrous,
won-
drous age
Little thinking if
we work our Souls
as nobly as our iron.
Or
if
angels will
commend
us at the goal of pilgrimage.
Why, what
sources
is
this patient
entrance into nature's deep
re-
But the
child's
most gradual learning

?
to
walk upright
without bane
When we
drive out,
from the clouds of steam, majestical
white horses,
Are we greater than the

the
first
men who
led black ones by
mane ?
we
struck the stars in
If
we trod the deeps of ocean,

rising,
if
If
we wrapped the globe

breath,
intensely with one hot electric
70

tether,
'Twere but power within our

comprising,
no new
spirit-power
And
in life
we were not
greater men, nor bolder
men
in
death."
These are words which

in
it
is
right to bear
mind, as the question of the Sphinx which

civiHsation
feeling
our
first
must
answer,
or
is
die.
Our
on hearing them
probably a
truth,
combination of dejection at their

indignation at their falsehood
are the
I
and
so intermingled
modern world.
good and
evil
of our
cannot pass from them to

without one
my
further sugis
gestions
remark, which
civilisation
this
has
there
been
any
before
in
or
outside that of
modern Christendom,
could
which
so
noble
trumpet-call
?
have
been
sounded by a woman
These
humanity,
three
expressions, are
then
culture,
civilisation,
often
superficially
employed, cover dangerous bypaths, and need

to be definitely interpreted.
71
Now
were
of
to
this
if,
in
proceeding to define
them,
ask of the more freethinkinor members

Ethical
Society the question

in
which
David Strauss embodied

years
ago,
"
a pamphlet manyChristians
? "
I
Are we
the
still
suppose
that
answer
would
be
given
without hesitation, which he also gave, "

are
Christians
We
no longer."
If
were then
further to ask, "
Are we members of Christenhesitation,

If,
dom
"
there
would probably be
and the answers might be divided.

I
finally,
were
to ask, "
?
Are we
rightly described as
I
heathens
all
"
should receive,
imagine, from
who
think seriously, a peremptory negative.

believe, that
We
feel, I
though much
is
in
the
Christianity
intelligible
of
to
many churches
us,
no longer
life
yet
the mind and
of
Christendom have gone through a process and

reached a standpoint which makes
tion
its civilisa-
an
essentially
different
thing
from the
72

of existence, however wealthy or refined,
I
mode
of non-Christian countries.
to comparative
statistics,
am
not alluding
for
example,
about
soberness and chastity,
if
any of the
than
so-called
in
heathen are really worse

matters, they
we
these
I
must be very bad indeed,
am
speaking about the whole nature and principles

of fine art, science, politics, social action, philo-
sophy.
Now,
of course,
it
was not simply
Christ's
preaching that created the peculiar character

of the western races, in which the constructive
activities that
mark our
;
civilisation
it
have their
origin
and source
but
is
true,
and cannot
is
but be true, because the religion

that
Christianity
the man,
was
fitted
to
become and
has become the definite and specific expression

of the
to
character of those races, which
down
the
present day
have
been the
history-
making races of the world.
From
the
first

it
73
was a western
Judaism,
religion,
Greek
revolt
against
becoming
;
continually
it
more
and more pronounced

the
first,
and
its
embodied from
has
and under
all
superstitions
never abandoned, those essential ideas which

constitute the
modern
spirit.
The
by
its
spirit
of Christendom, then
parodied
its life
doctrines, but always animating

spirit
and the modern

vertible terms
;
are on the whole conculture,
and when we speak of
humanity,
civilisation, as
indicating moral aims

in
and
duties,
we
use these terms

for
the sense
practically
defined
us by the
mind
of
Christendom.
At
that
this point
I
think
it
not wholly impossible
may be
misunderstood.
in
But standing,
as
do to-day,
a place which has been for

centre
I
two generations a
thought
in
of
free
religious
London,
feel able to
count upon a
robustness of conviction in
my
audience which
74
THE CIVILISATION OP CHRISTENDOM.

life
can afford to consider patiently the earlier
and traditions of a great

I
religion.
Our
It is
feet,
take
it,
are planted on the rock.
nearly
one hundred years since a great philosopher,

in
the
dawn
of what has been called the
New
Reformation,
"
made
shall
use of the splendid words,
Our War-cry
be Reason and Freedom,
and our rallying-point the Invisible Church"

(of all
fore,
good people on the

the calmness
earth).
And
there-
in
of a free, natural,
and
rational conviction,
we
can afford to acknow-
ledge the significance of the one great historical

religion of the
West
in
all
its
forms, without
fearing to slide back into

superstition.
any kind of dogmatic

brave and apprecia-
Strength
is
is
tive
only weakness
not
timid and exclusive.

to begin with
Were
may be asked
were not the ancient Greeks and Romans great

history-making races of
the
?
West, and yet
were not they heathens
and how then can

assert
that
75
Christianity
is
the
distinctive
characteristic
of
the
is
constructive
Western
:
mind
anity
The answer
the form
in
very simple
Christi-
is
which the
progressive
civiHsation of Greece
and
Rome
Its
expressed
its
tendencies
partly
when
time
them.
and
experience
first
had
no
matured
words,
doubt, were spoken by a heretic
Jew from the

of
Palestine
doctrine, as
despised
northern borderland
but the actual shape of the

well as
its
new
effect,
was
determined
it
by the
is
thought and forces of the age,^ and
not
perhaps in the genuine words of Christ that

the
Christian principle
was most sharply or
most profoundly expressed.

of explanation.
So much by way
in short,
Greeks and Romans,

in
were not heathens
the
full
sense of the term.
There would be a
veloped Christians.
^
truth in calling
them unde-
Their
p.
lives
and works are
See
44 above.
76

flesh of
bone of our bone and

beHeved, as
best
for
our
flesh.
They
we
do,
that the revelation of the
man
lay in
the
eternal
deed
and
indi-
purpose which alone gives value to the

vidual
ours,
life.
Their ideas are not alternative to
but belong to the childhood of our
own
and
spiritual race,
and are already included

the
spirit
in
operative
throughout
of
modern
Christendom.
What do
mean, then, by
is,
this spirit of
Christendom which
on the one hand the
motor force of modern progress, and on the

other hand the
fundamental impulse of the

at
new departure
Era.?
the
time of the
Christian
The modern
spirit of rational
it
spirit
may be
described as the
"
freedom,
" freedom
because
fears nothing
and acknowledges no superior

it is
"rational" because
positive
not Stoic or negative, but

It
and constructive.
not only believes

that
77
it
can morally face the world, and even,
if
need
be,
meet destruction calmly

is
but
it
also
believes that in fact the world
friendly,
and
kindred to
or not,
science,
is
itself.
This, whether acknowledged
the fundamental conviction of
modern
;
modern
art,
modern
enterprise
al-
though the progressive demonstration of

detail, substituting
it
it
in
itself for
the vague faith in
in general,
produces a curious and unjustified

I
appearance of doubt.
conviction at length.
rate believe in
in its
tional.
cannot argue out this

that
It is plain
we
at
any
no accident, no miracle, nothing

irra-
nature and essence inexplicable or
And
fate
not only
so,
but
we
believe that,
whatever
may be
in
in store for
the race,
we
can yet do,

doing.
spite
of
it,
something worth
In theoretical philosophy this point of view
was
formulated
at
the
dawn
of
the
New
Reformation, just about a century ago, under
78
THE CIVILISATION OF CHRISTENDOM

name
of the absolute standpoint.
"
the
Abso-
lute,"
in this sense,
means
means
practically the
same
is
as
"
modern
"
;
it
that the universe
not to be treated as a sealed book, but as an
open secret
not. of course, in
the sense that

that
we
to
can, or ever shall,
know
all
we
desire
know
but in the sense that
we can
attach
no meaning
to the idea of something, which,
being particularly and especially of importance

for us to
know,
is
yet of such a kind that
we
are eternally debarred from
knowing
it.
The
term "absolute" does not exclude relativity;
on the contrary,
that
its
whole point and meaning

relation
is
we have
contact with and

It
to the
reality of the universe.
does not exclude

the
is
knowable
it
;
relativity,
it
but on
contrary
assumes
able
what
does exclude
is
an unknowit
relativity.
That
and
to
say,
excludes
accident,
caprice,
with these
the
vulgar
idea of the supernatural.

Therefore,
79
must point
out,
we
shall
be
very cautious
Strictly, to
in
employing the name Agnostic.

is
be an Agnostic
to be a heathen,
and we are not heathens,

of Christendom.
nostic
for
we
are
members
You
will
observe that Agis
does not merely
mean a man who
ignorant of
many
know.
things which he would very In that sense, no doubt,

;
much
like to
all
we
are
Agnostics
but the great Agnostic
writers have not spent their labour to prove
anything so
obvious
as
this.
is
They mean
something
in
more
they
mean
that there
particular
of
great and
fundamental value,
to
which somehow they claim

to
know and expect
know, and are disappointed by not knowing.

I
This,
must
;
confess,
seems
to
me
a ludicrous
it
position
it
perpetuates the prejudice which

is
professes to combat, and which

legacy, not so
really a
mere
much from
Christian, as from
heathen superstition.
Why are
we, throughout
8o

life
our whole
and work
if
to stigmatise ourselves believe, as

I
as Know-nothings,
do, that
we
certainly
what
is
best and most essential in the
world
is
accessible to our experience

?
and
realis-
able in our lives
While admitting,
wise and modest
I
then, that a
decent caution
is
in
describing
the range of our knowledge,

that
must point out
Agnosticism,
implies
spirit,
if it is is
implies
more than a
truism,
what
and
incompatible with the

really a survival of the
modern
worship of the unknown

in this
God
at Athens, which,
city.
one respect, was a truly heathen

thus
Havinof
described
what
call
the
modern or absolute
illustrated
I
it
standpoint,
and
having
by
its
opposition to Agnosticism,
go on
to explain
why
connect
it
in
par-
ticular with
it
Christianity,
from which religion
was
in
fact
derived by the great

it
men who
first
proclaimed
in
the time of Goethe and of
the French Revolution.

It
8i
may be
said that the three teachers
whose
minds determined the future of Christianity

Jesus, Paul,
pel,
all
and the writer of the fourth gos-
believed in the existence of a personal

in
God, dwelling
another world, which
is
the
heathen doctrine darkly implied by Agnosticism,
and
especially
incompatible
this is
little
with
but
let
the
modern
spirit.
And
true
us
examine the matter a

In the
more
closely.
foreshortening
in
produced by great
ages nearer
to
remoteness
time,
the
us
occupy an apparent interval disproportionately

greater than their actual duration.
is
Christianity
scarcely real-
nearly 1,900 years old, and
we
ise or
take account of any similar lapse of time
before the Christian era.
But some
civilisation
can be traced for at least 3,000 years before

the coming of Christ, and
it is
a very moderate
assumption
religion,
c, c.
to
suppose
that
supernatural
in
some
form, had existed for twice
82
as long before the Christian era as the interval
which has elapsed since that epoch.

all
During
this time, so far as
we can
possibly conjec-
ture, all in gods,
reasoning nations must have believed
whose
life
was
differently conditioned
from that of man,

capriciously,
and
interfered
with his
irrationally,
and
mysteriously.
This
last
is
the creed of a heathen.
During the
500 or 600 years before
Christ, the reason-
able activity and intelligence of
Greece and
of
divinity
Rome began
to
bring
the
idea
nearer and nearer to man, and to modify the

Judaic and heathen conception of the jealous
God, unapproachable by mankind.
And
minds,
tianity.
now, with
let
this
point of
view
in
our
us turn once
more
to early Chrisin
Unquestionably, the heathen belief

in
the
God
another world, or rather
in
another
section of this world, having existed, probably,

for 3,000 years, survived in
the
new
teaching,

just
83
as
the
custom of slavery, unquestioned

the
throughout
same
period,
practice.
its
passed
un-
challenged into the
new
But we do
not judge a doctrine by

its
survivals, but
by
novelties
and ultimate tendencies.
And
by
the novelty, the
new word, spoken
faintly
Christ, but like a trumpet-blast
by Paul and
this,
by the author of the fourth gospel, was

that
God was
revealed in man, that love and

spiritual
knowledge,
the
unity
of
mankind,
ultiis
were the actual being of God, so that
mately the notion of Christ's second coming
transmuted
into,
and replaced
by, this idea of
the communication of the divine Spirit to the

individual believer.
Now,
of course, the early
Christian teachers did not anticipate
how
this
new
Christian doctrine of
in the
God
in
our world
would,
course of ages, crush and destroy
the old heathen doctrine of
God
outside our
world
but we, looking back, can clearly see
84

this
is
how
conception of an immanent divinity,

inherent in the character of the lead-
which
ing Christian races,
has operated throughout

For, once
is
their history as the organic idea.
more, the organic or evolutionary idea

with
spirit.
at
one
the absolute standpoint of the
modern
lies
That a
single principle or will

is
at
the root of nature, and
also
is
embodied
in
the
mind and
actions of man,
the inspiring consociety, as of all
viction of every progressive
science
and
practical
energy.
We
the
can hardly
this
in
realise the
depth of the change by which

doctrine
initiated
Christian
belief
development,
world,
unless
so characteristic of the
modern
social
we
compare the timid
ideas of the wisest
Greeks with the audacious

first
metaphors which were the

to the Galilean peasant. lution
;
that occurred
How
to
to avoid revo-
how
to perpetuate the original

;
wisdom
political
of the founder
how
maintain a

equilibrium,
will
85
the
:
least
derangement of which
be ruinous
Plato
these are the pre-occupations

in
of
and Aristotle
But
in the
their
studies
of
society.
New
Testament we have,
at once, a different set
of ideas.
The
use of
organic metaphors must strike
every reader.
The
operation of a ferment, the growth of corn

illustrations that
or of a tree, are the

first
from the
is
occur to the speaker.

;
Thus
the future
quite differently regarded
not as the painful
preservation of equilibrium, but as a free and

natural
growth
is
towards
perfection.
;
The
is
reason of this
perfectly obvious
it
that
the revelation being

will
immanent and continuous,

will
never be past but

is
always be present
therefore there
no anxiety, the new principle

itself,
can take care of

time
in
and, for almost the
first
is
the world's history the golden age
transferred to the future.
Thus
the
first
idea
of the Christian
is
to
convert the world, and
86

reflect
we should
it
how modern
this notion
is
rests
;
on the conception of a universal human-
ity
no Greek ever wanted to spread Hellen;
ism through the world
he did not believe the

it.
world
was
capable has a
of
The
idea
that
humanity
race,
spirit
birthright,
in
independent
of
and simply consisting
the one rational

is
inherent in mankind,
principle,
an absolutely
modern
and
and
lies at
the root of moral
political progress.
The
peculiar operation of this principle in

illustrated
in
Christendom might be
ways, from
gence.
I
endless
intelli-
all
aspects of action
and
will
speak,
not of
its
most fundais
mental manifestation, but of one which
the
most readily
verifiable,
and was most undeniI
ably peculiar to the Christian world.

to the history of Fine Art.
allude
Fancy and ingenuity

of
are present in the

of
all.
work
many
nations, perhaps
But the art
87
which deals nobly and reasonably with man
and with nature
is not,' I
believe, to
be found,
except in Christian
civilisation, or in the
Greek
and
Italian culture
little
which was
can
its
forerunner.
this
its
What
exception
be taken to
statement will only be found to heighten

force.
We
may remember
that
Mahometanism
and Judaism
of plastic
tianity
alike prohibit the representations
art,
whereas the tendency of Chris-
to
representation
reveals
and
its
architectural
expression at once
fundamental
kinship with Hellenism.
Facts like these are
riot
accidental.
The
form,
perception of the divinity of the

the
human
sense
of
friendliness
between man and
inanimate nature (replacing the heathen sense

of hostility),
the
demand
that both dwelling-
place and place of worship shall manifest the
reasonableness
lives in
and beauty of the
spirit
that
man,
all
these are consequences of the
88
absolute faith with which the Christian consciousness claims to be in

world.
harmony with the
We
speak, sometimes, of the "

in
Dark
Ages," and
matters of the
exact sciences
perhaps they were
dark
enough.
our
Yet we
youthful
must
deduct
something from
ideas of their obscurity
when we
find that our
truest lovers of beauty fix the building age of
the world between the years 500 and 1,500 of
our
era.
Architecture,
more than any other
art, is
an index to the happiness and freedom

;
of the people
years, " an
and during
this period of i,oco

its
architecture, pure in
its
principles,
reasonable in
practice,
and
beautiful to the
eyes of
all
men, even the simplest," covered

beautiful
Europe with
buildings from Constan-
tinople to the north of Britain.
In presence
of this
manifestation
of free and productive

in ancient
intelligence,
unmatched even
utterly
Greece
and Rome, and
unmatchable to-day, we
THE CIVILISATION OF CHRISTENDOM. may

even
usefully reflect
89
upon the expressive and
constructive force of the spirit of Christendom,

in its
darkest hours.
The more
closely
we examine
shall
the question, the less ground
we
find
for
the
conception of the Middle
Ages
as a long sleep followed
by a sudden
awakening.
Rather we should consider that
ancient Greece was the root, and ancient the stem and branches, of our
life
;
Rome
that the
its
Dark Ages,
flower,
political
as
we
call
them,
represent
and the modern world of science and

freedom the slowly-matured
fruit.
If
we
consider carefully that the Christian humanheld

itself
istic spirit
as charged from the
first
with the
destinies of the illiterate
and
half-
heathen
masses
of
the
European
peoples,
whereas, neither in Greece nor in the
Roman
more
Empire,
was
civilisation
intended
for
than a third or fourth part of the inhabitants

of their territories,
we
shall
not be surprised
90

an apparent
fall
at
of intellectual level, which

rise
really
meant the beginning of a universal
hitherto
unknown
in the history
of the world.
Ideas of this kind
may
help us to understand
what must remain

have been taught
after all a paradox, that to
we
apply the term
"
Dark
some
the
ot
Ages "
respects
to the
period of what were in

greatest
for
the
achievements
of
human mind,
example, the Cathedral

I
Florence and the writings of Dante.

not one of those
past
am
who can
only appreciate the

present,
by depreciating the
that they
and who
show thereby
into the
have insight neither

But
off
it is
one nor into the other.
only
right
that
we should throw
the childish
us,
prejudice that
wisdom was born with
and
should understand that
when we have done our
very best with our opportunities
we
shall
have
done no more than
is
needed to prove our-
selves worthy of the great tradition which
we

inherit.
It is perfectly
91
obvious
now
to all
who
the
look
carefully
at
these
questions,
that
instinct of
art,
our physical science and naturalistic
of our evolutionist philosophy

politics,
is
and demoto,
cratic
not antagonistic
but
is
essentially
one with the instinct which,

all
in the
Middle
Ages, regarded
beauty and truth
and power as the working of the Divine reason

in the
mind
of
man and
in
nature.
What
a
of
genuine
though
is
grotesque
there
in
anticipation
Charles Darwin
Francis of Assisi
preaching to the birds
Now, while
do not on the whole recomI
mend
the use of theological phrases,
confess to
being overwhelmingly anxious that
we should
not lose hold of this truth, which has never

yet, as
I
believe,
If
been popidarly expressed withit
out them.
tion, let us
we cannot say
without supersti-
say no longer that
human knowledge
and
art
and morality are the continuous reve-
92

God.
that
lation of
Only
let
us not imagine for one
moment
man
can either exist or be under-
stood otherwise than as part of a whole, which

includes inanimate nature as well as his fellow-
men.
Let us understand that the metaphor of
the spiritual organism, introduced into ethics by

Plato,
and made by
is
St.
Paul the vehicle of his
deepest teaching,
for us, as for them, almost

I
the absolute truth.
will
put
it
in
this
way.
If our only
choice
lay between the doctrine of

spirit in
an inherent divine
nature and in man,
and the acceptance of the individual human

being as no less isolated
in the
moral world than
he
is
by
his
separate spatial existence in the

I
physical world, then
should say unhesitatingly
that the truth lay with the doctrine of the divine

spirit.
It is
a plain fact that there

precisely
is
no separ-
ate
moral reality
corresponding to
I
separate
here, or
human
you who
beings, such as
sit
who
stand
there.
We
exist, as ani-

mals, apart in space, but
if
93
our minds were

as our bodies
wholly isolated and

are,
self- complete,
we should
But
not be
all
human
is
if
or
moral or
reasonable.
that
said of the divine
mind remains equally
true
we
is
call it
the best
human mind.
words.
The
difference
entirely
is
one of
are
The
all-important truth
that
we
only moral and
human by
finding a place in a
system which
ternal nature,
is
reasonable, which includes ex-
and which we did not make, and
by transforming our separate animal impulses

and desires
pose which
in
submission to a cause and purdid not originate, and

Call
it,
we
yet
if
in
which we can
like,
find satisfaction.
you
that
the cause of humanity, but
remember
the mere external look and figure of a
human
in
being does not constitute

sense,
full
humanity
this
though
it
does imply a capacity for such

difference
humanity.
vidual
The
is
between the
indi-
who
possessed by this cause or pur
94

is
pose, in the particular form which
demanded
by
is
his place
is
and powers, and the individual who
not,
the fundamental fact which theological
phrases are employed to express by
men who
is
have
felt
it
strongly.
The
chief difference
in
not that between somethino-
the world and
something out of the world, but that between

the
man whose
life
is
isolated as
his
body
is
isolated,
and the man whose heart beats with

of humanity
;
the
is
common purpose
and so deep
to con-
this distinction, that that
which comes
sciousness in the spirit of man, being something
greater than, and above any individual man, or
any
set of
men,
has,
by many, been regarded
as the
awakening
world-spirit or divine mind.

realise the
We
ought certainly to
weakness
of
ordinary language to express these tremendous

truths.
The more we
reflect
upon them, and

life,
the more, in the experience of

likings
our childish
and caprices give way
to the graver

perception of the
95
vast needs and possibilities

shall feel that the lan-
around
us,
the
more we
is
guage of Paul himself
not overcharged
is
when
he opposes the carnal mind, which
isolation
and
is
self-seeking, to the
mind of
Christ,
which
the general will or spirit of united humanity.
We
often speak
with gratitude, as
have
here spoken, of the great

the past, and of
all
men and
nations of
that they have

I
done
for
the
human
if I
race.
Am
falling into a too truistic
vein
ask you to reflect with

"
me
is
for
it
a mo-
ment
to
?
on the question
Where
all
is
gone
past
"
The
"
poet says of the good that
and gone,
shall
Enough
that
God
heard
it
once,
we
hear
it
by-and-by."
But we demand a
solution
more
relative than this.
Some
things,
indeed, have a sort of permanence in ink and

paper, on canvas or in stone, and on
all
this, if
we have
the
mere decency
to leave
it
uninjured,
future generations
may
feed without our help or
96

But
life
it is
hindrance.
ings that the
not in books and in buildis
of the past
handed down
is
to
the future
chiefly
the
mind of
posterity
determined
by such people as you and me.

for example,
I
Where,
law which,
experience
is
now
that system of
suppose,
of
summed up
the practical
nation
cul-
the
greatest
practical
through more than a thousand years, and
minated
as
in the
magnificent definition of justice

perpetual disposition to
his
the constant and
give to every
man
own
Is
it
on the
shelves of libraries that this national labour
now
has
its
reality
No;
the
Roman law
lives to-
day
in the
law-abiding will of the citizens of

in as far as
Christendom,
herited
they maintain their

to give
in-
and engrained disposition

own.
every
man
his
We
who
are
now
living are the
channels through
which, and
through which
alone, the inheritance of

to the heirs of
all
humanity can descend

In as far as
the ages.
we
are

untrue to our
trust,
97
some
result of
human
en,
durance
is
irrecoverably lost to humanity,

is
some
noble suffering
after us are
wasted, and those
who come
defrauded of some portion of their

j
birthright.
Thus every ignoble

unworthy thought or
application of
act, is
time, every
an
ir-
redeemable waste of something which was not

ours to spend.
Of
useful
course,
know very
well that the most
men have
often the fewest general ideas
about their work.

ample, a
And
certainly,
if,
for
ex-
man were engaged

for
in building
sound
in
and healthy houses

London,
I
the
wage earners
should readily pardon him for not
troubling his head about historical Christianity

or the civilisation of Christendom.
Yet such
in-
man, though unconsciously, would be

in
if
fluenced by ideas that are

the spirit of his age.
as
the
air,
and by
And
that spirit were,
we may make
c. c.
it,
noble and enlightened, be-
98

the descendants of the cathedral builders,
fitting
the dwellings that he built would be

to possess a
little
more
likely
of that grace and
beauty,
to
which are so rare and so precious a boon

our labouring millions to-day.
And
doing
duties
thus
it is
no more than right
that,
while
in the first place
our nearest and simplest
with
also,
honesty
in
and
thoroughness,
we
should
the the
second place,
orrand
keep our
of our
minds alive
f
to
tradition
spiritual ancestry
the tradition
full
that
human
or
Christian
tion in
life is
the
and continuous
realisa-
mind and
act of the better self of
man-
'
kind, that culture consists in the
knowledge and
civilisation in
active love of the best thinofs,
and
so arranging and performing our social funcI
tions that these best things

I
'
may be
accessible
to
all.
And
ture
it
is
in this sense, as the service of cul-
and
civilisation, that
we must
interpret the
99
service of humanity, the true soHdarity of which
must always be founded on reason.

future a real unity of
all
In
the
mankind must surely
come
to pass
and the task completed by each
race or religion will then be appropriated by the

others.
to learn
But while eager, wherever we
can, both
and
to teach,
we must
not abandon our
own
distinctive duties, but
must carry out more
and more perfectly that noble, complete and

energetic conception of
life
which the growth

the civilisation of
of ages has developed
as
Christendom.
IV.
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

Is
it
NEW
NAMES}
well to revive the
phantoms of a bygone
to
day,
which
we suppose
?
be now at
last
happily laid to rest

exhortation
to
It
may seem a
dead
past
wise
its
"let
the
bury
dead."
But we must bear

sense
in
mind
that
if in
one
that
it
we have thrown
past,
off
many burdens
belonged to the
is
yet in another sense
more
to us to-day than
ever
it
was
to
to the
this
life,
mass of mankind
present world
is
before.
For
us
the theatre of our true
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

and not merely
vestibule
NEW
;
NAMES.
that
loi
its
and
all
we
are or possess in this
present
world belongs
in its evolution to the historic past.
The
this
first
reason,
to
then, for
which
desire
morning
reinvoke some old enchantto
ments that seem

that
have
lost
their force,
is
we
are
men and women, and

foreign to us.
If
nothing
human can be
ideas, in
we
fancy that
which are crystallised the best men's
strivings after the best through

tions,
many
for
genera-
no longer have meaning

is
us,
then
there
something wrong with our hearts and
our intelligence.
And, secondly,
it
would be as well that we

fool's
should not get into a

the
paradise as regards
I
progress of the species.
believe that
our ideas are definitely wiser and better at

least in
comparison with the cruder forms of
theological superstition.
But yet those underlife
lying or overshadowing conditions of
and
102
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

which were
still
NEW
NAMES.
Christian
action
represented
the
in
theology
determine
;
possibilities
of
our entire experience

refuse to admit
for a
and though we may
them
as problems,
we cannot
moment escape them

thirdly,
I
as facts.
And,
almost hope that
we
are
If
I
impatient of these prefatory explanations.
we
of the ethical
movement
are anything,
truth.
suppose that we are lovers of the
And
we ought
not to excuse ourselves for spending
half an hour
now and
then in a
little
voyage
of discovery.
We
will
turn
if
our minds,
then,
for
sheer
curiosity's sake,
we
like to say so, to those

for
two kindred ideas which represented
more
con-
than a thousand years the wisest men's

ception of the universe in
its
it
inmost nature,
;
and of our connection with

intelligent
the idea of an
and
beneficent
Governor of the
upon
world, and of man's entire dependence
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

the
NEW
NAMES.
lo
grace of
God
for
the power to
do any
good.
I.
The
idea of an intelhgent and beneficent

oscil-
Creator and Governor of the world has

lated
between two extremes
the
personal and
the impersonal
the
notion of a will that can
choose and originate, and the notion of a law,

operative through the universe without choice
or
variation,
although
that
in
itself
intelligent.
should
child,
fancy
almost
every
thoughtful
brought up
the rigour of orthodoxy,
has
felt
the pressure of the difficulties which

first
are always tending to modify the

ideas
child
in
is
of these
the
direction
of
the
second.
is
is
The
told that the Personal

is
God
it
Almio^htv,
and that ri^ht

Then,
if
right because
His Will.
God
is
Almighty, can
He make
?
what
has happened not to have happened

will
Horace
that
confirm
the
schoolboy
who
thinks
this
must be impossible.
Can God make a
I04
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

right
NEW
NAMES.
must be
wrong thing
a law above
If " no," there

if
Him;
"yes," right and
wrong
?
seem destroyed.
If
Can God himself do wrong
He
cannot, has
child
He
is
that free will apart from
which
action
the
instructed
?
His own good

all
would be worthless
Because of the continued pressure of these

considerations
it
will
be found that almost
the higher minds,
whether Christian or non-
Christian, are perpetually being driven towards
the idea of divinity as a supreme law, which

is
expressed by comparing
God
with abstrac"
tions rather than with persons.
God
God
is
not
man
that
Man
that
He He
should
lie,
neither the
"
Son of
is
is
should repent."
;
in-
capable of change or of evil

variableness
"
in
Him
"
;
no
neither
"
;
shadow
is
of
"
turning."
God
is
love
"
"
is
God
in
a spirit
God
is
truth "
God
Him."
and
with
those
who
believe in
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

God
For
law, say the wise,
NEW
and
let
NAMES.
us rejoice.
105
is
oh
soul,
if
He
thunder by law, the thunder
is still
His voice."
But
the
view thus
suggested
no longer
will
makes
practical
use of the
If
personal
or
intelligence of
God.
in
a system of a certain
kind
is
embodied
the forces of the universe,
issuing,
among
other results, in the will and
emotions of man, the purpose and intelligence

of a Deity have nothing
left
that they can do.
And
this
so
we
find
a further tendency to strip
supreme law of the attribute of a personal

I
consciousness.
if
do not know,
for
example,
I
Tennyson's
"
Higher Pantheism," which

is
quoted just now,
intended to imply a divine
consciousness or not.
Now,
am
a
quite
of
opinion,
that the asidentified
sumption of
with
helps
divine
intelligence
the universal laws of nature in no the

I
way
But
explanation
of the
universe.
is
what
desire to
emphasize to-day
equally
lo5
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

and
far less familiar,
NEW
NAMES.
by
true
and that
is,
that
rejecting the idea of such an intelligence
we
we
do not
to
at all set aside the
problem which used

in
be represented to us
that
way
merely set aside one mode of regarding that

problem.
nificant
The
fact
problem,
I
or
rather
the
sigit
for
am
not suggesting that
can be explained away

of a
is
that
we
are part
huge system which we did not make and

control,
cannot
and of which not only our
bodies and organic sensations, but the ideas
and habits which form the very

lives,
tissue of our
It
are functions and elements.
does not
much concern
us whether or no
its
this
system
it
has a separate mind of
own, but
does
very greatly concern us what sort of tendencies

are uppermost,
or,
whether there are any
dis-
tinct tendencies at all in
the great machinery

is
of which
result.
human
history
portion
and a
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
107
Now
is
not this in essence just
the
same
by
condition of
human
life
as that represented
the doctrine of the beneficent
and intelHgent
world
?
Creator and
Governor
seems
no few
to
of the
To
same
my mind
question,
striking
it
raise exactly the
with
off
change
whatever except
metaphors.
the
I
accessory
remember a young
man
at
University
expressing himself as shocked and alarmed at

the
determinism
involved
in
the
claim
of
it
natural science to rational prediction.
But
was asked of him whether he had not been

brought up to believe
knowledge,
in
the
divine
fore-
and why
much.
this
had not
shocked
him
in
just as
These two problems are

name, and so
it
fact
identical except in
is
with
the conception of a divinely ruling law
and of a causal system.
Some
people think that the argument from

lost all significance
Design has
owing
to
the
io8
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
discovery of natural selection, which explains
how
the fact
of adaptation,
which produces
the appearance of forethought, must necessarily

arise
it.
under mere natural causation as we know
am
unable to see that this makes any

to
difference
the
fundamental burden of the

re-
argument from design, taken as simply

lating
to
the
nature
of
the
causal
system
within which
we
find ourselves.
To assume
;
a creative intelligence does not help us

to
but
deny
it
does not help us

the
either.
might
compare
two
accounts
of
design
that
to
which supposes
intelligent forethought
on the
part of a Creator and that which relies on the
necessary operation of a causal system
two
modes of reproducing a decorative pattern

which
is
incised or in relief.
lines
To
take a pencil,
to copy,
and copy those
which you want

;
corresponds to intelligent design
to
take a
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

pencil
NEW
over
NAMES.
109
and rub
it
freely
a paper laid
upon the surface which contains the elevations

or depressions of the
pattern until they are
mechanically reproduced
by
this
process of
rubbing, corresponds to design through natural

selection.
For the
lines are in this case copied

out,
not because
we
pick them
but because
physical
they pick themselves out

nature.
"
by
their
But
am
assuming,"
exists
it
will
be
in
said, " that
the
pattern
beforehand
I
raised
or
depressed
the
lines."
Now
in
will
not insist that

selection
adaptations
exist
natural
in
must
similarly
beforehand
;
the
shape of
causal conditions
at this
point.
is
the dispute becomes verbal

is
It
enough
its
to
say that the
causal system
tion
to
such as by
necessary operain
produce the adaptations
question.
This
justifies
is
my
comparison,
is
the
point
of
which
that the one process
only somewhat
no OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
other.
"
NAMES.
So
more roundabout than the

the
far
as
question
is
it
is
concerned,
What
? "
sort of
system
to
which we belong
the two
processes are on the

their
us.
same
level for us.
Not
method but
their results are
what concern
Of
course, one accessory prejudice
is
finally
shorn off by the discovery of natural selection.
There
is
now nothing
to
suggest
that
the
universe was arranged for the gratification of

the feelings of every individual creature.
this
But
in-
was only a
even
prejudice,
and not a true

believed in
ference,
for those
who
an
intelligent
and beneficent Deity.

to
We
it,
do not
as
know enough
say that our happiness,
we from
time to time understand

the aim even
would
necessarily be
of a beneficent
Creator.
The
doctrine of eternal punishment

in
probably served a useful end

ridiculous idea,
balancing this
and checking the notion that
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES,
iii
man's happiness must necessarily be the sum
and substance of
all
things.
The
for
doctrine of
predestination, again,
allowing
fact.
metaphor,
very
fairly
represented the
The system
of things does
condemn many
can
persons, for no
reason that
we
understand, to savagery,
or criminality, or at least to incapacity for the

better part in
life.
But whether we say that intelligence created

the
universe
or
that
the
real
universe
difference
created
as
re-
intelligence,
makes no
gards what
we want
to
know.
is
We
want
to
know how
to the
far the universe
likely to
respond
needs of our consciousness both for
practice
and
in
for
theory.
is
That
it
does so
respond
life
some degree
science.
the basis both of

it
and of
And
will
if
is
cowardly to
say on principle that there must be a compassionate

it
Deity
less
who
fulfil
all
our wishes,
in
is
no
cowardly to assume
every
112
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
minute and
in
every thought that our plans
are reasonable and our knowledge of value,
without daring to defend this assumption as
a matter of principle.
I
add one most striking

It is
illustration of
what
mean.
often said, " Design
conscious
human
unless
design
Will
exists,
in
its
and
exists only, in the
and
products."
Now,
we
are careful,
confusion.
we
are here guilty of an enormous

of the greater results of
None
civilised life are
due to the human

individual's
will in the
sense of a
single
purpose
con-
sciously entertained
and pursued.
All of them
are due to an underlying relation between such

purposes, which
is
a natural fact outside the
consciousness of the individuals
who
cherish
them, and belongs to the unconscious reason
and providence of nature rather than

definite
to
the
in
foresight
of
man.
No
one man
history ever
contemplated as a purpose the
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER AEIV NAMES.

whole of what
contained
the
113
is
in
British
Constitution, the unity of the ItaHan kingdom,
the science
or philosophy
of the nineteenth
century, or the English language
and
literature.
reef,
These products grew

a relation
up, like a coral
by
of unconsciously
concerted action
between innumerable individuals, whose minds
and intentions were determined

to
in
reference
position,
one another by their

circumstances
historical
birth,
and
education.
Some
understood and purposed more than others,

but no one purposed the whole
arisen.
as of
it
has
The
great
constructions
human
history considered as wholes are natural products,
though
in all their
parts created by
in this
will
and
intelligence.
in the
No
one
room knows
life
where
will
is
nineteenth century his

fitted in.
work
be found to have
His purpose
to the general result like a brick in an arch,
or, if
he
is
a very great man, like a portion of

I
c. c.
114
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
the curve.
all
The
designer of the arch

to call
is
after
nature, or
what we used
an overun-
ruling
Providence,
whether conscious, or
it is
conscious, does not matter to us a single jot.
Now
am
confident that
the conviction
of a reasonable tendency in the universe that

gives the modern Freethinker his strength as
compared with the ancient Stoic or Epicurean,
whom
or
in
many
respects
he resembles, but
anything great
out of the
who had no working

good could
faith that
practically be
made
world, and
his
who
"
therefore relapsed into " saving
own
soul
on a non-religious basis
a thing
I
quite as possible,
able, than
and to-day much more probbasis.
doing so on a religious
do
not contemplate with equanimity the reduction

of our hope to that of keeping our wills pure
in
a hostile world.
For,
among
other reasons,
into the category of the hostile world
would
fall
the conditions and generating forces on which
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
115
we
rely for
all
the larger
human achievements.
Such a /
We
are not strangers here on earth.
view would be a retropfression into the extremest superstition of a supernatural theology.

I
.
do not believe that
ethical faith
is
faith in the
reality of the
good
if it
the spirit of a forlorn

so,
it
hope, though,
were
would
still
be the
only spirit possible for
us.
But
to-day.
it
is
not
my
purpose to draw a moral
My
object
was simply
to
insist
that
in-
by dropping the notion of a person or of an

intelligence,
we have
only shorn off some dis-
tracting accessories
faith in
from the old problem of

still
God, which
governs
life
under the
new name
2.
of faith in the reality of the good.
In the Catechism of the English Church,

instruction
in
after
duties
towards
God and
towards
tinues
"
:
our
neighbour,
the
Catechism con-
My
good
child,
know
this,
that thou art not
ii6
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk

in
the
commandments
of
God and
to
serve
Him
without His special grace;

at all times to call for
which thou
must learn
prayer."
by
diligent
Many
imply
of us will be inclined to treat these
words as unmeaning, on the ground that they

first
libel
on human
nature,
and,
secondly, a miraculous remedy.
And we
spirit of
agree with any such

at its best
is
critics
that the
man
the best
we know,
and that we do not believe

But
us,
is
it
in miracles.
really our experience that each of
as he
happens
life, is
to
be
at
any moment of
?
every day
sufficient for himself
Have
ill-
we never
fought a losing battle against
temper, despondency, cowardice, or indolence
Do we
seriously imagine that man's soul, the
much-exercised mind of each separate person
when most he
feels
his separateness, has
be-
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

come, as Mr. Swinburne
NEW
us,
NAMES.
117
tells
man's only
of justlythis to
God
Should we not run the

if
risk
appearing ridiculous
so
?
we maintained
be
If to
admit the sinfulness of man were

I
enough
for orthodoxy,
heretics.
imagine that few of us

old problem of the
fact
life
would be
conflict in
The
man's nature remains a

In
the greater
under
of the
is
every new name.

world, and
more
especially of mankind, there
something which the animal individual may or
may
may
he
call
not
or
make
his
own, a principle on which he
may
or
not lay hold, a direction in which not set his face.
may
it,
may
Whether we
with Plato, the ascent from the underor,
ground den of ignorance and passion,
with
John Bunyan, the Pilgrim's Progress from the

City of Destruction,
is
a mere affair of phrases

if
and metaphors.
to be
But
we
think that the will
good grows up
as a matter of course in
itself in
every man, and maintains
his
mind
n8 OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
without help from a greater power than

then
his,
still
we
are in a fool's paradise, and have
much
to learn
from the Catholic Church.

chief points
These were the
on which
wished to speak a word of emphatic warning.
When we
changed
read of
God and
Sin,
we must
not
think complacently to ourselves that "

all that."
is
we have
But
it
only right to subjoin a few words
in order to indicate
very generally what posi-
tive
conception
it
now seems
necessary to
hold as regards man's helplessness and the
means of
i.
grace.
is
In believing that humanity
sufficient for
itself,
we
believe that though sin or selfishness
are only too natural, yet a complete and energetic
human
life,
which
is
also natural
though
not very
common,
involves
tendency to
that to
goodness.
Although we do not think

satisfy
be good must always
our
human
long-
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

ings,
NEW
NAMES.
119
yet there are
some
of these longings
for action, for self-development, for helpfulness
which are
closely cognate with virtue.

is is
And
even where the struggle
hardest,
and the
path narrowest, the striving
seen to be in the
long run towards a fuller and more harmonious
humanity,
if
not in every case for ourselves,
then at any rate for others.

ii.
It
follows from this that the
means of
grace are no longer magical or limited, but are

as wide as
the influences which
the greater
world
animal.
exercises
upon the
individual
human
In the
tion,
first place,,
to conversion or regenera-
the birth of the spiritual
man
within the
animal or natural man, there corresponds,

that the age of miracles cess
is
now
past, the
whole proit
known
as education in so far as
deterresult
mines the normal frame of mind.

of this process
The
is
result
which
inevitable.
I20
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

he
NEW
NAMES.
educated
for
who
is
is
not well educated
is
badly
to develop the
mind
into
something
which may be compared to a permanent though
growing
structure, in
some ways analogous

and materials of
interests,
to
the body.
The
parts
this
structure are ideas

stantly reacting
and
which are con-
upon one another, and therefore

fabric.
upon the whole
Some
of them are what

;
we
call
predominant or leading ideas

less systematic,
they are
more or
and therefore have a
prevailing interest and form the backbone or
framework of the mind.

sitory,
Others are more tranin
though not necessarily weaker
im-
mediate attractiveness.
interest,
Every idea has some

if
and probably,
action.
left
to
itself,
wotild
produce
But
all
real action issues, of
course, from the
whole
state of the
mind
ac-
cording as
its
parts or elements are influencing
one another
at
every given moment.

first.
Everything depends for the individual,
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
121
on the reasonableness, and, secondly, on the

strength of the general framework or structure
of the mind.
Do
his
dominant ideas represent
a reasonable view and purpose
that
is,
do
they grasp the larger or spiritual humanity,

and, have they force to maintain the balance of
his
mind against the shocks
of
life ?
Heredity
;
as well as education affect this issue
and both
of these must be considered as the grace of the
universe to
the individual.
in
Fortunately, this
grace
is
exercised
an increasing measure
throuofh the action of man.

startling,
But
it
remains
and
think ennobling, to see that
each man's goodness consists,
now
as ever, in
being- the active incarnation of ideas that reach
beyond
his
personal
life.
believe
I
that
if
'
should convey most truly what
mean
were
to say,
in
the limited sense which the
context indicates, that man's goodness consists

in
being effectually inspired by Divine ideas.
122
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
Some one may

the same
liberty
here be troubled by questions

will,
about the freedom of the
which are exactly
now
that
they were when man's

to
conflict
was
thought
I
with
God's
omnipotence.
can to-day only suggest in

is
passing that in describing what
implied by
human
action
we
are not denying that
man
is
able to act.
tific
For well known reasons a
scien-
description of any fact constantly sounds
like a denial of that fact.

If
education corresponds
is
to
conversion or
regeneration, what
life
I
there in normal civilised

1
that corresponds to the prayer for grace
should answer, in general terms, the openall
ness to
influences which help the spiritual
frame of mind, that should have been formed
by education,
to hold
its
own.
This openness may be described as a kind

of reflection, though not
kind.
It is
all
reflection
is
of this
a saying that those
who
deliberate
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

are
NEW
is
NAMES.
123
lost,
and though impulse
probably more
often dangerous than deliberation, yet reflection
may mean perhaps

sophistry.
at times only playing with

reflection
So
I
must designate the
of which
am
speaking by the prosaic name

Its
of reflection upon reality.
nature
It is
is
clear
from what has been already
said.
simply
the process by which the mental frame maintains

its
equilibrium, and after or in spite of the

its
shock of passion asserts
true position toto
wards the larger world, as the needle points

the pole.
in
Perhaps such reflection has more

with
the
common
we
higher sorts of prayer
than
are accustomed to realise.
The
es-
sence of prayer was to bring two things into

unison
'
the
will of
God and
the will of man.

that prayer
Superstition imagined, no
doubt,
could change the will of

spiritually
God
but the more

^
minded have always understood that
the will which must be modified in prayer was
124
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
or
the will of man.
Prayer therefore, for
us,
what
have not been afraid to
call reflection,
choosing the plainest language, however prosaic,
consists in
to
opening our minds
in
every
way
the reality of the good.
There are
many
it is
instruments useful to this purpose, which
not
my
place to enumerate to those

I.
who
have more experience than

there
is
Often where
is
folly
;
or temptation there
food, rest, fresh air, a
physical
disturbance
occupation,
restore the
change of
may be
the remedies
needed
is
to
mental balance.
;
Work
some-
times a safeguard
there
is
an old saying that
he who labours prays.

reason for which
ful
all
But the underlying
these things
in
may be
is
use-
in
their turn
;
and
is
their
degree
one
and the same

spiritual
it
the reinforcement of the
frame
the restoration of control to

all
those guiding ideas which link

the moral
sane
If
life
to
and physical order.
work, for
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER

example,
the
NEW
is
NAMES.
125
is
specific,
it
not
because
work hinders thought or deadens feeHng, but

because, being a pledge of the reality of the
moral world,
it
diffuses a sense of this realitysoul.
over the distracted

"
Are
not,"
it
will
be asked, "are not human
love and sympathy
among
the most powerful

are, but,
means of grace
"
Doubtless they
It
is
again, only as instruments.
possible for
it is
them
for
to be
morbid or sentimental
possible
selfish-
them
to
encourage vanity or foster
ness.
It is
when they reawaken and
reinforce
the sense of a definite oneness with others, of
a place which
we hold
in
the
human
it,
family
with claims and functions laid upon
that the
emotions of love and friendship are able to do

the
work of savine
erace.
sugr-
Enouo-h has been said to indicate the

gestion that
I
desired to convey.
The
life
over-
shadowing conditions of
human
remain
126
OLD PROBLEMS UNDER
NEW
NAMES.
pretty
much what they always have
been.
A
for
reasonable faith and sufficient moral strength

are
now
as always what
we
need.
to
And
both one and the other
we have
go beyond
our separate animal selves, and to admit our
dependence upon, while asserting our oneness

with, the larger order
around
us.
V.
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?^
To
begin with,
is
it
worth while to
?
talk at
lengfth
about a mere name
Does
it
much
matter whether
not
?
we
call
I
ourselves Agnostics or
This depends,
suppose, on the depth
and clearness of meaning which a name possesses.

in
And when we
first
are not very far
removed
it
time from the
origin of the name,
is
likely
enough that
sense,
I
its
meaning
deep
if
will
be,
in
popular
both
and
there
clear.
is
For
example,
do not know
just
necessarily
much meaning
Christian
;
now
it
in
calling oneself a
life
but
when
might cost you your
Delivered at North Islington Liberal Club.
128
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
do
SO,
to
there
was of course a good deal of
point in this denomination.
Now
It
is
the term Agnostic
is
of recent origin.
not long since

to
Professor Huxley,
it,
who
in
claims
have
article,^
it.
invented
explained
magazine
why he
did so, and what he

to a
meant by
It
seems that he belonged
philosophical society, together with a
number
of eminent
men
of various theological opinions,
and each of these persons had a denomination
by which he could
call
himself such as Catholic

it
or Deist or Unitarian, or whatever
might
be.
So the
vented
Professor, partly,
think, in jest, in-
for himself the title Agnostic,
meaning
that he pretended to no
knowledge or theories
of a kind which claim to solve the problem of

existence,
knowledge, that
is,
more
especially,
of a philosophical or theological kind, dealing

^
See Huxley's "Essays on Controverted Questions," pp.

cf. p.
355, 356,
331.
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
129
with the unseen or future world as conceived
by
theologians.
Now
also a
this is a pretty clear
meaning, and
it
it is
somewhat deep meaning, because

you think
it
im-
plies that
title,
desirable to take your

in the intellectual world,
and rank yourself
according to your attitude on this question of a

supernatural order of things.
There are not so

think important
very
many
to
matters which
we
enough
name
ourselves after in this way.

political
Englishmen usually have a

profession of
faith,
name
or
Tory, Radical, or what not,

it
and
in the
modern world generally
has be-
come
the custom to have a religious
name
or
profession of faith
tant or
Christianperhaps ProtesOf Catholic Unitarian, or

Positivist
reli-
course this has not always been so with
gion
do not see how a man could have a

denomination
he might
call
reliofious
in
ancient
Greece or
Rome
c. c.
himself a Stoic or an
130
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
I
Epicurean, but
do not suppose that every one

opinion
of
that
held any private

strongly as to
kind
title.
so
I
make him
take such a
only want to point out that to take a denominational title of this
kind
is
a step which implies
a good deal.
The
title
Agnostic, then, has a

parts.
meaning made up of two

I.
It
means
in
that you
want
to call yourself
by
name
respect of your attitude to the un-
seen world of theology
the
supernatural, or,
more broadly, the

"
spiritual
world.
"
Because
ignorant
"
Agnostic
"
does not mean merely

if
it
in
general:
meant
that,
all
reasonably
to
modest people would be very willing

that they
admit
were Agnostics even about very im-
portant matters,
and
if
the
term may really
mean
^
"critical,"^
about everything.
But when
word
;
Op.
cit.,
p. 362, Prof.
Huxley seems
is
to assign the
this
meaning.
But the attempt

special
not quite satisfactory
no
one would give himself a
name, implying absence of
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
a
131
man speaks
'^
for
example of the
religion of
Agnosticism
he does not mean by Agnosti-
cism our ignorance in general, but he means
our
ignorance
of
to
it
certain
specific
matters,
;
which we used
be supposed to know
shortly,
and
these are, to put
what
have called
the
supernatural
world, the subject-matter of
old-fashioned theology.
You have an
opinion
about this supernatural world, and you think

this
opinion so
important, that you are pretitle
pared to accept a
cates
it.
or formula which indihalf of
This
is
the
first
what Ao-nos-
knowledge, simply to indicate that he
is
faithful
to the
It
is
methods and
plain
limits
which constitute knowledge.
on reading the whole essay and observing the misused

(p.
quotation from Kant
354) that the author holds the
lopping away of a spiritual world as conceived by theologians to be a
more important aspect of thought than the
recognition of that world within the range of
human
But
life
by
the greatest philosophers from Socrates downwards.

^
Prof.
Huxley favours no such conception.
it
is
current idea, and as such
may be examined.
132
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
and
it is
ticism means,
because of
this
meaning
I
and
this alone that
care to criticise
it.
am
in
not objecting to a
man
being an Agnostic
opinion, but to his calling himself an

in the
Agnostic
sense that the
name
is
to
indicate his
attitude with reference to the spiritual world.
And
here, as
judge from
his phrase respecti.e.,

I
ing " the problem of existence,"

the question what
fessor
I
presume,
Pro-
makes
life
worth
living,
Huxley
is
Agnostic
in the
sense to which
demur.
2.
And
in
the second half of the meaning conopinion, which

is
sists
the nature of this

;
negative
you think that nothing can be known

in
about the matter
question,
and either you
are prepared to fight against the idea that
we
can
sial
know anything about

Agnosticism
it
this
is
controverto e7tjoy
is
or
you are prepared
the mystery of the Unknowable, which
senti-
mental Agnosticism, and
suppose
is
indicated
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
by such a phrase as
knowable."
"
133
the
Worship of the UnI
Speaking
for myself,
can underI
stand controversial Agnosticism, but
cannot
understand sentimental Ao^nosticism.
However
that
may
be, these
are the two

;
halves of the meaning of Agnosticism
first,
you rank yourself according

this
to
your attitude on
is
matter
and secondly, your attitude
negative.
Now
up
to this point
is
have travelled the
same road which

defender of the
often taken by the
modern
he
is
faith.
But
at this point
apt to execute one or two cunning gyrations
which end by landing
his follower, a little
out
I
of breath, in the old pathway of orthodoxy.
can indicate his track
in
a few lines of verse,

in "
borrowed from Arthur Huo^h Clouorh
The
Shadow," a poem relating a dream that the

ghost of Jesus came to the grave and declared
there had been no resurrection
:
134
^^-^
^^
AGNOSTICS?
"
And And
English canons heard,

quietly
demurred
Religion rests on evidence, of course,
And on
enquiry we must put no force

still,
Difficulties
upon whatever ground,

certain, to
Were likely, almost The Theist scheme,

Must with or
And,
till
be found.
the Pantheist
and
all.
fall.
e'en before the Christian
the truth
seemed plainer
to
our eyes,
To
As
disturb faith were surely

for the shade,
most unwise.
"
who
trusted such narration,

?
Except, of course, in ancient revelation
So long
more
out of
as
you adhere
if
to
your Agnosticism,
especially
it
you
try to
make something
and so get into sentimental Agnosti-
cism, so long
you
will
go on finding that the
pea has got back under the old thimble, and

that instead of going forward into freedom you
are back in the bondage of a heathen orthodoxy,
worshipping the unknown God.
My
purpose, then, this evening

that,
in
is
to suggest
it
another track
m.y opinion,
is
time
the
for us to take, so as to get clean
away from
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
labyrinth of sophistry which Hes around
frontier of the so-called
135
this
unknown.
believe
that
the
time has come to say in so

for
many
and
lies
words that
us the
Unknowable
is
must be nothing, and that our business

with the
life
and with the good that we know,
and with what can be made of them.

ticism at best
is
Agnos-
self-defence,
and
little
good
look-
work can be done while you are on the

out for an enemy.
Now
if
I
you would probably think

to
in
it
very odd
were
say that
Huxley and Herbert

like
Spencer are
one respect
monuments
of
an
effete
orthodoxy.
And
this,
yet, surely,
nothing
lay
can be plainer than
that
we cannot we
the ghost of orthodoxy so long as
take our
denomination even from our ignorance of the

matters
this,
of orthodox
fix
belief.
While you do
you
your eyes, not on the place where

is,
the spiritual world really
but on the place
136
ARE WE AGNOSTICS
to think
it
where men used

your gaze
is
was
and when
is
thus fixed on emptiness, there
always danger of hallucination.
When
hear
of the Religion of Agnosticism and the ship of the Unknowable,

lines in
I
Wor-
am
haunted by the
Hamlet
!
" Alas
How
is it
with you
"
?
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And
with the incorporal air do hold discourse
What
complain
of,
then,
in
the writings
of these eminent men, in so far as they deal
with the spiritual world or the world of

or the world above sense,
to
is
reality,
that there
little
seems
me
to
be so
little
in them, so
attempt
to grasp
and put
in
organised form those chief

his
positive realities
by
apprehension of which
is, is
man
differs
from animals, that

of the senses.
I
raised
above
the mere
doctrine
life
is,
This thinness of
caused by the
think,
directly
Agnostic attitude, and cannot give place to a
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
richer culture until the attitude of ignorance
137
is
exchanged
Agnostic
for
an attitude of knowledge.
An
may
reply to this by saying that of

is
course every negative

affirmative,
founded upon some

say
'
and that
if
we
we do
not
know
..
the imaginary spiritual world, that
is
just be-
cause
we do know
the real spiritual world, the

truth.
world of beauty, and goodness, and
Now,
if
any one says

I
that,
quite agree
with him, and
only rejoin, "
Has
not the time

;
come
to
make your
affirmative explicit
that
is,
to say, to the best of

tively
your power, what posiIt

is
you do mean?"
the affirmative
inspires
;
that
wins,
and convinces, and
why
go on throughout a whole century protesting

against exploded mistakes,
till
the
new sermon
?
becomes
context
just about as dull as the old

I
In this
lines
always think of Goethe's
to
America
138
ARE
"
IVE
AGNOSTICS?
Thou art happier, America, Than our old continent Thou hast no fantastic ruins,
No
Thou
castles torn
and
rent.
art
not disturbed in heart

life's
At time of
best fruit
By
'
idle recollection
profitless dispute."
And
If,
as
may
well be, there

set
is
no longer
any-
one connected
of doctrines which are to

lives,
form the centre and pivot of our

then,
I
why,
think, the time has
come
to say so,
and
to point out how,
and
in
what more varied

the great spiritual
shape,
ideas
human
and
life
inherits
interests.
My
own
impression
is
that our Agnostics have themselves to
some
extent lost their way, and that their delay in
going
forward
in
I
proceeds from not

to
precisely
It
is
knowincr
here that
tion,
w^hich direction
move.
wish to express a strong convic-
and urge a forward movement.
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
Never
empty.
more.
lives
It
139
fear
that
life
is
likely
it
to
become
has
now all
that
ever has had, and
The more
experience
we
gain of great
find that
and great thoughts, the more we

all
they
belong to the most real and tangible
truths of every-day experience.

tion
is
Even imagina-
greatest not
by inventing the form, but
by penetrating the substance.

people
Always
distrust
who
tell
you that the great men have

life
despised this
and
this
world,
and have
said that there
was no
;
truth or reality to be
found
in
them
distrust people
is
who
tell
you
that the basis of morality
something or other
well,
;
very deep, as
if it
was down a
and had
to
be fetched up by philosophers
distrust people
and
in general,
who
try to
make you
believe
that very important matters are to be looked for
a long
way
off.
This
is
the old trick of con-
necting faith with credulity, which Sir Walter

Scott so wittily puts into the
mouth of the Ger-
140
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
swindler.
"
man
Ah
"
!
says
Herman
it
Douster-
swivel, in the " Antiquary," "
is
the want of
creduhty
what
is
you
call
faith,
that spoils the
great enterprise."
The
identification
of
faith
with credulity
characteristic of the knave, as

is
that of imagination with falsehood

istic
character-
of the
fool.
Never believe
that Paul or
it
Plato or
Dante or even Milton had
for their
aim
to
remove men's thoughts and hopes
to a
/
detached and distant paradise.

just the opposite
Their task was
catching
at the notion of a
future
and separate world,
attractive
to
it
the
human
fancy of their times, they used
as an
instrument to rouse mankind to the meaning

of the world in which they lived.
life,
The
is
future
the happy hunting
ground,
really
an
idea of heathen origin.

tive Christian doctrine
The new and

was the
distinc-
future golden
age on earth, and the revelation of divinity in

the
human
spirit.
And
this
depth of insight
is
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
the
141
reason
why, though the supernatural

us,
is
gone from
yet the nature which hves in the

will
works of these great leaders

to
never cease
all
mould the hearts of men.
And, as we
know, with Shakespeare and Goethe no such

explanation
is
necessary.
They
are the direct
interpreters of humanity.
So
it
always appears to
me
that of the
two
assertions which the term Agnostic implies the

first is
doubtful,
first
and the second
false.
The
assertion, that
we need
is
name
for
It
our moral or religious attitude,

is
doubtful.
not certain, to
my
mind, that there will be

sufficiently distinguished
in future
any doctrines
among
the numerous important

life,
principles
of
human
to
make
it
worth any one's while to
accept a denomination from them.
Whatever
has been true, no doubt
is
true,
and whatever
great motives Saint Paul or Saint Francis or
Dante found
in
human
life,
exist,
we may be
142
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
quite sure, so far as they are truly noble, for us as for them.
The long
discipline of the past
has not been thrown away.
The
to
law,
Saint
Paul
to
said,
was a schoolmaster
bring
men
Christ,
and the Christianity of eighteen

has
hundred years
bring
been a schoolmaster to
I
men
to freedom.
will
not assert that
we
shall continue, as great
men have
proposed,
to use the
terms of orthodox religion, God,
Worship, Immortality, with reference to the

guiding characteristics of our purely
life.
human
suppose
But we should be very
foolish to
that the change of language involves a change
of substance,
and that we are
to
throw away
what we have so
painfully acquired, the

evil.
knowconfalse
in
ledge of good and

trast
We
may now
and the
will of
eood and
evil
as the true
self of
man, rather than as the

agrainst
God
to
man
fio-htingf
original
is
sin
but
very great extent this
mere matter of
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
143
phrase and of language, and the essential fact

remains, and grows clearer day by day
and
century by century, that

takes up a spirit and a
in
goodness a
man
is
way
of living which
greater than, and carries him
away
from, the
self,
easy-going purposes of his visible animal

while
life
it is
only in wickedness or savagery that
even
tries to limit itself
by the
calls of
our
sensuous nature.
Does any man wish
to see a
far nobler miracle than the Resurrection,
^not
the recallino- of a dead orgfanism to

elevation of an animal soul into
life,
but the
membership of
?
the supra-sensuous or spiritual world

let
Then
him
observe the education of his child.
The
metaphors of old religion may now seem awk-
ward and erroneous, but

not at
all
their lanofuaofe
was
too strong for the facts which

to see.
we
must learn
But
yet,
as
we
maintain to-day,
life
we
have
learnt at last to read the facts of
without
144
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
the guidance of rubrics and ceremonies and
symbols.
If
this
is
so,
do not quite see
where we are going
to get our denominational
or religious appellation, which would naturally

arise
from the rubrics

I
or
symbols that we
might employ.
civilised
cannot well conceive that the

put
its
world
will
neck into the yoke
of fresh quasi-religious societies,
when
it
has
once broken with allegories and looked plain

facts in the face.
We
do not think any longer

to goodness, and<
in
that there
is
any royal road
therefore
can see no use
taking a
name
from our own special path.
For the sake of

mention
a
illustration,
however,
will
movement and denomination

interest,
in
which many good people take an

of which
and
we
here to-day are especially bound

If
to speak with respect.
any one
feels that
he must have a moral denomination, and that
he musi have the sympathy and co-operation
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
145
of like-minded people on a somewhat general

basis,
then he might find an example of the
sort of union he requires in the Ethical
move-
ment.
The term
indicate just
interests of
Ethical
that
life,
is,
suppose, intended to
positive
devotion
to
great
which the phrase Agnostic

Its philosophical
seems
to miss.
it
associations
make
if
it
little
abstract
to
and unattractive, and
were construed
mean
that the ethical
philosopher was to be the priest or director of
mankind,
can
imagine
nothing
more
de-
grading or more reactionary.
But every term

its
must acquire
its
meaning from
is
usage
and
on
the usage of this term
simply to
insist
duty and character, without insisting on any

supernatural agencies or expectations.
will
Time
such
show,
of
course,
in
whether
some
movement, or
some form a non-doctrinal

be needed
in
Christianity, will
c. c.
the future by
146
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
numbers of people
I
large
fort.
for strength
it.
and com-
do not myself believe
In a time of
transition,
when, owing to the accidental con-
ditions of the social
medium
in
which we
live,
very
many
persons are unable to find the work

intellectual
and sympathy and the

which they need,
it
nutriment
is
certainly useful to
have
a sort of directory of names by which people
can be guided to that particular co-operation
which they may require.

to
But
look forward
the day
when
all
these sects and societies
and churches
robust
"
shall
fade
away before
the
more
conception
faith,"
of enlightened
citizenship.
said,
My
as
I
Turgenieff has
"
is
in
civilisation,
and
require no further creed."

first
Then
do not believe that the

is
point
implied in Agnosticism
is
to be accepted
that
reli-
to say,
that
we need
all.
a religious or moral
denomination at
But, secondly, even
if
there
is
to
be a
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
gious or moral denomination,
it
147
will
not be a
is
negative one.
The
good
attitude of not-knowing
logical reasons the
one which
is
for
world
absolutely incapable of maintaining.

fills
The
" not-
negation
this "
up as
it
is
used,
and the
expresses
Vv'e
itself
is
as
a positive
"that."
What
which
want
a sympathetic study and per-
ception of that greatness of our

is
human
past,
is
I
continuous with the present, and
the
re-
foundation of our hopes for the future.
member many
friend
years
ago discussing with a

for
the
alleged
necessity,
I
morals,
to
of
individual immortality.
"
had observed
him:
Surely
it
is
not true, what they say, that one

less
would think
tions
if
highly of duties and affecall
one believed they were

"
to
"
end with
death
"
Ah, no
"
!
he replied
how much
for
more thoughtful and tender one would be

others,
when one
reflected that here
was one's
only chance, and neglect could never be atoned
148
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
Something
like this
is
for."
true
about the
past,
race as about the individual.

present,
The human
is
and future are
all
that
ours,
and of
is
these the future does not yet exist, but

in the
all
still
life,
making.
to
Thus
all
our material of
we have
in
work with
in constructing the
future, lies
conditions and forces which are

past,
only
known
to us through the
is itself
and our
knowledge of which
It is
among
the forces.
almost a terrible reflection that each gen-
eration of
men
is
in
turn
the
bearer of the
cup into which has been poured the whole

inheritance of mankind.
The very
is
perception that this
is so,
that there
no supernatural omnipotence to replace our

is
neglect of duty,
that the ideal
reality. so,
is
in
other words a perception
not apart from, but one with

this to
And
we
having apprehended
shall
be
surely
is
go on from saying
" to
" the
"
ideal
not apart from the real
saying
the
ARE WE AGNOSTICSf
ideal
is
149
given
in
the real here and here and
here."
will
For
positive effort,
and strenuous
effort,
always be needed to apprehend the ideal

I
reality.
said,
the reality
;
is
near
us, is
it
not
to
separate and remote
but
how hard
in the
is
apprehend what stares you
face.
"
hundred men can

" for
talk,"
John Ruskin has
said,
one who can think, but a thousand men
can think for one

older,
who can
little
see."
As we grow
is
however, some
vision
forced upon
learn the
us
by suffering and experience.
We
value of goodness, and of wisdom, and of the

strong
will.
In our
own
efforts to explain
thino^s
how
we
feel that
such and suchlike
alone are
of solid importance,
we can sympathise with
the picture language of great teachers which

neither the world nor they themselves have at
the time found absolutely clear.

that goodness
is
We
exclaim
the one real thing, wherever
you
find
it;
that the highest beauty, but not
ISO
ARE WE AGNOSTICS
is
the mere stimulation of the senses,

thing to live and die for
reality
;
the real
that
knowledge of
;
needs patience and penetration

live in a
and
that
most men
world of indolent guess

is
work and
fancies.
This
the sort of truth,
partly burnt into even our
common minds by
toil,
long experience and persistent
which the
thinker or prophet labours to impress upon his

generation.
half an ear,
But
his
generation
"
listens
is
with
and murmurs,
;
Oh, he
talking
sheer metaphysics
he
is
is
saying that
my
enjoy-
ment of
my
dinner
not a
is
reality,
;
but that
saying,
General Gordon's character

too, that there is a real
he
is
beauty which
am
in-
capable of seeing
an
obvious absurdity, for
have
he
is
not a couple of eyes and an opera-glass?

I
saying, further, that
cannot know anyself-
thinor
about
realities
without labour and

in
denial
and patient practice

is
understanding,
I
which
a scandalous idea, because
can use
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
a dictionary like any one else."
sort of
I
151
This
is
the
way
in
which people refute Plato.
am
trying to point out

is
how much
positive
work there
for each of us to do.

;
There are
the two worlds
neither of
them indeed superit
natural, but both
human
yet
was a
far easier
task to pass from a of paradise than

it
dream of sense
is
to a
dream
to pass
from a dream of
intelligence.
I
sense
to
the
I
wakening of the
Therefore
the world
it
grow impatient when
read about
we do
not know, and what a gain

"
is
to us to
sir
"
!
realise our ignorance.

I
Good
Heavens,
"
feel
inclined to remonstrate,
to
do devote your acuteness
making
light
clear
something of value, to casting some

the past, or to unravelling the present."
upon
some perplexity of
is
And
believe that the world

if
with me, and that whatever name,

take for
its
any,
it
may
ethical banner,
we
shall
soon have
all
heard the
last
of Agnosticism.
We
know
152
ARE WE AGNOSTICS
Goethe's famous outburst against the Agnostic

sentimentalism of his time
"
:
They
say,"
he wrote,
" Great nature's inmost heart
No human
soul
may know
her outward part
to show."
Thrice-blest to
whom
She condescends
" This cant I've listened to for sixty years,
And
mutter cursing when
it
meets
my
ears,
Nature has neither husk nor
heart,
She shows her But one
all in
every part
is
distinction
eternal,
If thou thyself art
husk or kernel."
One
reservation, however,
must make,
standpoint.
to
I
leave no doubt upon
my
critical
am, as
have implied, a man of peace, and
desire that
lested, to
we may devote
ourselves,
unmo-
the progressive
work of the world.

will
But the most peaceable of men

volver
so far
if
buy a
if,
re-
brigands are abroad
and
or in
in
as,
we
are
still
interfered with
our
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
153
peaceable endeavours by the " stand and deliver " of the obstructive,
whether
in
education
or in research or in any matter of grave im-
portance to national or
human
welfare,
I
then
and so
far
fall
back on the position
had
abandoned, and say, as a convenient close to

discussion, "
My
It
good
a
sir, it is
no
of
less
use,
am an
all
Agnostic."
things to
all
is
new way
is
becoming
men, but
no
necessary at
times than that which Paul recommended.
But
sion.
cannot conclude with such an admisbattle,
This old simile of a
drawn from
Jewish ideas, and especially perhaps from the

Revelation of John, and
tradition
consecrated by the
of that very church militant against

it
which we are apt to turn
to-day,
idea,
is
itself,
more than any other orthodox

to the
inadequate
problems of the present.

is
Intellectually
speaking, there
in
something easy and indolent

fight.
a good stand-up
You have
only to
154
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
L
.
say sharp
and nasty things
you are not

all
is
troubled with the most laborious of

the effort to speak the truth
;
efforts,
battle
in
fact
the acutest form of wzûnderstanding, and frees us from the
human and
intelligent labour of
construction, of organisation, of comprehension.

It is easiest to criticise, said
one of the world's
greatest thinkers, harder to understand, hardest
of
all
to produce.
The
idea of a battle holds
up as virtue the foregone conclusion and the

blind persistence which
make
the picturesque
to
metaphor of an army so dear

of superstition.
every form
as with the
With argument,
is
sword, fighting
will not think.
the resource of the
man who
The
ideal of to-day
I
is
something nobler than
the battle-field.
at
was looking not long ago
an old book which gave
me many good
a work of great
story.
thoughts in boyhood
genius, but an honest
not
and kindly English
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
"
155
Tom
Brown's
;
School
Days," by
Thomas
Hughes
dream,
to
and
came upon a
description of a
in
which one of the boys was supposed
have had a sort of moral revelation,

that
dream
he saw
all
his
friends
and the
people he
knew
about,
all
among
countless multiin
tudes of others,
doing their part
some
great work, and at last he

self also,
seemed
to see him-
doing ever so
little
a part in the great
work.
This allegory seems to
me
to
sound a
nobler and
"
more
intellectual strain
soldiers.
than that of
to
Onward, Christian
"
!
Marching as
war
Patience, initiative, co-operation, com-
prehension, faith
these
are the qualities of a

to us not
man
and these are suggested
by the
march against an enemy, but by the task which

has to be contrived and adjusted in concert
with others whose methods and whose capacities differ
from our own.
We
do not here
escape from dispute, nor even from quarrel and
156
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
but
it
recrimination
is
the dispute and the are divided in
quarrel of reasonable
men who
opinion about a process or a minor purpose,
and who
will
not rest
till
they strike out a
way
by which
their
I
their dispute
may be
decided and
work may proceed.

I
think that, so far as

in
am
concerned, very
of the
few campaigns
the
history
world
would
fire
my
moral imagination so effectually
as the industrial enterprise, recently completed,
of bridging the
estuary of the
river
Forth.
Those who have read the address on the subject delivered

to
a large audience of working
men
at
Newcastle during: the meeting of the
British Association in 1889,
must have
felt
the
peculiar inspiration that

structive undertaking
responsibility
in
springs from a con-
which all have had

all
thrown upon them, and

It
is
have
acquitted themselves well.

the
not so
much
distinguished
engineer and the wealthy
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
firm of metal workers
157
who morally
Interest one,
as the minor groups of mechanics who, working
under new and most trying conditions, have

displayed, as
we
are told, from day to day an

initiative,
extraordinary degree of courage,

contrivance.
and
Mrs.
Browning^ has
if
satirised
our
ag-e
as
" Little thinking
we work our
it
souls as nobly
as our iron."
Would
have been too captious

if
a question to put to the poetess,
one could
have asked
iron nobly,
souls
her,
"Is
it
possible to
work our
and not
in
It
doing so to work our

is
nobly too 1"
true,
however, that
not the value
nor the weight of metal, but

character In-wrought in the
it
only the
human
structure can give
nobility to
the
eye of
reason
and
It
Is
thus understood
as a monu-
ment, that
operation
is,
of courage and of reasonable co-
that
any such gigantic mechanical
158
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
may
serve as an allegory of the
us.
undertaking
moral enterprises before
Let us then, taking example from the bridge

builders,
consider our
life
in
the light
of a
positive
and reasonable organisation of
interests
and purposes.
Let every man, living to begin
with in the duties of an honourable citizenship, seek out for himself and for his circle the most
rational adjustment of conduct,
interests,
if
and the highest

his view.
which come within
And
he chooses to busy himself with the history
a most worthy and human subject him always ask himself not how of study
of opinion
let
I
"
much can
"
condemn
I
as having been false," but

is
how much do
inherit that
true
"
remem-
bering that he
the material
is
accountable to posterity for

is
which
handed down
this
to
him.
to
Some knowledge
moral
faith
;
of
kind
well
to
is
helpful
all
men do
mind
learn some-
thing of the wider
of humanity.
But
if
ARE WE AGNOSTICS?
159
such Study meant a condemnation of the past
and a complacent embracing of our own emptydenials, then

it
would be a worthless study

far better
and
it
would be
to
plunge into the

direct ex-
present,
and merely
to learn
by the
perience of to-day.
In
either case,
whether
through historical
insight
and sympathy, or
merely through the experience born of high

aims and reasonable endeavours, we
shall
be
able to forget our Agnosticism, and to say with
Goethe,
"
How wide
For time
is
is
my inheritance, how spacious, how sublime, my inheritance, the field I till is time."
VI.
THE COMMUNICATION OF MORAL IDEAS AS A FUNCTION OF AN ETHICAL SOCIETY}

This
cussed
is
a subject which has been

in private
much
it
dis-
among
us,
and when
was
suggested that there should be lectures upon

the
it
work
of an Ethical Society,
profitable,
this
thought that
inter-
might be
one evening, to
change ideas on
our operations.
It is in
most
difficult
aspect of
great part a practical question, and

for
I
is
very
ill-fitted
it
dogmatic treatment
and
in
dealing with
feel
more
especially the truth
of what a friend observed to
me
the other day.
Delivered at Essex Hall for the
London
Ethical Society.
THE COMMUNICATION OF MORAL IDEAS.

"
i6i
You know," he
said, "
think
all
preaching
has a certain
afifinity to
it is
bad manners."
Then,
all
on the other hand,
of no use talking at
;
unless one speaks pretty freely
so
wish to
throw out quite boldly the suggestions that

present
themselves to me,
I
and
to
illustrate
them
as distinctly as
can, just in order that

if
people
said
may
think over such things,

to them;
what
is
comes home
it
and
if
not,
they can
pass
by.
is
Everything
contagious.
We
are
all
of us
always communicating ideas, and more especially
moral ideas, and

Society
could
it
might be said that an

exist
Ethical
without
making
any
special attempt in this direction
by platform
;
utterances or by teaching the
young
it
might
exist for various classes of useful work, or as a
federation of
more
limited organizations, united
only by the actual definite sympathy of fellow-
workers
c. c.
and by such an existence
it
would
i62
THE COMMUNICATION OF MORAL IDEAS

through
its
Still,
work, be communicating moral
ideas.
But the
ethical
movement has had from

its
the
beginning a point of view which
members
a more
have been desirous
to
communicate
in
or less general form.
And, perhaps, assuming
that the existence of societies with so wide a
purpose as that of the ethical movement

itself desirable,
it
is
in
is
further inevitable that the
attempt to communicate moral ideas should

take,
among
;
other forms, that of teaching or of
lecturing
otherwise, the comprehensiveness of
the ethical purpose might perhaps destroy cohesion, for
no purely
practical organization can
effectively maintain so
extended an aim as that
of promoting good
life.
benevolent noblephilanthropic
man, who lent
his
house for
many
purposes, used to exact from every visitor a

contribution of one shilling for the " Universal
Beneficent
Society."
This idea was always
AS A FUNCTION OF AN ETHICAL SOCIETY.

and properly
ridiculed.
163
You
cannot have a
in general.
its
practical society for
improving things
Practical
operations must form each

if
own
organization, and
you want
to retain in unity
a number of separate working branches, then

it
may be
desirable to
make some attempt
at
expressing and communicating such moral ideas

as represent the spirit of your action.
tions
Objec-
may be
it
raised against
any form of words,

to doubt
and
has occurred to
me sometimes
"
whether the term "ethical

ambiguity,
is
wholly free from
when taken
to indicate the concrete,
though
ideal,
purpose which
we
of the
new
re-
formation recognise as our
common
" in
property.
The word
has an appearance of alluding to
" ethics " or "

I
moral philosophy
way which
am
obliged to deprecate on theoretical and
practical
will,
I
grounds, which
the
present
lecture
hope,
make
plain.
But those who have
the capacity to initiate a
movement have
the
i64

and any one whose petty
right to christen
it
scruples about the use of a technical phrase
seem
his
likely to deter
him from co-operating
in
degree with an
effort
which has substantial
value should, as Aristotle would have advised

him,
" listen
I
to
what Hesiod
says,"
in
lines
which
should like to see set up as a motto
in all places
where men meet
for action
and
deliberation,
"
Supreme
But he
is
he whose wit meets every need.

is
And good
he who wise advice
will
heed
that cannot teach, nor will not learn,
He
is
a fool that
no man's wage should earn."
We
now have
this ethical
movement, which
It
evidently meets a certain need.
has brought
it
us together, and
we
therefore think
desirable
not merely to work, but to utter here and else-
where,
in plain in
language, for the furtherance of
our purpose
as
coming together, such matters
may
best promote the spread of an enlight-
ened moral it v.

How,
then, not merely
activity,
165
by example and by
ordinary civic
lecturing-, are
I
but
by teaching and
?
moral ideas to be communicated
will
begin by considering three kinds of

I
suggestions, which
have gathered from private

is
communications, and from observing what

actually attempted
(i)
by various agencies.
One
friend,
who
permits
me
to refer to
a conception on which he has expended

patient reflection, has formulated a
much
for
scheme
bringing together the best heads of
all civilized
nations, to consider salient questions or cases
of
reflective
morality,
their
judgment upon
backed by
which should then become

their
public,
authority,
for
the
improvement of the
general standard and of the general practice.
Now,
will
not urge, as a
final
objection
is
against such a scheme, that authority

structive to free morality, in
de-
which every man
must be
his
own
tribunal,
because
my
friend
i66
only intended that the precepts to be thus for-
mulated should come before the world with a

certain weight, entitling
them
to consideration.
And
this,
of course, would be a perfectly fair
use of moral influence.

that
I
But
will
say at once
feel
compelled to conclude that a further
form of
this
same
difficulty
would be
fatal to
the conception, in the precise
mode
in
which
it
presented
supposes,
itself
I
to
its
author's mind.
is
life,
It pre-
think,
that morality
a sort of
in
separate district or province of
which
some
more
is
is
selected persons, or eminent pundits, are

especially at
home.
But
this suggestion
I
abhorrent to me.
a
Morality, as
think of
it
it,
way
of living.
And
therefore
is
not
certain, in the first place, that
even the simplest
decisions or verdicts could be universally valid;

for duties
lives.
It
vary with the conditions of individual

is
certain, in
the second place, that
no really
difficult
cases could be embodied in
AS A FUNCTION OF
such decisions
for
AN
ETHICAL SOCIETY.
167
every conflict of duties
is
a unique question of the shape and growth of a particular individual

life,
and no
collection of
thinkers can put themselves in the place of one
man, much
"
less of
every man, so as to
life
tell
him,
Thus and thus your
must be shaped."
All attempts at general guidance of this kind
are and remain platitudes.
The
great satirist
Rabelais
knew
this
when he depicted a man
asking advice whether or no he should marry.
At
the
end of every sentence

case,
in
which he
states
his
as
his
wishes vary, and the
colour of his statement varies with them, his

interlocutor's advice alternates between, " Well,
then,
marry," and " Well, then, don't marry
"
!
through several closely printed pages.

of
us,
I
Most
think,
who have
asked, or
who have
given specific advice, will recognise the portraiture.
But do
say, therefore, that there
is
nothing
i68

conception upon which
I
in the
am commentin
it.
ing
No
think there
is
something
When
one's
such suggestions are made to one,
think one ought always to look round and ask

self,
"
Now,
is
there anything which has

to
been actually done

direct one's
possibility
if
which
this
idea should
attention,
and what conditions of

facts
do the actual
suggest
"
And
is
we
hold tight to the truth that morality
way
the
of living, and that important questions of
way
of living are important questions of
morality, then
we
find that international
con-
ferences do take place on grave moral matters
with valuable
tion,
results.
International
arbitra-
international
copyright,
the
labour
of
and
the
short-hour question,
the
suppression
slave trade, primary education, poor-law, and

charitable
vinces,
administration,
in
all
these
pro-
and many more, the experts of
different
nations have held intercourse, and have done
AS A FUNCTION OF AN ETHICAL SOCIEI

much
a
Y.
169
to arrive at reciprocal enlightenment
and
common ground
Now, what
of action.
are the conditions of these useful

?
and
effectual deliberations
Clearly,
think,
in the first place,
a special tribunal or confer;
ence for each kind of questions

as the
essential
and, secondly,
condition,
reason for this
previous habituation of the assessors, by work
on
common
lines,
or
by the pressure of a comone
mon and
definite necessity, in entering into
another's lives.
It is not, then,
that the
members
of the con-
ference are to be regarded as moral pundits,
and
of
that others
specifically
come
to
them
;
for the resolution

it
is,
moral cases
rather,
that
one man or
schools, in
woman
is
toiling,
say at
at
infant
London, and others
Naples, and
in Berlin,
all
and
in
New York
in
or Chicago, and
these can
come together
consciously to
good
purpose, because,
the bonds of a
common
I70

Let
work, their lives were already united.

take one homely example.
pundits, "Is
it
me
of
re-
Ask your chorus
moral to break down the

parent for
? "
I
sponsibility of the
direct
the
sake of a
good
to the child
cannot predict
I
the answer of such a chorus, but one thing
can say with absolute certainty

with an
if.
it
must begin
child
is
" If
the good
itself,
to
the
genuine, does not undo
can only be got
by the
sacrifice of parental
"
responsibility,
and
so on, then
reply
tell
What on
earth can such a
any reasonable creature that he did

before
let
?
not
know
But now
us suppose that
we have
a con-
ference of managers of schools, together with
experienced poor-law or charitable administrators.
Let us take the history of family after

analyze
it,
family,
observe the
effect
of free
dinners
and
of self-supporting
paid dinners,
both on the family and on the neis^hbourhood,

and then
let
171
us
?
do
what
if
Pass a resolution
like
;
on the matter
let
Yes,
we
but, chiefly,
it
us go back to our
work and shape
as best
all
we
can, not necessarily in the
same mould
in
over the world,
but in the light and
the
strength of the vital moral experience which,
by
I
others' help,
we have now made our own.

this
think
that
condition
of
definite
common work
those
or
common
necessity, shared
by
who
are to decide, and relevant to the
question
to
be decided,
gives
us
the
type
and
limit of
what
and
is
useful in moral decisions
by experts,
of
the
persons
to
whom
in
alone such a decision can be of value,

those
namely,
who
share the
common
experience
question.
(2)
On
the other hand, a question has been

far abstract
raised,
how
philosophical
matter
should enter into the communication of moral

ideas.
All that
have
to say to-night
is
in
172

to
this
answer
question
in
its
most general
I
sense, but in a
more
specific sense
It
will
try to
give
it
an immediate reply.
think, "
is
taken to
problems,
the
mean,
say,
Are we
to
go
into
about the nature and existence of
Deity, or about the place of consciousness in

reality,
theological
in
or
metaphysical
ideas,
with a view to demonstrating something that
may make
rule,
I
favour of morality
"
No
as a
think not.
We
must not suppose that

is
the foundation of everything

side the thing itself;
that the supports of
somewhere
out-
and we must not suppose

any moral theory are the
Unquestionably,
supports of morality.
moral
philosophy involves a good deal of metaphysics
and psychology.
But
it is
possible to present
a reasonable view of moral facts without explaining

all
the metaphysical
ultimately
ideas that such
a
I
view
may
be found to imply.
of
intelligent
may compare
the
relation

morality
to
173
abstract
philosophical
doctrines
with the relation of the species and genera of

plants,
as naturally classified,
to the
most uni-
versal laws revealed
by physiological research.
The two
subjects are intimately connected, and
you cannot explain how the plants came to be
what they are without knowing profound and

ultimate
physiological
facts,
which,
at
the
present moment, no one can be said to know.
But
this
is
does not make

a
fuchsia,
you doubt that a

is is
fuchsia
and
cognate with a
a grass which has
willow-herb, or that wheat
become
by
life.
cultivation
one
great
basis
It
is
oi
human
And
so with morality.
un-
doubtedly interesting, and

to
may be
instructive,
pursue by analysis those implied truths or

lie
general facts which
behind the existence of
man
as a moral being.
right
But a reasonable view

to afifinity
arrangement according
the facts of
and
value
of
human
life
can be pre-
174
sented without metaphysical formulae, though

not,
in
my
judgment, without the analysis of

of the
chief interests
human
society,
of
life,
and of the temper known as
ethical faith.
its
For
con-
these are not outside morality, but are

stituent elements.
(3)
If
we do
if
not
call
oecumenical councils
of morals,
we do
not discuss theological or
metaphysical problems, ought we, however, in
our teaching, to advocate ethical ideas
in
the
sense of abstract ideas about morality, such as

the
principle of " justice,"
which we hear of
" ethical
a good deal to-day, or the

of economics," which finds
ethical
its
principle
way
at times into
programmes
As
a help to considering this question,
let
us
think for a
moment about
art.
the distinction be-
tween a science and an
A
The
science has
knowledge
of
for its
is
purpose.
single.
subject-matter
a science
175
coherent, and shaped by an inevitable logical
growth.
An
art has practice for its

it
purpose
the matter with which
deals
is
many-sided,
but of
the art
practical
light
and
falls
in the
province not of one,
many
sciences,
from each
rule
of which
borrows,
without any
beyond
necessity, such information as
may throw
to
it.
on the particular cases submitted
An
cases.
art
deals always with particular given

science cannot deal with a particular
;
given case as given
it
demands,
like a superior
court, that the case should
be stated, and an-
swered hypothetically, assuming the truth of

this general or hypothetical statement.
Thereethical
fore
you can no more go straight from
science to social or economical practice
than
you can from physiological science

cal
to
medi-
practice.
We
in
all
saw, but the other day,
how
ludicrous
the
eyes of an
illustrious
physiologist
appeared
the notion entertained
176

that medicine
by an abstract thinker
was
tlie
deductive application of physiology.
There may
be. or
might
be,
an ethical art
related to ethical science as medicine to physi-
ology.
The
art
of the
catholic
director
of
consciences was
intended for
an art
it
of this
one,
all
kind
and
in
a lesser degree
is
no
ex-
doubt, which in going through

ercise, well or badly.
life
we
What
in
such an art
life
we
especially need
is
experience of
and insight
"
I
into the particular case before us.
wish," a
friend
may
say, " to
provide allotments, at
my
private expense, for the labourers of
my
native
county
is
not this well

altruistic,"
is
"
"
How
good of
you
how
if
the ethical scientist must
reply,
he
fool
enough
to
judge from the

it
case as laid before him.

the
ethical
But
may be
that
man
of
art,
who knows
impelled
a thing
to ask,
or two,
might
rather
"
feel
with
some
suspicion,
Were
they not saying
AS A FUNCTION OF
AN
ETHICAL SOCIETY.
177
something about your standing

next year
is
? "
for tlie county-
timely question of this kind

will
about the best that ethical art
do
for
us.
But, to be serious,
do
feel
obliged to speak
strongly upon the

abstract formulae.
direct application to life of
When
or
hear of
a
its
being a
should
question of "justice,"
how much
how
I
man
be paid per
hour,
the
land of the
country should be held,

of
horror.
I
feel
a positive sense
knozu
that
nothing can result
from such a point of view, except that any

forthcoming prejudice or superstition
is
with-
drawn from reasonable

in
criticism
and embodied
a fanatical creed.
The
superior morality of
a form of land-tenure or of a special economic
arrangement seems to
precisely takes
institution
me
a superstition which
rank with that of the divine

I
of private property.
in
have seen
the
comewhere,
c.
these
discussions,
phrase
178

If ethics
is
"
abstract justice."
it
has a word to say

is
on the subject,
that abstract justice
a
is
very well-chosen formula to express what

necessarily unjust.
Justice
is
a concrete, the
condition produced by a reasonable organizaj
tion
of society.
Plato
ought surely to have
taught the world thus

years.
much
in
two thousand
Speaking generally, then,
am
strongly of
opinion that to confuse ideas about morality
with moral ideas
is
a very dangerous thing.

tell
would never,
is
for
example,
people that there
a standard which they ought to follow, and
a sanction which they ought to value.

general
rule,
As
perplexities
living
of
one's
conscience
are
avoided
by
out
own
life
and
attempting always rather to enlarge one's point

of view
ously.
organically
than
to
vary
it
caprici-
Thus, taking ethical ideas to mean
ideas
179
about morality, and moral ideas to be leading

ideas in
life,
I
should direct myself to
commu-
nicating, as a rule,
moral ideas, and not ideas

^
about morality.
I
am
very well aware that

distinction
is
in
an intellectual
age
this
not absolute, but the

it
nature of science makes

tinction will always exist.
certain that the dis-
The
idea,
for
example, that
it is
especially
is
desirable to feel good, or to feel bad,
an idea
about morality
the idea of a particular good

is
thing to be done
a moral idea.
Any
formula
of justice, such as equality or merit or need,

is,
standing by
itself,
an idea about morality

definitely possible
the conception of
life is
is
some
good
a moral idea.
is
The
idea that self-sacrifice

;
virtuous
an idea about morality
that con-
ception of his particular task for which a

will " scorn delights
man
" is
and
live laborious
days
is
a moral idea.
The
idea that the will
free
i8o
THE COMMUMCATION OF MORAL IDEAS

the
when
ity
;
man
is
good
is
an idea about moral-
but the will can only be liberated by the
apprehension of particular moral ideas.

Ideas about morality, then, are the abstract
or scientific renderings of moral ideas.
They
have value both as an element of the great

fabric
of knowledge, which
is
one of man's
characteristic achievements,
and as a clue which
may
help us in framing a distinct and organized
conception of our moral environment.
But we
is
do not adequately
realize that the clue
not
a
the organized conception, and
may even be
hindrance to
is
it.
The way
its
of methodic science
a long way, and
half-way houses are una soul has died
satisfactory.
Many and many

hunger
in
of spiritual
the
midst of spiritual
plenty, because these aids to vision prevented
him from using
his
eyes.
is
The
result
of
all
science and philosophy

are,
to see things as they

evil turn
and he has done himself a very

who
has
i8i
gone up
into
the
abstract
*'
world
and has not come down again.
suppose
will
you mean the great philosophers,"

said.
it
be
Oh,
no,
do not
they
I
know
mean
their
way
in
both worlds safe enough.
the small
philosophers, such as
in
we
are ourselves, when,
our very aspiration after the general form,

lose our hold of the particular substance.
feel
we
I
do
that in this ethical

risk,
movement we
are
pit-
not free from this

fall
which has been the
of what
is
commonly known
as Christian
"
I
philanthropy.
To
the general
first
aspiration,
is,
want
to
do good," the
your own
It
is
answer
"
Then
live out
life
thoroughly and
intelli-
gently."
if
right in
one's leisure time, or
one has no peremptory private duties, to find
a sphere for
work such
as ours in guilds
and
schools and lecturing.
But
most earnestly
is,
believe that the fault of the present time
on
the whole, distraction, and that one great cause
82

is
of this distraction
the notion of a general
duty to do good, as something other than and

apart from doing one's work well and
gently.
intelli-
Now, do we
not
that
think,
in
if
we
are
honest with ourselves,

preaching
reforming or
or
or volunteer teaching,
making
schemes
for
moral crusades, we are doing someis
thing of a higher class than
done by those
for
hard-worked ordinary persons who teach
money
practise
in schools
and
colleges, or organize or
industry,
or write
books and newsis
papers
of us
Well,
say no
it
they,
and those
who work
like
them,
who
carry the world
on their shoulders, and the moral atmosphere

of whose endeavours
is
the true
medium
of
in
the communication of moral ideas.

talking about doing good,
And
if,
we
divert our forces
or our insight from our

this to
own work, and
allow
have the
sin of haste
and imperfection,
which by universal consent characterizes the

work of
7norality
to
i8;
to-day, then
say that our ideas about
have become an absolute hindrance

ideas.
I
our apprehension of moral
will
not labour this
point longer, although

strongly.
every
I
year
feel
it
more and more

in
will
sum
it
up simply
a question.
ethical
Are we
quite
sure that
we give due
importance to
thoroughness and intelligence, which involve

finish
it
and organization,
in ordinary
work, when
appears careless or even contemptuous of

?
the stock-phrases of morality

realize,
Do we
all
quite
for
example,
how, for
educated
persons in the world, the idea of duty must
have been deepened by that most cynical but

splendidly
laborious
"
of
historical
writings,
Gibbon's
Decline and
Fall
of the
Roman
Empire
" ?
Is there
any way,
then,
by which moral
ideas,
as distinct from ideas about morality, can be

directly
communicated
How
at
all ?
can ideas be directly communicated
We
often
it
is.
think
I
communication
take an example
much
which
one.
readily
to
easier than
is
a very extreme and a very striking

in
Money,
the shape of actual coin,
is
transferable.
We
are
for
therefore
apt
think
that
those things,
the
sake of
which we desire money, are transferable no

less readily.
This gives
rise to
what experts
call
the carthink,
case theory of benevolence.

is
There,
;
we
the mass of well-being

it
you have only to

to the first comer,
cut a piece off and give
and
it
will
be well with him.
Not
at all
you
In
can do nothing whatever of the

giving him
kind.
money you
life.
are applying an external
stimulus to his
to the stimulus
cally,
it
How
that
life
will
react
depends upon
said,
itself
Practi-
may be
is
you cannot transfer even

you cannot certainly
money,
that
to say,

transfer the normal
185
and ordinary benefits which

money.
we
associate with the possession of

if
it
And
must
it
is
hard to transfer money, what

ideas
?
be to communicate
us,
Not
to
discourage
task,
feel
I
but to elevate our notions of our
want
to be allowed to say freely
what
about
this.
What
you hear
at
all
is
an idea
An
No,
image, like a photo-
graph, that you can take out of a box

its
when
it
name
that.
do not think
is
is
like
An
idea
a complex but
;
definite habit
and
effort
of thinking
in
to
ap-
prehend an idea requires,

courage, strength, practice,
patience.
If
varying measure,
and, above
all,
skill,
we sometimes compared
the task
of
communicating ideas with such tasks as
teaching a
four
man
to
skate, or
half,
to
run a mile in
sketch
minutes and a
or to
from
nature,
we
should be saved from some at least
of our errors.
The
reason
whv / cannot use
86

is,
the differential calculus
on the whole, the

I
same as the reason

violin.
for
which
cannot play the
Both of these
activities require skilled
and sustained
effort of a
kind which
have
never learned to make, and which now, prob\
ably,
could
not learn
to
make.
Luckily,
not
all
ideas are as hard to grasp as the cal-
culus,
and
not
all
efforts
need,
like
the
musician's employment,
a very special bodily
endowment.
difficulties
But
all
ideas
whatever present
such as are preis
of apprehension
sented by these.
i
An
idea
it
a portion of
life,
and you must not hold

theory of knowledge
cheaper.
The
carcase
the theory
is
that ideas are

it is
stowed away
in
a sort of bank and

as
stingy
as
not to distribute them

fatal as
common and
the carcase theory of well-being.

then, a "
And,
moral idea
"
!
that
is,
a set of
familiar facts thoroughly grasped

in
and realized
a point of view which makes them a leading
AS A FUNCTION OF AN ETHICAL
interest
In
life,
SOCIETY.
187
that
moral
said
is
a
I
hard
said,
thing
is
to
communicate.
Contagion,
ideas
always
communicating
perhaps, after
and contagion,
all
and done, remains the
only certain way.

Aristotle
says
somewhere,
that
in
one of those
one
doubt
crushing
sentences
it
make
whether
was worth while

It is
to live after that to repeat the for-
great man, "
one thing
mulee of knowledge, and quite another thing

to possess the knowledge."
I
think
we somebeen
I
times suppose that
moral
ideas
have
communicated
to
us
when they have

preacher
;
not.
am
not
revivalist
but the
test
question, to ascertain whether
we have
is
or have
not apprehended moral ideas,

the
pretty
much
his
same
that such a preacher

if
would ask
congregation
souls
that
he wanted to know
how
their
were getting on.
What
can one do
?
now
one could not do before
Does one
i88

Does one
care
enjoy better books

true thoughts
more
?
for
or for beautiful
things
Has
one a deeper hold of one's
civic or
neighbourly
duties, of one's family or parental responsibilities,
of one's humanity as embodied in one's daily
work
If
no change of
this
kind has taken
place, then
one may have been much interested
or
excited,
and may have participated

dissipation,
in
certain
ethical
but
one has
" Active
not
apprehended any moral

'
ideas.
imre-
pressions," said
Bishop Butler, " by being

;
peated,
become stronger
repeated,
passive impressions,
by
being
become
;
weaker."
The
ex-
terms seem incorrect

presses a
fact.
but the sentence
However, we do not want discouragement,

but encouragement
;
so reminding ourselves, in
another Greek saying, that "great things are

hard,"
we
wnll
approach the problem
itself
with
the help of a comparison or two.
AS A FUNCTION OF
spoke of a
AN ETHICAL
SOCIETY.
189
difficult
mathematical
idea, that
of the differential calculus.

if
None
in
of us here,
we have
find
life,
not
it
been trained
the subject,
would
at all easy, or
worth our while

in
in later
to
apprehend that idea

Nor, again, should
a workfor the
man-like way.
we
most
part
be justified in devoting the time

to
and labour which would be needed

us thoroughly
make
expert
political
economists or
thoroughly competent biologists.

of mathematics, of political
The
ideas
economy, and of
biology must, therefore, as systematic and complete ideas in these sciences, remain, as a rule,
beyond our
reach.
But
if
we ask whether
biologfical con-
mathematical or economical or
ceptions
are wholly without meaning

lives,
for
us,
and without influence on our

I
why
that,
think,
we should
deny.
Helmholtz, Clifford,
Mill,
Jevons, and
Darwin have very deeply

life
influenced the intellectual
of our age, and
190

and
half indirectly of
all
half directly
here.
of us
We
have learned from them probably

as
not so
thing.
much
we
think, but certainly
some-
They, or others following them, have
applied their great ideas to the organization of
experiences which
come home
which
to us,
and
to the
definition of relations
lie
within our ken.
Some
us
one, perhaps, has even demonstrated to
some simple
physical relations of sound, or

to self-preservation
some contrivances tending

in
a plant, or the statement and refutation of
the antiquated wage- fund theory.

this, all
And, besides
life
is
our experience
in
daily
unconshapes,
sciously organized or crystallized in
new
embodying and revealing the new

view as they gradually permeate
life.
points of
We
what
in the
I
may
thus
form some guess,
think,
sort of
thing to aim at and to expect

ideas.
communication of moral
must interrupt myself here
to recall
what
^S A FUNCTION OF AN ETHICAL SOCIETY.

I
191
said about contagion.
The
talker
is,
think,
very much more Hkely to get moral ideas from

the busy
men he
talks to than they are to get
them from him.
But we agreed to assume,

is
it
this evening, that there
to
be talking, and
the only question

useful.
is
how
may be made most

that
if
And we must remember

may be
his
the
talker or teacher
of use,
only by
interpreting
back to
hearers
those
very
moral ideas which he has gained from them.
Moreover,
it
will
be seen, from
what
am
for
going
to say, that the

is
most useful teacher
our purpose
theory
as a
not so
much a man
reasonable
is
of abstract
man
of
experience.
Theory
others.
also,
of course,
one work among
Now,
in
throwing out suggestions about our
function in the
way under
discussion,
want
to put before us what, in

in all, is
one sense, though not

Let us assume, as
the hardest case.
192

was suggested
Coit
that
I
it
to
me by some remarks
assume,
it
of
Dr.
should
that
our
audience consisted less than

tive
does of
reflec-
and leisured people, and more of men and

lives
women whose
permit but
little
book-
learning and are hard throughout and liable

to
extreme hardship.
Have
we,
.'*
it
was asked
Is
I
of me, anything to say to these
not the
Statement of the Society to which

(Report,
p.
i),
belong
"
The good
its
life
has a claim
upon us
'
in virtue of
supreme worthiness,
it
and
this
claim
is
the highest
can have,"
to time
easier to people
who have from time
a spare afternoon and a spare shilling, which

in
modern London means a good deal of enjoyit
ment, than
is
to those
who never
?
attain this
it
combination of resources
harder,
if
And
is
not
in
still
they have at times to see,

artificial
those
dearest to them, an
in excess of the
want and suffering

of
life
ordinary
ills
which we

all
193
have
to
endure as we may
for the
Have
we, in
short, a
message
?
I
many
as well as for
the
few
might be interrupted with the

to be borne,
outcry, "
These things ought not
and you should not persuade people to bear

them,"
To
:
this
answer with an old Scotch

("
proverb
that
"
He
that tholes, overcomes."
He
that
endures,
overcomes.")
The
spirit
is
endures, as a
spirit
man and
not as a slave,
the
that conquers.
While the world
lasts,
patience will be the foundation of courage.
Well, then,
we
are not going to

life,
tell
them
about a pleasant future
nor about a special
interposition that will help the
good
in distress.
Our experience
is
quite different from that of
King David, who had never seen the righteous

forsaken nor his
seed
beoro-inor
their
bread.
Yet candour compels me here

rhetoric
to blunt
my
by saying that genuine righteousness,
on the whole, does not tend to beggary.

c. c.
194

Is
an
ethical
maxim, that worthy

real
life
is
sufficient
for
itself,
and helpful
for the
many
Would you go
into the cottage of the
poor family, whose father and breadwinner had

just
been
killed
by an accident, and read

"
to
life
them out of our programme that

lias
the good
if
a claim upon
us,"
etc. ?
or,
man
in
in
the thirteenth
week
of a strike
came
here
to
to listen to us,
would you expect him
be
much
edified
Let us try
to
look at this matter
neither
cynically nor sentimentally, but with the truth
of both these moods, and of our

point.
own
stand-
We
are not to forget that "fine words
butter no parsnips," while
we
are also to re-
member
"
that in trouble, as in
humble
I
station,
a man's a
man
for
a'
that."
mean
that he
has in him something strong and sympathetic,
which
fortune.
dies
hard even
under crushing
mis-

Should we then begin reading No.
195
of our
statement of principles to any one in hardship or in distress

that
?
I
suppose
not.
imagine
it.
our
own
is life,
principles
would
forbid
Morality
life in
and you cannot plant a strange

force,
man by
tells us,
and
all
in
it
a moment.
As
Plato
you must make
grow from
within.
First, then, just
because our method

is
is
true
and not
false,
it
slow,
and ought
is
to
be
O.
begun
in
time.
Everything
if
curable,
W. Holmes
soon enough
tinues,
has said,
;
you
call
the doctor
but
"
soon
enough," he con-
might be two hundred years before the

birth
;
patient's
and people seldom

as
that.
I
fetch the
it
doctor so soon
admit that
first
is
harder for
21s
to pacify " the
strong burst
to our ideas,
of anguish," in a mind wholly
new
at
than
it
is
for
one who has
command
the
wonted anodyne.
We
look to moral preven-
196

moral cure, and to moral
tion rather than to
'
cure rather than to moral anaesthesia.

But,
secondly,
as
have
tried
to
urge
throughout, our work

ciples,
is
based upon our prinin
but does not

pills.
I
consist
is
giving
our
principles as
What
our most general

it
principle
is
suppose, from our statement,
the sufficiency of humanity.
What
is
our
duty, then, to the suffering, the ignorant, the
unleisured
their lives
Why,
to
suppose, to enter into

their
and
them.
make Even
own humanity
and natural
contagion,
I
appeal
to
respect
;
human
repeat,
courtesy do something
is
the real thing.
Honest and
intelli-
gent sympathy does more, and does so

that
gifted
I
much
most
I
almost retract, as regards our

workers,
what
I
admitted
above.
am
acquainted,
think, with
persons of our
opinion, who, never for a
moment tampering
with the truth, would be as
much valued
in
AS A FUNCTION OF
any sick-room, or
as
AN
In
ETHICAL SOCIETY.
197
face
of
any calamity,
of
the
best
provided
minister
if
soothing
illusions.
is is
sensible person,
sympathetic,
always a rock to lean upon.
At
least, that
my
experience.
Thirdly,
consolation
much
is
of the accustomed form of
even
now
quite
unreal.
The
ministers of religion are generally
good men
and
it
is
largely the
good man's unconscious

its
humanity, and not the form of
expression,
often wholly unintelligible, which comforts ancf
strengthens.
official
note
one further point
his
position
makes him the representative
of the general sympathy. ness of solidarity

this feeling.
is
strong consciousto
needed
compensate
for
For most of the poorer

however,
is
class in
our town,
consolation
less.
the accustomed form of
already
known
to
be
value-
But passing from these most extreme
cases,
198

qualities
which always demand some special

in those
who
is
deal with them, and in which the
sufferer
destitute of the
solid
reasonable habits
strength, let
of
us^
mind which give

think of the
human
more general
for
question, "
What
or
message have we
the working
man
woman
The
"
?
general form of the answer must be
that which
as
we have given above our message,

;
we
deliver
it,
cannot be the idea about
morality, which
is
expressed by saying that

for
itself
;
humanity
is
sufficient
it
must be
in
rather those
moral
ideas
by which,
life,
the
is
various ranks and phases of
humanity
made
for
I
to feel
and
to
be
in
very truth sufficient
itself.
once asked a great philosophical teacher,

I
"
Am
not right,
sir,
in
thinking that you

" ?
are influenced
by the categories of Hegel
" Yes," he replied, " they are very useful things
AS A FUNCTION OF
but one need not
AN
ETHICAL SOCIETY.
199
tell
everybody that one uses
them,"
ment,
He was
not thinking of any conceal-
of course, but merely of not puzzling
people with abstractions.
And
so,
even
if
you
use ideas about morality, you need not show
them except
to
such people as
may be
inter-
ested to see them.
What
mtisi
be communiin
life,
cated
in
is
a point of view
particular
worked out
life
and
some
form of
which those
whom
own.
you wish
to help will
recognise as their
ethical
I
Take
as an
example the modern

will,
doctrine of the freedom of the
which
"
may
man
state
is
broadly in the abstract form,
free
when he has found himself
in
his
'i
moral environment."
To make men and women

but you must talk has
if,
realize this cardinal condition of their humanity,
you must not
talk about
in
it,
about the facts

them.
I
which
it
its
I
truth
for
should think that
as
hope, the
parents of
some
of the
little
children in our
20O

come next week
to
Infant School
see
what
ele-
goes on there, they would receive some
ments of the organized view of
life
correspond-
ing to this " idea about morality."

say, they
That
is
to
in
would
see,
and perhaps be
told,
simple language, by ladies to

cation
is
whom
how
and
in
this
eduis
a heartfelt
reality,
the child
being helped to grow and
act,
growing
and
acting, to
be spontaneous and yet orderly.

to
Even marching
for
music
is,
in
its
degree, and
in
young
children,
an object-lesson
moral
a
freedom.
It is findinof satisfaction
in doino-
thing rightly, finding yourself in the order of
the world.
know very
all
well that people

at once.
let
do
not take in these ideas
Rome was
not built
interested,
in
a day.
But
will
them once be
and they
soon catch hold of

is
the free and happy humanity that
brought
out in their children.

of
life
And
in
of course the whole
can be treated
such a
way
as this, and,

moreover,
its
201
range can, though most gradually,
be extended.
But,
above
all
things,
the
knowledge and
experience must be real and

not take
it
vital.
You must
into
your head to
illustrate free will,
and get up the subject of

it
infant schools to
do
with.
That
is
scamped work, and must pro-
duce a bad moral impression.

really entered into
You must have
the faith of the sufficiency
of humanity in that particular form in which
you were
to treat of
life
it.
And
then, gradually,
the organized
will
which forms your moral ideas
grow up
in
in
the minds of those with
whom
fall,
you are
he
contact,
and then,
"
though he
shall not
be utterly cast down."

hold on
reality,
For they
will
have
laid
on the true value
of
life.
The
may
fatal
home-sickness of the Swiss or the
Scotch Highlander, touching and romantic as

it
be,
is
ascribed, not without justice, to
202
the simple singleness of his hold on reality.
The
single root
is
cut,
and the tree withers.

is
man's power of endurance
measured by
the depth and fulness of his
life,
and
it
is
the
communication of such a fulness

of moral ideas
in the
shape
that
is,
of intelligent interests
which
Need
constitutes,
suppose,
our message
to the poor.
the ethical teacher himself have re-
flective ideas
about morality
lead
My own
answer
ideas,
in
conthe
viction
would
me
to
in
negative.
Thorough moral
life,
some
department of
dition.
are the indispensable contruth,
Truth agrees with
and a reason-
able man, with sound experience in important
matters of knowledge or of practice, will be

able
to
communicate something of the order

his
and grasp of
own moral
organization.
to
Any
one who has had the good fortune

ally trained
in
be graduas.
some complex
perception,

for instance, the perception of beauty,
203
by the
teaching of other minds more gifted than his
own, has a
I
fair
example of the process which
understand by the phrase, communication of'

It is
moral ideas.
it is
not to create
;
new
it
things
not to dig up hidden things
is
merely
to
open our eyes and hearts that we may see

feel things
and
I
as they are.
It
is
incredible,
\
think,
to the very
young or inexperienced
how
the pictures in a gallery, or the
poems
in
a book, gradually through long years, as our

point of view becomes truer, are transformed
from mere paint and canvas, and words and

rhymes, into living meanings and spiritual symbols.
Just so,
and
just as incredibly to those

all
who
life
think they see already
that
common
can show, do the simple and familiar facts
of
life
change their perspective and their group-
ing and their value, and

significance,
reality.
become
instinct with
and grapple us with an ever-new
204

For
my own
part, then,
feel
no hesitation
whatever about the question that was put to

me.
What may become

society
I
in
the future of any
particular
^
do not know.
But that
moral ideas are the essence of humanity, and

can be awakened to consciousness in
a better phrase than communicated
to
this
all
is
in
whom
humanity
is
still
alive,
entertain
no
shade nor shadow of a doubt.

that the condition of success
in its fulness
is
Nor do
doubt
to envisage life
its
without sacrificing
sorts
organization,
their
so that to
all
and conditions of men
own humanity, which
alone can do them good,
may be
work
it
interpreted.
is
From
the nature of this

as one
plain that
mankind cannot,
used to think, be saved by one

society.
man
is
nor by one
take the
All that
we
can do
to
portion of
work or of teaching
that lies within

it
our individual range and try to make
thorough
and reasonable.
Patience and
thoroughness

are,
205
think, the chief
watchwords
in the
com-
munication of moral ideas.
Failure generally
means indolence or
superficiality or narrowness.
I
What we
place,
are to do,
take
lives
it,
is,
in
the
first
to live
our
own
out solidly and
rationally, and, in the
second place, to procure
such utterances and such teaching as naturally

arise
from
reasonable
and
energetic
minds
thoroughly versed in the various relations of
humanity.
And
so
living
and so teaching,
whether
shall
in or
out of an Ethical Society,

in
we
be communicating moral ideas
their
al-
true form as
growing germs of
no advocate
life.
And
though
am
for quasi-religious
proselytism, or for the multiplication of

societies, yet
I
new
see clearly that in the interval
now
before us, until
a free humanism
it
shall
become the
be well
for
spirit of the civilized world,
may
men and women
to
band themselves
together in holding up the banner of such a
2o6

for the help
humanism
the
it
and encouragement of
in
isolated.
fall
And
undoubtedly
so
doing
true-
may
to their
lot,
by plain sense and
heartedness, both of
word and deed,
to bring
reasonable activity and reasonable faith within

the reach of courageous spirits struggling in
solitude.
This
is
a meaning which might be
found
in
those splendid verses that draw the
moral of Goethe's Faust, putting into the song

of the angels in paradise something
priate to plain
"
more approearth
:
men and women on

rescue from the evil one
spirit
We
This
high and brave
Who still aspires and labours on, Him we have power to save."
There
is
no magic
in the matter,
;
you see
it
every soul must save

others there
like
is
itself
but between
gulf,
and
life,
no unfathomable
else,
and
everything
can
be communicated.
life
We
have
to see
to
it
that the
solid
which we
Half-
are communicating
is
and sound.

culture, half-insight,
207
half-devotion, half-convic-
tion are
the
in
insidious
enemies of our work.
The
spirit
which moral ideas have their
being,
and by which alone they can be comis
municated,
expressed
in
the familiar motto
of the "strong, much-toiling sage," whose

I
name
have just mentioned

"
And I vowed it, then and there, Vowed all halfness to forswear,
In the whole, the good, the
Resolutely living."
fair,
VII.
RIGHT AND WRONG IN FEEIING.

There
feeling.
is
a right and a wrong
in
matters of
it
And, strangely
enough,
is
more
easy to obtain an assent to this assertion with

regard to art and literature than
it
is
with re-
gard to
life.
First, then,
we
will
speak of the easier case,

apply ourselves for a
and
after that,
we
will
moment
to the harder.
is
No
in art.
one denies, to-day, that there

in
a right
and a wrong
the feeling that embodies itself
Moral right and wrong, indeed, we do

Hall, for the
'
Delivered at Prince's
London
Ethical
Society.
308
RIGHT AND WRONG IN FEELING.
209
not predicate of poetic or pictorial sentiment

but none the
less,
we
recognise, though in a
wider significance than that of morality, a something that

is
sound or unsound, gold or
tinsel,
great or contemptible, in the emotional qualities

It is
implied by
all
that pretends to be beautiful.
not to our purpose, to-day, to consider the
precise relation
ethical
" rigfht
between the
aesthetic
It
is
and the
and wrong-."
clear that
they are
not
the same, and that in aesthetic

is
criticism the
is
mere moralist
a pedant
but
it
no
less
clear that in aesthetic feeling, as in

else,
everything
duty commands us to be
right,
and not
to be wrong.
Just so, morality has no

;
rules for building a bridge
but
if
we
are to
build a bridge,
it
it is
a matter of morality to build
aright.
The
incalculable importance of beauty in the
education of the young arises from this simple

fact,
that
it
is
the primary
and unmistakable
p
c. c.
2IO

in
example of a right and wrong
feeling.
;
For
it is
the young must be trained by feeling
and
a great thing
if
they form the early habit of
discerning that
in all
emotion there
is
right
and
wrong.
is
In this
way
first
is
the grasp of the objective

life;
laid
from the
upon the whole of
and
that vicious habit
averted which regards the
domain of sentiment as something upon which

reason has no possible claim.
How
For
vicious this habit
is,
we may
learn
by
considering the nature of feeling or emotion.

feeling or
emotion appears to be the

the
individual
peculiar
echo of
organisation
sensations.
upon the occurrence of ideas or of
An
abstract idea
;
is,
or pretends to be, the

is
same
for all
my
is
triangle
is
your
it
triangle, so far as
;
our intelligence
what
should be
but
my
emotion
the particular echo of
my
personal
being, like the response of the piano-strings,
when permitted
to vibrate freely, to a
complex

tone
211
impinging upon them.
My
emotion
is
not your emotion, unless
my
whole being were
your whole being
also.
Thus
to exclude feeling
is
from the dominion
of reason
individual
to
deny that the personality of the

be modified or permeated by
can
intelligence.
Feeling which
is
concerned with beauty,

is
it
should be observed for distinction's sake,

interested feeling
;
dis-
that
is
to
say,
though per-
sonal, as existing in us,
it is
not personal in the
sense of being concerned with our private pur-
pose or desire.
tion
I
It
is
the echo of a contempla-
and not of a
volition.
now
select, to
is
represent
respectively the
feelinof
feeling^
is
which
rational
and the
which
irrational, the
"
two connected terms, "senti-
ment
and
"
sentimentalism."
is,
" Sentiment "
no doubt, a neutral phrase,

in
and
is
frequently employed
disparaging
212

But as sentimentalism
I
sense.
is
always so em-
ployed,
propose to retain the term sentiment
to designate a certain justifiable sensitiveness,
the nature of which
am
about to describe
I
while by the term sentimentalism

dicate,
shall
in-
conformably
is
to
usage,
that
kind
of
sentiment which
temptible.
unsound or tawdry or con-
The word
"
Sentiment," then,
may
rightly be
used to denote that quality of sensitiveness,

e.g.
in art
and
literature,
which peculiarly
dis-
tinguishes the
modern world.
Schiller's tract
is
on the naive and the sentimental
practically
a treatise on the differences between classical
and romantic
is
literature.
"
The
poet either
is
nature, or
seeks
nature."
is
The former
naive or classical, the latter

romantic.
sentimental or
This distinction has been variously

but
in
applied
any case
it
has the merit of
drawing attention
to that peculiar yearning for

a response on the part of nature to
213
human
moods which
Sentiment,
in
is
at the root of
romantic feeling.
dis-
this
meaning, though readily

art.
all
torted, cannot
be banished from
It
may
of
be described as sensitiveness to
unity between
in the
signs
man and the
world.
An
interest
beauty of nature, Kant has told

;
us, is
an
index of a good mind

in the unity of things
for
it
implies an interest
in the
response of the
world to human or moral ideas.

timent
is
Healthy sen-
'
the emotion generated by such an

sensitiveness.
is
interest or such
It
is
alive to
It
suggestion,
retains
but
full
innocent of distortion.
clearness
the
sanity and
of
the
intelligence,
and
even
while
white-hot
with
fact.
passion
allows
the
nothing to obscure the
Such
is
sentiment even of
Homer and
especially of Dante.
When
Homer's Ulysses,
treatis
draw the example from Mr. Ruskin's
ment of the Pathetic Fallacy
when
Ulysses
214

by finding
his
Startled
friend
(whose death
was unknown
spirits,
"
to him) in the land of departed
how simply he
addresses him
Elpenor,
how
?
did
you
come under
faster
the
shadowy darkness
foot than
I
You have come
on
in
my
black ship."
Contrast Pope's translation

"
say what angry power Elpenor led

glide in shades,
To
and wander with the dead ? and leave the lagging wind
"
How
could thy soul, by realms and seas disjoined,

sail,
Outfly the nimble
The "nimble
sail"
and the "lagging wind"
are mere conceits, implying a frigid and false

reflection,
wholly inconsistent with the hero's
eager enquiry.
Again,
falling
"
when Dante
describes
the
spirits
from the bank of Acheron, as dead

flutter
leaves
from a bough"
(I
quote from
Ruskin), " he gives the most perfect image possible
of their utter lightness, feebleness, pas-

siveness,
out,
215
and scattering agony of despair, with-
however, for an instant losing his percep-
tion that these are souls,
and those are leaves
he makes no confusion of one with the other.
But when Coleridge speaks of

'
The one
red
leaf,
the last of
its
clan.
it
That dances as often as dance
can,'
he has a morbid, that

idea about
it
;
is
to
say, so
life
its
far
it,
a false
will,
he fancies a
;
in
and
which there are not

with choice,
its
confuses
powerlessness
fading death with merriment,

it
and the wind that shakes
with music."
is
True sentiment,
then,
the echo
of the
healthy personal individual frame to an idea or

perception,
a response which does not confuse

it
or distort the apprehension of that to which
responds, and therefore
is
not antagonistic to
depth and truth of

qualities,
insight, but intensifies these
and
is
in turn intensified
is
by them.
It
is
Sentimentalism
different.
not
2i6
single-hearted response to an idea or perception

;
not the direct echo of our personal frame,

sensitively tuned, to the stimulus imit.
however
pinging upon
citement of
It is
a response to the ex;
responding
an echo
artificially
sustained for the pleasure of the sound.

the voluptuary, whose
desire
is
Like
directed, not
desire, but to
to an object such as other
men
the pleasure that
may be had by
stimulating
desires in order to experience their satisfaction,
so the sentimentalist has his interest, not in the

significance of an idea or perception, but in that
excitement of feeling which the idea has power

to arouse in him.
able,
Feeling as such
its
is
pleasur-
even though
as
content be of a painful
us
nature,
"
Homer
chill
tells
by
the
phrase
enjoying the
lament," and as Burke has
pointed out in analysing the delightfulness of

grief.
To
feel
for the
pleasure of feeling
;
is
then the note of sentimentalism
and
in
the last

resort,
217
it is
much
the
same
disposition of
mind
as that of a
man who
drinks because of the
heightened
interest in
himself which springs
from the excitement caused by drinking.
Now
its
the point of the problem
lies
in
the
is
relation of sentimentalism to the idea

object.
is
which
Mere emotion,
as
common language
mere sen-
indicates,
sation.
closely connected with
The
sensation-novel
is
a production
directed to
afford the reader the pleasure of
emotion, without subjecting him to the effort of
apprehension.
It
must have occurred
to every
lover of stories that the actual incidents dramatised
by yEschylus and Shakespeare, or nar-
rated by Scott and Thackeray, are often no less

startling in their nature than those
which
in
common-place romance are rightly

sensational.
set
down
is
as
But common language

is
right.
A
so,
sensational novel or picture

not,
rightly called
however, because
it
gives us strong
2i8

gives us mere sen-
sensations, but because

sations,
it
great
critic
in
commenting upon
observed,
"
popular
novelist
once
She
used only to draw propensities, now she draws

characters."
The
is
cravingf for emotional
self-
indulgence
incompatible with that exaltation
of the faculties which accompanies the spectacle

of a profound passion or character strong to
dare and to endure
in
the
face of
realities.
Such a craving
the
distracts
the attention
it
from
core
of ideas,
and sends
wandering
accessories,
through
the
bypaths and
the
where
feeling
may be most
cheaply bought.
The experienced
when
the
novel-reader knows too well,

is
grammar
bad, the observation of
nature superficial, and the reasoning childish,

that there will be a grloatincr of sentimentalism
over
trivial
things,
and a coldness of genuine

life
sentiment towards the deeper issues of

character.
and
I
Dickens,
it is
said, is vuliâr.
do

not wholly deny
219
it.
And where
with
is
Dickens
vulgar
Is
it
where,
extraordinarily
sympathetic humour, he portrays a corner of
London poverty
in
Bleeding Heart Yard

I
can see nothing vulgar here.

position
in
feel
no
dis-
the author to push things out of
shape, or to
make more
out of the facts than
they deserve, or to narrow his point of view

for the sake
of an easy stimulus to emotion.

of the sufferings
is
But,
perhaps, in his stories

of
children,
and] death
there
something
great.
unworthy of a writer who can be so
Come and
let
us enjoy ourselves in watching

is
the death-bed of a child,
the impression pro-
duced upon me, as upon Mr. Lang, by the story

of
little
Paul.
Egotism
is
always vulgar, and

in crocodile
never more so than when displayed

tears over sufferings
which we linger upon with
delight at our
own
sensibility.
For sentimentalism,
like the feebler
forms of
220
fancy
detail
the forms which lose themselves not passionate, but A true

is is frigid.
;
in idle
passion will not rest in externals
we
are told,
by the master of those who know, that poetry

is
more serious and more
scientific
than history.
its
In other words, genuine feeling attends to

object
;
spurious feeling attends only to itself
Let
me
illustrate this
art.
I
connection once more

told
from another
have been
do
in
not give the criticism as authoritative
that
Dora's illustrations to Dante, you
will
not find
a single picture which reproduces a situation

of the
poem
an
in true
accordance with the text.
And
Dore.
haste
if
artist
ever was a prey to gloating

artist,
I
sentimentalism, such an
suppose, was
his
So
to
great,
it
would appear, was
the
indulgence of feeling that the

fairly
attention
never
fixed
itself
upon
the
matter which acted as a stimulus.
This much, then, we have learnt from the

the
22
easier
case,
case
of
art
and
literature.
Superficial
judgment and the mere sensation

purely sensuous
self-indulgence,
of sense
are connected with

minister
to
its
emotion, and
because the delightfulness of excited feeling,

in
those
to
whom
object
such
of
delightfulness
has
become an
desire,
withdraws the
its
attention from
the fuller grasp of
object,
and therefore
arrests the response of our per-
sonal frame to the larger and

of
more profound
human purposes and

If
ideas.
now we
turn to the harder case, in which
many
interests
and prejudices and

to bewilder us,
practical
uncertainties
combine
we
shall
find that the analysis

will
which we have obtained
give us noteworthy results.

of what
The growth
has been
is,
called the
sense of social compunction
on the whole,
I
a hopeful
feature
of our
civilisation.
in
re-
member
to
have been struck,
reading Mr.
222
Greville's diary, with the effect of genuine surprise
and dawning
facts
interest
produced upon his

life
mind by
concerning the
light
of the poor
which came to
Sunderland.
society,"
I
when
the cholera was at
"We who
(or to
float
on the surface of
effect), "
life
he wrote
this
do
not,
suppose, realize what
is
the
of the poor."
No
far
decent
man
or
woman
to-day would plead
guilty to such
unsophisticated ignorance.
So
we have
is
gained. of
feeling
Nor
sensitiveness
on
these
matters to be deprecated.
The
ideas
readiness and depth of the response to

life
and experiences of the
of others, in
so far as they depend on the fine and ample

stringing
of
in
the
social
personal
unity.
frame,
mark
an
in
advance
the
Of
sentiment,
meaning
above
defined
ideas
of
the
direct
emotional
attended
response to
to
single-heartedly
the
world can
never have too

much.
I
223
It is
a remarkable
fact,
and one which
do not think can be disputed, that a genuine
sensitiveness to social needs has been found in
a considerable
to
number
of prominent examples
to poetic
I
accompany a genuine sensitiveness

pictorial beauty.
and
The
to
difference which
have been attempting
point
is
out between
concerned, not
its
sentiment and sentimentalism
with the degree of emotion, but with
kind
and
its
direction.
For, undoubtedly, with the growth of social
compunction a new danger
is
created.
The
same
delight in feeling for feeling's sake, which
runs riot in the vulgar picture and romance,
has opened to
it
new and
fertile field in
the
no longer short and simple annals of the poor.

In isolated patches of hasty observation,
uncriticised
in the
rumours and
idle generalisations of
talk,
the press and of
common
we have
I
the
modern counterpart of
that world of "
think,"
224

"
and
feel,"
and
"
it
seems
to me,"
which Plato
identified with the
atmosphere of egotism and
obscurantism.
Does our emotion, we should
ask ourselves, weld our attention closer and

ever closer to the complicated phenomena of
the actual
life
around us
Does
it
inspire us
?
at once with humility
and with resolution
with the humility to be always learning and to
put away childish self-opinion, and with the

resolution to press, so far as our intelligence
permits, into the heart
and depth of the matter,

is
caring for nothing but what
true
and
useful,
and reckless
classes
of clamour, whether
?
from
the
or from the masses

is
The
votary of
Science
accused of the very fault against
which he struggles.
Absolute humility
absolute pride
;
may
the
in-
always be regarded as
thorough submission to reason necessarily

volves
"
the
it
thorough
is
defiance
;
of
unreason.
feel-
Reason,"
said
but what
about

ing
reply that
is
225
have tried
to
show how
in this
right
feeHng
reasonable, and
that
reasonableness
its
rightness consists, and that
no one can claim to have genuine feeling which

is
not the direct echo of apprehended truth.
The paradoxes
in
of social causation are

all
known
some degree
it
to
who have
social interests.
And
does not appear to
me
that this
is
the
I
time or place for specific controversy.

desire to attempt to-day
is
All
to impress
will
and
to
impress again on the few

take
advice, that
who
all
consent to
has
whereas
causation
paradoxes for the novice,
the
paradoxes of
social causation are singularly startling.
The
meeting of extremes
reform
views.
is
in
the world
of social
more astounding than any dissolving
How
quickly the
philanthropist
is
transformed into the sweater and unjust competitor with regular labour, the charitable per-
son into the dangerous foe of Trades' Unions

c. c.
226

*'
and
Friendly Societies," the provider of food

into the author of starvation
and shelter
and
homelessness.
On more
known
controverted questions,
of
such as
the
proper treatment
as the
to
the
very
it
various classes
unemployed,
a
seems
inappropriate
I
express
merely
all
passing opinion.
will
only entreat that, in
matters of this kind,
we
should struggle against
becoming victims of the senses, and should

force
ourselves
to
attend,
not only
to
the
momentary
fact of perception,
but to the history
and conditions which determine the permanent

effect of
our action, and should remember
that,
so far from being hard-hearted in giving such

attention,
we
are thus following in the track ot

in
true emotion, while
being carried away by
the
first
impression of unreasoned pity
we
are
indulging ourselves, and showing an utter and

frigid
hard-heartedness to
is
human
fact
welfare.
There
one very curious
which
desire

pause upon
that,
227
to
in this connection.
Many
of us
suppose
when we have got
into statistics,
in-
we have
got
away from cheap fancy and
dolent sentimentalism.
Never was any opinion

arithmetical
is
more
delusive.
The
fancy,
the
passion for calculation and results,
one of the
\
commonest forms of a
superficial imagination,
half-
and exercises a mysterious influence over

educated
late rather
'
minds.
The
temptation
to
calcu-
''
than to analyse
to fly at once to a
mechanical process rather than pause for one

Avhich
search,
is
is
laborious
active in
and demands
original re-
many
of the sciences, and

it
within the limits of working hypothesis,
may
have
results
of a certain very restricted value.

it is
But, in dealing with facts as facts,

fatal.
simply
I.,
In Lanfrey's
life
of
Napoleon
the
delusive power of this monomania, as
it
often
comes
to
be,
is
very
strikingly
to
illustrated.
Napoleon came more and more
be fascinated
228

his
by
perfectly lucid
and consistent
calcula-
tions
from data unreal or imperfect.
Thus,
such a disaster as that of the Russian campaign
was aggravated by
mechanical sense
quate,
his partial precision.

his preparations
all
In a
were ade-
and thus there was

the
I
the greater loss
when
them.
inevitable
disaster
overwhelmed
presume that
is
this characteristic of so
powerful an intellect
of the
vicious
a profound illustration
of
influence
sentimentalism.
in
Wrapped up
pleasurable
in self-conceit
and indulging
dreams
of
lost
boundless
conquest,
Napoleon gradually
and
touch with actualities,
his calculative faculty
became more and
more divorced from any
basis of fact.
The pages
are
full
of the late Professor de
Morgan
of examples that
show how
readily the
handlings of figrures
becomes the
oroân of the
crudest superstition.
The
general
principle
which governs
all

argument by calculation
229
is
this,
that
figures,
fact,
being only very mutilated abbreviations of

are wholly unsignificant, except to those
who
and
by concrete experience
know
precisely
completely for what facts they stand.

I
found
it
impossible
to
persuade
Secretary
an
in
energetic
Charity
Organisation
not,
America, that you could
as a matter of
mere
tress
office-routine, tabulate the causes of disin

all
cases brought before you.
That
a very experienced
the cases,
their
person
who
has handled
may
profitably record a
is
judgment of
But the
absolutely
its
predominant causes
true.
is
judgment of an outside observer

worthless
;
and the best opinion
loses
value
when
not interpreted by the

it.
same knowledge
which produced
First to get behind the figures

is
and see what
needed to picture the whole

all
situation, then to
get
the
figures essential
to
complete the
230

the obvious rule in dealing with
for example,
portrayal,
statistics.
is
What,
for
do the starva?
tion figures
London represent
juries.
Verdicts
from coroners'
simple
Does
to
insist
on a
condition
only
does
same
is
the
?
Coroner's
personality
make any
in
difference
Between
with a
1873 ^^^ 1874,
the
district,
change of coroner, there

infant cases to
fall
is
from 43
at least
none
at
it
all.
This
noteworthy.
Further,
is
very sad that 31
deaths should have taken place which could be

ascribed to starvation in
if
London,
in 1890,
but
we observe
if
that
20 years ago there were

the figures at
all,
100/ then,
feeling
I
we
trust
our
must be somewhat modified.

stress
have disdained to lay
on the too
in
numerous examples of philanthropy

^
which
See returns from 1871 to 1890 inclusive

" Returns as
in
Mr. Loch's
paper,
an
instrument in
Social Science."
Charity Organisation Review^ September, 1S92.
231
sentimentalism must be pronounced insincere,
being conjoined
with grave
irregularities
of
method, sometimes amounting to imposture.
Yet
it
would be an omission not
to observe
that in the strictest moral sense the sentimentalist is
always an impostor, because he himself,

his
and not
ostensible
object,
is
always the
of senti-
centre of his feelings.
The
frauds
mentalism are simply the climax of a mental

state
I
which
is
fraudulent throuQ^h and throug-h.
quote, with the

in
comments
of a skilled
critic,
an example
which one of the most mischievis
ous forms of charity
appropriately recommen-
ded by a number of
culminating in
silly
and vulgar
attractions,
the offer of an advertisement
among
the aristocracy in return for a donation
of certain wares "for so

^
'
good an
object."
grand bazaar
is
to be held in
Kensington
Town
Hall this month in aid of the funds for the Children's Free
Charity Organisation Review, December, 1892.
232

and the Winter Dinners
for the Poor.
Breakfasts
The
list
of patronesses has the appearance of a slightly abbreviated

peerage.
of Old
The London
'
stalls will
represent a charming winter scene
at Yuletide.
There
will
be many attractive
novelties,
will
and
all
performances on the stage in Large Hall

lady
be FREE.'
The
who
organises the entertainment
addresses letters to ladies and gentlemen with
whom
she
has no personal acquaintance, inviting them to purchase

tickets.
The inducements
held out are
'
the immediate
patronage of H.R.H. the Princess Christian,' the pleasure

of providing free meals and Christmas dinners to very poor
children,
and
is
'
attractive novelties.'
In one corner of the
prospectus
child at an
a woodcut representing a sick and half-clad

attic
'
open
window, with the legend,

;
'
It is for
such as these we plead
in the opposite corner
is
a picture
of a ragged urchin putting himself outside a
hunk of bread
But the
and a mug of cocoa or soup.

benevolent impulse and some
It is
less
a very crude appeal to
worthy motives.
lady organiser varies her temptation.
The
following letter
:
(we omit names) was received by a wine merchant
Dear
I
Sir,
As
know how kind and
charitable you are,
venture to ask you to be so very good as to send us a

I
small donation of your wines for the bazaar, of which
enclose circular and complimentary tickets, and, being for

so good an object as the Children's Free Breakfasts and the
Winter Dinners
if
for the Poor, I feel certain
you
will
help us
you possibly can.
Any
show-cards you
may
entrust
me
with shall have prominent places on the refreshment counter.

and the attention of our patronesses
excellence of your wines.
shall
233
be drawn to the
Any
contribution,
no matter
.
how
small,
will
be most gratefully acknowledged by

not refuse your generous aid for so
I
Trusting you
a charity,
will
good
remain,
&c., &c.
Charity seeketh not her

the
"
own ?
Well, well
was
it
not
all
same Apostle who pointed out the wisdom of being

all
things to
men ?
To
point the contrast between the feehng of

I
the worker and of the sentimentalist, the following
adduce
All
comment on
of
true
the above.
who
poor
know anything
work
for
the
respect the writer's name.

"
To
the
Editor of
the
'
Charity Organisation Revieiv.^

for a charity festival
" Sir,
last
In describing the arrangements

it
month,
may be thought
that the letter

is
you give as
addressed to a wine-merchant
a solitary and extreme
specimen, as indeed one might hope.

" I should like to say that such appeals form a part of the
regular tactics
employed
in these
'
charitable
'
transactions.
Not long ago I received from the agent and best known firms for the sale of a
food, a packet containing
at
of one of the largest

particular article of
least
one
hundred
similar
234
appeals for a gratuitous supply of this article for bazaars, with the similar bribe of displaying advertisements of
it.
They came
Catholic,
told,
from
all
denominations
Church,
Roman
I
and Dissenting.
These specimens were,
was
a S7nall sample of the
number being
continually
received.
"Hardly ever have

" It
felt
such indignation as
in
the
perusal of these documents.

is
difficult to restrain one's
temper, and one's pen in

'
contemplating the depths into which
charitable
'
England
!
has fallen in these latter days of the nineteenth century

*'
Yours
faithfully,
" Louisa Twining."
No
weak
one can
feel
more strongly than

is
do the
points of a criticism that

in
its
not perfectlyit
definite
said,
if
application.
Why,
may be
that
the
man means
anything, he
means
every one
is
a sentimentalist
who does
not agree
I
with him upon social questions.

tried,
Well,
fine
have
to
partly
by the example of
art,
point out a
this
It
more
objective
distinction
than
between the right and the wrong

I
in feeling.
I
is,
admit, a distinction of tendency, but
235
am
convinced that
it
will
is
it
repay
reflection.
am
convinced that
it
possible to arrest the
attention,
and divert
from feeling to
is
fact,
when we observe
ning to
interest
that our excitement

us,
begin-
and that we are getting

I
impatient of analysis and eager for results.
am
convinced that
it
is
well to preserve always
a proportion between literary and practical impressions,
and between
statistical
knowledge
and the mastery of problems
in the concrete.
all,
No
one who has any knowledge at
whether
will
dis-
workman, labour-leader, or economist,
pute to-day the obvious and admitted fact that

charity
is
the chief factor
in
in
producing the
miserable class of vasfrants
England and
Scotland
and many think that the interference
of sentimental philanthropy, through bounty-fed

industries, with the course of trade
is
and wages,
the
closest
a matter that
now demands
attention of society.
To
avoid sentimentalism
236

not intellectual
that
it
is
ability
is
primarily
needed, nor a particular set of doctrines, nor,

necessarily,
very ample experience.
It
is
the
preference of thoroughness to quantity in work,
and that genuineness of

ates
I
spirit
which subordin-
its
feelings to their object.
think
that
considerations
of this
kind
deserve to be meditated by us
interest in the Ethical
who
If
take an
movement.
we
will
throw our influence into the scale against the

self-indulgence of emotion and the illusions of
piece-meal perception,
in
andy^r
self-suppression
face of the object,

life
and a thorough coherent

occasion to appreof our century.
view of the
hend,
that
we have
we may deserve we
will not
well
this
But
if
make
vigorous effort on
a question of simple right and wrong, what do
we more than
others
VIII.
TRAINING IN EN/OYAIEyT.^
There
are two widespread views of enjoyment
far
which seem
each
in
apart,
but which, while from

learn something,
of
them we may
have
common
a grave defect.
call
We
ascetic
may
them the indolent view and the
view.
Commonplace people generally

it
take the indolent view, though
does not on
the whole represent even their practice.
For
them, as they think, enjoyment and recreation

chiefly
mean freedom from compulsory
toil
amusement, entertainment.
This freedom from
Delivered at the Maria Grey Training College.
238
TRAINING IN ENJOYMENT.
actuality forms
no doubt a great part of our
pleasure in the average theatre or the average

novel.
We
are
all
inclined to this at times
we enjoy
the sense of relaxation, the conscious;
ness of not being bound, not being responsible

so at
the
theatre,
where some one

us,
else
has
charge of amusing
we only have
to look
on
and
criticise.
Variety of perceptions and emo-
tions on the stage brings this
independence of
is
ours
home
to us
in
such moods everything

for
a sort of scene or
comedy
our entertain-
ment.
This
is
one great root of the delight of

like to put the sea
going abroad
we
between
us and our work.

tion at least,
For
this
is,
indolent disposi-
enjoyment
in short,
the feeling
of being at play, and not at work.
The
fault
or defect of this attitude
is
that
life,
it
puts enjoyit
ment rather low down
in
and makes
unworthy of much attention or of high energy.

This
failing reacts
upon enjoyment and makes
239
it
more and more

It
trivial
is
till,
perhaps,
in
it
be-
comes vulgar.
mood weak
itself,
and
is
strengthened
in the
wrong way
in the
line of self-indulgence,
and may even become

soon experience
the
altogether immoral.
And we
is,
how
first
feeble
this
mood
because after
few hours or days of mere relaxation our

cries
nature
out for something

often find
to
do
and
English
men and women
some pretty
hard work to throw themselves into for fun.
As
"
the foreigner says,
we
take our pleasure
sadly."
This
may have two meanings

man
at
"
"
emptily and pointlessly," like a dull
the seaside, or again,

cally,"
severely and energetiIn the
like a cricketer or mountaineer.
latter sense
we have no
cause to be ashamed
of
it.
Now
the ascetic or
Puritan view of enjoyto
ment ought, one might have hoped,

very opposite of the indolent view.
be the
is
If life
240
governed by moral or
Strenuous career,
ligious ends,
re-
one would hope that enjoyment
also might be looked
upon as something strenu-
ous and worthy.
But the one-sidedness of the
Puritan spirit prevents that, and so the result
comes
to be that
in
enjoyment
is
again put quite

sympathise, to a
low down
life.
We
all
certain degree, in this view
we
feel
that idle-
ness
is
sin,
perhaps the
in
sin.
The
idea that
you only work
order to get leisure does not
seem
as
it
true to fact, unless leisure
means
for us,
did for the

If
Greek
citizen,
a higher order
of work.
enjoyment has nothing serious or

it,
important about
we
are inclined to agree
with the Puritan that
it is
a contemptible thing.
difficulty as
But then we are met by the same

before.
Give a dog a bad name and hang

Put enjoyment low down
in
life,
him.
will
and
it
be low.
As Matthew Arnold was
always
is
urging, the result of our Puritan training
not
241
elevation but sheer barbarism, at least in our
enjoyments.
action,
There must be
leisure
and
re-
and times of freedom when we are

if
thrown on our own resources, and
we
are
not interesting to ourselves in any other way,
we
to
naturally take to
what
The
shall
say
well,
steady drinking.
still
legislation
of this
country appears
to favour this conception
of duty and enjoyment.
On
the one free day
of the week,
or
to
we
are invited either to church

;
the
public-house
duty or religion
Is
provided on the one hand, and enjoyment on

the other.-
This system of ours no doubt im-
presses Itself on the minds of our people.
people
is
always educated by
its
laws,
and our
law impresses this choice upon our working

population
from
Its
earliest
years
there are,
broadly speaking, just these alternatives for the
day of freedom, and no
other.
;
They
care
are not
is
absolute alternatives, of course

c.c.
taken
242
that
it
may be
possible to combine duty and
enjoyment
the
church and the pubHc-house
within the limits of our free day.
But they
remain,
with
all
reservations,
the
two
welllife,
marked extremes of the English

outside actual bread-winning.
people's
Now we
enjoyment,
have,
perhaps,
learnt
something
from the indolent and the ascetic notions of
something from
each
separately
and from both together.

(I.)
The
indolent person shows us that

if it
it.
it is
not enjoyment
is
not free,
if
the
mind
is
not at play in
(11.)
is
The
Puritan shows us that enjoyment

if
it
contemptible
is
life.
incapable of entering
into a serious plan of

(III.)
if
But we see from both together that

is
enjoyment
it
treated as
trivial,
then
trivial,
or worse,
will be.
Now,
in
the
first
place,
it
ought to strike
243
US, as against
trivial,
the idea that enjoyment must be

is
that enjoyment
not wholly opposed to
work.
Many
people,
perhaps
most
healthy
people, really delight in their
work when they

is
are once set
down
to
it,
although there
often
into
a degree of reluctance to begin,

harness.
to get
This means that although our daily

necessary to be done,
in
it
task
is
we have got an
feel
it
interest
that
makes us
free
it is
or
in
voluntary, as soon as
truth
we can
That
is
forget that
compulsory.
the
fact,
and so
many good men now
are telling us that every
one ought to have work which he can enjoy or

feel
free
in.
And
this is
very desirable, but
yet there will be always a
good deal of me-
chanical and distasteful drudgery, which some-
body must do
and
all
regular
compulsory
work
is
liable to
be distasteful at times for
reasons of health or overpressure or ill-success.
And
it
is
not
desirable,
even
if
possible,
to
244
make people
to leave off to drag a
" free,"
;
really free
it
from their work, free

gets heavy and begins
whenever
If
little.
we made
ourselves thus
we
should destroy the masculine tem-
per of the mind, and indeed no resolute person
would consent
it
to
be relieved from his duty

So,
/whenever
became troublesome.
while
work should be
as interesting as possible,
it
and
may be very
only by our
enjoyable indeed,
will always, if
own
undertaking, be compulsory
as well as free,
and may be of a kind that cana
not by
itself satisfy
human
is
intelligence.
So
that the solution
not to be found alto-
gether in taking interest in our work, although

that may, in various degrees,
tions of true enjoyment.
else to
fulfil
is
the condi-
There
something
be considered.
We
and
saw
that play, or sport, or relaxation,
is
not always indolent, but

energetic.
may be very
severe
In climbing up a Scotch moun-
under a burning sun, one
245
tain
may have wonthis
dered "
toil,
why do we go through
?
frightful
no man compelling us
that the
"
But, of course,
we know
whole day would not be such

it
good fun unless we took

only thing that makes
it
as
it
comes.
is,
The
that
sport or play
underneath
it
all,
however severe the day's

freedom
;
work may
it
be, there is the feeling of
is
a discharge of superfluous energy

:
it
is
my own choice me to do no
it,
there
is
no purpose that binds
object, except the exertion
and
experience
terested.
itself
It is
it
is,
as
we may
say, disin-
not even a duty, except in the

is
general sense, that there
a duty to use one's

serious, then,
time to good purpose.

or energetic the sport
is
However
may
be, so
long as
it
chosen for
its
own
sake,
we
are
still
at play,
unless
we make
sport into a profession, which
seems to
and
me
always to be an unfortunate thing,

its
to destroy
existence as sport.
246
Play, then,
may be
we
as serious
and
difficult in
it,
its
nature as
like.
We
it
feel
free in
as
it
the indolent
is
is
man demands, but

is
not because
;
easy, rather because

to say, not
disinterested
that
merely disinterested as being free

motive,
from
selfish
but
disinterested
as
having
no
motive
beyond
the
pleasure
of
what we are doing and perceiving.

pleasure by
itself
is
Sensuous
;
not true play
it
has not
the sense of pure freedom and self-expression.

It follows
from
this
that there
may be
quite
as difficult a training to as for work.
go through
for play
^
In fact (to quote Mr. Pater

" the
on
Lacedaemon)
practical
for
is
surprise of St.
Paul,
as a
man,
at
the slightness of the reward

it
which a Greek spent himself, natural as

about
all
pagan
perfection,
is
especially ap-
plicable about these
Lacedaemonians,
who
in-
deed had actually invented that so 'corruptible'

^
"Plato and Platonism,"
p.
212.
crown
247
and
essentially worthless parsley
in place
of the
more tangible
prizes of an earlier age."
This, however, again introduces the element

of corripetition, which does not belong to play
pure and simple, and

the higher forms of
it,
is
quite incompatible with
being an interest outside

itself.
the enjoyment of the play
But the
feel-
ing of the Greek was not merely for victory
over another, but for the perfectness of the

self-expression
and
self-mastery
which
that
success only sealed and guaranteed.

all
As we
know, the word which
to the
Greek meant
"school"-^
to
"leisure" has become

so disinterested was
studies
our word
their
devotion
those
which
for
us
are
associated
with
compulsion.
Hard work, however,
is
happily no great
deterrent to the English mind.

cricket or in rovvino- there
is
To
excel in
no labour that an
English lad
will shirk,
though he expects no-
248
thing from these

tonic spirit, their
arts,
except, quite in a
Pla-
own
I
highest perfection.
We
in
may
it
then suppose,
not
laziness
think, at this point that
is
or
self-indulgence,
but
the
sense
which has
been explained,
or
disin-
terestedness
and
self-expression,
really
freedom
and spontaneity, which

joyment from work.
If this is so,
it
distinguish en-
seems to follow that study
and
discipline are not incompatible with enjoyit
ment, and that quite possibly
may be
true,
as the old
Greeks have
told
us,
and as the
Puritan contention has suggested though not

accepted, that the beautiful or noble
is difficult.
Great philosophers have explained how
man
is
most truly
at
play,
most disinterested, most

self-
spontaneous,
expression,
endowed with the deepest

is
when he enjoys what

art.
beautiful,
or pours out his soul in
The power
of enjoyment, then, in the truest
and
to.
249
fullest sense, needs, like
other capacities,
It
be developed by training.
itself,
does not
careful
in
come of
and even the most
education can only put the instruments
our
hands and cannot endow us with the persistency

easily
in
and goodwill to use them.
We
may
how
easily!
by
years,
sloth
or carelessness
our
formative
leave
uncultivated ^
shall
whole provinces of our nature which we

wish to harvest when
it
is
too
late.
dreary
misconception on this matter has been represented,

I
fear unconsciously,
by a clever novelist
is
of our
own
day.
The
story
that a
little
woman,
world of
not without capacity,
when her
passion
that
is
falling to pieces, hits
upon the fancy

possibly
rest
study
and
to
culture
may
be a
consolation
her.
But seeking
labour,
to
and
find
comfort in
intellectual
she
can
none
and,
of
so
it
seems
be
implied,
the
interests
the
intelli^rence
are
therefore
TRALMNG IN ENJOYMENT.
shown
to
be a pale and empty mockery.

moral
is
But
the
the true
different.
It
is,
that
to
great interests of Hfe will not
come
one by
to
magic, at a single
the
call,
as
all,
ari
amusement
vacant mind
it
for
is
except
unusually
gifted natures,
necessary to worship the

if
Muses
early
and
resolutely,
we
desire
to
enjoy their
gifts at
our utmost need.

necessities
to
There are two

view
if
be kept
in
we would
avoid the most dangerous

first
is is
absurdities.
discipline
;
The
the
necessity
of
the second
I
the necessity of en-
joyment.
will
say a few words about each.

for
The
necessity of discipline
the learner
for
corresponds to the necessity of selection

the
artist.
We
have a natural attentiveness,

to
a natural
inclination
throw our
interests
is
into the thing-s

to
around
us.
But our world
begin with a confusion of objects and ideas,

is
and our attention
readily
caught,
readily
251
bewildered,
fatigued.
tion
it
and,
when
bewildered,
readily-
The work
the
of art operates by selecbrilliant
and
the
more
and complicated
it
is,
the selection
by which
severely
exists
is
so
much
more
appropriate
is
and
exI
coherent.
pression,
For the essence of beauty

and expression depends on
intelli-
gent connection.
Therefore, to the immature

of beauty are too
attention, the higher forms
severe, or too intricate for enjoyment.
Instead
of playing over a surface of scattered forms
or ideas, the attention

to
is
by them called upon
follow
a clue
which has, so to speak, a
logical
it
character.
The
distractions
;
in
is
which
there
(
1
delights are pruned
away
nothing
but what bears upon the central thought, and

carries
the stamp of the governing emotion.

this,
it
Why,
make
may be
to
said,
is
to
;
simplify, to
easy, not
make hard
to
such beauty
than
must surely be
easier
the
attention
252
the
confused
is
scenery of every day

;
Well,
here
the paradox
is
a restranied and reserved

;
beauty
easy in a sense
is is
but
only to an
attention which
idea.
'
concentrated
on a
sin<jle
Now
it
an
effort
to
concentrate
attention,
and
to
pursue a single idea.

is
Our
ordinary consciousness
tractions.
a succession of disit
'
In a similar sense,
is
might be
simpler
"
said,
the theory of gravitation
"
than
our perception of the falling
rain.
Experience bears
of the
this out.
In the training
in
average individual learner, or
the
reawakening of degraded ages, the

decadence
is
art
of a
that
is
appreciated
classical
sooner
stamp.
classic
than
which bears the

equally
true,
And
in
this
whether the
intricate.
question
be simple or
its
It is
hard because of
is
purity,
and
in this
sense Shakespeare
It
is
as
in-
hard as Sophocles.
structive
strange
but
example
to
read the proceedings of
253
the
Committee which was appointed by the

1815, to discuss the
English Government, in
proposed purchase of the Elgin marbles.

report
is
The
which
probably familiar to some of you,
through the lecture by
Miss
Univ.
Sellers,
was
published
in
the
Ext.
Jour?ial.
Flaxman, you may remember, preferred the

Apollo
Belvedere
to
the
Theseus
of
the
Parthenon.
testify
A
the
connoisseur
was
found to
that
Theseus was spurious, and

I
" the rest of the articles very poor,"
think
we can understand how
this
comes about.
attraction
The overblown
or
superfluous
of
decadent art catches the attention of the

in
man
But,
the street
more
readily than the pure outits
line
which
is
severely faithful to
idea.
how
you
be
may
in
ask
can
we
the
modern poet or
?
artist
this
sense classical
In Shake-
speare, for example,
surely have
humour
and
romance, fascination of
every hue and
254
texture,
and
restraint or reserve has here
no
so.
place nor meaning.
But
all
it
is
not exactly
artists,
Shakespeare,
severity.
like
great
has
his
of Nature.
He has the severity, and the logic He terrifies the effeminate, shocks
the conventional, and over-burdens the weak.
Let
me
read the confession of a great mind
strong
enough
:
to
be candid.
at
It
is
Schiller
I
who
writes
"
When
an early age
first
became acquainted with Shakespeare,

indignant
at
his
was
coldness,
to jest
let
his
insensibility,
which permitted him

of highest emotion, to
in the
moments
the clown break in
upon the most heart-rending scenes of

let,
Lear,
Macbeth.
Misled
Hamby my
every
acquaintance with recent poetry so as
in
work
heart
to look
to
first
I
for the
poet,
it
to
meet him
that
heart,
found
intolerable
here the poet never showed himself, and would

not
let
me
question
him.
was
not yet
255;
capable of understanding nature at

I
first
it
hand.
as re-
could
only endure the picture of
flected
through the understanding, and to that

sentimental
poets
end the French

18th century
for be,
ral,
and the
Germans were
the right people
me."
he
is
However
various Shakespeare
may
always coherent, and however natu-
he
calls
upon us
to follow
him beyond
our everyday selves.

Simply, then, to follow
in
the
great masters
their spirit, a
any
art,
or to see nature in
is
serious discipline of attention
presupposed.
Only
that
beauty
will
afford
the
more
which
perin
manent and
return
for
energetic
its
enjoyment
great
expressiveness
am
borrowing Mr. Pater's phrases

us a great attentiveness.
It
demands from
idle to consult
is
the oracles of the newspaper press for the best
one hundred books

as theirs,
from such prescriptions
we
shall gain
no true guidance, we
256
shall
acquire no
new
capacity for organising

likings.
in
our attention and our
We
;
all
know
enough
to
make
a beginning
the direction
it is
which our capacities may point out

of
energy, and
want
prejudice
that enjoyment
ought
not
to
be laborious, which
generally
stands in
our way.
Every one indeed
has
not every talent, and prudence suggests that

after fair
in
trial
we should abandon
feel
the paths
which we
no
possibility
of progress.
The
obstacles due to sheer incapacity
as
for
example, to the lack of a musical ear
must
good
which
this is
be carefully distinguished from those due to

indolence
;
and there
is
no greater
test of
sense than the choice of directions in
we hope our
interest to develop.
For
the key to our problem

definite interests,
the
development of
and not the mere entertain-
ment of
leisure.
An
experienced educationist said to
me
not
257
long ago
" that
'
and
It
was an
instructive heresy
harmonious development of the whole

the greatest conceivable absurdity."
mind'
Is
What
he meant was this: that the development
must not be so generally harmonious as not

to
be a development at
all, or,
as
Hegel loves
If
to Insist, "
you must become something
you
mean
rule,
to
Is
be anything!'
learning
life.
healthy boy, as a
thing
to be at
chiefly
It is
one
one
period of his
good
it is
mastered
by an
Interest,
although
good, too, to learn

In a i^reat desfree
balance and self-restraint.

zae
must, as the artist docs, proceed by selec-
tion.
Giving
this
and that a
trial,
according
to our opportunities,
feel
we should
yet,
when we
to
It
our feet
In
any one
ascent, see
that
we we
climb vigorously, and spare no labour to
adapt our attention to the element for which

feel
an
affinity.
We
should
not be
de-
terred
c. c.
by the idleness of our own mind, or of

s
258
Others, but should,
if
necessary,
labour,
work through,
those
with
pieces
some pains and
master-
which the judgment of the ages has
crowned.
Like the prudent buyer of
pictures,
we
is
should attend to what
we
are convinced
little
above our present capacity, though

its
in
the direction of
the
fetters
development, and thus
break
of chance
and indolence.
The mere
greatness of a good
may
conceal
it
from the unpractised eye, just as the commonplace

novelist will satirise the wearisomeness
;
of classical music
to Offenbach
as
if
the ear accustomed
was embarrassed and outwearied
by the too abundant melody of Beethoven.

Especially in the case of works removed from
us by long intervals of history,
to
we must
expect
go through a
or
certain
preparation, whether
literally
metaphorically the learning of a
new
language, before, as with Homer's heroes

the
when
gods are favourable, the cloud
is
259
lifted
from our eyes, and we are taught to

the
is
discern
earthly
from
the
divine.
And
the
Its
same
true of the Qrreat
Book of Nature.
language
may be
the
learned in
many
different
ways, with
in
poet,
over the sketch book,

or
or
the
biological
laboratory,
field
under
the
guidance of
the
botanist
geologist.
But
in
one way or another our attentiveness
must
match Nature's
expressiveness
before
we
that
shall
have learned to read the intelligence

Study,
patience,
she reveals.
to
humility,
trivial
to attend
the object, are the
to forget our
selves
that
these
there
elements of discipline
go
to a training in enjoyment.
is
But
another side
to
the
matter.
Scholarship, study, the discipline of attention,
are necessary things, and the very purity and
vigour the
true
asceticism
which
they
in-
volve, are elements
of masculine
it
enjoyment.
After
all,
however,
is
the most terrible of
26o
errors to
take the means for the end.

is
En-
joyment
a dekision,
in
is
if
we do
not enjoy
and thouo^h the man
the street
who
con-
demns
scholar
art-scholarship
a PhiHstine, yet the

is
who does
Here
not enjoy
is
no
less assuredly
a pedant.
the knot and paradox of
the whole matter, the point whence self-deception
enters
to steer
in,
and
where we hardly know

Philistinism.
how
Is
it
between pedantry and
enjoyment when we have

life
to wrestle for
dear
with
George
Meredith,
or
with
^.
Browning, with Dante, ^schylus, or Pindar

If
we
give
up the
}
.'*
task,
is
it
indolence
is
it
or
genuineness
or pedantry
laid
If
we
persevere,
true love
No
general
criterion
can be
down
of course a partial difficulty, even
one
for
artisticall)'
unpardonable,
may
be
its
faced
the sake of the wdiole. which

illuminate
;
solution
may
but apart from
this,
even the
strain of straightforward insight
and the burden
261
of sig-nificance
may be
so great that
we
hardly
know whether we
persevere as a fancied duty

I
or as a genuine pleasure. that most people,

to
if
do not suppose
they were simply desirous
spend the pleasantest hour, would take down
-say
fact
is,
King
that
Lear, from the bookshelf.

the enjoyment
is
The
its
of beauty in
higher form
terised
is
not
very adequately charac" pleasant."

it
by the term
Enjoyment
the safer word, because

definite,
implies something
more
perhaps more active
it
suggests
do,
'
enjoying ourselves.
in
This
is
what we must
in
the end,
if
our training
enjoyment has
feel
not been
pedantry.
We
must
that
we
are free and disinterested, laying
hold upon
our true selves, exalted out of our every-day

routine.
We
;
may know
the secrets
all
mysteries, and
all
knowledge
physical
of archaeology or
lie
of
us,
acoustics
may
open
before
but
if
we do
not in the
end enjoy ourselves
262
we
are pretentious pedants,
we
are " as sound-
ing brass and a tinkling cymbal."

In conclusion,
illustration,
It
is
I
may
say a word, by
way
of
on one or two practical problems.
quite indisputable, in
my
opinion, that
silly
occupations and
trifles,
sheer waste of leisure

life
upon
destroy the higher
of
many
the
far
in-
men and women.

fault is not
In the case of
women
is still
wholly their own.
There
too strong a tradition that a
woman
has no
dependent
life,
and that she
exists as
a social
If
ornament, as a plaything, or as a drudge.

girl,
therefore, begs for a
few hours
in
the day,
undisturbed by needless conversation or superfluous social routine, she

is
apt to be regarded
as unwomanly, and as averse to the true duties of the household.
For
this
charge
I
have never
observed any foundation.

idle
am
sure that the
woman
is
a far grreater danofer to domesti-
city than
even the too eager student.
And
it
hard to exaggerate the
importance of
263
is
woman's education.
ofeneral
In every household, the
level
of thought
and conversation
and
likings
is
dictated
by
the
habits
of
the
women.
With young men there
are parallel
dangers to those which beset young women.

I
have been told by the experienced head of

colleofc,
a ereat
that
in
while athleticism mio^ht

itself,
it
be 2food enough
with
it
tended to
brinq;'
the intolerable evil of an ever-present
subject of facile and effortless conversation.
But
is
all this
being
so,
a degree of resolution
required to bend the mind to things which,

outset,
at the
are
less
immediately amusing
than personal or sporting gossip, or a commonplace
game
or novel.
Yet the choice remains,

life.
and
is
all-important for
With
to
skill
and
resolution, leisure
may be found own

also,
study the
great poets
of our
country and of the

perhaps, the
modern
world,
and
great
264
authors of
translations
ancient
times,
in
the
admirable
now
accessible.
in
When
an interest
first-
has been acquired

'
the Hfe of any age, a
rate history will be as fascinating as a romance,
and
,
all
kinds
of
human achievement
will
assume a
fresh significance from a study of the
conditions under which they arise.

for
Whether,
example, the
is
Greek language should be
learned,
a question demanding great indivi-
dual judgment.
To have
mastered
it,
is
to
have the key
to a literature
parallel.
which even our

is
own
can hardly
still
But time
If
limited
strength
greatest
more
is
so.
the
period
it
of
leisure
likely to
be short,
it
is
doubtful policy to consume
all
in
acquiring
an instrument which there may not be much

time to use.
Many and many men and women
who
grasp the Greek mind, not through the
language, but through a true sense of beauty
and of duty, have more sympathy with Homer
265
or Pericles or Plato than any scholar of the

purely antiquarian type.
To
any
acquire the habit

serious effort,
of studying what demands
by
\/
way
of enjoyment,
is
in
case, here as
It
else-
where, the essential point. bered that

in
must be remem-
the sculptures at the

at
first
Museum we
those
have the Greeks

have eyes
to see.
hand
for
who
One
further point before

risk of
close.
There
is,
no doubt, a
life,
pedantry
to
in
a scheme of
in
fixed
hours, so
speak, of devotion.
Yet perhaps those
interests
which are not

necessity,
safe1
guarded by the pressure of daily
may
without injury be the object of some formal

attention
some
to
season set apart, some quiet

consecrated to the study of
time, habitually
what
pose,
is
great.
For
somewhat
that
different pur-
and
ensure
familiarity without
I
which no work of Art can be truly loved,
have found that the eatherinos called Shake-
266
speare readings, have considerable value.
It is
a great thing to be taken through play after

play with the thoroughness that comes of read-
ing aloud.
pretty
clear
would keep
of
discussion
all
such societies
explanation.
and
Necessary criticism should be got by each for

himself from the best books
to discussion
ate,
;
but the tendency

is
and explanation
not very fortun-
except
among
highly
skilled critics,
in
and
most people are better employed

familiar with
becoming
works of Art than
in trying to
explain them.
One
can often see, even in pub-
lished papers of these societies, that they are
immature
fancies,
which a loyal and persever-
ing study of the work would probably have
reduced to their true dimensions.

ings, in short,
Such meet-
should be for pure enjoyment.

this
However
wrong
in
all
may
is
be,
we cannot go
and conquerin-
studying what
first
great,
its
ing the
difficulties
of
novelty or
and of our wandering
267
tricacy,
attention, while
leisure,
we
are
young and have some
and our
minds are energetic and

fresh
light,
flexible.
Then, with
always
life
experience,
there
comes
in
fresh
and we may hope
later
to
grow
steadily
and continuously, and without severe
labour, in the
power of enjoying ourselves

is,
o^
enjoying, that
the
human mind
at
its
best,
which
will
more and more become a
part of our
own
beins".
IX.
LUXURY AND REFINEMENT}

TiiERK
is
a "reat deal to be said in fîvour of
devoting our moral attention rather to subjects

of
everyday practice than to unique examples

heroism.
is
it
of
We
all
ao-rce,
indeed,
that
morality
duct, but
unsound which omits our daily con-
may be doubted whether we
fully
perceive either the depth and thoroughness of
which commonplace duties are capable, or the

hazards which attend a strained admiration for
<?triking
achievement.
It
might even be urged
that the figure implied in our current phrases
Delivered at Essex
Hall
for
the
London
Ethical
Society.
268
LUXURY AND REFINEMENT.

which unite elevation with the
ideal
is
269
not the
most fortunate that might have been chosen.

If
sometimes we were to think
less of a
"high
ideal,"
and more, as Plato has warned us with
a foresight unappreciated by his interpreters, of
an
intelligent,
that
is,
discriminating and
coherent view of
is
life
the
in
less
view of one who
awake and not
lost
dreams
we
should
be gainers morally no
than intellectually,
Could we not exercise our imagination by asking ourselves at times not only whether our
ideal can
be called
lofty,
but
how
it
would bear
combination with such adjectives as deep, wide,

solid,
thorough, intelligent
is
The
first
meanand
ing of "height"
naturally remoteness
the beyond, and suggests the mere star-gazing

attitude
which Plato condemns
in
the moralist
as in the astronomer.
And
so, in
feeding the mind principally upon
heroic examples, or great and successful enter-
270
LUXURY AND REFINEMENT.'

a serious hazard that the whole
defeated, that
prises, there is
aim of moral nurture should be

emotion should be substituted
for action,
and
the saint or hero, through our unconscious ten-
dency
to accept a vicarious atonement, should

is
be regarded as carrying the burden which

really ours.
I
confess that
much
of the praise
sensiit,
and honour lavished by an indolent but

tive society,
now upon
those
who
deserve
and now again upon those who deserve something different, has to
my
perceptions a disall
agreeable quality.
Behind
the gratitude
and
satisfaction
seem
to detect first a thrill
of sensibility over the pathetic newspaper paragraph, or the exciting annual report, and then the complacency which congratulates the splendid work that
is
itself
on
being done by others,
and so passes
to the order of the day.
subject such
as
that
to
which
I
invite
your attention has,
therefore,
venture
to

think,
i-]i
a moral importance of a peculiar and
definite kind.
In the
plies is
first
place, the
demand which
is
it
im-
humble, and therefore

that
it
a reality.
No
cir-
one can plead
is
above him.
The
it
cumstances and relations with which

are
is
deals
It
necessarily a part of every civilized
life.
therefore a
universal problem.
it
Moreover,
It
while thus universal,
is
also profound.
does not indeed lead us

selves
prise.
to require
from our-
immense
self-sacrifice,
it
or heroic enterpoints
is
The
path to which
in
It
apis
pearance easy and pleasant
enough.
life
marked out by the best purposes of

poses which rest upon the sense of
puras a
life
whoje
and
fenced
in
by
daily
and hourly
as
watchfulness
and
self-respect.
is
Yet,
the
Greek
well knew, temperance

is
akin to coursocial
age, and he
no mean soldier of the
army who
is
able to maintain through every
272
circumstance of position and expenditure, the

conviction of Plato's knightly order
is
that that
always to be done which tends to social well-
being.
If,
moreover, the requirements imposed on
individual conduct by attention to this subject
are
more
serious than might appear, so also are
the social and economic bearings which in part
account for
such
requirements.
We
see at
once that we are dealin<r with nothinor

the whole problem of wants
less
than
of
consumption.
Here we come
in
contact on the one hand with
the control of production, including the conditions
under which
it is
carried on,
and the kind

ex-
of objects upon which
labour has to be
pended.
On
the other hand

life,
we
are touching
the standard of
set
which
is
ia a o^reat
is
decree
by one
class to another,
and
excrywhcre,
and not merely among the wealthy, a modifiable conception.
The
effect
produced uncon-

sciously
273
by habits of the well-to-do, which,

occasional
in
is
though
in
their
own
lives,
are
persistent
to them,
relation
to
those
who
minister
follow-
strikingly elucidated
by the
ing passage
from Mr. Charles Booth's work

in
on
" Life
and Labour
London,"
vol.
ii.,
p.
229.
"
The
bright
and busy
exist,
life
for
which the
hotels
and theatres
which supports the

fills
fashionable shops, and which
the roadways
with an endless stream of carriages and cabs
and the footwalks

far into the night
at all
times of the day and

is
with a well-dressed crowd,

Central
altogether outside of the
London we
Those who
bent, with
have been attempting

enjoy this
life
to describe.
come on pleasure
from
all
money
in their pockets,
all
parts of Lonall
don, from
parts of England, and from
parts of the world.
They come and they go
and are divorced from the sense of responc. c.
274

which arises naturally from living
in
sibility
the
reflected light of our past actions,
and pursued
by
is
their consequences.
Extravagance, which
life
the exception in the
of each individual,
becomes the
the
rule in a state of thingfs
which
is
is
sum
of these exceptions.
;
The
result
strange world
at best, not altogether whole-
some
tic
at worst, inexpressibly vicious.
Domesit,
virtues
have no very
definite place in
and
moral laws are too often disregarded.

results, to
There
upon
of
some
extent, a malign influence
those
who
live to
supply the
many needs
all
these gay wayfarers.

is
Imposition of
kinds
passed over with a shrug for the sake of pre-
sent ease.
Money
will
be given to the
dis-
honest beggar or bullying tout whose face the

giver will never see again.
Partly perhaps as
a result of this influence, the population of the

district differs
much
in character
from that of
East or South London, or probably that of any

Other part.
275
So say those of the clergy who

to
is
have experience which enables them

the
make
said,
comparison.
conscious.
Its
people are,
it
more
it
;
If
they are bad, they

feel
it
know
if
they are poor, they
more.
if
They
are clever, ingenious talkers, and
they beg
interesting
are
astute
beggars.
the
'
They
point
are
enough, but from

Church, very
of view
of the
difficult
to get hold
of
Per-
haps they
may
relied
at times
have the best of an
argument
errors."
on to convince them of their
And
last,
but not
least,
our relations of daily
intercourse are immensely affected
by the prebarrier be-
valent standard of refinement.
The
tween some and others

in
is
not really difference

in-
wealth,
;
nor
is
antagonism of industrial
terests
it
a lack of subjects in
common
to
talk about
when we meet.
because
its
Luxury
intensifies
the
barrier,
enjoyments are ex-
276

Refinement weakens
it,
>
elusive.
because
its
enjoyments are universal.
very great part
at least of our class distinctions to-day
have no
necessary ground in material differences, and
simply rest on oppositions of habit and ideas
which a
in
little
care and goodwill might
remove
the course of a generation.
The
limits of our treatment

it
must be narrow
is
relatively to the subject, for
as wide and
at
as complex as
life itself
do not aim
more
than laying
down
a general principle, insisting
on the importance of the matter, and claiming

that attention to
it
should be regârded as a
duty.
Let us try whether

definition
trast
we can
find a tolerable
which
will exhibit
the essential con-
between Luxury and Refinement.
Both are phenomena of man's conquest over

nature.
Neither the one nor the other can
appear until current wants have come to be

satisfied with
fluity
277
regularity,
and there
is
a superpleasure,
which can be dealt with
at
either
by way of
self-indulgence, or as a
means
to larger purposes.
Luxury, then,
in
its
most general aspect,

to
might be taken as equivalent

tion
man's subjugaRefine-
by
his
own conquest
full
of nature.
ment, as the
opposite on the
same
basis,
would then appear

over his
to consist in man's
triumph
own conquest
of nature.
do not
say that these definitions will absolutely hold,

but they will serve, perhaps, as starting points
for discussion.
Within each of these habits or tendencies
it
would seem that we may further distinguish a

practical
and a contemplative
side.
In
Luxury there may be Self-indulgence

In Refinement
or
|
Ostentation.
we may observe
both Comfort and Beauty.
We
will
first
consider the natural impulse.
278

we may
call
it,
as
taking natural
to
mean
refine-
unperverted,
the
impulse or habit of
ment
and
then the form which from a moral
point of view
that
is
may be ranked
as
its
corruption,
to say, the
tendency to luxury.
In refinement, then, the conquest of nature,
with
the
resources
and
superfluities
implied
by such a conquest, has been made subservient

to distinctly
human
still
ends.
The conqueror
is
a conqueror
and has not been subjugated
by
his captive.
To
is
the ordinary
life
in
which
this
relation
exhibited
we apply
the term Comfort, which

is
though often disparagingly used,

able of an honourable meaning.
quite cap-
Comfort, as a form of refinement, no less
than self-indulgence as a form of luxury,
may
be
contrasted
with
the
barely
us,
necessary.
Man, as Carlyle has taught
reaches beyond
satisfied
mere needs even before he has
them.

His demand
for self-assertion does not
279
wholly
cease at any level of misery, but
may always
wants which
to
is
be traced,
side
in
however wretched a form, by the

within
life.
of or
the
It
animal
is
make
for bare
vain
think
of
reducing
for the
human comfort
to
what
It
necessary
support of existence.
may, however,
be replied that necessity

that comfort
itself is relative,
and
simply means the possession of
what
is
necessary for a
more complex
life,
as
bare sustenance means the possession of what

is is
necessary for a merely animal

not precisely true.
life.
But
this
At every
level of life
comfort
ficiency,
may be
and the
distinguished from bare sufdistinction
seems
to
be of
the following kind.
Comfort, no doubt, retains

It is relative to
the outline of necessity.
the
at
aims and therefore to the wants of

the stage which he has reached.
lation to
man
But
in re-
every want
it
includes a margin of
28o

It
is,
self-assertion.
so
to
speak,
symbolic.
The degree
an
of cleanliness, for instance, which

includes
in
Englishman
is
his
notion
of
comfort,
not
viewed
by him
simply as
essential to health, or to the durability of his
possessions
which slovenliness might impair.
There
is
a conscious emphasis or self-assertion
involved.
in fact
We
desire not merely to
be free
from the risk of poison, or nastiness,

of our beautiful
things,
or
the disfigurement
but to set a distinct margin between us and

the
objectionable contact.
unless
We
are not com-
fortable
is
the
satisfaction
of our needs
realized.
symbolized or accented as well as

in hospitality.
is
So again
to ask
It
is
a cheap sneer
for
why what
good enough
me
is
not good enough for
my
guest.
desire,
and
rightly desire, to betray a conscious attention,

to
insist,
by some additional ceremony, howthat

I
ever
trifling,
am
alive
to
the
duty

imposed upon me
matters
right
281
as
a host.
represents
In
all
these
true
comfort
a perfectly
self-asser-
and desirable convention, the
tion of a
human being which

its
is
determined
not merely to have
necessities met, but to

in
express
itself in
the
mode and degree
which
they are met.
Of
course, the convention
may
readily degenerate into pedantry, which often

arises
in
these
matters
from
is
mere want of
for-
thought.
The tendency
always to push
ward, and improve upon every improvement
and
it
is
only too easy to depart altogether
from the general outline prescribed by reasonable
purpose or human necessity.
In
such
line
case
we have passed
the
boundary
between refinement and luxury, because we
have allowed ourselves
to be enslaved
by our
own command over

But the
In
limit
is
nature.
rational,
not quantitative.
is
many
respects
more comfort
desirable
282
than any but the very wealthiest of us have

attained.
class
The mere
exclusiveness of the
rail
first-
passenger by
may be
vulgar
but
for
hardworked women or men, making the

it
best use of their brief holiday,
is
plain that
insuffi-
overcrowding, a cramped position, or

cient
ventilation
on
long
journey,
are
drawbacks without any moral advantage.

is
Nor
there any merit in wasting the strength of
valuable workers by knocking them to pieces

in jolting cabs
or
omnibuses.
far
higher
standard than at present exists
in this respect
would
life
be conducive
to
efficiency
and good
throughout the whole of society.
More
and more, we may further observe, as the

general
standard
rises,
it
absorbs into
itself
what has hitherto been the standard of exclusive

classes
;
and
the
omnibus and
the
tramcar, and
the
third-class
railway carriage
rank
among
the most democratic influences of

to-day.
2 S3
We
of
hope, then, as comfort
is
rational-
ised
and
idea
humanised, that on the one hand
the
what
is
"
appropriate
to
your
station " will
disappear
but,
on the other hand,

life,
the
means of a reasonable way of
howall
ever costly,
may become
the appanage of
members of the
community.
I
Among
such
means, for example,
should reckon a yearly
holiday in the neighbourhood of sea or mountain.

I
am
not
discussing
how
from
a
it
should
be
that
provided,
and
am
cut
far
suggesting
state
any
is
short
possible.
to
it
such
of
things
that
But
does appear to
comfort
me
and
the
demarcation
is
between
self-indulgence
not primarily a question of the
costliness, but a question of relevancy to
aims of
cost
life.
True comfort may be

prohibitive; but
costly, its
may even be
it is
always
reasonable.
The
higher stage of refinement
is
reached
284

so subordinated nature to ourit
when we have
selves,
have so subjected our mastery over
to
distinctively
human
aims,
that
material
things
become expressive of our minds and

This
is
responsive to our moods.
the creation
or the perception of beauty. of

it is
The
great value
that
it
means
vitality.
it
Far from being
languid or effeminate,
life,
depends upon a strong

its
such as leaves a mark on
surroundings.
Nothing that exhibits a

ugly
in the
significance can
be
worst sense.
too, as of comfort,
it
it
But of beauty,
complained that
tainly
may be
it
is
costly.
Costly
cer;
must be
in
thought and affection
but
expenditure of this kind enriches those
who
make
it.
No
doubt, also,
the greater works
of beauty, being the rare productions of high
capacity and devotion,

in
will,
as a rule, be costly
the
terms of commercial
if
exchange.
But
yet the complaint,
stated as an objection to

our demand,
is
285
altog'ether misconceived.
is
The
simple but careful regard for what

life,
best in
j
which accompanies a true devotedness to
the beautiful, can
make
and
itself
felt
within
plain
the
narrowest
methodical
ill-balanced
in
means
tends
to
and
or
management.
The
careless
temper which permits or indulges
commonplace
tends
to
ornament
or
pretentious
ugliness,
be accompanied
for
it
by
folly
and extravagance,
life
has no conception of
it
as a whole.
Just as
is
the thrifty house-
wife
who can show

family,
in
the best clothed and best
nourished
thusiastic
so
the
mind
that
is
en-
the cause of beauty will be that

self-restraint
which
is
endowed with
and unity
effici-
of purpose to control expenditure most

ently.
is
In
at
fact,
its
as
we
see every day, ugliness
not
worst
where
resources
are
narrowest.
is
lit
How
exquisitely the simple
room
^
up by the
single vase of flowers, or the
286

photograph,
books.
or
the
little
classical
first-rate
shelf
of
We
are not
now
dealing with the specific
question of aesthetic training,

the general attitude of
but only with

distinguishes
find this
mind which
refinement
attitude
tion,
from luxury.
the care for
And we
in
unity and organisa-
determined by distinctively human aims
throughout our external surroundings, whether

with a view to the self-respecting satisfaction
in
the meeting of our every-day
wants and
or
purposes which
we
call
comfort,
with a
view
in
to the expression
of our deeper selves
the order and selection of our visible world,

call
which we
to these to
beauty.
is
urge that attention

it
matters
a duty, and that

;
ought
be also a pleasure
yet in the continuous
demand
of
for definite purpose,
and
for strength
self-mastery,
to
the
exclusion
fluid
of
chance
will
desires,
and of
flaccid
and
livin^^, it

lay
287
upon us a stronger moral grasp than we

while
its
anticipate,
social results
will
be of
quite incalculable importance.
Luxury,
we
thought,
is
the
full
opposite of
refinement, on
it
the
same
basis.
We
fall
into
when we become
slaves of our
own conquest
to us.
of nature, so that
means become ends

is
The whole
question, in fact,
a problem of
ends.
the right relation between
means and
When we
of private
are enslaved through the pursuit
pleasure,
we
are
in
the
primary
the
phase of luxury, to which

of self-indulgence.
It
we gave
name
does not appear that

rule,
any measure, any sumptuary

to
can be taken
of
distinguish
the
self-indulgence
luxury
question
from the comfort of refinement.
The
must always turn on relevancy
to distinctively
human
is
aims.
When
the
non-human element
it
uppermost,
permeated as
always
is
in
man by
the moral self craving for satisfaction
288

it,
which that element cannot afford
then
we
be-
have self-indulgence.
The means have
come the
end.
is
Here
of course, an infinity of
self-deception
possible.
We
practical
are
not at-
tempting
to
lay
down
rules,
but
merely to suggest clues for bond fide enquirers.
There
is
one great group of dangers to-day
by which the nature of the problem may be

illustrated.
Traditions
and
class
sentiments
is
are
breakinof
down.
The
choice
thrown
more and more on the

and
directness
to
individual.
Simplicity
as
are
coming
into vogue,
opposed
simplicity
others,
it
ceremony and formalism.

things.
Now
Among
may mean many may very

well
mean
the departure
from a rule which involved some self-respect
and some
self-denial.
Thackeray
has taught
us to laugh at the stingy aristocrat whose silver

side-dishes
had very
little
food
upon them.
Trollope has
preached to us to care for the

substantials
289
of
hospitality,
and
not sacrifice
them
to display.
In the cases depicted

satirist.
we
are
carried
away by the
Yet
is it
so plain
that eating
and drinking are greater goods than
respect for the ornaments of an ancient house,
or that the tradition of austerity, which was an
element of the ways of our
fathers,
in
the
home,
to
in the school,
and
in the college,
ought
be wholly flung aside under the pretext of

life
.'*
going straight to the essentials of
We
must look
to
it
that our revolt against cere-
mony
shall not
mean
the victory of the lower
over the higher senses, of the animal appetites

over the sense of form.
has to shape his
The
life.
individual to-day
own
Self-indulgence
the inversion of means and ends

natural progression.
arises
by a
Invention, improvement,
ingenuity, are pleasurable in themselves.
One
;
means of
satisfaction
suggests another
we
grow
c.c.
interested,
and push the matter
further,
290

the merest
till
means
of living have
become a
grotesque and gigantic tyranny, and the
human
has
purpose
which they were
to
subserve
altogether escaped from the mind.

as
The man,
we
say, hdiS forgotten himself.
The
is
expression of hospitality in
It
all
its
forms
a case in point.
may be overweighted by
its
own
machinery, and this without any special
iniquity
on the part of those responsible, but
simply because of the omission to control the

automatic increase of the means of induloênce
and commonplace entertainment by a habitual

reference to what
doing.
is
really
worth having and

for these
evils.
There
will
is
no panacea
Nothing
remedy them
life
but an effectual
as a whole and a
attention to the idea of
consideration
whether
its
best
purposes are
being
ments.
helped
or hindered
by our arrange-
When, on
the other hand,
we
are enslaved
291
by the nature we have subjugated, or by the

fact of its subjection
to
us,
in
relation to our into Ostentation.
vanity,
It
is
we may be
said to
fall
worth while to observe at once that
Ostentation,
fatal
no
less
than self-indulgence,
is
to beauty.
is
No
form of luxury, as here
defined,
compatible with aesthetic enjoyment.
Luxury involves the thought of our private

satisfaction
;
refinement,
in
both
its
forms, the
thought of our satisfaction

ofreater
in ideas or
purposes
than our sensuous selves.

for
When we
in
are
craving
beauty
we
cannot,
the
ordinary sense of the words, be thinking about

ourselves.
We
shall
be
entering
into
the
significance of things,
and not attending But

if
to our
own
feelings of gratification.
we have
our-
not enough wit or unselfishness to lose

selves
in
anything
interesting,
then
our
surroundings will be distorted by the reflection

of our vulgarity.
True expressiveness
will
be
292
LUXURY AND REFINEMENT

by
repetition,
size,
replaced
or
costliness.
Wishing
shall
to impress ourselves
on
others,
this
we
impress upon our external
life
wish
and no more.
The
all
fault is incurred
readily
and sometimes
but unconsciously.
Our
circumstances or
the action of others urge us to " forget

" truer selves."
for
"our
How
beautiful
and
significant,
example,
is
the custom of strewing flowers
on the
to us
:
last resting-place of
those
who
are dear
" Strew on her roses, roses.
And
never a spray of yew."
But
if
this
natural tribute
assume the dimen-
sions of a mechanical output furnished
by a
society that has lost the sense of measure, so
that masses of vegetable matter pour in from
the
florist,
taxing
the
patience of those
who
have much
the
else to think of than
undertaking
reasonably
work of
decorators, here
it
may
29.3
be thought that the means have become an

excrescence which
the end.
is
a positive
hindrance to
The
I
question of Fashion
is
far
from simple.
inchne to treat the fashions as a caricature of

is
something which
really necessary.
There
seem
to
be good reasons both for a prevailing

for frequent
custom and
decoration.
change
arise,
in dress
and
in
New
needs
such as more
athletic habits
and outdoor
life.
New
a
inven-
tions, like the electric light,
make new demands

;
on
the
decorative
instinct
or
powerful
genius, seconding a deep-seated change in the
world of
taste, forces
on the popular mind fresh
beauties of
colour and design.
Now
in
all
these matters most people must imitate.
We
is
cannot
good,
all
be originators
offered to us,
to as
adopt what
when
is
much
as most ot
us can
hope.
Nor should
eccentricity.
originality
I
be con-
founded with
have heard of
294

who were
so afraid
people
of compromising
to the influence of
their originality
by yielding
that
a great genius,
into the
they
threw themselves
arms of
if
his second-rate imitators.

is
Then,
there
to
be change, there must be

things
some tyranny.
New
;
must
in
some
degree drive out old

a factory produce,
all
a shop cannot keep, nor

the stuffs that have ever
been made.
It
is
denied that Greek

I
women
surit
had fashions
prised
if
in dress.
;
should be
if
much
they had not
but
they had not,
was probably because women had no independent

life.
We
certainly hear of changes that
are analogous to change of fashion in the cos-
tumes of Athenian men.

ing,
Theoretically speakto suggest that

habits,
one would be inclined
the
mere change of minds and

in
inevitable
it
a progressive society, must bring with
novelties in costume
and decoration.
be
true,
it
But though
this
is
still
possible

that fashion as
it
295
exists
may be
a caricature of
it
the real need
may be related
to
It
as Ostentato
tion to the sense of Beauty.
seems
be
doubtful whether the

are
modes of women's dress

in
on the whole progressive

or
healthiness,
is
respect
It
of
is
i.e.
taste,
or
convenience.
alleged that fashion
needlessly tyrannical,
causes
waste by marked
the
changes at
desire to
A.
its
short
intervals, suggestive of
outstrip
careful
others
in
a race of ostentation.
considering
study of this matter,
very im-
portant social bearings, would be well worth
undertaking by some competent woman.

In conclusion,
to
we must
is
recur for a
moment
a difficulty which
It
is
sure to arise in
many
minds to-day.
few words
far, it will
that
on which we said a
Refinement.
in
treating
is
of
How
be asked,
the due organisation of

its
?
external
life
according to
higher purposes
hindered by sheer poverty
To
begin with,
296

lay
it
we may
tion
down
generally that the disposithe

reverse,
to
such
organisation, and
shows
itself far
below the lowest
level
which we
should recoofnise as that of comfortable sustenance.

It
is
in
fact
an element of humanity,
as
and
asserts
itself
soon
as
any
human
qualities assert themselves.
Order, cleanliness,
personal neatness, are marks as distinctive of

character in the
as
in
homes of
unskilled labourers
class.
the
houses of the middle

in detail,
To
of
approach the matter more
we should
rule
bear in mind that the one universal

scientific
method
is
to " break
up the problem."
This
is
what we cannot persuade the comto attempt.
monplace writers on such matters

Society
is
composed, not of "the poor" and

but of
all
"the
rich,"
an
in
immense
variety
of
economic
classes,
all,
contact along
their
margins, and
but principally those imme-
diately contiguous, influencing each other.
LUXURY AND REFINEMENT

That
it is
297
not poverty which mainly hinders

is
improvement
evils
plain from the fact
that the
which
cause
exist
improvement
in their acutest
is
to
be
de-
manded, can
form only
where improvement
do
exist in this
is
materially possible,
and
form
in full one-half of society.
Progress
it is
impossible unless those for
whom
easiest will lead the
way
and by the time

community,
mechanics
that they
for
I
one-half
at least of the
definitely include the well-to-do
have
made
a positive advance, the position
of those below them, and their capacities, will
have been profoundly modified by the influence

of this advance
itself.
It is
sometimes implied
that individual efforts are of no use,

ual
is
and
individthis
phenomena of no
as
false
significance.
be.
But
as
false
can
All
;
individual
it
change may be thought isolated

can be so
individual
in truth.
but none of
The
transformation of an
mind
is
a change in the atmosphere
298

all
of
surrounding minds
is
and the change of
mental atmosphere
changes.
to
It
is
the most significant of
needless at this time of day

I
enumerate examples, though

at hand, in order to
have any
number
demonstrate the
peasants and
un-
possibilities of life
among English
mechanics.^
Nor would my argument be

its
important
in
range,
if
applied to our enorI
mous middle
class alone.
will
rather sustain
the reality of the problem from the other side,
by showing how much has been developed
to
meet the ordinary needs and views of our prosperous working

class,
which clearly exhibits
at
once the need of a change, and the resources
which make
it
possible.
One, however, a small library started and maintained by
a knot of
London workmen, and managed by
their
own
committee, though with outside assistance and advice, and

with a small guarantee for expenses, which has never been
fully
drawn on,
is
to
me
of peculiar interest.

The
scribing-
299
following extract
is
from a
letter de-
one of those seaside resorts which
receive crowds of mechanics with their families

for
a short time
its
is
in
the
summer months.
It
carries
"
own
moral.
M.
clearly the resort of mechanics, shoplike,
folk
and the
'
markets
'
are not food, but
china and toy shops.
Miles of awful jugs and

M.'
cups
'
present
from
of
M. rock
dreadful red and yellow sweet, and
M. pebbles
penny per
ten
lb.
i.e.
common beach
'
stones at one
Palace,'
There's a
People's
hours
entertainment for sixpence, and a comic singer
and band twice a day on the Pier

end are one or two covered
at
the Pier
sitting places,
grim
of
and hideous and

'
dirty
'
one
to the
of
them
'
full
penny
in the slot
etc.
'
models, that work,

I
disclose
the future,'
Said
keeper of a cup
hills
and jug shop,
Are those
the
about K.?
She gazed vaguely, but a bright
girl
behind her
300

'
said,
Yes,'
and began
I
to point out places
Board School, thought
'
And what
'
is
that
smoky town
?
'
Said the woman,

;
You
can't see
no smoky town from here

over
there.'
I
'
Yes, you can
think
it's
W.,' said the girl
'well now,
never noticed that before.'
The
and
smoke and chimneys were

face
!
staring her in the
The
girl,
obviously wide awake
quick,
had as obviously never used a tooth-
brush.
The
people strike
me
as delightfully
call
independent,
what a Tory would

efforts of taste
in
rude.
Great
this
house
to
which
is
far
above what such houses used

all
be
woodwork and bedroom furniture

to
painted
match,
in
Morrisian
style
colouring not
bad, lots of fir-cone frames and so on, but one
good photograph of a Gainsborough among the

trash
;
and with
all this
not a bath, or anything All sorts of
approaching one.
baths
in
in
the house.
the People's Palace, and I'm going to

investigate
301
and see
if
they are popular.
Yesto
terday
went out
tea
to explore,
and wanted
front
is full
buy a cup of
the whole sea

I
of
eating places, but

I
walked nearly a mile before

i.e.
found one that looked possible

I
clean,
and with clean-looking cakes.

discover one, and as
I
did
at last
sat there
the stream
of people coming in never ceased.
We
It
are an
unenterprising race
we
like things nice, but
we
to
don't bestir ourselves to get them.
seems
me
all this is
typical
one sees
the amusements
at all
and habits of people who don't look

in
poor
the
ordinary sense, and

or
must have some
leisure
they
would not be here.

full
The
as
sea front was
of people,
men
as well
many coming hand-bags quite

families
all
and
going
with
tidily,
and many very

is
comfortably, dressed.
But where
"
the refine-
ment
in
the comfort
The sum and
substance of the whole matter
302

making
it
is
the importance of
a duty to adapt
Hfe.
our surroundings to the highest aims of

For,
among
other reasons, this

I
is
the only sure
basis of fellowship.
conclude with a passage
which
me,
states, better
than any other
known
to
the
ultimate
desire.
bearing of the refinement

It is
which we
the
late
the final paragraph of

at
Professor
Green's address
the
opening of the Oxford High School.^

"
Our High School then may

forward
the
fairly
claim to
be helping
time
to
when
him
at
every
least
Oxford
citizen will
have open
the precious companionship of the best books

in his
own
language, and the knowledge necesreally
sary to
make him
independent
when
all
who have
open
to
a special taste for learning will have
them what has hitherto
been
un-
pleasantly called the 'education of gentlemen.'
T. H. Green.
" Works," III.
p.
475.

I
303
confess
will
to
hoping
for
a time
when
that
phrase
sort
have
lost its
meaning, because the

alone
will
of
education
in
all.
which
makes
the
gentleman
reach of
any true sense
be within the
aspiration
As
the
it
was
the
of
Moses
that
all
Lord's people should

all
be
prophets, so
with
seriousness
and rever-
ence
we may hope and pray
for a condition of
English society in which

will
all
honest citizens
recognise themselves
and be recognised
by each other as gentlemen."
X.
THE ANTITHESIS BETWEEN INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM PHILOSOPHICALLY

CONSIDERED.^
The
this
purpose which
have
set before
myself
evening
I
is
a very
humble and limited

to instruct skilled
one.
have not come here
economists and statisticians
in political
economy
and the use of

to
statistics
have not come here
attempt an analysis of the probable working
of
Economic
Socialism.
I
am
not going to
deny, so far as
am
aware, any of the fundain
mental principles which are really involved

the Socialist contention.
What
at a
want
to be
Paper read by invitation
meeting of the Fabian
Society on February 21, 1890.
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM.

allowed to attempt
tion, to
305
is
simply to state a ques-
emphasise a distinction.
I
And
if
I
the
good
which
should hope to
it,
effect,
had the
in
power
to effect
would be
to
help
re-
focussing the Socialist picture of social pheno-
mena, not obliterating

taking in a
ing the
little
its
details,
but perhaps
more
at both sides,
and
alter-
light
and shade, and
putting
some
in the
things in the foreground that are
now
background, and vice versa.
Or, to change the
metaphor, the Socialist express seems to
me
I
to
be at present approaching a junction.

not want
it
do
I I
to shut off steam,
but
wish
;
could be pointsman
think that one line of
when
it
comes up
take
it
for
rails will
to a veryfruitful
barren country, and the other to a very

country.
I
think
I
it
only
fair
to
myself to say that
suppose
to try
c.c.
was asked
criticise,
to
come here on purpose

I
and
and
mean
to
do
so.
But
3o6

had before me an audience of
I
if
plutocratic
sympathies, then
should have the pleasure of

I
speaking much more than
shall
to-night in
the language of the Fabian Essays.

(a)
Individualism
and
Socialism
may be
considered as names which designate different

conditions or organisations of the
productive
Individual-
and
distributive
work
of Society
ism meaning a competitive system based on

private property, such as under certain limitations exists to-day in
Europe
and Socialism
meaning a
functions.
collective organisation of these
same
I
Simply
for the
sake of clearness
shall call these
systems and the advocacy of
them by the names of Economic Individualism

and Economic Socialism
But
(jS)
respectively.
the two generic
names
in
question
carry with them associations belonging to preg-
nant views of
life
as a whole
and Individual-
ism at least
may be used
to represent a recog-
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
307
nised philosophical doctrine of
human
relations
analogous
to the theory of
matter indicated by
the equivalent
Greek term Atomism.
And by
opposition to this pregnant use of Individualism,
and
also
in
virtue
of
its
is
own obvious
acquiring,
if
derivation, the term Socialism

it
did not at
for a
first
possess, a deeper
meaning as
a name
is
human tendency
or aspiration that
operative throughout history, in contrast,

told,
we
dis-
have been
with
"
Unsocialism."
signification
To
tinguish this
more human
discussing
I
of the
words we
are
from
their
purely
economic usage,
shall specify
them when thus
employed as Moral Individualism and Moral

Socialism respectively, everything being moral,
in the philosophical sense,
which deals with the
value of
life
as a whole.
is
Moral Individualism, then,

istic
the material(which,
or Epicurean view of
life
when
reasonably interpreted, has a good deal to be
3o8
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
said for
ite
it)
^
;
and moral Socialism

the view which
is
the oppos-
view to
this,
makes Society
the moral essence of the
Individual.
And
may
say at once that for practical purposes of

I
discussion
shall
assume
this
second view to
be the right view.

of them
is
In strict philosophy neither
right,
but only a rational conception

the
which
there
satisfies
is
demands
of
both.
But
this
great difference
between them,
that the individual or atomic animal
man
has
a visible body, and therefore

quite certain not to
we
are already
deny
his reality,
it
and
we
need not further

theory
;
insist
upon
by help of a
while the moral being of
man
is
as a
centre of social functions and relations

visible to the bodily eye,
not
and therefore we do
it.
need a theory to
insist
upon
This shows
the ground of philosophical connection between
See Professor Wallace's Epicureanism, a beautiful book.
INDIVIDUALISM
Materialism and
AND
SOCIALISM.
309
Moral Individualism
in
the
tendency to
easily see.
start
from what you can most
For convenience of
speak of
of actual
antithesis, then,
in
shall
Moral
or
Individualism
the sense
theoretical
egoism,
is
and Moral
Socialism (though this latter
not an accepted
expression) in the sense of actual or theoretical

recognition that man's moral being
social
lies
in his
being,
is
do not assume that Moral
Socialism
the view of morality entertained

Socialists.
by Economic
ing
is
My
object this evenit
rather to put the question whether
is
so either most naturally, or as a matter of

Therefore, what
lation
I
fact.
wish to discuss
:
is
the re-
between two antitheses
between the
to
antithesis of
Economic Individualism
Eco-
nomic Socialism, and the antithesis of Moral

Individualism to Moral Socialism.
There
is,
think,
widespread tendency
3IO
simply to confuse these two distinctions with
one another.
evokes
The mere name

and
of Socialism
an
enthusiasm
it
devotion which
show
that
is
not
felt
to be merely
it
one
sys-
tem of
property-holding-, though
is
seldom
distinctly
announced
less
is
to
be
anything
more
I
and
still
the question raised, which
am
Mr.
trying to raise just now,
what more
it
is.
Kirkup,
in
the article
" Socialism "
of
the Encyclopcedia Britannica, has
a curiously
suggestive
passage.
He
says, "
is
Most
of the
prevailing Socialism of to-day
based on the
revolutionary
frankest
and
most
outspoken
!
materialism."
Well
Materialism going along

is
with Moral Individualism, this

the two antitheses which
cross-connected,
to say that
we
are discussing are

that
or
at
least
Economic
Socialism
is
based
on Moral
"
Individualism.
But then he continues,
The
ethics of Social-
ism are closely akin to the ethics of Christi-

anity, if not identical with them."
is
311
This, again,
I
to say that the
two antitheses which
am
discussing correspond term for term, or at least

that
Economic Socialism
is
based on Moral
is
Socialism.
after this
But the question
not pursued
very suggestive contradiction, which
might, one would have thought, have led up to
an inquiry how there comes to be

decided right and
left
this
very
wing
in Socialist morality.
I
Even
in the
Fabian Essays
cannot think that
the distinction between
Economic and Moral
Socialism, with the questions that arise out of

it,
is
quite plainly faced.

148,
"
The
sentence on
page
The system
Socialism
is
of property-holding
which we
life,"
call
is
not in
itself
such a
etc.,
therefore refreshing to a philosolittle
pher,
who
has found himself a
bewildered
by an implied assumption that two things are

the
same,
about which
he wants
at
to
all,
know
and
if
whether they have any connection
312

what.
^
SO,
The
" moral
ideas appropriate to
"
Socialism,"
or " Socialism
in
as
an object of
moral judgment,^ are
another paper rather

I
assumed
to
be of the nature of what

to
call
Moral Socialism, than shown

I
be so
nor do
feel
absolutely sure that the author of this

final
paper has made a

ethical right
choice
between the
all
and
left
wing.
We
see,
in-
deed, that
more general comfort would give
morality a better chance, and that industrial

co-operation
is
a good ethical training
but the
statement of these two points hardly amounts

to a recognition
and treatment of the
distinction
and connection between Economic Socialism
and
Moral
Socialism.
The pages
an
of
this
volume, with which,

student,
I
speaking as
at
ethical
feel
most
home, are the conclud-
ing page and a half of the Essay on Industry
p. 127.
p. 104.
313
under Socialism.^
And
do not
at all
main-
tain that the connection
between economic and

is
I
moral Socialism, which
there indicated, need
be visionary.
little
Even
if
am
betrayed into a
I
polemic, illustrative of what

it
consider the
risks of a false perspective,
is
not
is
my
object
to
make an
attack.
My
object
its
to get the
question
recognised in
I
full
difficulty
and
importance.
begin, therefore,
by stating the
prima
facie case against a connection between
Moral and Economic Socialism.^

Morality consists in the presence of some
element of the
social
purpose as a moving idea

;
before the individual mind
that
is,
in short, in
will.
the social
constitution
of the individual
pp. 168-9.
The Author
of the paper on
"
The Moral
I
Basis
of
SociaUsm
" says there is
no special
so,
Socialistic
view of the
hardly think
basis of morals.
This may be
but then
you could speak of moral ideas appropriate to Socialism.
At
least,
you would have
to
make the connection.
314
This has been the recognised morality of the
Western nations
years,
for
more than two thousand

essential
without
any
or fundamental
indi-
change whatever, the deepening of the
vidual spirit and intelligence, which has some-
times seemed to tear society apart, having been

in
every case the germination of a membership
in a
new
social order,
sometimes, by
illusion,
taken for a time to be invisible as well as

visible.
Able writers (Mr. Belfort Bax and
Mr. Mackay) have absolutely and utterly misunderstood

for a
this
phenomenon, which they take
growth of Individualism.
Now, why should Economic Socialism not

be favourable to a developed morality of
kind
that
.'*
this
is
Stated in the abstract, the reason

is
it
the
same thing
in
a quite different
is
form,
and the general
rule
that
different
forms of the same thing are

Gallio
hostile.
regular
has no objection
to
a State
Church.

Like Mr. M. Arnold, he thinks that
people from becoming too religious.
315
it
saves
But a
man who
is
thinks that the State
is
itself spiritual
apt to be fanatically opposed to an Establish-
ment.
The one form
is
always seeming to
claim the functions of the other, and two different things cannot occupy the
same
place.
It
may be answered
that
all
is
well so long
as
they do not claim to occupy the same place,

but simply to assist
one another as
end.
distinct
be,
means
to
the
same
That may
but
then the distinction and the
mode
of assistance
must be very precisely defined.

Morality, as
I
said,
its
consists
in
the social
indi-
purpose working by
vidual
will.
own
force
on the
Economic Socialism
is
an arrange-
ment
for getting the social
purpose carried out
just not
by
its
own
force, but
by the force of
those compulsory motives or sanctions which

are at the
command
of the public power.
3i6
INDIVIDUALISM .AND SOCIAUSM.

Therefore,
prhnd
facie,
the normal relation

I
of the two antitheses of which be
spoke would
that of cross-correspondence.
Economic
Individualism would go with Moral Socialism,
and
Moral
Individualism
Socialism.
If
(or
Egoism) with
to
treat
Economic
you want
in
your social units as bricks

in
a wall or wheels
a machine, you cannot also and at the same
time treat them as elements in an organism.

Or,
it is
truer to say,
if
you can
treat
them
in
these two ways at once, you have solved an
exceedingly
difficult
problem.
are
Prima
quite
to
facte,
machinery
things,
and
if
morality
different
and
you are trying
model your
it
machinery directly upon your morality,
is
long odds that you are guided simply by a

confusion.
Economic Socialism need not

It
is,
pre-
suppose the social organism.

ance, a substitute
in
appear-
for the
life
of that organism,
intended to operate on the egoistic motives of
317
individuals for the
good of the whole, which
cannot,
it
is
assumed, be attained by the moral

social
it
power of the
purpose.
In this point
of view at least
Individualism.
naturally rests
on
Moral
All
compulsion through the

of
individuals
is
material necessities
individualistic.
morally
But Economic Individualism
does presuppose the social organism, and without

is
it
would be the dissolution of
society.
It
often alleged that the time of the factory
development a hundred years ago was a time of
unmixed Economic Individualism.

not so
arose
;
But
this is
perhaps the worst
evils
of that time
directly
from the intentionally lax

It
or
" socialistic " institutions
Poor Law.
that
for
was the public
the
most part supplied
the children
who were
ill-treated.
Owen's
life
shows us that by sheer competitive attraction
you could
not
get
the
respectable
country
people to work under factory conditions.
This
38

Economic
suggests a different moral.
Indi-
vidualism assumes that the moral purpose has
power
general
to take
life
care
of itself throughout the
of society,
and only embodies that
purpose
acts
in acts of the public
power when such

specific
appear
definitely
necessary on
grounds
will.
for the support of the private
moral
The Economic
the
State
to
Individualist, indeed,
who
with
thinks
to
be
unconcerned
in
morality,
and
be unjustified
is
any
interfer-
ence on moral grounds,

aire,
a fanatic and doctrincounterpart

of
and
is
the
precise
the
Economic
Socialist
who assumes
straight
away
that collectivism in property naturally implies

socialisation of the will.
Each of these
economic
doctrin-
aires
imagines
that
the
and
the
moral forms of his principle are necessarily

coherent with each other, whereas
it
is
much
more
If
natural that they should be antagonistic.

I
am
asked,
"
Does
this
apparent anta-
319
gonism between Moral and Economic Socialism

represent what
reply,
I
believe to be the fact
"
"It represents to
me
the reality of cerof
tain conditions,
and
my own judgment
economical
in
any
existing
or
proposed
machinery
would depend upon the degree

time of
its
which, at the
proposal,
it
should satisfy those con-
ditions."
And
these conditions, in accordance
with what has been said,
may be summed up
as the necessity of avoiding the confusion of
machinery with morality, on the ground that

the
moment
this confusion
begins your Moral
Socialism
turns automatically into Moral In-
dividualism.
It
is
therefore
the
second
antithesis
first
the
moral antithesis
nomical
tion.
and not the the ecoantithesis that dominates the quesjoint purpose
is,
Our
as
understand, to
find a
machinery which
will assist morality

it.
and
not be confounded with
To my own mind
320
the great requisite
is
to
acknowledge that
all
these problems are matters of contrivance and
matters of degree.
edified,
was
electrified,
but also
not long ago, to find an able writer of
the extreme school of doctrinaire Individualists

talking about devising
new
tenures of private
substitute
property,
and about an admirable
for
private property.
ance.)
I
(He was speaking

phrase
is
of Insur-
This
latter
one with which

Socialist
do not think an Economic

It is perfectly plain
need
quarrel.
I
and undeniable,
in-
think,
that
liberty
and regulation are
creasing side by side as the whole range of

life
is
becomes
larger,
and that what
is
important
not the relative amount of regulation and

the
of liberty, but
adaptation
of
both
with
delicacy and flexibility to the shape and growth
of
life.
Thus
the question assumes the form, not of
choosing between
two ready-made economic
321
systems, but of developing a specific system to

suit the necessities of
our
life.
it
From
spirit in
this point of
view
is
plain that the
which we go to work, the focussing of

rail
our picture, the precise line of

progress,
will
on which we
all-
be simply decisive of the

I
important question which

before you
:
am
trying to put
"
Does Economic Socialism carry
with
it
Moral Socialism or Moral IndividualIn the former case

it is it is
ism
"
heaven, and in
I
the latter case

to attempt
tails
is
hell.
What
now propose
to insist further,
by help of de-
both of opinion and of practice, upon the

I
dangerous conditions which

to
set
have endeavoured
out in the
the
above abstract deduction

that
is,
upon
to show,
danger,
which
lies
in
the facility of connection
between Economic
I
Socialism and Moral

if I
Individualism.
want
can, at
how
important a parting of
is
the ways
c. c.
Modern Socialism
about to arrive,
Y
322

quoted from Mr. Kirkup to the
is
I.
effect
that there
a great deal of materialism
which
Social-
means Moral Individualism

ism.
in
modern
Much
of this
is
inherited,
no doubt,
though not from Robert Owen, and may be

passing away.
But much remains, and

is
is
in-
herent
as a tendency
inherent
in
Economic
Socialism.
Take
the case in which
Economic Socialism
;
frequently appeals to moral considerations
the
polemic against private property.
As
a matter of the history

this cuts off
of opinion, to
at
begin with,
Economic Socialism
once from the two greatest expounders of the

social
organism that the world has ever seen

Aristotle
^
on
mean
and Hegel.
do
not
mention
this as if their authority
was decisive
practical
questions of to-day, because the
Newman,
Introd. to Aristotle's Politics, 164
and
178.

nature of property has changed and
tinually changing.
323
is
con-
But
it
is
important,
I
when
Economic
Socialists begin
as
am
glad to see
social
they are beginning

organism, to bear
to
speak about the
in
mind
that a radical
and
fundamental polemic against private property

is
quite incompatible with
any legitimate
affilia-
tion to those
ciple.
who gave
us this spiritual prin?
What
!
about Plato
it
may be
asked.
Well
Aristotle's
complaint against him, reis
duced to modern terms,
that Plato
had need-
lessly destroyed the social
organism by trusting
to
machinery instead of morality.

I
On
the
other hand,
Aristotle
grant that private property, as

it,
would have
is
a different thing
to
from ours.
Now, with
at times a
little
reference
Hegel,
one notices
tendency
in
Economic
Socialism to be a
doubtful
that Karl
affiliation
proud of a somewhat
It
is
to him.
quite true
Marx used
the forms of the dialectic
324
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
with extraordinary ingenuity, and one hopes

that
the
deeper
spiritual
ideas
of
Hegel's
teaching are passing, and will pass, more and
more
into
the
It
temper of nineteenth-century
is,
reformers.
moreover, true that
Hegel
I
denounced as a blunder the idea which
have
stigmatised as characteristic of doctrinaire In-
dividualism
the idea that the

is
public recog-
nition of moral purposes
necessarily fatal to
far,
individual moral freedom.

Socialist
So
an Economic
can count upon
Hegel as against a
But when you read
property,
doctrinaire Individualist.
Hegel's
treatment of
private
and
realise the
depth and complexity of the moral

it
probleni to which he regards
as the answer,
to the
and then pass from that treatment

which regards
it
view
in-
as
the
embodiment of
I
dividual cupidity and indolence,
think every
one must be aware that one has passed to

another and not a higher moral atmosphere.

hope
not weary you too
325
shall
much
if
quote
characteristic
"
:
page
from
Hegel's
Philosophy of Right
" As,
in property,
my
will
is
is,
made
real for
me
an
as a personal will
that
is
as the will of
individual
property
;
characteristically
private property
as in
its
while
common
property, such
nature can
be severally possessed,
bears the character of a dissoluble combination,

in
which
share.
can choose or not choose to leave
my
"
The
use of the elements
"
[I
suppose he
means
air
and water
he
might have meant

" is
land but for the next sentence]

of being
incapable
made
a private possession.
The
agra-
rian laws at
Rome
contain a conflict between

in
collectivism
latter
and private property
land
the
necessarily gained the day, as the
more
Rechtsphil., p. 81.
326
reasonable factor in the social system, although

at the
expense of other
rights.
Family
is
trust
property contains a factor which
opposed to
the right of personality, and therefore to that
of private property.
But the rules which deal
with private property
may be
subordinated to
higher spheres of right, to a corporation or to

the State, as in the case
when ownership
is
vested in a so-called moral person

in
property
mortmain.
However, such exceptions must
not be founded in caprice or private interest,
but only in the rational organisation of the State.

"
The
idea of Plato's Republic contains as a
general principle the injustice against the per-
son of making him incapable of holding private

property.
The
idea of a pious or friendly or
even compulsory fraternity of human beings

with community of goods, and the banishment
of the principle of private property,
may
easily
occur to a habit of thought which mistakes the
327
nature of spiritual freedom and of right, and
does not
factors.
apprehend them
in
their
definite
As
for the
moral or religious point of
view, Epicurus deterred his friends from organising such a
community of goods, when they

so,
thought of doing
that to
precisely on the
ground
do so would indicate mistrust, and that
people
friends.
"
who
mistrust
one
another
are
not
Note.
In property
my
will takes the

is
shape
in
of a person.
particular
;
Now
of this
a person
something
is
therefore the property

will.
the per-
sonification
As
give
my
will
existence by
means of property, property
in its
turn must have the attribute of being this in

particular,
i.e.
mine.
This
is
the
important
doctrine of the necessity of private property.

If exceptions
are
made by
;
the State,
it
is
it
alone that can
make them
and often
in
our
own
days
it
has restored private property.
328
So, for example,
many
nations have
rightly
abolished the monasteries, because in the last

resort a collective institution has to property as the person has."
no such right
Now
if it
is
maintained that the reasonable
necessity which in Hegel's view
demanded
the
existence of private property can
now be met
ownership
by a
modification
of the
private
system, or even by
some
different system, that
might
fairly
be urged without breaking your
line of descent
from
idealistic or
organic philo-
sophy which
if
is
one with moral Socialism.

is,
But
you say that private ownership
and always
has been, simply the expression of individual

greed, and the desire to be indolent and incompetent,
in
then,
by a phenomenon very common

you arouse a well-grounded
controversy,
suspicion that you are ascribing this foundation
the
foundation
life
of Moral Individualism
to
it
the normal
of humanity, simply because

the
329
is
foundation
on which your own views
ultimately rest, and you are aware of no other.

It
appears to
me
that
Economic Socialism
attitudes,
wavers between these two

the
latter,
and that
the polemic against private owner-
ship, altogether
and as
such, betrays, as
Hegel
implies,
an entire blindness to the essential
elements of the social organism, which can only

exist as a structure of free individual wills, each
entertaining the social purpose in an individual
form appropriate to
organic functions.
but one which
its
structural position
is
and
It
all
perhaps a platitude,
fail-
we
of us are perpetually
life
ing to apply, that throughout

to realise
the attempt
is
an abstraction as an abstraction
self-contradictory
and a ruinous
pleasure
for
;
failure.
To
sake
aim
directly
at
pleasure's
means
failure in
happiness
to
aim
at
;
duty for
to
duty's sake
at
means
failure in morality
aim
in
beauty for beauty's sake means
failure
330
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
fine art
to
aim
at truth for truth's sake (the

failure in science
;
net result)
means
to
aim
at
the general purpose for the sake of the purpose

as general
means
I
failure
in
social
reform.
confess that
believe
modern Economic
Social-
ism to rest in part on this ineradicable confusion.

"
We
want a general good
life
let
us
make
life."
a law that there shall be a general good

But, precisely as other-worldliness arises
in
from the religious impulse when embodied

a mechanical form,
so,
and
for identically the
same
reasons, does
Moral Individualism
arise
automatically from the impulse of Moral Social-
ism when
embodied
let
in
mechanical form.
You must
may be
the individual
make
life,
his will
reality in the
it
conduct of his
in
order that
to enter-
possible for
him consciously
tain the social

will.
purpose as a constituent of his

is
Without these conditions there

organism and no Moral Socialism.
no
social
This
331
is
the meaning of the doctrines of Aristotle and

it is
Hegel, and this
which the
ethical left
wing
of the Socialists, alluded to by Mr.
Kirkup,
appears to
2.
me
wholly to ignore.
is
But the question
not one merely of the

If
it
history of opinion or of ethical formulas.
were,
it
would be too purely academic
for
even
a philosophical discussion before the Fabian

Society.
It
is
one also of
practical
tendency
a
a.
difficult
;
thing to grasp and bring

I
home
in
detail
but
propose to indicate by one or two

I
instances what
I
mean.
have spoken of the theory of private
property.
Now,
theoretical attitude
communic-
ates a bias, as every
one knows, to particular

I
perceptions.
do not think
ever noticed a
Socialist alluding,
except with derision, to the
duties of property.
tain
Of
course you
in
may mainthese
that
you
are
right
fact
that
duties are a negligible quantity, or a ridiculous
332
pretence.
Time
forbids
me
to
argue upon the
proper interpretation of this state of things,
which indisputably exists

But,
in
great
measure.
I
however
this attitude
may be
justified,
to.
want
to point out
it
what
is
it
amounts
The
in
long and short of

this
that those
who speak
way do
not really believe in Moral Social-
ism.
To
those
who
believe in Moral Socialism
the source of a payment makes no difference to

the duty
it
involves.
So long
as one can live,

is
the duty of working for Society

if
imperative
one has more than enough
to live on, that
is
a charge
something
Property
;
to
is
work
with, to organise,
to direct.
mediate payment with

is
responsibility
I
salary
immediate payment.
never saw
it
recognised by a Socialist that

I
property could be a burden.

overstraining,
that
wish to avoid
and
will
admit against myself

selfish
my own
;
class
is
probably the most
of
all
that
is,
the class which has enough to

tempt
333
it
into a
little
luxury, but not
enough
to
constitute
a notable responsibility and public
charge.
But
this defect of a limited class
does
not justify a want of faith which misconstrues a
fundamental factor of human morality.

this defect of faith
is
And
means
is
radical,
and
is
connected
It
directly with
Economic Socialism.
that
the
reason for equalising opportunity
not merely that you want to give nine-tenths

of the people a better chance than they have
now
to
level
up
in
to the
highest standard to
which you may
practice be able to level
up
but
work
that
you do not believe any one

his
will
it.
unless
I
livelihood
depends upon
all
Now
cannot fight the battle of

;
human
nature in five minutes
but
will lay
down one
is
principle as tolerably certain,
and
his
it
this
a
is
man who
workman
will
it
not
will
work
if
livelihood
secure without
if
be an uncommonly bad
his
livelihood
depends upon
it.
334

whole view
Practically speaking, this
is
to
my
it
observation false
and, technically speaking,
unquestionably
I
is
Moral Individualism.
Here
am
glad to have on
my
side the concluding
pages of the Essay on " Industry under Socialism,"
which represents the

I
ethical right wing,
and, as
/8.
hope, the future of Socialistic ideas.

Socialists
have said that many
speak
as
if
they did not believe in the socialisation of

It
is
the
will.
a corollary from this that they
should not care about the socialisation of the

will.
There are
nection
indications that the natural con-
of
Economic Socialism
with
Moral
this re-
Individualism tends to realise

spect also.
I
itself in
will
adduce some instances which
may
at least explain
I
my
I
meaning.
in
(i.)
admit that
the
have not found

direct
the
Fabian Essays
thrift which
I
disparagement of
I
anticipated that
should
find.
335
The
only allusion to the subject which

is
have
observed
the remark that thrift
is
preached
is
by extravagant people, which doubtless

Otherwise,
severely
let
I
true.
think,
the
I
subject
is
somewhat
I
alone.
believe that
am
not
mistaken
is
in
saying that the inculcation of

if
thrift
looked upon with coldness,
not with averIt

is
sion,
said,
by modern Economic Socialism.

and
I
do not know that

it,
Socialists
would
desire to
deny
that the introduction of Post
Office
Savings Banks into Prussia was pre-
vented by the influence of Lassalle's movement
upon the Government, the then Director
of the
Post Office being anxious to introduce them.
Now
am
well
aware of two things
first,
that there are different kinds of thrift
speakis
ing roughly, the selfish kind and the unselfish
kind
and secondly,
am aware
enough
that there
no greater deterrent against saving than the

impossibility of saving
to
be of any
336

This
use.
is
an every-day experience among

But
the less wealthy class of professional men.

yet
I
appeal with confidence to any one
who
has practical familiarity with the character and

distresses of the
working
class, to
say whether
thrift
experience does not show that
among
them goes with unselfishness and a sense of

duty, and
unthrift
I
with selfishness and

rather,
I
self-
indulgence.
would
think,
have on
my
soul the sin

in
which has been committed by
Englishmen
high places, of speaking lightly

let fall
of intemperance, than the sin of having
a word of discouragement for that foresight
and
self-control
which
is,
and always must

all
be,
the ground and

I
medium
of
Moral Socialism.
between the
ele-
see
no ultimate
discrepancy
purposes of Economic Socialism and this
mentary factor of morality.
do see a prima
facie antagonism between the two, in so far as
Economic Socialism
rests
upon the individual-
337
istic fallacy
of thinking that you can maintain
moral
structure
is
without
maintaining
its
the
It
morality which
the cohesion of
units.
should be clearly understood that
thrift,
in the
shape of a resolution to bear at least your own

burdens,
is
not a selfish but an unselfish quality,

first
and
is
the
foundation and the well-known
symptom
of a tendency, not to Moral Individ-
ualism, but to
Moral Socialism.
it
This point
is
not met by saying that

19^. a
is
hard to save on
in
week.
We are
speaking of a quality
moral character, which determines the happiness or misery of those
who
possess or do not
possess
life
it,
in
way
that goes far deeper into

in laying
than by mere success or failure

of money.
by
sum
The man who
looks ahead
and
is
tries to
provide for bearing his
own burden
the
man who
can appreciate a social purfor the happiness of those
pose,
and who cares
dependent on him.
c. c.
Him,
if
he
fails
in z
part
338

he
you may safely help

altogether
should,
I
for
time
if
fails
by
exceptional
misfortune,
distinguish
you
in
incline to think,
him
your Poor
Law
treatment from the
man who
But
shows no signs of such a

to try
disposition.
and take away from him the one thing

his
on
which
manliness and
his
chance of
happiness depend by speaking lightly of the
duty of carrying at least one's

betrays a
own
not
burden,
that
standpoint
which
is
of
Moral Socialism.
(ii.)
I
turn from a question of feeling and
mode
of speech to a question
In
more
directly
practical.
speaking of the present
Poor
Law
system, a chief fault to which a Socialist

is
calls attention
harshness of administration
and desire
to save the rates.
Now,
that there
was great
brutality in
Poor Law administration
not very long ago, that signs of such brutality
appear
to crop
up
still
from time to time, that

defects arising from foolish
339
economy
are alleged
against
some Poor Law

district
all
schools,
and that the
system of large
reconsideration,
true.
schools
may
require
to be
this
appears to
me
And
it
is
plain that sensible kindliness,
the greatest possible care for education, and a

differential
treatment of those whose misforunavoidable, should be
tunes are special and
principles pervading the administration of the
Poor Law/
Nevertheless, after
all
these allowances are
made
I
in justification of the Socialist criticism,

it
should say that

direction.
points
in
precisely
the
wrong
These
matters, indeed, can-
not really be discussed on a quantitative basis
nothing
in actual life
can be so treated.
it
In
all
these social problems

less or a
is
not really either a

;
more
;
that
is
wanted
it
is
something
in
different
something which would be more

^
See Preface.
340

and
But
some
cases,
less in others.
if
must
use roughly approximate terms of quantity, to
which popular
treatment
is
always
is
inclines,
should say that what
wanted
to lessen the
amount of Poor Law

administration not
assistance
lax,
to
make
the
more
but more
I
strict
not more lenient, but more harsh.

that in the
observe
Essay on
" Industry
under Social-
ism
" it is
contemplated without a shudder that

in
those who,
a reformed social system, and
with a
fair
chance of work before them, desupport themselves, might

left
liberately refuse to
without injustice be
complication
of
to starve.
Now
the
deserved
and
undeserved
calamity represented by our pauperism to-day
cannot be thus regarded as meriting

penal
treatment.
strictly
On
the
other
hand,
the
moral requirement suggested by the passage
seems
to
me
too low.
We
require
more of a
man
than the willingness to work as an alter-
341
native to bare starvation.
We
require that in
laying his plan of
life,
and not simply with a
view
to his
own
possible disaster, he should be

will
guided by the principle that he
never be-
come a burden
fore
to others like himself.
There-
you must judge these cases not merely by
their present misery, but

folly.
by their past
selfish
And
therefore
we must
treat the failure
self-support as something which, though
we
dare not
now
bring
it,
as the
more
socialistic
Athenians
law, yet
did, within the
compass of the penal

pity but also the
demands not only the

I
reprobation of society.
look upon the ex-
ceptional case of destitution by pure misfortune

in
a manner
analogous
to
that
is
in
which
regard a legal offender
who
free,
by some
accident, from moral culpability.
These cases
be,
is
there partly
is,
and more completely might
mode
of hindering or of alleviating.
kindliness
Here
and
the sphere of individual
skill.
342

want, then, to bring the thing
I
What do
to
an issue
want
all
ordinary cases of
destitution
to
be treated in the
workhouse,
but under
with gentleness and

strict regulation
human
care,
and not on a high scale of

all
comfort
want
cases
of
exceptional
misfortune, which
sight
has finally frustrated foreeffort,
and persistent
skill
to be
treated
by
private
and judgment, apart
from the
Poor Law, through the

or neighbours.
tation
I
dutiful care of relatives
want the State supplemenof
of
the
resources
those
who
are
poor but not
destitute,
known
I
as out-relief, to
to
cease altogether.
Here
must add a word
show the
sophical
special bearing of this on
my
philo-
contention.
You
cannot restore a
broken
life
by mechanical support.
relation
This deep
and subtle
between the character and

itself
circumstances shows
in
not in one form but

arise
many forms
of evil which
from the

There
343
attempt.
is
physical evil
this supple-
mentation of resources, owing to the constant

fear
of
deception,
is
never
adequate,
and
actually causes the partial or entire starvation
which
it is
intended to avert.
There
wages
;
is
I
eco-
nomical evil
the
rate in aid of
need
not enlarge on confusion

of
this.
There
is
moral
evil
the
in-
responsibility
between the
whole.
"
I
dividual and
Society as
have
paid rates for
many
to
years," a labourer out of
work once
have
said
me
"
why
should
it ?
not
my
relief
simply by asking for

out-relief
"
The
Economic Socialism of
this
had driven
;
poor
man
into
Moral Individualism
see-
ing the fund to which he contributed used to

tide over the difficulties of the improvident,
he
at
thought that the State intended,

least,
in
part
to
take the duty of providence off his

;
shoulders
his
will
was confused, and
his life
very probably ruined.
No money
will
make up
344
to a
will.
man
for a
broken mainspring
in his social
There
rather,
is
one
fundamental
retort, for
I
objection
or,
one incisive
is
cannot admit
that
it
an objection
which
a Socialist
may
make
not,
to all this
argument
He may
to
say, " Is
at least,
inherited
or unearned property the rich
an equally pernicious subvention

as out-relief to the poor
I
point out one distinction, and then give
my
general answer.
is
Property
is
within
the
owner's control and
a permission to him to
indulin
choose his work

gence.
of course an enormous
Law
is
But
Poor
relief
is
not
the
recipient's control,
a payment
life
for idleness, free to
and
is
not sufficient to set the
choose
work.
a
large pension or gift of property to
man
not yet demoralised would probably do
no harm.
already
This
is
the paradox about
doles
known
to Aristotle,
and recognised by
345
expert philanthropists to-day.

ture which "sets a
Great expendidoes not as a rule
man up
little
"
demoralise
it
is
the
chronic subventions,
which give no freedom and are actually consequent upon the

failure
of the social
will,
that
cause demoralisation.
I
do not think
it
can be denied that property

effect.
7nay have a similar

tracts
Wherever
it
dis-
from one social vocation, without formit
ing the basis of another, there

out-relief pure
operates as
stric-
and simple, and there the

have
I
tures of the Fabian Essays

tion.
full
applica-
With
this
concession,
I
pass from the
distinction
which
had
to
draw
between
property and out-relief, to the general answer
which
make
to the retort
which consists
in
comparing them.
The answer
is
simply this
that
two blacks
identifica-
do not make a white, and that the

tion of property with out-relief,
if
established.
346
INDIVIDUALISM
a good
AND
SOCIALISM.
might be
argument
for
abolishing
property, but could not possibly be a plea in
favour of out-relief.
(iii.)
And
with
out-relief
class
all
in-
adequate treatment of the symptom of

evil
social
which
is
known
as poverty.
mention
for free
especially
large-scale
organisations
schools,
dinners
at
popular
and
large-scale
to
arrangements for giving employment

casual unemployed.
the
In
all
these matters the
same tendency
adapt
is
traceable
to
the
tendency
a
large
to
machinery
superficially
dealing with
effect,
apparent,
without
distinguishing
the
very
different classes of cause,
demanding
different
means
in
for
their neutralisation,
this
which concur
effect.
producing
large apparent
Es-
pecially in the
problem of feeding the children
who
attend school every case needs special and

It
is
separate investigation.
certainly some-
347
times possible to persuade parents to pay for
food supplied to their children,

permitted
I
it
who
before
to be given to
this
them
for nothing.
have seen
done, on a very small scale

there has been not
indeed, and in this case
only a physical gain to the child, but also a
moral gain to the parents.
cannot strongly
believe in the
enough protest that
to us
who
socialisation of the will, the treatment of these
questions
by
large-scale
machinery assumes
the aspect, not of sympathy and charity, but of negligence and cruelty.
Discrimination,
if
guided merely by the

diate need,
test of the child's
imme-
means on the whole
that the wrono-
people are helped and the right people are not

helped.
To
this
should prefer,
all
if it
were the
only alternative, that
children
should be
;
given a free meal without discrimination
in
which case there would not be the peculiar

extra aggravation that just precisely in propor-
348
INDIVIDUALISM
AND SOCIALISM
do
their duty, the public
tion as people fail
to
I
does
it
for them.
may
add, that under the
present social system these advantages prob-
ably send up the rents in the neighbourhoods
where they are provided, so that the happy

landlord pockets the weekly value of the child's
dinner.
This,
however,
is
not an argument
that can ultimately carry \veight with Socialists.

It
should weigh with everybody for the preI
sent,
think.
It
is
is
(iv.)
plain,
moreover, that Economic

to-
Socialism
anything but warmly disposed
wards productive co-operation, the existence of

which, as distinct from joint-stock shopkeeping,
would hardly be gathered from the reference

to the
subject in the
Fabian Essay on The
Industrial
Basis of Socialism.
^
Although Dr.
Ingram's opinion
Essayist's,
^
is
evidently, like the Fabian
that no great importance
belongs
Economy."
Encyclopcedia Britannica, Article " Political

even to productive co-operation, yet
observing that
in
349
it is
worth
the passage
is
to
which the
Fabian Essay alludes he
discussing Cairnes'
view
ists
to the contrary,
and the modern econom-
whom
he quotes against Cairnes are not

"
quite
spoken of as
This
is
modern economists
in
general."
a matter of no real impor-
tance, except as
an indication of a well-known
of
Socialistic attitude
mind
of
what almost
amounts
to a dread of all processes that chiefly

socialisation
depend on the
cause,
I
of the will
be-
suppose,
the
primary
antagonism
Socialism
is
between Economic and

instinctively
felt,
Moral
without
being theoretically
of
demonstrated.
co-operation,
successful
is
I
The
take
it,
success
in
productive
view of the modern
management
of joint-stock companies,
affair
simply and solely an
of the workman's
industrial
'
and moral education.^

it
leave this passage as
was delivered.
Miss Potter's
350
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
(v.)
The word
education brings
me
to
my
last
set of illustrations,
which are on ground

Socialist
more
is
familiar to me.
I
The Economic
willing, as
rejoice to see, to
I
spend money
that, since
on the
children, but
do not see
his eyes
the time of Robert
Owen,
have been
very sharp to detect the real needs of education,
Owen
proposed
that there
should
be
national training colleges for teachers
truly
in-
statesmanlike proposal, which
wish was
cluded
in
the platform of
in
some party
to-day.
Probably,
his
sympathy with
Lancaster,
size
Owen may have

on which both
ideas.
been careless about the
of the division entrusted to a single teacher,

Bell
and Lancaster had absurd

experience has taught
On
this question
work on " The Co-operative Movement

tensified
"
has probably
in-
the attitude towards " Productive " Co-operation,
which
for the
I refer to,
but at the same time assigns ethical motives
view which she adopts.
351
US much, and to double the present staff of

teachers, at least in our infant schools,
is
a very-
moderate proposal.
important
to
It
would be much more

piano to
give
every
"
Board
to
School than to give

children/
It is
" free
dinners
the
chil-
heart-breaking to see the
dren marching to the mere clapping of hands.
And
one thing more
is
necessary to sound
education.
You must
There
is
carry the parents along

in
with you.
to
nothing
;
this contrary
Economic Socialism
it
seems
to
be suc-
cessfully attempted in
Godin's Familistere at
other matters
it
I
Guise.
referred
But,
to,
like
the
have
you can only do

socialisation
by
real enthu-
siasm
for
the
of the
individual
must
insist
that this
sentence does not
mean
that
pianos, which I rejoice to see are to be given, are
more im-
portant than the proper care and nourishment of school

children.
If
is
said
that
to
pay for making school
life
happier
better than to pay parents to neglect their chil-
dren, the saying might
seem
less hard.
3'j2
will.
No
it
machinery can
effect
it.
You must
make
your duty, and inspire your managers
with the zeal for this duty, to get the parents

interested, until at last they
come
to
know and
the
care
and act
effectively
in
controlling
education of their children.

done.
I
The
thing can be
have seen a beginning made
a very
trifling one.
(vi.)
And
as a final
instance,
would say
one word upon the
ideal, often
connected with
Economic
of
life
Socialism, of beautiful surroundings
and the interchangeability of labour.

again,
I
Here
believe,
we
find,
mingled with
much sound
pursuit
say,
insight, a theoretical confusion, the
of an
abstraction.
rightly, that
Socialists
always
and quite
you cannot go back.

think
that
Well, for
that
reason
free
;
you can
never again be
of
from the
intellectuality
I
modern
life
and therefore
think
that
material beauty
and splendour
will
never again

have
importance
our Hves.
355
their old
I
in
We
shall
;
shall have,
trust,
a devotion to beauty
probbut
ably a deeper beauty than before

learn
to
and
avoid the sordid and hideous
when a
lad can
buy Shakespeare
a garret,
it
for a shilling
and read him
in
is
impossible that
we
should ever again absolutely depend for

spiritual
our chief
the
nutriment on the beauty of

arts
more sensuous
and
crafts.
life
;
do not
often
underrate these great goods of
am
I
accused of valuing them too highly.
only
want
to point out that the
whole basis of mind

intellectual
and
ideal,
society
is
now
definitely
and
ex-
and
in the
historical
artistic
"
idea
we have
plicitly
what the
tradition used to reis
present implicitly.
Literature
it
;
dirt-cheap,"
I
and every one can read
and though
can-
not doubt that the fine arts of sense-perception
Fabian Essays.
C. C.
A A
3S4

future, yet the
it
have a
modern mind
is
so deep
and so strong that
can bear, and to some
extent must bear, the divorce from sensuous

beauty, which would have killed
the ancient
Greek or mediaeval
This brings
Italian.
me
to the question of the
inter-
changeability of labour.
I
Here, as elsewhere,
do not think that Economic Socialism apdepth of individuality which

is
preciates the
necessary in order to contain, in a moral form,

the modern social purpose.
social
Each
unit of the
organism has to embody his relations
with the whole

will
;
his
own
particular
work and
and
in
order to do this the individual

in
must have a strength and depth
himself
proportional to and consisting of the relations
which he has to embody.

dividual
to
in
Thus,
if
the
in-
ancient Greece was like a centre

relation
which a thousand threads of

the
individual
in
were
attached,
modern
Europe

-might be
355
compared
to a centre
on which there
cannot go
liang many,
many
milHons.
You
back
to a simple world, in
all
which the same man

all
can conquer
practice.
knowledge, or be versed in
are,
If all
as
we
hope, to share in
it
the gains
achieved by each,
can only be
through the gigantic and ever- increasing labour
by which every worker takes account,

work, of
its
in his
import for
all.
There should not
be castes of workers,
division
;
if
caste
means a
social
there must
be classes of workers,
material
will
because
the
increasing
of
human
knowledge and endeavour
more and more
consume the
upon
entire lives
its
and thoughts of those
whom
burden
is
falls.
This argument
not directed against ra-
tional provisions for doing
away with
unskilled
labour, or for imposing
some
public activity on
very
citizen in excess of his
normal vocation.
It is directed against the
idea that
work be-
356
INDIVIDUALISM
AND
SOCIALISM.
comes
useful
by being popular
in
the sense of
;
being unspecialised and superficial

is
whereas
it
plain to
all
who know,
that only thorough-
ness can impart universal significance, and that the
claim upon the

will
student,
and
artist,
and
scientist
more and more take the form,
"It
is
expedient that one
man
far
should die for
the people."
This
is
very
from being a
part.
selfish contention
on the student's
In an
ser-
age of universal education, the student's

vices,
more than those of any one
else, will
be
obtainable, should society so choose, at starvation wages.

I
need not multiply these

said
illustrations.
have
clear.
enough
to
make my meaning
Economic Individualism and Economic

both obviously on the move,
its differ-
Socialism are
each of them desiring to make good
ently-founded claims to harmonise with Moral

Socialism, which
is
the only thing for which

any healthy human being,
(his
357
at the
bottom of
heart,
cares a single straw.
The Moral
the
forces
Socialist
looks
on,
confident that
of
human
all
nature will
make
the reality prevail,
but not
forces
unwilling to co-operate with those
wherever he can find a purchase.

if
it
And
were
such a purchase would be found

possible
to convince
the
Economic
Socialist
is
that in dealing with the social organism he
dealing with a structure whose units are the

characters of
far as
men and women

to base his
and that
in so
he neglects
arrangements on
is,
the essence of character

or moral will
social
that
on the
social
so
that
far
he
is
not dealing with the
organism as an organism, but rather as
a machine
is
to say,
from the point of
view, not of Moral
Socialism, but of
Moral
Individualism.
XI.
LIBERTY AND LEGISLATION.'^

Among
the antagonistic ideas of
human
pro-
gress which confront one another at the present

time,
there
is
no
more
remarkable pair of
for
seeming opposites than the demand

pleter liberty
com-
and the desire
for
more thorough-
going
legislation.
Both of these aspirations appear characterstic
of our era
while by one party to the

the
controversy at
least,
two tendencies are
regarded as absolutely incompatible with each

other.
It is
curious that those
who
represent

358
LIBERTY AND LEGISLATION.

the opposition in
359
its
most ultimate form, the
Anarchist and the Socialist respectively, have
some
inkling that there

;
may be
a meeting of
the extremes
but Stuart Mill and Fitzjames
Stephen,
or
Mr. Auberon
Herbert and Sir
John Lubbock must be regarded as absolute

irreconcilables.
I
want
to consider with
you to-day
this
very
astonishing divergence of opinion, in order to

ascertain,
if
we
can, the real
direction of the
to such very
is
movement which can give

different estimates.
rise
For no one
so wholly
a pessimist as to entertain an aspiration which
he admits to be fundamentally
with
the whole
set
in contradiction
and
tide
of
human
en-
deavour.
that
What
man
in
believes to be right,
at
he believes,
in
one way or another,
bottom or
the long run, to be tending to
come
to pass. to clear the issue,

I
And
would say that
36o

far as at all possible,
in
its
am, as
liberty
using the word

that
to
every-day acceptation,
felt
of
freedom from
coercion,
I
and power
do
what you
please.
do not desire to cut the
knot by referring to the more philosophical

idea of freedom as submission to a noble law.
I
want
to
begin by using those notions of
liberty
and coercion which unquestionably do

in
hold a place
politics
will
our daily judgments respecting
and
society.
I
And
find
for that
;
purpose
take them as
them
as they
meet
us from day to day in the great practical and

theoretical controversy
between those who with

politics
Mr. Spencer think
all
an
evil,
and
those who, like most of ourselves, assent with
more or
less
conviction to the overwhelming
necessity which produces year by year a larger
and
larger statute book.
If,
however,
should
be driven by the sheer force of logical continuity to appeal before

I
close to a
somewhat

loftier
361
standard
of
liberty,
it
will
be
only
because
liberty
we
is
shall
have found, that the higher

in
rooted
the lower, and that the
lower must necessarily grow upwards into the

higher.
Now
philosophers are often accused of not

It is their
taking a side.
business to reconcile
and explain
and they often cause perplexity

to
by seeming
pronounce that
is
if
is
right
from one point of view, B
right from another
and
from a
third,
and so on through the

I
whole alphabet.
To-day, however, though
cannot but try to reconcile and explain, yet

I
hope very
distinctly to take
side.
For
hold that the view of the anti-governmental

theorist
is is
not merely an imperfect view, but

I
a misapprehension of an imperfect view.

it
do not consider that

counterpart to the
is
the true balance or

of those
convictions
I
who
believe in social authority.
do not acknow-
362

represents the great and valuable
ledge that
it
principles of effective individual development,
of spontaneity, of robustness, of originality.
It
would be an imperfect conception
to suppose
that the largest possible liberty of individual

action
was
the
life.
only
desirable
object
and
standard of
Nobility and order would be

ideal.
elements neglected by such an
But the
view that
is
social
compulsion
is
bad
in principle
is
not even this
demand
this
for liberty, but

It is
misapprehension of
demand.
not one
It
remove, but two removes from truth.
not
merely aims at an imperfect ideal of freedom,

but points the wrong road to this imperfect
ideal.
Every
illusion
is
founded on a
in
fact,
but the illusion
may
consist
ascribing the
fact to conditions precisely the reverse of those
which
really
produce
it.
This
believe
to
be the case with the
facts
on which the
anti-
governmental theorists base their opinions.

What,
in the first place, are these facts
:
363
suppose they are such as the following
We
expect
in
modern
life,
and
in
some
measure we obtain, a
progressively
greater
range and choice of action, and a decrease of

certain kinds of restriction to fathers
which our
not
fore-
submitted.
We
should
stand
having the fashion of our dress, or our power

of travelling about, or our religion, or the hour
by which we must be indoors

prescribed for us by law.
it
in
the evening,
in
And
as far as
is
true that most of our fellow-citizens can
practically get
lives,
no choice or variety
is
in
their
we
say that this

is
a burning shame, and
that our system

not
so far a failure.
We
will
submit to any difference being made by the
general law between one
man and
another,
and
we
are rapidly
coming
to object to a difference
being made between the rights of
men and
women.
364

on such
It is
I
facts
and
feelings as these that

interis
suppose the case against governmental

it
ference must be rested, in so far as
not
merely an inference from the non-moral nature

of acts done under direct coercion, to which
I
have
Is
to refer again.
it
a right interpretation of such facts

I
and
feelings as
have mentioned to say that the

is,
modern movement
pulsion
tion
I
it
at bottom, against
com-
and towards merely voluntary
associa-
answer
No
it is
not a right interpretation
is
a wrong one.
People
who
hold
these
views are sometimes called Individualists; and
no doubt they mean to be Individualists

they are nothing of the kind.
well
but
They
are pretty
as
such
friends
to
the
to
individual
the
British
Admiral was
the British engineer
who was
in
alleged to be serving under coercion
a Peruvian man-of-war.
The
Admiral, so

the Story goes,
365
let
fly
a Whitehead torpedo at
if
the Peruvian ship, and
he had
hit
it
the
oppressed individual would have been liberated
from
his
oppressors by going to the bottom
along with them.

Theorists of this type do not
individual
is,
know what
the
and
in
trying to free him from
tyranny they are dismembering him.

they are wrong
in
But
if
maintaining
is
that the true
progress of modern society
to cut the cords
of social authority, what are
we
to say
about
the
phenomena on which they must

I
rely,
and
be
which
have admitted
?
to
be
real
and
to
welcome
Do
not these phenomena show an
increase of liberty,
and do they not therefore

restriction
?
show a decrease of
I
reply that they
do show an increase of
liberty,
but they do not show a decrease of
restriction.
An
increase of one quantity in-
volves a decrease of another only
when
the
366

the two quantities taken together
total of
is is
limited.
And
this
wholly
false
assumption
at
the root of the entirely erroneous

in
view,
which
my
judgment Mr. Auberon Herbert

in
mention his name
particular,
because
his trumpet gives
no uncertain sound
which
Mr. Auberon
life.
Herbert takes with regard to
If life
could be compared to a limited
space, like a box,
and
liberty
and compulsion
could be compared to sets of white and black

balls to
liberty,
be put into
the less
it,
then no doubt the more
compulsion,
and
vice
versa.
But so much depends upon your metaphor

Just
put the
case
that
life
could
better be
compared
to a tree, that liberty
might then be
expressed as the access of the leaves to light
and
air,
and
restriction or
compulsion might be
typified
by the strong
fixtures of the
stem and
that
branches.
Then
it
is
pretty
plain
the
vice
more compulsion, the more
liberty,
and

Try again
be
a great
367
versa.
let
its
let life
like
city,
liberty correspond to the variety,

its
num-
ber,
and area of the rooms, and
element of
compulsion to the walls of the buildings.

again
sion
it
Here
would seem that
liberty
and compul-
must increase together.

not the
fact,
It is
then, that increased liberty
means decreased
restriction.
But
it
does mean
some
peculiarity in the character of restriction

life
which distinguishes modern
from the
life
of our forefathers, and of barbarous or savage

peoples.
life
It
is
now a commonplace
that the
of savages, instead of being as free as the

air, is
bird in the
idle belief
is
it
hedged
in
on every side
wîth
and groundless prohibition.

contrast with this
constitutes
What
that in
cramped and
fettered condition
the freedom of
modern
life ?
The
quality of freedom does not
depend on
the great or small amount of social compulsion
368
and fixed enactment, but on two

which belong
are
:
characteristics
;
to life
as a whole
and these
First,
its
comprehensiveness, and secondly,
its rationality.
I.
In the
first place,
then, the range of pos-
sible actions
presented to the individual for his
choice becomes, as society develops, more and
more comprehensive.
in the
His
liberty,
therefore,
common
straightforward sense of doing
what he
pleases,
becomes greater and
greater.
And
the yearly Acts of Parliament, forming a
thick volume, to which for the purpose of our
argument,
we ought
in
strictness
to
add
all
by-laws passed and orders
made under
Parliathis
mentary powers, do not militate against

liberty,
but are the conditions of
its
existence.
Consider, for example, the great province of

legal
conveyance and contract, which pervades

the relations of civilized
is
369
all
life.
The form
of
It
a contract or a will
is
an arbitrary matter.
of no real importance what are the condiof validity imposed
tions
upon such
and
acts,
so
long as they are easily

recognisable.
authority,
fulfilled
definitely
So
that
by
theyf<2/ of a general
for all
which
settles
once
what the
conditions of these acts are to be, the facility

of transacting business
is
enormously increased.
is
compulsory enactment
here
It
the very
is
organ of an enlarged
liberty.
worth
while to mention the special example of compulsory registration conferring an absolute

to land, a
title
measure of coercion so
drastic
it,
that
we have
yet
it
hitherto been afraid to enact

at
and
would
one blow make the transfer of
land a comparatively simple matter, and therefore
open up
far greater possibilities in the
way
is
of buying and selling real property.
This
an exceedingly striking example of the relation,

c.c.
B B
370
which
am
so
trying to illustrate, between liberty
and compulsion.
And
it
is
throughout.
Everything that
you can do involves a number of things that
you cannot
life
do,
and the
restrictions of a larger restrictions of
are
more numerous than the

life,
a smaller
tree are
just as the branches of a great
more numerous than those of a herb
or bush.
If
we go through
we
all
the great departments

find
of legislation,
shall
the
same
thing.
Everywhere the coercive

conditions and results of
life,
restrictions are simply
immense extensions of
of the range of pos-
immense enlargements
sible action.
Our manufacturing
system, our
commercial system,
our railway system, our

all
educational system, must

definite
of
them have a
shape sanctioned by the community.
The
practical question,
whether we are over-
or under-legislating, touches only a small pro-
371
portion of the enactments relating to these great
departments of
life.
It is
quite impossible that
completely new outgrowths of civilisation or
complete transformations of our mode of doing

business should
social sanction.
fail
to
be registered under a
could railways be
How
made
without Acts of Parliament or worked without
by-laws
And how
could parties of working
men, or indeed of professional
men
or
women,
holi-
go
to
Venice or to Florence
?
in the
it
Easter
days without railways
Is
not plain that
authority and liberty are here again inseparably
interwoven
But,
secondly,
life is
there
is
something further
modern
becoming not only more comprerational.
hensive, but
in
more
There
is
a change
the kind of restrictions which

It
we
expect and
said,
are willing to put up with.

for example, that the
used to be
tendency of modern law

contract,
was from
status
to
that
is
from a
372

persons determined beforehand
classification of
by the
legal system, according to birth, to ar-
rangements or contracts made by themselves

at
pleasure,
and only
ratified
by the comso, as
it is
munity.
Granting that
it
this
were
to a
great extent
certainly has been,
only a
change, though a most important one, in the
kind of compulsion,
status rests,
is
for all contracts rest, as all
on
legal
compulsion
and
is
then
it
perhaps doubtful whether change
so ex-
clusively in this direction as has been thought.

I
do not myself believe that
it is
possible to
lay
down any
single
definite direction
which
must be taken by the course of

enactment as time goes on.
legislative
And by
it
giving
I
my
reason for not believing

I
possible,
shall
explain, so far as
can see
how
to explain, the
actual positive process
by which the nature of
compulsion comes to be modified.
Human
life
this
seems
to
me
to be the

central
373
truth
upon
this
question
is
a thing
which at any given moment has a certain shape
and
certain properties.
The shape and
pro-
perties vary in the
most subtle way, and grow;
more and more complex

there,
but they are always
and can be gradually learnt by reason
and experience.
Now
the shape of
its
life is
the
outward expression of
equilibrium
reasonableness or
its
the
arrangement of
that
parts and
of their functions, so
they work.
And
that
when
say that compulsion changes on the

in rationality,
I
whole by gaining
mean
it
becomes more and more

support
identified with the
and
life.
maintenance
of
this
shape or
balance of
The beauty
of a tree depends
very largely on the remarkable ingenuity with
which
way.
its
branches keep out of one another's
Social compulsion gains the

this, in
same
sort
of merit as
figure
as far as
it
supports the
and balance of the
social organism, with-
374

parts to thwart or
out causing
another.
its
impede one
Compare
it
for a
moment
to a
prop support-
ing a tree, or to the timbers of a house

is
as
it
something done on purpose, and not unconlike
scious
the tree's
own growth.
when
Now
it is
prop, or a bit of scaffolding, or a timber in a
house,
is
reasonably arranged
in the
right place according to the shape
and function
put a
of the thing
it
has to support.
You may
stout pole under the branch of a tree as a prop,
and
you
it
will
be of use and do no harm.
But
if
tie
even a slender stick across the leading

;
shoot you will ruin your tree for ever

the
and
in
same way
in
building a house you do not
put your beams across the windows or through

the chimneys, but you put
them out of the way.
This
illustrates
what
mean by compulsion mean

that
it
becoming reasonable.
adapted
becomes
shape
in detail to the particular definite
-/

and balance of
civilized
375
life,
so as to support
it,
and not
felt
interfere with
it.
And
then
it is
not
as compulsion.
that
For example, we
say, quite
truly,
nowadays Government ought not
to interfere with private opinion or with free
discussion about politics and religion.
This
is
quite agreed
ing,
It is
upon by every one worth mentionis
but the reason
apt to be misunderstood.
not that Government does not care about
our opinions, nor that Government has no right

to touch
our opinions
it
is
that reasonable
opinion
is
a thing of a particular kind, and can-
not be beneficially affected by direct coercion

or by interfering with discussion.
flower
;
It is like a
you cannot make
it
grow
right
by
pull-
ing
it
about.
We
have found
this out
by very by com-
sad experience, and
now we can
it
see
it
mon
sense
and so
has become a practical

is
rule that
Government
not to interfere directly
with free discussion and with individual opin-
376

But
if
ion.
you coupled
this practical rule with
a general
principle,
and said that Government
has nothing to do with the reasonableness and

morality of
sense.
its citizens,
then that
is
simple nonis
The
work
truth of the matter
that the
public authority, like any individual,

to
must learn
right
go
to
in
the right
way
and the
way
is
only learnt by experience of the needs

society.
and functions of
And
ity is to
in fact,
if
you say that the public authorin
do nothing
any way
interfering with
is
opinion and religious discussion, that

not true.
deal,
simply
Government ought
to
do a great
and does a great
deal, for the formation
of rational
opinion and a moral

It
temper on
the part of individuals.

lic
interferes
by pub-
education and the

its
means
of
education,
by putting
posal
special
information at the dis-
of
public
opinion
the
English
blue
social
books are an unequalled repository of

and
economical
377
knowledge
only
obtained
through compulsory powers

definite line
to take
and again by the

is
which the public authority

social
forced
on questions of
and moral impor-
tance,
and
this
by
forcibly
removing temptation
where
can be done.
We
is
think, once more,
that you ought not to establish any Church.
No
not now, because there

sents the nation to establish a
it
no Church that repre-
but
;
it
was not always wrong

if
Church
the nation wanted one

if
it
had a right to have one, and

it
does not
is
want one
all,
has a right not to have one, that

to me, that can
as
it
seems
it.
be said
I
in
general about
All these, and
might add
trade, are
the
question of interference
in
with
matters
which we have gradually and painhow,

in
fully learnt
what particular way,
to in-
terfere without doing harm.
We
interfere
now
with trade rather by
Factory
Acts than by
Protection, as the needs of the
community take
378
a shape which demands this kind of interference.

ciple
But there
is
no general moral
protection
;
prinis
which condemns
there
not even any general moral
principle
which
condemns taxing the community

fit
for the bene-
of a class
on the contrary,
so,
we
are
at
present
very largely doing

I
and whether
wisely or not depends the administration

of the Poor
is
think entirely on
how
performed.
quite obscure.
The
future
Law
is
All must
is
depend on the
work.
effect
with which
it
found to
General principles cannot decide such

tell
a question beforehand, because you cannot
beforehand under what

Concrete result
general principle the
may
practically come.
You
have to watch and observe and mould your law

so as while preventing the last results of destitution, not
to break the springs of character.
We
are not
indeed
likely,
suppose,
for
ever
the
again to tax the
whole community

benefit of a richer class
379
that
is
because our
concrete idea of the purpose and working of

the community has changed in detail, and
we
do not now believe

nors,
in
any heaven-born gover-
whom
it
is
a privilege to the community
to support.
Thus, then,
repeat, liberty, in the plainest
and simplest sense of the word, does not depend

on the absence of
legislation, but
on the comlife.
prehensiveness and reasonableness of

coercive
The
power
of
England or of the United

all
States of America, which, with
their faults,
are the two freest countries that the world has
ever seen,
is
such as would have broken the
most tyrannical despotisms of the ancient world

as a
Nasmyth hammer crushes a walnut

this coercive
shell.
But the amount of
power no more
interferes with our liberty than the strength of
your floor interferes with the serviceableness of
your house.
It
is
not weakness of the public
38o

but
adaptation on which freedom
therefore to do,
is
power,
its
depends.
What we have
not to trouble ourselves about the more or less
of legislative interference
lives in
but,
living out our
some
particular honest endeavour,
and
making
those
general
arrangements
felt
which
spring out
in
of obvious
necessities, to call
the social power whenever and wherever

it,
good cannot be done without done with

its
and can be
help.
And we must remember

modern organiin practice
that by the infinite subtlety of
zation the social
power
is
becoming
in theory,
what
it
always has been

ot
simply the
expression
social
ourselves.
Where
are
its
?
does
the
.'*
power
reside
its
Who
agents
Where does
House
only or
?
responsibility rest
On
a
the
of
Commons and
no
!
the County Council
Oh
not at
full
all.
Show me
man
woman
in
the
enjoyment of physical and
intellectual capacities,
who
is
in
no sense an

agent of the social power, and
a
381
will
show you
man
or
woman who
is
is
not doing his or her

class of
duty.
There
class of
no longer a
I
governors
and a
governed.
am
not referring
merely to the parliamentary

franchise,
and
municipal
important as are the duties which
these lay
upon
us.
am
referring partly to
that detailed subdivision of authority

tion
and funcof the
by which the power and

in
right
community are
a great
every
district in the
hands of
army of
officials,
both paid and unpaid,
and
to a great extent
of ourselves,
and
partly,
and more
especially, to the great force of public

is all
opinion, which
that gives value or reasonclear
ableness to law.
Every one who forms a
and honest judgment on matters that concern
him and
his neighbours
is
putting into opera-
tion the social power.
Thus mere
action,
is
actual liberty, variety of possible

social
in
no way opposed to extensive
382

are strength and originality
legislation.
coercion.
Still less
of character endangered by
.
There
is
a commonplace set of
fallacies,
by which the
are confused
great qualities of
human nature
:
with their caricatures

sity, originality
character with perver-
with eccentricity, knowledge of

its
the world with experience of

It is
seamy
side.
not true that a laissez-faire society makes

characters,
original
or
that
weak
social
pressure permits strength of mind to develop.
Not only
ible
is
Anarchic Individualism incompatit
with liberty, but
is
hopelessly opposed
is
to that Individualism which alone
an ethical
good
intellectual
independence and
moral
robustness.
The
fact
is,
that such terms as Individualism
or Socialism are not in any
way
fitted to desig-
nate moral ideals, unless they are taken in a
sense wholly independent of reference to liberty
and
legislation.
There
is
no necessary con-

nection
383
between
the moral strength
of
the
Individual and the so-called Individualism of

legal
and economical machinery

justification
for
nor
is
there
any
confusing legislative col-
lectivism,
under the name of Socialism, with

is
that recognition of the social end which
the
I
basis of all possible moral views of Society.
have no doubt that the moral fervour, both

Individualists
of
and of
this
Socialists, arises in great
measure from
elementary confusion, by
which a doctrinaire theory about legal or economical machinery takes the place of devotion
to individual character or to the social purpose.
What
that purpose
is,
and how
to be fulfilled,
;
can be learnt only in the concrete

task,
and
it is
our
without prejudices for abstract

a reasonable shape
titles, to
labour at giving
to the
innumerable details of
life.
the great building of
Butler
&
Tanner,
The Selwood
Printini^
Works, I'rome, and London.
,,-..-1,..
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-<-vrv^ ^^_/JL
(WaaAJ <,.X/mM.
->-t:>
trbe iStbtcal library.
Edited by
J.
H. Muirhead, M.A.
The Ethical Library

will
is
not a
new
" Science Series."
It
not contain books on moral science properly so-called.

chief results of the
The
modern study of mind and morals

demonto the public that the underlying
will for
the most part be assumed without scientific
stration.
The guarantee
mere
principles are not
assumptions or
isolated aperpis
must be the names of the

hoped,
will
writers themselves,
who,
it
is
be recognised as specialists in particular depart-
ments of mental and moral philosophy.
The Library calls attention to a class of literature, now happily not so uncommon as formerly, in which questions
of the inner and outer
life,
that have hitherto
been too
much
the
monopoly of the theologian, are

of view and in
the
spirit
dealt with from
the point
of
the
student of
Though the problems of which it will treat are old ones, the manner of treatment will be comparatively new, inasmuch as no doctrinal assumptions will be made
philosophy.
with which the student of science and philosophy need

find himself out of sympathy.
Besides the present. Volumes in this Library have already
been promised by
Stephen,
Editor.
Professor
Henry Sidgwick, Mr.
Leslie
Mr. D. G. Ritchie, Mrs. Sophie Bryant,
and the
J.
H. Muirhead.
a
c.c.
^>w iA^ 'a *^ e^.., >,^^
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Bernard Bosanquet THE CIVILIZATION OF CHRISTENDOM London 1893

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Bernard Bosanquet THE CIVILIZATION OF CHRISTENDOM London 1893

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^

XTbe JStbtcal Xtbrarg

Formerly Fello^v of University

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works,

following Addresses are printed so far as pos-

which they were delivered.

cases they were not fully written out before

have unavoidably been modified

preparation for the press.

thanks are due to the

proprietors of the International Journal of Ethics

of the Charity Organisation Reviexv for permission to

various Societies before

which the addresses were given, including the London

In the paper on Individualism

and Socialism there

one point which

who have shown

certainly desirable, should,

of age, sex, behaviour, physical

ment on account of past conduct seems

of the Poor Law, and tending to widen the area of

Outside the Poor Law, by pensions

and analogous methods, such treatment may very

well be provided through the neighbourly kindness

another point, that of

see signs of approximation

between the two most antagonistic opinions.

have always insisted on the

the health and well-being of the family, and in the

niceness of the home.

beginning to recognise the value of organised insurance,

against the breadwinner's illness, from which

the physical and

moral ruin of the family,

fundamental difference between us springs

measure from differing experience.

what we see from day

depends on the individual's

prudence, and also of

and not merely

few days or weeks,

he must lay his account.

Life thus looked at implies

a higher, not a lower standard of comfort, a more

generous and not a more grudging acceptance of

whose household there

care for the family than there

for the future.

They do not spend

the sense which our opponents

they waste and muddle away their resources.

There are other senses

which the terms

be used, and upon them our

above described, that

the term (and this

the meaning which applies in

the polar opposite of an

listic " quality.

does not abate, but rather

increases, the worker's just

careless current usage of such terms as " indi" socialistic,"

a discredit to the popular theory of an age which