[291] This is well illustrated in the following incident related by

Moncure Conway. In the island of Ceylon he was visited by an aged

Buddhist priest, who came in a sedan borne by men. Asked why he did

not use a carriage drawn by horses, the priest replied that “he was

afraid a horse might be vitally injured by carrying him.” “But,” said

Mr. Conway, “might it not be the same with one of those men while he is

carrying you?” After a moment’s silence the priest answered, “But a man

can tell me if he is suffering” (_My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the

East_ (1906), pp. 116 f.).

[292] Thousands of rats were formerly kept at public expense in a

hospital at the Indian town of Kutel.

[293] Toleration is not even recognized as a virtue in the moral codes

of ancient Judaism, dogmatic Christianity, and Islam.

[294] _Hibbert Lectures_ (1881), p. 231.

[295] Under Asoka, it is true, Buddhism, like Christianity under

Constantine the Great, became militant. But Asoka was a gentle warrior

and made war gently. He neither killed his prisoners nor tortured them,

a common practice with Oriental conquerors, nor did he sell them as

slaves.

[296] “Les paisibles sujets du Grand-Lama thibetain ont cessé d’aimer

la guerre et presque de la faire” (Letourneau, _La guerre dans les

diverses races humaines_ (1895), p. 213).

[297] Edward A. Ross, _The Changing Chinese_ (1911), p. 29.

[298] See above, p. 79.

[299] Mozoomdar, a leader of the Brahmo-Somaj.

[300] Buddhism, like Christianity, teaches that hatred must be overcome

by love: “Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by

good” (_Dhammapada_, xvii. 223). “For hatred does not cease by hatred

at any time; hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule” (_Ibid._ i. 5).

[301] For the influence of Buddhism on the Japanese character, see

Count Okuma, _Fifty Years of New Japan_ (1909), vol. ii, chap. iv,

“Japanese Religious Beliefs: Buddhism.”

[302] _Laws_, tr. Jowett, x. 896. And the thought is near even in the

latest philosophy: “But it feels like a real fight,” says Professor

William James, “as if there were something really wild in the universe

which we, with all our idealities and faithfulness, are needed to

reform.”

[303] Is. xlv. 7.

[304] This dualistic world philosophy is regarded by some students of

the Zend-Avesta as being in the nature of a protest against “the inert

asceticism of Buddhism and the ethical indifference of Brahmanism”

(Darmesteter, “Introduction,” Sacred Books of the East, 2d ed., vol.

iv, p. lxviii). Ranke views it as the product of environment: “If we

keep well in view the contrasts between the various districts and

nations included within the limits of Persia and her provinces, the

incessant struggle between the settled populations and the inhabitants

of the steppes, between the cultivated regions and the desolation of

the desert, thrust back, indeed, yet ever resuming its encroachments,

the ideas of the Zend-Avesta will appear to us natural and, as we may

term it, autochthonic” (_Universal History_, vol. i (1885), p. 105).

[305] The way in which such a conception acts upon the moral life is

well illustrated in the history of English Puritanism. The ethical

strenuousness of the Puritan was the outcome of his deeply felt

consciousness of the ineradicable antagonism between good and evil.

It is all brought vividly before us in Bunyan’s _Holy War_, in the

struggle between Immanuel and Diabolus--of which the myth of Ahura and

Ahriman was the prototype.

[306] _Mihir Yasht_ (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii), vii. 26.

[307] See Jackson, _Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran_.

[308] See above, p. 115.

[309] Zoroastrian ethics, as Wedgwood says, is best understood when

viewed as a protest against the Hindu conception of the universe

and life. “The injunction to industry, the elaborate provisions for

agriculture, the constant stimulus to exertion of every kind, are most

intelligible when we see in them a recoil from the faith which appeared

to this active race [the Iranian] a confusion of good and evil” (_The

Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 59).

[310] _Vendîdâd_ (Sacred Books of the East, 2d ed., vol. iv), Farg. iv.

47.

[311] _Ibid._ Farg. iii. 33.

[312] _Ibid._ Farg. iv. 49.

[313] “Aryan morality came down from the heavens in a ray of light”

(_Selected Essays of James Darmesteter_, ed. Morris Jastrow, p. 304).

[314] _Vendîdâd_, Farg. ii. 29.

[315] _Ibid._ Farg. iv. 49 (bis)-55.

[316] _Mihir Yasht_, i. 2.

[317] _Ibid._ xxix. 116, 117.

[318] _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., pp. 71 ff. It is significant that the

sacred standard of the early Persians was the apron of a blacksmith.

[319] _Vendîdâd_, Farg. iii. 31.

[320] _Ibid._ Farg. iii. 4.

[321] _Laws of Manu_, x. 84.

[322] _Vendîdâd_, Farg. iii. 38, 39.

[323] The king who reigned in Persia at the time of Nero, going from

Asia to Italy, traveled by land along the shore instead of going

by ship, “because the Magi are forbidden to defile the sea” (James

Darmesteter, Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv, p. xl). But the anxious

observance by the Persians of the requirements of the code is best

disclosed in the disposition which they made of their dead. Since

corpses could neither be burned nor buried nor thrown into the water

without defiling a sacred element, they were exposed on the summits of

mountains or on the top of low towers (dakhmas), the so-called “Towers

of Silence,” that the flesh might be eaten by birds of prey.

[324] _Zend-Avesta_, pt. ii, Yasht xxii (Sacred Books of the East, vol.

xxiii, pp. 314 ff.).

[325] Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi, “Introduction,” p. xx.

[326] “Their [the servitors of Mithra] dualistic system was

particularly adapted to fostering individual effort and to developing

human energy.”--CUMONT, _The Mysteries of Mithra_ (1903), p. 141.

[327] _Herod._ i. 139. We quote Rawlinson’s version.

[328] _Herod._ i. 136.

[329] Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_, vol. i, p. 214, n. 10. We omit the

references.

[330] Cf. _Herod._ ix. 109.

[331] Rawlinson, _The Five Great Monarchies_ (1871), vol. iii, p. 170.

The exception was the case of the Barcæans. Cf. _Herod._ iv. 201.

[332] The modern Persians, who have exchanged the truth-impelling creed

of Zoroaster for that of Mohammed, seem to have lost this ancestral

virtue. It is noteworthy, however, that the Indian Parsees, the

inheritors and preservers of the faith of ancient Persia, are noted for

their uprightness and veracity.

[333] “They [the Parsees] form one of the most esteemed, wealthy, and

philanthropic communities on the west coast of India, notably in the

city of Bombay.”--BLOOMFIELD, _The Religion of the Veda_ (1908), p. 15.

[334] “The whole history of the religion of Israel is a history of

the development of the moral consciousness, and consequently of the

deepening and widening of the opposition between that _which ought to

be_ and that _which is_.”--EDWARD CAIRD, _The Evolution of Religion_

(1894), vol. ii, p. 92.

[335] It may be urged that the moral character given to Yahweh was the

creation of the moral consciousness of his worshipers; but even so,

this conception of deity once formed would inevitably react upon the

moral sense to deepen and purify the feelings that gave it birth.

[336] _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_ (1889), Bd. i, S. 429.

[337] Budde, _Religion of Israel to the Exile_ (1899), pp. 35 ff.; Toy,

_Judaism and Christianity_ (1891), p. 307; W. Robertson Smith, _The

Religion of the Semites_ (1894), pp. 75 ff.

[338] W. Robertson Smith urges that sacrifice among the Hebrews had its

origin in the sacramental communal idea. According to this belief the

clansmen and their god are of the same stock, and the bond of kinship

is renewed and strengthened through the human and the divine members of

the community partaking together of the flesh and blood of an animal

slain.

[339] Job iii. 19.

[340] Eccl. ix. 5; and so ix. 10: “For there is no work, nor desire,

nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, whither thou goeth.”

[341] Is. xxxviii. 18.

[342] See below, pp. 165 f.

[343] Cf. Chapter II.

[344] The oldest form of the Decalogue is found in Ex. xxxiv; cf. Ex.

xxxiii.

[345] If we compare the morality of this Hebrew Decalogue with that of

the Egyptian Negative Confession, we shall find it to belong to about

the same stage of ethical development.

[346] In the Book of Judges are preserved some traditions which are

illustrative of the moral state of society at this time; for though

all the details of these stories may not be historical, still they

doubtless reflect the general condition of things during this period.

There is a striking similarity between these traditions of gross and

incredible crimes and the traditions of the atrocious immoralities of

the Merovingian Age in European history.

[347] The kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian power 722

B.C.; the kingdom of Judah fell before Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

586 B.C.

[348] Cf. Kuenen, _The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel_.

[349] _The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel_ (1877), p. 344.

[350] Cf. 1 Kings xxi--the story of Naboth’s vineyard.

[351] “The life-work of Elijah was a turning-point in the history of

the religion of Israel, similar in its consequences to those which

followed the appearance of Zarathustra in Iran.... It was the ethical

idea of God matured in the soul of the prophet by the need of his time

which broke through with irresistible power to the demand for a final

choice between Jehovah, the holy God, and the unholy nature gods of the

heathen.”--PFLEIDERER, _Religions and Historic Faiths_ (1907), pp. 225

f.

[352] _History of the People of Israel_ (1892), vol. ii, p. 275.

[353] Calamities were at this time befalling Israel. “The national

distress served to awaken Israel’s conscience. The obligation

covenanted at Sinai knocked again at the door of their hearts” (Budde,

_Religion of Israel to the Exile_ (1899), p. 93).

[354] Amos iii. 10.

[355] _Ibid._ v. 11, 12.

[356] _Ibid._ viii. 5, 6.

[357] _Ibid._ v. 21.

[358] _Ibid._ v. 22.

[359] _Ibid._ v. 24.

[360] Hosea vi. 6.

[361] To Amos and Hosea, Yahweh is simply the supreme god, the suzerain

of all other gods.

[362] Is. ii. 3, 4; cf. Micah iv. 1–3. See Driver, _Introduction to

the Literature of the Old Testament_ (1897), p. 229, for the opinion

of different commentators on the possible exilic or postexilic date of

these passages.

[363] Is. i. 11–17.

[364] Micah vi. 6–8.

[365] Wellhausen, _Prolegomena to the History of Israel_ (1885), p. 414.

[366] This festival was probably of Babylonian origin. It was

associated with astronomical phenomena--with the seven planets of

ancient astronomy and with the phases of the moon.

[367] The feast of Purim is another transformed festival; “Babylonian

in origin, it was given a Jewish dress and became incorporated into the

system of Jewish observances” (David Philipson, _The Reform Movement in

Judaism_ (1907), p. 3).

[368] Thus the festival of Dionysus, which “in its origin was a mere

burst of primitive animal spirits, is transmuted into a complex and

beautiful work of art” (Dickinson, _The Greek View of Life_, p. 14).

[369] Deut. vi. 14.

[370] Montefiori, _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion_

(1892), p. 197.

[371] _Prolegomena to the History of Israel_ (1885), p. 402. Renan

speaks of Deuteronomy in the same strain: “This Thora was the worst

enemy of the universal religion which the prophets of the eighth

century had in their dreams” (_History of the People of Israel_ (1891),

vol. iii, p. 175).

[372] Cf. Chapter XVI. The persecutions of the medieval Church were

largely the outcome of this legislation which made the extermination

of God’s enemies, that is, idolators and misbelievers, a pious duty.

“The terrible _Directorium Inquisitorum_ of Nicholas Eymeric follows

Deuteronomy word for word” (Renan, _History of the people of Israel_

(1891), vol. iii, p. 179).

[373] Deut. xx. 16.

[374] _Ibid._ vii. 2.

[375] _Jewish Religious Life after the Exile_ (1898), p. 45. The

teachings of this same intolerant monolatry has, down to the

present day, exerted a retarding influence upon the development of

international morality, especially upon the war ethics of the Christian

nations.

[376] We meet with the same phenomenon in medieval times. The Christian

Church, which was so harsh in its dealings with misbelievers, was a

tender mother toward the poor and the afflicted of the faith.

[377] The origin of these cities may date from a much earlier time than

the reform under King Josiah. The code may simply register changes

already effected in the customary law. See Nathaniel Schmidt, _The

Prophet of Nazareth_ (1905), p. 61.

[378] Deut. iv. 41, 42; xix. 1–13.

[379] Deut. xv. 7, 8.

[380] _Ibid._ xxiv. 6.

[381] _Ibid._ xxiv. 12, 13.

[382] _Ibid._ xxiv. 17.

[383] _Ibid._ xxiv. 14, 15.

[384] _Ibid._ xxiii. 19, 20. Cf. Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilization_,

p. 760. The poor in these early times were, in all the lands advancing

in civilization, literally devoured by the money lenders.

[385] Deut. xxiv. 19.

[386] Ruth ii. 4–17.

[387] Deut. v. 14, 15.

[388] _Ibid._ xv. 12.

[389] _Ibid._ xv. 13, 14.

[390] All these regulations respecting slaves, however, lack

universalism. It is compassion for the slave not as a man, but as a

Hebrew, that moves the legislator. The laws are in general for the

benefit of Hebrew slaves alone. Gentiles or foreigners are not included

in these humane provisions. See Lev. xxv and Ex. xxi. 2.

[391] See Is. xl-lxvi.

[392] “Deutero-Isaiah was the first to emphasize and make use of this

plenary and unconditional monotheism.”--MONTEFIORI, _Lectures on the

Origin and Growth of Religion_ (1892), p. 269.

[393] Is. xliii. 10.

[394] _Ibid._ xliv. 6.

[395] _Ibid._ xliv. 24.

[396] _Ibid._ xlv. 5.

[397] _Ibid._ xlvi. 9.

[398] There is a repetition of this in the _Koran_, where the Prophet

of Arabia speaks as one to whom the idea of the unity of deity had come

as a new thought.

[399] W. Robertson Smith, _The Religion of the Semites_ (1894), p. 81.

[400] See above, pp. 18–20.

[401] “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of

the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of

them that hate me.”--Deut. v. 9.

[402] Ezek. xviii. 2.

[403] _Ibid._ xviii. 3.

[404] Ezek. xviii. 20. The entire chapter is devoted to this single

subject. This truer view had dawned upon the compilers of the

Deuteronomic code. Cf. Deut. xxiv. 16 and Jer. xxxi. 29, 30.

[405] See below, p. 364.

[406] See lii. 13-liii. 12.

[407] Cf. Bennett, _The Religion of the Post-Exilic Prophets_ (1907),

pp. 326 ff.

[408] In the year 539 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, having captured

Babylon, issued a decree giving the Jewish exiles in Babylonia

permission to return to their own land and to rebuild the Temple

destroyed fifty years before by Nebuchadnezzar. A band returned and

set themselves to the task of restoring their houses and rebuilding

the Temple. After many interruptions and long delay the building was

finished and dedicated anew to the worship of Yahweh (516 B.C.).

[409] “The growth of Judaism and the Judaic veneration for the law,

after Ezra’s reformation, shows some marked resemblances to the growth

in post-Reformation Protestant theology of the legal conception of

salvation, and particularly the tendency to formalize and almost to

deify the literal inspiration and authority of the Scriptures.”--NEWMAN

SMYTH, _Christian Ethics_ (1892), p. 95.

[410] For life under the law consult Schürer, _History of the Jewish

People_, division ii, vol. ii, pp. 90 ff.

[411] Matt. xxiii. 23.

[412] _Ibid._ xv. 11, 20. “The identification of morality with ritual

in his [Jesus’] day had confused the issue before human life much as

that issue is now confused by the identification of morality with

opinion” (Hall, _History of Ethics within Organized Christianity_

(1910), p. 62).

[413] Ps. cxxxvii. 9; see Ps. cix.

[414] On this subject see Toy, _Judaism and Christianity_ (1891), pp.

246 ff.

[415] “The people had learned to draw nigh to God without the aid of

sacrifice.”--W. ROBERTSON SMITH, _The Religion of the Semites_ (1894),

p. 215.

[416] Cf. Mark i. 21; vi. 2.

[417] Renan, _History of the People of Israel_ (1895), vol. iv, p. 195.

[418] Consult on this subject Charles, _A Critical History of the

Doctrine of a Future Life_ (1898–1899).

[419] See above, pp. 139 f.

[420] See Cheyne, _Jewish Religious Life after the Exile_ (1898), p.

229; and Toy, _Judaism and Christianity_ (1891), pp. 378, 386.

[421] Ps. xvi. 10, Rev. Ver.

[422]

“I know without me God cannot a moment live;

If I to death should go, He, too, would death receive.”

Quoted by BLOW, _A Study of Dante_ (1887), p. 102.

[423] Cf. above, p. 44; see also Toy, _Judaism and Christianity_

(1891), p. 387; Hall, _History of Ethics within Organized Christianity_

(1910), p. 216.

[424] The Pharisees; cf. Acts xxiii. 6–8.

[425] We see a repetition of all this in what is going on to-day

among the Jews in the great cities of the New World. Liberal Judaism

is largely the outcome of just such influences as brought forth

Christianity out of the narrow ritual Judaism of the Alexandrian Age.

See David Philipson, _The Reform Movement in Judaism_ (1907), chap. xii.

[426] “Those psalms into which a sense of something like the

brotherhood of nations begins to penetrate are for various reasons

later than 382 B.C.... Not till the coming of the Macedonian reconciler

of East and West could there be a presentiment of the truth of the

divine education, not only of Israel, but of the human race.”--CHEYNE,

_Jewish Religious Life after the Exile_ (1898), pp. 134 f.

[427] To Hillel is credited the maxim, “What thou wouldst not have

another do to thee, do not thou to another.”

[428] The teaching of the Orphic sects that there are two elements,

one good and another bad, in man’s nature, was an esoteric doctrine

which had no influence on the popular mind and conscience. Cf. G. Lowes

Dickinson, _The Greek View of Life_, 6th ed., pp. 31 f.

[429] There are, it is true, gods of the lower world unfriendly to

man, but there is nothing in the Greek world-view corresponding to

the Egyptian conception of the struggle between the good Osiris and

the wicked Set, or of the Persian idea of the conflict between the

beneficent Ahura Mazda and the evil-working Ahriman. Nor was there

anything in this view like the Babylonian or Persian notion of

malicious spirits.

[430] The Dionysian cult fostered art, but not directly morality. In so

far as the Attic drama was an elevating moral influence, the cult may

be said to have indirectly promoted morals. But the foreign orgiastic

god had to be thoroughly converted before he could strengthen others.

[431] The pre-Hellenic Oriental cult of Aphrodite had undoubtedly an

unfavorable influence on morality. “Some part of this evil character

[was] transplanted into Greek legend, but very little into Greek

worship.... What we know is that until the declining period of Greek

history the cult of Aphrodite, so far as it appears in written or

monumental record, was as pure and austere as that of Zeus and Athena”

(Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. ii, pp. 657,

663).

[432] Cf. Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. i, S. 165.

[433] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. i, p. 74,

quoting Charondas, the Sicilian legislator.

[434] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. iv, pp. 177

ff.

[435] Hatch, _The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the

Christian Church_, 2d ed., p. 292.

[436] _History of Greece_ (1900), pp. 320 f.

[437] _Thucyd._ i. 70.

[438] For an illuminating comparison of the Greek virtues of fortitude

and temperance with the corresponding Christian virtues, see T. H.

Green, _Prolegomena to Ethics_, 5th ed., pp. 304 ff.

[439] _Ethics_, iii. 10.

[440] “But let [each man] know,” says Plato, “how to choose the mean

and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as in him lies, not only

in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the way of

happiness” (_Republic_, tr. Jowett, x. 619).

[441] Socrates, it is true, taught that it is better to suffer wrong

than to do wrong, but he was here far in advance of the common Greek

conscience.

[442] Quoted by Taylor, _Ancient Ideals_ (1896), vol. i, p. 247.

[443] _Christian Ethics_ (1873), vol. i, p. 63.

[444] _The Greek View of Life_ (1909), p. 205.

[445] If we contrast the Greek conception of man’s nature with that of

certain systems of Christian theology, we shall better understand the

ethical value of such ideas and beliefs. On the occasion of a college

commencement one of the speakers, a stout upholder of the doctrines of

the fall of man, original sin, and the utter depravity of the natural

man, roundly denounced this injunction of Pindar’s. He said to the

young people who had chosen as their class motto, “Be what you are,”

that that was just what they ought not to be. He then went on to show

them that their nature was wholly corrupt, that all their natural

inclinations were toward evil continually, and that if they ever hoped

for salvation they must become what they were not.

[446] “Aristotle may be almost said to have made the difference between

Greek and barbarian the basis of his moral code.”--LECKY, _History of

European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 200.

[447] _Politics_, i. 7, sec. 5; 8, sec. 12; vii. 14, sec. 21.

[448] For the ethics of Greek slavery consult Schmidt, _Die Ethik der

alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. ii, S. 203–219.

[449] Thebes, but not from moral scruples seemingly, prohibited under

the penalty of death the destruction of healthy infants.

[450] The reader of Plato will recall how Socrates uses this practice

of the exposition of infants to illustrate his art of bringing to birth

true and false ideas (“lies and shadows”) in the minds of his pupils,

and exposing to die those that are vain shadows. See his _Dialogues_,

tr. Jowett, vol. iii, pp. 350 f.

[451] The practice of the exposition of female infants in the

Hellenistic Age, when luxury increased and children became a burden,

seems to have been more common than in earlier times.

[452] Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_ (1888), p. 120.

[453] _Politics_, vi. 4, sec. 12. This contempt for tradesmen and

laborers, generally speaking, continued through all periods of Greek

history. In some states, however, particularly in Athens, it underwent

modification. “The later Athenians began to consider trade an honorable

road to riches, and aristocrats like Nicias were known as careful trade

masters.” In Rhodes, also, trade became honorable.

[454] Paulsen, _System of Ethics_, tr. Thilly, p. 62 n.

[455] _Laws_, tr. Jowett, xi. 919.

[456] They were charged with adulteration of foods, cheating in

measure, etc. Demosthenes declares that a man honest in commercial

transactions was a prodigy. Cf. Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_

(1888), p. 419.

[457] See above, p. 89.

[458] This ethical feeling is to be reckoned with in dealing with

Asiatics--until there is a change in their ideal of manliness. The

overlooking of an injury is apt to be regarded by them as an indication

of weakness and cowardice.

[459] Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. ii, S. 312.

[460] _Herod._ vi. 24. The Delphian oracle tried to cure this defect in

the national character. See the story of Glaucus, _Herod._ vi. 86.

[461] _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. ii, S. 413.

[462] _Ethics_, tr. Welldon, i. 4.

[463] _Ethics: the Facts of the Moral Life_ (1908), p. 95.

[464] _Od._ xix. 396–398.

[465] _Thucyd._ i. 5.

[466] _Il._ xxii. 485–499.

[467] See Xen. _Mem._ ii. 1, 21, for the parable, by the Sophist

Prodicus, of the choice of Heracles at the parting of the ways.

[468] _The Republic_, iii. 386–392.

[469] See above, p. 35.

[470] “The blessed islands of the West were indeed even then [in the

Homeric Age] a home for the dead, but they had not yet been opened

to moral worth, as in the days of Pindar.”--MAHAFFY, _Social Life in

Greece_ (1888), p. 26.

[471] See Zeller, _History of Philosophy_ (1881), vol. i, p. 125, and

Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. i, S. 99. “Strictly

speaking,” says Professor Seymour, “Homer knows of no instance of

rewards, and of only one case of punishment after death” (_Life in the

Homeric Age_ (1908), p. 469).

[472] For the Greek view of the underworld, and the incoming of the

idea of rewards and punishments in the after life, see Schmidt, _Die

Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. i, S. 97 ff., and Rhode, _Psyche:

Seelencult und Unsterblichkeits Glaube der Griechen_, 4te Auflage, Bd.

i, S. 301–319.

[473] This moralization of Hades is carried still further by Vergil. It

is instructive to compare his vision of Hades with Homer’s.

[474] _Republic_, x. 614–616; see also _Gorgias_, 523–527.

[475] _Herod._ i. 30–32. But Nemesis appears later in the story, and

Crœsus is represented as being punished for the crime of an ancestor.

[476] _Ibid._ vii. 10. The views which the historian here attributes to

the Persian Artabanus were of course a reflection of Greek belief. For

further instances in Greek literature of the conception of the envy of

the gods, consult Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd.

i, S. 78–84.

[477] _Thucyd._ vii. 77.

[478] _Pericles_ (1890), p. 312.

[479] “The very event [the Persian war] which determined the sudden

splendor of the drama gave a sublime and terrific sanction to the

already existing morality.”--SYMONDS, _Studies of the Greek Poets_

(1880), vol. ii, p. 17.

[480] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. i, p. 129.

After the tale had been moralized by Æschylus, Phidias carved the story

on the great Zeus throne at Olympia, using it to give emphasis to the

conception of the god as the guardian of the moral order of the world.

[481] _Thucyd._ v. 84–116.

[482] The attitude of the later philosophers toward the notion that the

gods are envious is fairly represented by Plato’s protest: “He [the

Creator] is good, and no goodness can have any jealousy of anything”

(_Timæus_, tr. Jowett, 29).

[483] “The dispensation which takes the aspect of divine envy to

mortals might, it seems, from a higher point of view, be discerned

as the very opposite; human vicissitude is the result of a divine

love anxious to share the true blessedness which comes in the form of

sorrow.”--WEDGWOOD, _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 112.

[484] Taylor, _Ancient Ideals_ (1896), vol. i, p. 227.

[485] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1891), vol. i, p. 129.

[486] _Republic_, tr. Jowett, x. 613.

[487] See James Adam, _The Vitality of Platonism_ (1911), chap. v,

“Ancient Greek Views of Suffering and Evil.”

[488] When we contrast with this Sophocles’ treatment of the same theme

in _Antigone_ we realize how great an advance during the interval the

Greeks had made in humanitarian feeling.

[489] See _Thucyd._ iii. 53–59.

[490] The Spartan admiral Callicratides (the successor of Lysander,

406 B.C.) refused to sell his Greek prisoners of war as slaves, but he

stood almost or quite alone in this. See Xen. _Hellen._ i. 6, 14.

[491] Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_ (1888), p. 235.

[492] The war brought into fearful exaggeration the salient weakness of

Greek morality. The most reprehensible moral faults of the Greeks were

the outgrowth of political factions and cabals, of party jealousies and

rivalries in the close quarters of city walls. These faults were lifted

into the most savage passions by the war. Thucydides in a memorable

passage (iii. 82) draws a striking picture of the disastrous moral

effects of the prolonged quarrel.

[493] See above, p. 180.

[494] _Republic_, v. 469–471.

[495] Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), vol. i, p. 267; see also

A. Ræder, _L’Arbitrage international chez les Hellenes_ (1912).

[496] _Études sur l’histoire de humanité_ (1880), t. ii, p. 105.

Because of its long exemption from the ravages of war, Elis was more

populous and wealthy than any other district of the Peloponnesus

(_Polyb._ iv. 73, 74). The contrast presented by Greece in general

constituted an impressive commentary on the fatal consequences for

Greek civilization of the war system. Speaking of the depopulation

which incessant wars had caused over almost all the world he knew,

Plutarch says of Greece, a land once “strong in cities,” that the whole

country could raise barely three thousand men, the same number that the

single city of Megara sent to Platæa at the time of the Persian war

(_Philosophical Essays_, “On the Cessation of Oracles,” sec. viii).

[497] See above, p. 18.

[498] “Really to see the good and to know it as such, yet not to love

and pursue it, is impossible; the vision carries with it its own

persuasion and authority.”--MARTINEAU, _Types of Ethical Theory_, 3d

ed., vol. i, p. 74. “Mere school and word knowledge, of course, is

powerless, but real knowledge, knowledge that represents real personal

conviction, cannot fail to influence life.”--PAULSEN, _System of

Ethics_, tr. Thilly (1906), p. 62.

[499] “There are few men whose minds are not more or less in

that state of sham knowledge against which Socrates made war;

there is no man whose notions have not been first got together by

spontaneous, unexamined, unconscious, uncertified association--resting

upon forgotten particulars, blending together disparities or

inconsistencies, and leaving in his mind old and familiar phrases

and oracular propositions, of which he has never rendered to himself

account; there is no man, who, if he be destined for vigorous and

profitable scientific effort, has not found it a necessary branch of

self-education to break up, disentangle, analyse, and reconstruct

this ancient mental compound, and who has not been driven to it by

his own lame and solitary efforts, since the giant of the colloquial

Elenchus no longer stands in the market place to lend him help and

stimulus.”--GROTE, _History of Greece_ (1888), vol. vii, pp. 168 f.

[500] Quoted by Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. ii,

S. 396.

[501] “His [Socrates’] significancy for moral philosophy lies in

his calling attention to _rational_ knowledge as the source of the

moral.”--WUTTKE, _Christian Ethics_ (1873), vol. i, p. 69.

[502] _Histoire des théories et des idées morales dans l’antiquité_

(1879), t. i, pp. 125 f.

[503] Cf. _Gorgias_, 478, 479.

[504] _Laws_, tr. Jowett, xi. 913. Plato saw what the

socialist-philosopher Lloyd saw when he wrote, “More searching ... than

the Golden Rule is that which commands us to inquire if what we desire

for ourselves and others is a right desire” (_Man the Social Creator_

(1906), p. 147).

[505] In the _Republic_ Plato reaches the conception of a Greek

brotherhood, but beyond this he never advanced.

[506] Xen. _Mem._ ii. 6, 35.

[507] _Politics_, i. 7, sec. 5; 8, sec. 12; vii. 2, sec. 15; 14, sec.

21.

[508] _Histoire des théories et des idées morales dans l’antiquité_

(1879), t. i, p. 228.

[509] “A moral ideal which was not coextensive with the whole spiritual

nature of man was taken by the schoolmen from the Aristotelian ethics,

and then the so-called religious virtues were more or less cumbrously

and precariously built upon it. Supernaturalism in morals was added to

the classic naturalism as a divine appendix to ethics.”--NEWMAN SMYTH,

_Christian Ethics_ (1892), p. 133.

[510] The downfall of the institutions of the free city state was to

Greek morality what the downfall of the papal Church would have been to

the morality of the medieval ages.

[511] Philopœman and Aratus.

[512] This ascetic tendency in Stoicism is doubtless to be attributed

to the influence of the Orient upon Greek life and thought.

[513] Consistently so, since only through self-control and the

avoidance of all excesses of passion, appetite, and desires can one

maintain that tranquillity of mind which is the condition precedent of

happiness.

[514] Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 228.

[515] Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_, p. 264. The author contrasts

this humaneness of the laws of the Athenian democracy four centuries

before Christ with the atrocious cruelty of the criminal laws of

Christian Europe down almost to the nineteenth century.

[516] _Social Life in Greece_ (1888), p. 269.

[517] _Ibid._ p. 554.

[518] The Apostle Paul at Athens, seeking common ground with his

hearers for the doctrine he preached that God hath made of one blood

all nations of men, finds it in the familiar line of the Stoic

Cleanthes--“We are the offspring of God.”

[519] Plutarch died about 40 A.D.

[520] “From contact with the Greeks, therefore, Christianity obtained

this support, that an ideal long known to the Western world, the Stoic

ideal, was found to correspond with it, so that the preaching of the

Apostles was in this respect not out of harmony with the wants and

aspirations of the higher and better minds of the age.”--MAHAFFY,

_Progress of Hellenism in Alexander’s Empire_ (1905), p. 146.

[521] “The essential oneness of human moral experience has shown itself

in the ethical results achieved by these various peoples.”--TOY,

_Judaism and Christianity_ (1891), p. 337.

[522] Coulanges, _The Ancient City_, ii, 9.

[523] The authority of the father over each and every member of the

family was legally absolute, extending to life and death. Not until

late in the Empire did the law forbid fathers to kill their grown-up

children or to sell them as slaves. Cf. McKenzie, _Studies in Roman

Law_, 6th ed., p. 141; and Sohm, _Institutes_ (1901), p. 53.

[524] Inge, _Society in Rome under the Cæsars_ (1888), p. 8.

[525] This Roman virtue of obedience to the state has been just such

an enduring force in the moral life of the Christian world as has

the Jewish virtue of obedience to a revealed law (see Chapter IX).

Historically regarded, the Protestant Church, which makes obedience

to a written revealed law a necessary virtue, is the inheritor of the

ethical feeling and conviction of ancient Israel; while the Roman

Catholic Church, which makes submission to ecclesiastical authority an

indispensable virtue, is the inheritor of the ethical tradition and

spirit of ancient Rome. See H. M. Gwatkin (co-author), _Early Ideals of

Righteousness_ (1910), pp. 71 ff.

[526] Tacitus, _Annals_, iii. 16, 17.

[527] This legal subjection of the son to the father, while it

developed and strengthened the virtue of obedience, seemed to deaden

filial _affection_. “Of all the forms of virtue,” says Lecky, “filial

affection is perhaps that which appears most rarely in Roman history”

(_History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 299).

[528] _De Off._ i. 17.

[529] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, pp. 177 f.

[530] See p. 245, on the ethics of persecution.

[531] _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 148.

[532] Cf. Chapter XVIII.

[533] The citizen army, which had been the seed plot of those heroic

virtues that cast such a halo around the earlier history of Rome, had

been replaced by a mercenary force in which only the coarser military

virtues could find sphere for exercise.

[534] “The unchecked power of the master ... produced those cold hearts

which gloated over the agony of gallant men in the arena.”--DILL,

_Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (1904), p. 12.

[535] Friedlander, _Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms_

(1888), Bd. i, S. 479–481; English ed., _Roman Life and Manners under

the Early Empire_, vol. i, pp. 243 f.

[536] “The senator was forbidden down to the last age of the empire,

both by law and sentiment, to increase his fortune by commerce.”--DILL,

_Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, p. 102.

[537] _De Off._ i. 42.

[538] Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 271.

[539] Friedlander, _Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms_

(1889), Bd. ii, S. 414; English ed., _Roman Life and Manners under the

Early Empire_, vol. ii, p. 77.

[540] “The unusual enthusiasm for the shows is expressed in many a rude

sketch which has been traced by boyish hands upon the walls.”--DILL,

_Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, p. 238.

[541] In an eloquent passage Lecky thus sums up the demoralizing

effects of the spectacles: “Those hateful games, which made the

spectacle of human suffering and death the delight of all classes, had

spread their brutalising influence wherever the Roman name was known,

had rendered millions absolutely indifferent to the sight of human

suffering, had produced in many, in the very centre of an advanced

civilization, a relish and a passion for torture, a rapture and an

exultation in watching the spasms of extreme agony, such as an African

or an American savage alone can equal”. (_History of European Morals_,

3d ed., vol. i, p. 467).

[542] The period which witnessed the greatest inequality of fortunes

was the last century of the Republic and the first of the Empire.

[543] It should be borne in mind that the clients of this period were

wholly different from the clients of the earlier times. The relations

of the early clients to their patrons were those of clansmen to their

chief; the relations of these later clients to their patrons were the

degrading relations of idle, needy dependents to newly rich men without

family traditions and socially and morally wholly unfit for their

elevation.

[544] _The History of Rome_ (1888), vol. ii, p. 524.

[545] “The deepest feeling of Tacitus about the early Empire seems

to have been that it was fatal to character both in prince and

subject.”--DILL, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, p. 29.

[546] _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 204.

[547] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, pp. 332 ff.

[548] _Ibid._ 3d ed., vol. i, p. 227.

[549] “Men ceased to be adventurous, patriotic, just, magnanimous;

but in exchange they became chaste, tender-hearted, loyal, religious,

and capable of infinite endurance in a good cause.”--SEELEY, _Roman

Imperialism_ (1889), p. 33.

[550] _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 187.

[551] About 40–120 A.D.

[552] Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, p. 64.

[553] Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, pp. 231 f.

[554] Cf. _Ibid._ p. 232.

[555] Stoicism is second only to Christianity as a moral force in

European civilization. “One of the most important expressions of the

moral sense for all time,” affirms Professor Clifford, “is that of the

Stoic philosophy, especially after its reception among the Romans”

(_Lectures and Essays_ (1901), vol. ii, p. 108). Mahaffy declares that

the Stoic philosophy, “above all the human influences we know, purified

and ennobled the world” (_The Silver Age_ (1906), p. 103). Denis thinks

that it was through Stoicism that Rome did most for civilization

(_Histoire des théories et des idées morales dans l’antiquité_ (1879),

t. ii, p. 5).

[556] Taken from Menander.

[557] “One of the most emphatic as well as one of the earliest extant

assertions of the duty of charity to the human race occurs in the

treatise of Cicero upon duties.”--LECKY, _History of European Morals_,

3d ed., vol. i, p. 240.

[558] _De Off._ iii. 5.

[559] _Ibid._ iii. xi.

[560] _Ibid._ i. 16.

[561] _De Finibus_, v. 23.

[562] _Meditations_, vi. 44. This and the following citations are from

Long’s translation, 2d ed.

[563] _Ibid._ iv. 23. The moral element in the conception of the

universal city must not be overlooked. There was implied in it the

idea of universal brotherhood, of the ethical oneness of mankind. The

creation and promulgation of this conception was one of the great

services which Stoicism rendered to civilization.

[564] _Ibid._ iii. 4.

[565] _Ibid._ viii. 59.

[566] This subject is dealt with by Lecky, _History of European

Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, pp. 295 ff.; Bryce, _Studies in History and

Jurisprudence_, vol. ii, essay xi, “The Law of Nature.”

[567] Bryce, _Studies in History and Jurisprudence_ (1901), vol. ii, p.

143.

[568] Sophocles, _Antigone_.

[569] Commenting on the consequences of the inspiration of Roman law

by this doctrine of Stoicism, Lecky says: “To the Stoics and the Roman

lawyers is mainly due the clear recognition of the existence of a

law of nature above and beyond all human enactments, which has been

the basis of the best moral and of the most influential, though most

chimerical, political speculations of later ages, and the renewed study

of Roman law was an important element in the revival that preceded the

Reformation” (_History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 297).

[570] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 129. Lecky

instances (vol. i, p. 292) three ways in which Stoicism worked for good

in the Empire: (1) it raised up good emperors; (2) it led men to engage

in the public service; and (3) it rendered the law more catholic and

humane.

[571] Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (1904), p. 376.

[572] “In the Stoic emperors ... we find probably the earliest

example of great moral principles applied to legislation on a large

scale.”--CLIFFORD, _Lectures and Essays_, vol. ii, p. 108.

[573] Public feeling in regard to the exercise of the _patria potestas_

had been slowly changing during the centuries. Seneca relates (_De

Clem._ i. 14) how within his memory the people furiously assaulted in

the Forum a certain knight because he had whipped his son to death.

[574] “The alleviations of slavery by the imperial law are essentially

traceable to the influence of the Greek view.”--MOMMSEN, _Roman

Provinces_ (1887), vol. i, p. 296.

[575] “The majority of the free population had probably either

themselves been slaves, or were descended from slaves.”--LECKY,

_History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 237.

[576] Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (1904), p. 3.

[577] Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 312.

[578] _De Clem._ i. 18.

[579] Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv. 42–45.

[580] Manumissions were frequent even in Seneca’s time. Pliny the

Elder was a kind master, regarded his slaves as “humble friends,” and

manumitted many of them.

[581] The client class of the imperial period was made up almost wholly

of freedmen.

[582] It is surprising that while in the Stoic and other schools there

was, during these centuries, great advance in theoretical ethics in

various domains, in that of war there was no essential modification of

the views and feelings of the teachers and leaders of moral reforms.

In the whole range of Roman literature and philosophy there are to be

found scarcely any expressions of disapproval of war. The attitude of

the Roman moralists in this matter appears to have been altogether

like that of the Greek philosophers. The right to wage war for empire

and for glory was taught even by Cicero, only such wars, he insisted,

should be waged more gently than wars to recover property, to punish

insult, or to avenge a wrong (_De Off._ i. 12).

[583] For the ethics of Christian persecution, see below, p. 324.

[584] See on this subject Fiske, _Excursions of an Evolutionist_

(1883), pp. 238 ff.; Hardy, _Christianity and the Roman Government_

(1894), p. 17; Pollock, _Essays in Jurisprudence and Ethics_ (1882), p.

147.

[585] Besides this main motive of the persecutions there were these

minor ones: (1) The teachings and practices of the new sect offended

the prevailing spirit of luxury and sensuality; (2) families were

divided; (3) the business of many, as that of the silversmiths of

Ephesus, was threatened (Acts xix. 24–41); and (4) fear on the part

of the government of the danger from the growth of such a strong

semi-secret organization as the Church was becoming within the Empire

(Hardy, _Christianity and the Roman Government_ (1894), p. 165).

[586] “Upon the approach of Christianity humanity took a consciousness

more alert and sensitive, and during the first three centuries of

our era all the ideas, all the sentiments which constitute morality

developed on parallel lines and with remarkable force in the growing

Church and in expiring paganism.”--DENIS, _Histoire des théories et des

idées morales dans l’antiquité_ (1879), t. ii, p. 145.

[587] _De Off._ i. 25.

[588] _Meditations_, xi. 18.

[589] _Ibid._ vii. 36.

[590] _Ibid._ ix. 9; cf. vi. 47.

[591] _Ibid._ vi. 6.

[592] _Fragments_, tr. Long, lxviii; cf. lxvii.

[593] _Meditations_, iii. 4.

[594] _De Prov._ i. 1.

[595] _Meditations_, x. 21.

[596] _Ibid._ ii. 11.

[597] _Ibid._ xii. 5.

[598] _Ibid._ ii. 17.

[599] Arrian, _Epict._ ii. 14; quoted by Lecky, _History of European

Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 246.

[600] _Meditations_, vii. 31.

[601] _Ethical Essays_, v, “On those who are punished by the Deity

late.”

[602] _De Off._ ii. 14.

[603] _Ibid._ ii. 5.

[604] _Ibid._ i. 7.

[605] _Ibid._ iii. 6.

[606] _Ibid._ iii. 4. Compare this expression of the ancient Greek and

Roman moral consciousness with that of the modern Japanese (see p. 86).

[607] _Ibid._ ii. 12.

[608] _De Clem._ ii. 6. The trouble with this philosophy, as has been

said, is that if one does not feel pity for the sufferings of others he

will not be likely to help them.

[609] Cicero, however, denied the right of self-destruction, and Vergil

mildly censured the act. See _Æneid_, vi. 434.

[610] _Discourses_, i. 9.

[611] _Meditations_, v. 29.

[612] _Ep._ lxx; quoted by Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed.,

vol. i, p. 218.

[613] _De Prov._ i. 2.

[614] Zeno, the founder of the school, and Cato, its exemplifier in

active life, both committed suicide.

[615] Compare the views on this subject of the ancient classical

peoples with those of the modern Japanese (see p. 85 and p. 86 n. 1.).

[616] Glover, _The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire_, 3d

ed. (1909), p. 67.

[617] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 324.

[618] Paulsen, _A System of Ethics_, tr. Thilly (1906), pp. 111 f.

[619] The cult of Isis when introduced into the Western lands favored

illicit love, but by the second century of our era it had, in its new

environment, become so far transformed as to be a true moral force in

society. “Sacrament and mystery lent their aid to fortify the worshiper

[of Isis] in the face of death, but, to derive their full virtue,

he must exercise himself in temperance, abjure the pleasures of the

senses, and purify himself for the vision of God” (Dill, _Roman Society

from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (1904), p. 583).

[620] On this subject see Franz Cumont, _Les Mystères de Mithra_

(1892); English ed., _The Mysteries of Mithra_, tr. McCormack.

[621] “It [Mithraism] is perhaps the highest and most striking example

of the last efforts of paganism to reconcile itself to the great moral

and spiritual movement which was settling steadily, and with growing

momentum, toward purer conceptions of God, of man’s relations to Him,

and of the life to come.”--DILL, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus

Aurelius_, p. 585.

[622] “On peut dire que, si le christianisme eût été arrêté dans

sa croissance par quelque maladie mortelle, le monde eût été

Mithriaste.”--RENAN, _Marc-Aurèle_, 5^{me} ed., p. 579.

[623] “Isis and Serapis and Mithra were preparing the Western world for

the religion which was to approve the long travail of humanity by a

more perfect vision of the divine.”--DILL, _Roman Society from Nero to

Marcus Aurelius_ (1904), p. 574.

[624] Acts xvii. 29.

[625] New to the multitude. Some of the Stoic philosophers, as we have

seen, held and taught this doctrine.

[626] The Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, and some Oriental cults,

particularly that of Mithra, imported into the Roman Empire, made the

participation in a blessed life beyond the grave dependent upon moral

purity of life on earth and through this doctrine exercised a favorable

influence upon morality (see p. 254).

[627] This thought and conviction of the immortality of the individual

was, it is possible, in part the outcome of the decay of the ancient

city, whose fancied eternity had satisfied for a time the instinct of

immortality. But when some centuries had passed, the “Romans sailed

round the Mediterranean and recognized that the cities of the past were

not eternal, and with the same waft of conviction came a compensating

belief that eternity was the heritage of every son of man. Immortality

arose on the horizon of the man, as its last glow faded from the city”

(Wedgwood, _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 341). It was the same in

Judea; as immortality faded from the political horizon of Israel, it

arose on that of the individual soul.

[628] Though the account of the fall of man forms the prelude of the

Hebrew Scriptures, the conception never influenced to an appreciable

degree pre-Christian ethics.

[629] See Schmidt, _The Prophet of Nazareth_ (1905), p. 322.

[630] “L’humanité cherche l’idéal; mais elle veut que l’idéal soit une

personne; elle n’aime pas une abstraction.”--RENAN, _Marc-Aurèle_,

5^{me} ed., p. 582.

[631] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 8.

[632] On this subject consult Hatch, _The Influence of Greek Ideas

and Usages upon the Christian Church_ (1888), lect. xii, “The

Transformation of the Basis of Christian Union: Doctrine in the Place

of Conduct.”

[633] “After the middle of the third century, ... Christianity may be

just as truly called a Hellenic religion as an Oriental.”--HARNACK,

_The Expansion of Christianity_ (1904), vol. i, pp. 393 f.

[634] The change of emphasis from moral life to correct doctrine took

place during the last half of the second and the first half of the

third century. “Under the influence of contemporary Greek thought, the

word faith came to be transferred from simple trust in God to mean

the acceptance of a series of propositions, and these propositions,

propositions in abstract metaphysics” (Hatch, _The Influence of Greek

Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church_ (1888), p. 310).

[635] The Athanasian Creed, which by the end of the ninth century

was in use in the churches of the West as an authoritative symbol

and exposition of the Roman Catholic faith, says, “Whosoever will be

saved, before all things, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic

faith, which faith, except every one who do keep entire and unviolated,

without doubt he shall perish everlastingly” (Philip Schaff,

_Bibliotheca Symbolica Ecclesiae Universalis_, vol. ii, p. 66).

[636] Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 68.

[637] “The virtues of the intellect, freedom and boldness of

thought and the power to doubt, the vital principle of scientific

research, are, in the eyes of primitive Christianity, worthless and

dangerous.”--PAULSEN, _A System of Ethics_, tr. Thilly (1906), p. 68.

[638] Cf. Harnack, _The Expansion of Christianity_ (1904), vol. i,

chap. v, “The Religion of Authority and Reason.”

[639] See Paulsen, _System of Ethics_, tr. Thilly (1906), bk. i, chap.

iii.

[640] The ascetic movement was a reaction not only against the moral

dissoluteness of pagan society, but also against the moral degeneracy

which, before the end of the third century, had set in within the

Christian community itself. The Church had become to a lamentable

degree conformed unto the world, and had lost much of that moral fervor

which characterized it during the first two centuries.

[641] Alban Butler, _The Lives of the Saints_ (the Fathers, Martyrs,

and other Principal Saints, compiled from monuments and other authentic

sources), 12 vols. (1854). Orig. ed. pub. 1754–1760.

[642] “If you do any good beyond what is commanded by God, you will

gain for yourself more abundant glory, and will be more honored by God

than you would otherwise be,” was the teaching of the Church respecting

the meritoriousness of ascetic practices. Cf. Newman Smyth, _Christian

Ethics_ (1892), p. 313.

[643] The “Dialogue” is of course a purely literary creation of some

monk. Oisin was not a contemporary of St. Patrick.

[644] J. H. Simpson, _Poems of Oisin_ (1857), pp. 42 ff. We have

reproduced only a small part of the poem.

[645] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 34.

[646] Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_

(1908), vol. ii, p. 252.

[647] Cf. Dante, _Inf._ xiii.

[648] See above, pp. 175, 215.

[649] Ireland was foremost in this missionary movement because she was

so given over to the monastic spirit. See Montalembert, _The Monks of

the West_ (1861), vol. ii, p. 397.

[650] According to Westermarck (_The Origin and Development of the

Moral Ideas_ (1906), vol. i, pp. 565–569) charity took the place of

sacrifice in the primitive cults, and for this reason became such a

prominent religious duty in all the higher faiths.

[651] Montalembert, _The Monks of the West_ (1861), vol. i, pp. 397 f.

[652] Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, pp. 86 ff.

[653] _The Moral Ideal_, 3d ed., p. 369.

[654] See above, p. 245.

[655] “The suppression of all religions but one by Theodosius, the

murder of Hypatia by the monks of Cyril, and the closing by Justinian

of the schools of Athens, are the three events which mark the decisive

overthrow of intellectual freedom.”--LECKY, _History of European

Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 428.

[656] See above, p. 6.

[657] _Physics and Politics_ (1873), pp. 70 f.

[658] “One may find ... the chief characteristic of the period of the

migrations in a complete uprooting of public morality, a universal

overturning of inherited conceptions of right and wrong.”--FRANCKE,

_Social Forces in German Literature_, 2d ed., p. 12.

[659] _Parliament of Religions_ (1893), vol. i, pp. 574 f.; consult

also Bryce, _Studies in History and Jurisprudence_ (1901), vol. ii, p.

237.

[660] _Qur’ân_, tr. Palmer (Sacred Books of the East, vols. vi, ix),

suras ii. 184–189, 212–215; iv. 90; viii. 40; ix. 5–14, 29; xlvii. 4,

and many others.

[661] _Ibid._ suras ii. 149; iii. 151; ix. 113.

[662] Sura xxiv. 33. The New Testament nowhere inculcates the

manumission of slaves, but the spirit of its teachings is opposed

to slavery, and the early Fathers of the Church encouraged the

emancipation of slaves.

[663] Sura iv. 3.

[664] Suras vi. 138, 141, 152; xvii. 33.

[665] Suras ii. 216; v. 93.

[666] R. Bosworth Smith, _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_ (1875), p. 204.

[667] Ameer Ali, _The Spirit of Islam_, 2d ed., p. 283.

[668] According to the principles of the Koran, though no Moslem

captive might be reduced to servitude, all non-Moslem prisoners could,

as spoils of war, be enslaved: “We make lawful for ye ... what thy

right hand possesses [slaves] out of the booty God has granted thee”

(sura xxxiii. 49).

[669] “The recognition of the slave traffic by Mohammedanism has been,

and is to this day, a curse to Africa and a source of disturbance to

the world’s politics.”--HOBHOUSE, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), vol. i,

p. 307.

[670] In an address. Cf. R. Bosworth Smith, _Mohammed and

Mohammedanism_ (1875), pp. 59 ff.

[671] Ameer Ali, _The Spirit of Islam_, 2d ed., p. 328. The author

maintains that Mohammed himself did not intend that his rules should be

binding for all time.

[672] This teaching is one which does not show itself as a generally

recognized principle in the pre-Christian centuries, as does the

principle of love, or self-devotion to the common good, or universal

benevolence. “Christianity at its inception did not take over this

moral principle, ready-made, from any of the older cults or cultures

from which the Christian movement was in a position to draw. It is not

found, at least in appreciable force, in the received Judaism; nor can

it be derived from the classical (Greco-Roman) cultures, which had none

of it” (Thorstein B. Veblen, “Christian Morals and the Competitive

System,” _The International Journal of Ethics_ for January, 1910).

[673] “Christian mores in the Western Empire were formed by syncretism

of Jewish and pagan mores. Christian mores therefore contain war,

slavery, concubinage, demonism, and base amusements, together

with some abstract ascetic doctrines with which these things are

inconsistent.”--SUMNER, _Folkways_ (1907), p. 116.

[674] For opinions of early Christian writers and the attitude of the

Church on the soldier’s profession and the rightfulness of war, see

Grotius, _Rights of War and Peace_, tr. Whewell, pp. 49 ff.

[675] Harnack, _The Expansion of Christianity_ (1904), vol. ii, p. 205.

[676] See above, p. 277.

[677] Throughout the medieval ages and down almost to our own day

these Old Testament records, misread, were used to justify many of the

cruelties of war, and other atrocities:

Plunder and pillage were supported by reference to the divinely

approved “spoiling of the Egyptians” by the Israelites. The right

to massacre unresisting enemies was based upon the command of the

Almighty to the Jews in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy. The

indiscriminate slaughter of whole populations was justified by a

reference to the divine command to slaughter the nations round

about Israel. Torture and mutilation of enemies was sanctioned

by the conduct of Samuel against Agag, of King David against the

Philistines, of the men of Judah against Adonibezek. Even the

slaughter of babes in arms was supported by a passage from the

Psalms, “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones

against the stones.” Treachery and assassination were supported

by a reference to the divinely approved Phinehas, Ehud, Judith,

and Jael; and murdering the ministers of unapproved religions, by

Elijah’s slaughter of the priests of Baal.--ANDREW D. WHITE, _Seven

Great Statesmen_ (1910), pp. 85 f.

[678] Lecky believes this to have been the main cause of the

transformation in the Church. “The transition,” he says, “from the

almost Quaker tenets of the primitive Church to the essentially

military Christianity of the Crusades was due chiefly ... to the terror

and the example of Mohammedanism” (_History of European Morals_, 3d

ed., vol. ii, p. 252). But, as we have seen, the transition was already

nearly complete before the rise of Islam.

[679] In a portrayal of the character of the Scandinavians, the Church

historian Schaff observes: “Their only enthusiasm was the feeling of

duty; but the direction which had been given to this feeling was so

absolutely opposed to that pointed out by the Christian morality, that

no reconciliation was possible” (_History of the Christian Church_,

vol. iv, p. 110). Yet in the important domain of ethics which we are

here examining this is exactly what did happen.

[680] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 253.

[681] Josiah Royce, _The Philosophy of Loyalty_ (1908).

[682] “So great, it is said, was the knights’ respect for an oath, a

promise, or a vow, that when they lay under any of these restrictions,

they appeared everywhere with little chains attached to their arms

or habits to show all the world they were slaves to their word; nor

were these chains taken off till their promise had been performed,

which sometimes extended to a term of four or five years. It cannot

be expected, of course, that reality should have always come up to

the ideal.”--WESTERMARCK, _The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_

(1908), vol. ii, p. 102.

[683] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 272.

[684] First printed in 1873, from MSS. compiled probably as early as

the twelfth or thirteenth century. There is an English translation by

Charles Swan (1877).

[685] “There can be little doubt,” says Lecky, “that the Catholic

reverence for the Virgin has done much to elevate and purify the ideal

of woman and soften the manners of men” (_History of European Morals_,

3d ed., vol. ii, p. 367). And so Professor Nathaniel Schmidt: “The

chivalry of the medieval knight from which our modern treatment of

woman so largely is derived cannot be regarded as solely a product of

Christianity, for it has a deep root in the dreamy reverence for woman

characteristic of our pagan ancestors. Yet it would not have become

what it was but for the veneration accorded to the Virgin Mary” (_The

Prophet of Nazareth_ (1905), p. 324).

[686] See Curtis M. Geer, _The Beginning of the Peace Movement_ (1912).

[687] Kluckhohn, _Geschichte des Gottesfriedens_ (1857), p. 38.

[688] This part of the week was chosen because these days had been

consecrated by Christ’s passion, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

[689] Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), vol. i, p. 314.

[690] The last instance of an arrangement for ransom of prisoners

was an agreement between England and France in 1780. See Hall,

_International Law_, 5th ed., p. 414, n. 1.

[691] One center of these reform movements was the celebrated French

monastery of Cluny. The influences which radiated from the cloisters of

this convent had a profound effect for centuries upon the moral life of

Christendom.

[692] See Sabatier, _Life of St. Francis of Assisi_.

[693] _History of the Inquisition_ (1887), vol. i, p. 266.

[694] “There was need of the exaggeration of self-sacrifice taught by

Francis to recall humanity to a sense of its obligations.... The value

of such an ideal on an age hard and cruel can scarce be exaggerated”

(Lea, _History of the Inquisition_ (1887), vol. i, pp. 260 f.). See

also Nathaniel Schmidt, _The Prophet of Nazareth_ (1905), p. 325.

[695] See above, p. 262.

[696] “Ethics on the basis of authority becomes a mere legal

casuistry.”--HALL, _The History of Ethics within Organized

Christianity_ (1910), pp. 296, 326.

[697] “But meanwhile by alternations of Hebraism and Hellenism, of a

man’s intellectual and moral impulses, of the effort to see things as

they really are, and the effort to win peace by self-conquest, the

human spirit proceeds; and each of these two forces has its appointed

hours of culmination and seasons of rule.”--MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Culture

and Anarchy_ (1875), p. 143.

[698] It must be borne in mind that the spirit of the Renaissance was

at work long before the Renaissance.

[699] In this there is substantial agreement among historians of the

Inquisition: consult Lea, _The Inquisition of the Middle Ages_ (1887),

vol. i, pp. 236 ff.; Lecky, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed.,

vol. i, pp. 98, 395 f.; Pollock, _Essays in Jurisprudence and Ethics_

(1882), essay vi, “The Theory of Persecution”; _Catholic Encyclopedia_,

vol. viii, article on “Inquisition.”

[700] “The case for theological persecution is unanswerable if we

admit the fundamental supposition that one faith is known to be true

and necessary for salvation.”--POLLOCK, _Essays in Jurisprudence and

Ethics_ (1882), p. 155.

[701] _Catholic Encyclopedia_, vol. viii, under “Inquisition.”

[702] Besides the doctrine of the criminality of misbelief, Lecky finds

a secondary cause of Christian persecution in the medieval teaching

respecting hell. That vision of the awful and eternal torments prepared

for misbelievers, he says, “chilled and deadened the sympathies and

predisposed men to inflict suffering” (_Rationalism in Europe_, new ed.

(1890), vol. i, p. 347).

[703] Lea, _History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages_ (1887), vol.

i, p. 234. “The representatives of the Church were children of their

own age.... Theologians and canonists, the highest and the saintliest,

stood by the code of their day and sought to explain and justify it”

(_Catholic Encyclopedia_, vol. viii, under “Inquisition”).

[704] “It was strange that one almost swooning with pain should have

said the gentlest-hearted and truest thing about human nature that has

ever been said since the world began.”--GERALD STANLEY LEE, “Business,

Goodness, and Imagination,” _Hibbert Journal_ for April, 1912, p. 651.

[705] On Machiavellism see _The Prince_, and introductions to different

editions by Macaulay, Lord Acton, and Henry Morley; Figgis, _Studies

of Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius_ (1907), pp. 81–107; John

Morley, _Machiavelli_ (Romanes Lecture for 1897).

[706] It should be borne in mind that in Machiavelli’s age politics had

been secularized, that is, divorced from theology, and this with the

approval of most men. Machiavelli would now go farther and separate

politics and morality. This is Lord Morley’s interpretation of _The

Prince_. He thinks we shall best understand Machiavelli, yet without

for a moment approving his teaching, “if we take him as following up

the divorce of politics from theology, by a divorce from ethics also.

He was laying down certain maxims of government as an art; the end of

that art is the security and permanence of the ruling power; and the

fundamental principle from which he silently started, without shadow

of doubt or misgiving as to its soundness, was that the application

of moral standards to this business is as little to the point as it

would be in the navigation of a ship. The effect was fatal even for his

own purpose, for what he put aside, whether for the sake of argument

or because he thought them in substance irrelevant, were nothing less

than the living forces by which societies subsist and governments are

strong” (_Machiavelli_, Romanes Lecture for 1897).

[707] “Catherine de Medici, Philip II, Alva, Des Adrets, Tilly,

Wallenstein were simply incarnations of the Machiavellian theories

which ruled this period.”--ANDREW D. WHITE, _Seven Great Statesmen_

(1910), pp. 86 f.

[708] Castiglione, _The Book of the Courtier_ (1903), p. 22.

[709] _Ibid._ p. 25.

[710] Special emphasis was laid upon this virtue of courtesy in the

ideal of courtliness. And rightly so, for, as has been well said, “To

be courteous is just as much a duty as to be honest, for rudeness

rouses more hatred and bitterness than good honest cheating.”

[711] In many lives of this period there was a combination of the ideal

of the courtier and that of the monk. There is a fine portrayal of such

a character in Shorthouse’s _John Inglesant_.

[712] See above, p. 276.

[713] The best authority on this subject is Lea, _Superstition and

Force_, 4th ed., pp. 101–247.

[714] See above, p. 304.

[715] The last judicial duel in England was fought in 1492, but the

practice was not abrogated in Russia till 1649.

[716] Ralph Barton Perry, _The Moral Economy_ (1909), p. 34. And so

Thomas Cuming Hall: “The glory of Protestant ethics as founded by

Luther and developed by Kant is the autonomous, democratic, unpriestly

character stamped upon it” (_History of Ethics within Organized

Christianity_ (1910), p. 527).

[717] _Culture and Anarchy_ (1875), p. 145.

[718] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 370.

[719] See below, p. 362.

[720] On this subject see Andrew D. White, _Seven Great Statesmen_

(1910), chapter on Thomasius.

[721] S. Alexander, _Moral Order and Progress_ (1889), p. 391.

[722] _History of Rationalism in Europe_ (1890), vol. ii, p. 220.

[723] _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 126.

[724] _The Approach to the Social Question_ (1909), p. 84.

[725] Muirhead, _The Elements of Ethics_ (1909), p. 232.

[726] _An Essay on Crimes and Punishments_, tr. Voltaire (1793), p. 157.

[727] See Sisson, “The State absorbing the Functions of the Church,”

_International Journal of Ethics_ for April, 1907, p. 341.

[728] “It won’t do any longer to lay the blame for poverty wholly upon

its victims. These cruel theories cannot face a growing suspicion that

poverty is somehow involved in the ethics of distribution.”--LOUIS F.

POST, in address; see _The Public_ for June 21, 1912, p. 593.

[729] Lloyd, _Man the Social Creator_ (1906), p. 135.

[730] The most practicable proposal for the undoing of this ancient and

ever-augmenting wrong of private monopoly in land is that presented

with singular force and clarity by Henry George in his epochal work,

_Progress and Poverty_. His proposal is to exempt from taxation

industry and all forms of property save land, and to lay upon land

values, or, in other words, upon actual or potential ground rents, a

tax that would reclaim practically the whole of these for society, and

secure to the public all future increments in land values created by

communal growth and enterprise. Since this tax is to take the place of

all other forms of taxation it has become known as “the single tax.”

Such a change in the tax system would inevitably create a hardship

in a few cases, but a hardship almost infinitesimal as compared with

that now inflicted upon the many by the preëmption of the earth by

a class. The reform would undoubtedly, as claimed by its advocates,

destroy private monopoly in land, the root which nourishes most other

monopolies, and secure to all equal right of access to the earth and

its resources.

[731] Dewey and Tufts, _Ethics_ (1908), p. 162.

[732] See Ira Woods Howerth, “Competition, Natural and Industrial,”

_The International Journal of Ethics_ for July, 1912.

[733] “We may fairly ask whether there is a single moral question of

any magnitude which intelligent and educated men would answer to-day

in precisely the same fashion as they would have done before the

publication of Darwin’s _Origin of Species_” (Taylor, _The Problem of

Conduct_ (1901), pp. 57 f.). See also Huxley, _Evolution and Ethics_

(1899). Huxley maintains that the “cosmic process” is nonethical and in

direct opposition to the ethical evolution going on in human society.

[734] “The best is wanting when selfishness begins to be deficient”

(“The Twilight of the Gods,” _The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche_, ed.

Alexander Tille, vol. xi, p. 191). “The weak and ill-constituted shall

perish.... What is more injurious than any crime? Practical sympathy

for all the ill-constituted and weak--Christianity” (“The Antichrist,”

_ibid._ vol. xi, p. 238). This way of thinking and talking is by no

means exclusively modern. Callicles, in Plato’s _Gorgias_, says to

Socrates: “And therefore this seeking to have more than the many is

conventionally said to be shameful and unjust, and is called injustice,

whereas nature herself intimates that it is just for the better to have

more than the worse, the more powerful than the weaker; and in many

ways, among men as well as among animals, and indeed among whole cities

and races, that justice consists in the superior ruling over and having

more than the inferior” (Jowett’s _Dialogues of Plato_, vol. iii, p.

72).

[735] See Kropotkin, _Mutual Aid_.

[736] “The animal species in which individual struggle has been reduced

to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained

the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most

prosperous, and the most open to further progress” (Kropotkin, _Mutual

Aid_ (1909), p. 293). See also Bixby, _The Crisis in Morals_ (1891), p.

235.

[737] See Dewey, “Is Nature Good,” _Hibbert Journal_ for July, 1909.

[738] “‘Ye have compassion on one another’: this struck me much: Allah

might have made you having no compassion on one another,--how had it

been then? This is a great direct thought, a glance at first hand into

the very fact of things” (Carlyle, _Heroes and Hero Worship_, “The

Hero as Prophet”). The _Gâthas_ have the same thought: “Who, O Great

Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts (within our souls)? Who

... hath made the son revering the father?” (Yasna xliv. 4, 7, Sacred

Books of the East, vol. xxxi).

[739] “In the new way of looking at things, which came to the world

from Darwin, there is hope and cheer, if we but take the matter aright.

Only consider what his doctrine of the shaping power of environment

is leading us to do in bettering the conditions of the poor, the

defective, the prone to crime. His demonstration that circumstances may

make or break a man, is a clarion call to humanitarian zeal. And his

teaching of the infinite variability of species, and of the indefinite

progress which man may make in the cultivation of humane and moral

qualities, is one that looks distinctly to the perfectibility of the

race.”--The New York _Nation_ for January 7, 1909, p. 7.

[740] On this subject see Evans, _Evolutional Ethics and Animal

Psychology_ (1898).

[741] When in 1654 matches for cockfighting were forbidden in England

the reason for the prohibition was not that it was cruel to the birds,

but for the reason that the matches were “commonly accompanied with

gaming, drinking, swearing, quarreling, and other dissolute practices”

(Pike, _A History of Crime in England_ (1873), vol. ii, p. 186).

Consult further, Lecky, _Rationalism in Europe_ (1890), vol. i, pp. 307

f.

[742] _Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology_ (1898), p. 18.

Darwinism has without doubt also aided the vegetarians in their crusade

against the use of animal flesh for food, and in conjunction with the

influence of Eastern ideas and convictions may cause ultimately a

great change in the ethical feelings of the Western peoples respecting

this practice. They may come to regard it with the same deep moral

reprobation as is now felt by Eastern moralists. “For my part,” says

the Japanese writer Nitobé, “the surprising thing is that European

ethics can be so atavistic as to stoop to a sort of cannibalism”

(_Fifty Years of New Japan_ (1909), vol. ii, p. 462).

[743] See Frederic W. H. Myers, _Human Personality_ (1903), 2 vols.;

Sir Oliver Lodge, _The Survival of Man_ (1909); James H. Hyslop,

_Enigmas of Psychical Research_ (1906); W. F. Barrett, _Psychical

Research_ (1912).

[744] _The Survival of Man_ (1909), p. 341.

[745] George William Knox, “Religion and Ethics,” _International

Journal of Ethics_ for April, 1902.

[746] George Harris, _Moral Evolution_ (1896), p. 392.

[747] _Christian Ethics_ (1892), p. 11. Lecky makes a similar

observation: “Generation after generation the power of the moral

faculty becomes more absolute, the doctrines that oppose it wane and

vanish, and the various elements of theology are absorbed and recast by

its influence” (_History of Rationalism in Europe_ (1890), vol. i, pp.

351 f.).

[748] “It is because the ethical ideals of Christendom have become so

wonderfully enlarged and perfected within the last half century that

the character of God has taken on such new and glorious forms. The

God whom Christian people generally believe in and worship is a very

different being from the one they were thinking about and praying to

when I began my ministry.”--WASHINGTON GLADDEN (in report of address).

[749] See above, pp. 35, 164 and 187.

[750] Cf. Borden Parker Bowne, _The Essence of Religion_ (1910), chap.

iv, “Righteousness the Essence of Religion.”

[751] Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_

(1908), vol. i, p. 72.

[752] See above, p. 18.

[753] “Along with the gloomy record of the two hundred fifty years

of negro slavery we find the history of its abolition; perhaps the

most impressive history on record of the origin and completion of

a purification of the moral consciousness of peoples.”--CALDECOTT,

_English Colonization and Empire_ (1891), p. 196.

[754] “In Elizabeth’s time Sir John Hawkins initiated the slave trade,

and in commemoration of the achievement was allowed to put in his coat

of arms ‘a demi-moor, proper bound with a cord’; the honorableness of

his action being thus assumed by himself and recognized by Queen and

public.”--SPENCER, _Principles of Ethics_ (1892), vol. i, p. 468.

[755] By a provision of the Peace of Utrecht (1714) England secured the

contract known as the Assiento, which gave English subjects the sole

right for thirty years of shipping annually 4800 African slaves to the

Spanish colonies in America.

[756] In the Southern colonies the opposition to the further

importation of negroes sprang in general from the fear of the

insurrection of the slaves, should they become too numerous. The little

opposition that existed in some of the Middle States was based almost

wholly on economic grounds.

[757] The first abolition paper was established in 1821, but the

movement it represented soon died out. The movement started anew with

the appearance of _The Liberator_ in 1831. See Albert Bushnell Hart,

_Slavery and Abolition_ (1906), pp. 173 ff.

[758] “When Garrison began his work, he thought nothing was more like

the spirit of Christ ... than to bring a whole race of people out

of sin and debasement, ... but he soon found that neither minister

nor church anywhere in the lower South continued to protest against

slavery; that the cloth in the North was arrayed against him, and that

many northern divines entered the lists against abolition, especially

Moses Stuart, Professor of Hebrew in Andover Theological Seminary, who

justified slavery from the New Testament; President Lord of Dartmouth

College, who held that slavery was an institution of God, according to

natural law; and Hopkins, Episcopal bishop of Vermont, who came forward

as a thick and thin defender of slavery. The positive opposition of

churches soon followed” (Albert Bushnell Hart, _Slavery and Abolition_

(1906), p. 211). In 1832 took place the secession of students from

Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, because the trustees and Dr. Lyman Beecher

had forbidden them to discuss the slavery question. Four fifths of the

student body withdrew.

[759] Cf. Henderson, _Dependents, Defectives, and Delinquents_ (1893);

Zebulon R. Brockway, _Fifty Years of Prison Service_ (1912).

[760] The New York _Nation_ of March 19, 1908, p. 254.

[761] _The Century Magazine_ for September, 1912, p. 886.

[762] Pike, _A History of Crime in England_ (1876), vol. i, p. 50.

[763] Wines, _Punishment and Reformation_, 6th ed., p. 103.

[764] Pike, _A History of Crime in England_ (1876), vol. ii, p. 287.

[765] His _Essay on Crimes and Punishments_ appeared in 1764 and

produced a profound impression. It did much to abolish torture in

judicial proceedings.

[766] “In proportion as punishments become more cruel, the minds of

men, as a fluid rises to the same height with that which surrounds

it, grow hardened and insensible.”--BECCARIA, _An Essay on Crimes and

Punishments_ (1793), p. 95.

[767] Wines, _Punishment and Reformation_, 6th ed., pp. 122 ff.

[768] The penitentiary system was inaugurated in 1704 by Pope Clement

XI, who in that year established the Hospital of St. Michael at Rome.

For the history of the penitentiary movement see Wines, _Punishment and

Reformation_.

[769] “The whole conception and method of these courts suggests the

religious spirit and almost startles us with its indication of the

spiritualizing of the civil power.”--EDWARD O. SISSON, “The State

absorbing the Functions of the Church,” _International Journal of

Ethics_ for April, 1907, p. 344.

[770] The progressive purification of the social conscience may be

traced further in the changed feeling in regard to dueling, lotteries,

gambling, and the use of intoxicating liquors. Less than a century

ago dueling was common among all the European peoples. To-day in all

Anglo-Saxon lands the duel is condemned by the common conscience and

prohibited by law. During the last few decades in the United States

lotteries have been transferred “from the class of respectable to

a class of criminal enterprises.” So too is it the growing moral

disapproval of the use of alcoholic drinks that has caused drunkenness

both in England and in our country to become much less common among the

reputable members of society than it was only two or three generations

ago.

[771] Thus formulated by the distinguished jurist James Brown Scott.

Cf. _Report of the Seventeenth Annual Lake Mohonk Conference_ (1911),

pp. 35 ff. Professor Scott here shows how the growth of juridical

institutions between nations is similar to that within nations,

only later and slower. The stages of this growth are self-redress,

arbitration, courts of justice.

[772] See Sir Charles Bruce, “The Modern Conscience in Relation to

the Treatment of Dependent Peoples and Communities,” _Papers on

Inter-Racial Problems_ (1911), pp. 279 ff.

[773] _Papers on Inter-Racial Problems_ (1911), ed. G. Spiller, p. 286.

[774] For this subject viewed from a Chinese standpoint, see Edward

Alsworth Ross, _The Changing Chinese_ (1911), p. 170.

[775] Grotius (Hugo de Groot), _The Rights of War and Peace_, tr.

Campbell (1901–1903). On Grotius see Hill, _History of Diplomacy_

(1905–1906), vol. ii, pp. 569 ff.; Andrew D. White, _Seven Great

Statesmen_ (1910), pp. 55 ff.; Dunning, _A History of Political

Theories_ (1905), vol. ii, chap. v.

[776] Andrew D. White, _Seven Great Statesmen_ (1910), p. 79.

[777] See above, p. 240.

[778] James Bryce, _Studies in History and Jurisprudence_ (1901), vol.

ii, p. 167.

[779] Hill, _History of Diplomacy_ (1905–1906), vol. ii, p. 573.

[780] _Seven Great Statesmen_ (1910), p. 73.

[781] We cannot concur with the author, Norman Angell, of _The Great

Illusion_ in his contention that there will be no change in the

practice of nations regarding war and preparations for war till there

is a change in ideas respecting the economic advantage to be derived

from successful war. Moral idealism, finding expression in revolutions

and reforms, is constantly giving denial to the validity of the

economic or materialistic interpretation of history when the economic

motive is thus made the dominant motive in human action. War will

become a thing of the past only when men can no longer fight with a

good conscience.

[782] _Machiavelli_ (The Romanes Lecture for 1897).

[783] This archaic nature of the code is shown especially in its

retention as a survival of the principle of collective responsibility,

which, long outgrown by ordinary morality, still forms the very basis

of the war system. Again, the true nature of the war code as a heritage

from the low level of savagery is shown in its retention of the

primitive rule that the one suffering an injury shall be the judge of

his own cause and the avenger of his wrong, a principle of self-redress

long since discarded by the private law of all civilized peoples.

[784] _Studies of Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius_ (1907), p.

94.

[785] Pike, _A History of Crime in England_ (1873), vol. i, p. 211;

vol. ii, p. 414.

[786] _Studies of Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius_ (1907), p.

96.

[787] Telemachus was an Asiatic monk who journeyed to Rome for the

purpose of making a protest against the bloody spectacles. “The Romans

were provoked by the interruption of their pleasures; and the rash

monk, who had descended into the arena to separate the gladiators,

was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the

people soon subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had

deserved the honors of martyrdom; and they submitted without a murmur

to the laws of Honorius, which abolished forever the human sacrifices

of the amphitheatre” (Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_,

chap. xxx).

INDEX

Ægospotami, slaughter of Athenian prisoners at, 194

Æschylus, 191

Ahriman, 124

Ahura Mazda, 124

Almsgiving, 281, 368

Altruism, Greek and Roman, 175, 215;

Christian, 279

Amélineau, 44

Amos, 145

Amphictyonic League, 194

Amusements, humanizing of, 369

Ancestor worship, as a moral force, 13;

in China, 54;

in Japan, 78

Angell, Norman, 376 n. 5

Animal ethics, Brahmanic, 103;

Buddhist, 119;

Zoroastrian, 129;

Mohammedan, 292;

Christian, 357;

influence of evolutionary science upon, 358

Aphrodite, 171

Aquinas, Thomas, 318, 325

Arbitration among the Greeks, 195

Arhat, the, 113

Aristotle, views of, on war against non-Greeks, 180;

ethical system of, 202–204;

views of, on slavery, 203

Asceticism, general fostering causes of, 267;

Christian fostering causes of, 268

Assur-natsir-pal, 51

Athleticism, Greek moral elements in, 177

Aurelius, Marcus, _Meditations_ of, 239, 247

Autolycus, 185

Bagehot, 287

Beccaria, 345, 370

Benevolence, Roman, 236

Blood feud, 20

Brahma, the impersonal, 96;

the personal, 96

Brahmans, the, 97, 101, 102

Breasted, Professor, 31, 39 n. 3

Buckle, Henry T., 1, 2

Buddha, 111;

ethical content of his message, 116

Buddhism, in Japan, 79;

the four truths of, 106;

the eightfold path of, 110;

influence of, on the military spirit, 120

Bury, J. B., 174

Bushido, ideal of, 79, 80–82;

influence of, 87;

in action, 88, 89

Cannibalism, 26;

celestial, 26 n. 3

Castes, Hindu, 97

Charity, Christian, 279–282;

Moslem, 296

Chinese cashiers in Japan, 90 n. 2

Christianity, doctrinal, ethical ideal of, 261;

limitations of the ideal of, 264

Chrysostom, Dion, 243

Cicero, 215;

contempt of, for manual labor and merchandizing, 224

City state, as the mold of Greek morality, 169;

Roman, 213;

effect of decay of, on Greek and Roman morals, 204, 221

Class morality, 344

Clemency, Roman virtue, 249

Clovis, Frankish chieftain, 303

Cluny, 313

Collective responsibility, 18–20;

doctrine of, repudiated by Hebrew prophets, 159;

principle of, as embodied in Church code rejected by the modern

conscience, 364;

a survival of, in modern war code, 378 n. 1

Competition, in primitive society, 14

Confucianism, 53

Confucius, 60

Conscience, new social, nurtured in the medieval towns, 330, 331;

purification in modern times, 364–371;

new international, 371–382

Constantine the Great, 302

Continuance theory, 35–37;

in the Greek moral evolution, 187

Corn, moral effects of free distribution of, at Rome, 224

Cosmopolitanism, growth of, in Hellenistic Age, 209;

in the Roman Empire, 236–240

Courage, altruistic element in, 22, 175

Courtier, ideal of the, 328–330

Criticism, higher, 335

Crusades, as ideal of knighthood in action, 309

Cuba, our dealings with, 373

Customary morality, 18

Cynics, 210

Darius I, inscriptions of, 134

Davids, Rhys, 109, 114, 120

Delphi, relation of, to Greek morality, 172

Democracy, effect of its incoming upon moral evolution, 340;

ethics of, 344–347

Demonax, 208

Demonism, Babylonian, 46;

Chinese, 55

_De Officiis_ of Cicero, 238

Deuteronomy, dual morality of, 151

Dionysus, 171

Double standard in morality, 22–24

Dualism, religious, Egyptian, 32;

Persian, 123

Duel, international, 332;

judicial, see _Wager of battle_

Education, in Japan, 91–93;

its relation to morality, 345;

transferred from Church to State, 346

Election, race, 174

Elijah, 143

Elis, consecrated to peace, 197

Elisha, 143

Elysian Fields, 187, 188

Envy of the gods, doctrine of, 189

Epictetus, 247, 248, 250

Epicureanism, 207

Evolution, disturbing effects of doctrine upon morals, 341;

egoistic tendencies of the doctrine, 354;

altruistic factor in, 350

Fabiola, 281

Fall of man, dogma of, 259

Family ethics, Greek, 181;

Roman, 212, 214;

Mohammedan, 291

Festivals, Hebrew, moralization of, 149

Figgis, J. Neville, 378, 380

Filial piety, Chinese virtue, 61

Filipinos, American treatment of, 373–375

Gambling, prohibited by the Koran, 291

Geneva Convention of 1864, 376

George, Henry, 350 n. 1

_Gesta Romanorum_, 310

Gladiatorial combats, demoralizing effects of, 225;

suppression of, 277;

the last in Colosseum, 381

Gladstone, William E., 360

Golden Rule, as stated by Confucius, 67

Green, T. H., 11

Gresham’s Law in morals, 378

Grotius, Hugo, 375

Group, kinship, 12

Guatama, see _Buddha_

Hades, gradual moralizing of, 187–189

Hammurabi, code of, 49

Hearn, Lafcadio, 84

Heresy, viewed as a contagion, 325

Higher criticism, 335

Hillel, 168

Holy Grail, 311

Holy Virgin, moral influence of veneration of, 311

Homeric Age, morals of, 185

Hopkins, Edward W., 114

Hosea, 146

Hospital, first Christian, 281

Hospitalers, the, 308

Hospitality, 24

Howard, John, 370

Howe, Julia Ward, 324

Humanitarianism, growth of, in Hellenistic Age, 208;

in pre-Christian, of Roman Empire, 234–236;

advance of, in modern times, 369–371

Ideal, moral, defined, 5;

causes which determine, 7–10

Ilus, prince of Ephyra, 172

Immortality, emergence of doctrine of, in Israel, 164–166;

its ethical value, 257

India, Government of India Act, 373

Industrial virtues, Persian, 128;

disesteemed by the Greeks and Romans, 182, 223;

cradled in the medieval towns, 330;

effects upon, of the dissolution of the monasteries, 337

Industrialism, modern, relation to morals, 341;

ethics of, 347–353;

modern, alliance of industry and science, 347;

divorce of industry and ethics, 348

Infanticide, in China, 73;

condemned by Christian teaching, 278;

in Greece, 181

Inheritance, limitation of, 351

Inquisition, 324–326

Insanity, regarded as demon possession, 282

Intellectual progress, relation of, to moral progress, 342

International law, relation of, to municipal law, 372

Intertribal morality, beginnings of, 22–29

Intolerance, Jewish, 163;

Christian, 265, 324;

Mohammedan, 294

Intoxicating liquors, use of, prohibited by Koran, 292, 296

Inventions, relation of, to moral progress, 341

Iona, 280

Iron virgin of Nuremberg, 381

Isaiah, 147;

the Second, 157, 161

Isis, worship of, in Roman Empire, 252

Ixion, 187

Jeremiah, 151

Jesus of Nazareth, relation of, to moral history of West, 260

Judgment of Dead, Egyptian, 36;

Persian, 130

Justice, Greek virtue of, 176

Juvenal, 235

_Karma_, 108

Ka-statues, 34

Kidd, Benjamin, 2

Knighthood, ideal of, 306–309;

contribution of, to moral heritage of Christendom, 311

Koran, ethics of, 289–292

Labarum, 302

Land values, property in, 349

Legge, James, 68, 69

Leonidas, 176

_Lex talionis_, 21

Lindisfarne, 280

Machiavelli, 326–328

Machiavellism in politics, 326–328;

in economics, 348

Malta, Knights of, 310

Mandarin morality, 69

Melians, 192

Mencius, 60

Mendicant Orders, 316–318

Micah, 148

Milvian Bridge, battle of, 302

Mithra, 125

Mithraism, propaganda of, in Roman Empire, 253

Mohammed, 288, 290

Mohammedanism, moral code of, 289–292

Monasteries, cradle of modern social conscience, 276;

dissolution of, 336

Monastic ideal, 270;

discredited by Protestant Reformation, 336

Monasticism, Buddhist, 118;

Christian, 267–287

Monopoly in land, 350

Monotheism, ethical, emergence of, in Israel, 158, 159

Morley, Lord, 377

Nature, Law of, 240

Negative Confession, 37

Nemesis, doctrine of, 190–192

Nietzsche, 355, 356

Nirvana, 109

Nonresistance, Christian teaching of, 301, 302

Occupation, influence of, on morals, 9

Oisin, 272 n.

Opium trade with China, 373

Ordeals, 304

Orphic doctrines, 174

Orthodoxy, regarded as saving virtue, 261

Osiris, myth of, 32

Pachomius, 44

_Patria potestas_, 212

Paulsen, Friedrich, 5 n. 1

Peace of God, 312

Peace, universal, an ideal of Hebrew prophets, 146, 147

Peloponnesian War, effects of, on Greek morality, 194, 195 n. 1

Penitential psalms, Babylonian, 47

Penitentiary system, 371

Persecution of Christians by pagan Roman emperors, 245

Pessimism, in Brahmanic system, 99;

in Buddhist, 107

Petrie, Flinders, 39

Philipson, David, 168 n. 1

Philo, 168

Pindar, 179, 186, 188

Plato, 200–202

Plutarch, 210, 249

Poisoned arrows, disuse of, 27, 172

Polygamy, accepted as ethical by Mohammed, 291

Private war, restrictions on, 312–314

Prophetism, Hebrew, different elements of, 142

Psychical research, import of, for morals, 359

Ptah-hotep, 40

Purgatory, effect of abolition of, upon morals, 337, 362

Pythagoras, 186

Pythagoreanism, 115

Ra, son-god, 31

Ransom of war captives, 315

Red Cross Society, 376

Reformation, Protestant, 333–339

Refuge, cities of, 154

Religion, relation of, to morals, 9, 14

Renaissance, influence of, on the moral evolution, 320, 322–324

Retribution theory, 35–37;

in Greek moral evolution, 188

Revenge, duty of, 20;

a Greek virtue, 183;

how regarded by Roman moralists, 249

Right belief regarded as a virtue, 334

Ritual morality, in India, 106;

in Israel, 151–154, 162

Ruth, the Moabitess, 156

Sabbath, 150, 260

Sacrifice, in Brahmanic system, 100;

in Israel, 138

St. Ambrose, 303

St. Augustine, 284, 303

St. Boniface, 280

St. Columba, 280

St. Dominic, 316, 317

St. Francis, 316, 317

St. Gall, 280

St. Patrick, 272

St. Wilfred, 280

_Saints, Lives of the_, 309

Samurai, 80, 82, 87–91

Sappho, 178

Schmidt, Nathaniel, 154 n. 2, 260 n. 1

Scholasticism, ethics of, 318

Science, ethics of, 353–360

Scott, James Brown, 372 n. 1

Self-redress, a survival of, in international law, 378 n. 1

Seneca, 239, 243, 247, 249, 250

Set, Egyptian god, 32

Shammai, 168

Sheol, 139

Shinto cult, 78

Single tax, 350 n. 1

Slave trade, suppression of, 364–366

Slavery, in ancient Egypt, 41;

among the Hebrews, 156;

in Greece, 180, 203;

Roman, 223;

ameliorations of, under pagan Roman emperors, 243;

influence of Christianity upon, 282;

under Islam, 290, 295;

prisoners of war sold as slaves, 314;

origin of word “slave,” 315;

abolition of African, 366

Smith, W. Robertson, 12

Social ethics, 364–371

Socialism, 352

Socrates, 197–200

Stoicism, 206, 209;

influence of, upon Roman government and law, 241–243;

as a moral force, 241;

teachings of, Christian in tone, 246–248;

insufficiency of, as guide to the masses, 251;

contrasted with Machiavellism, 328

Stoics, views of, on slavery, 203

Suicide, among the Japanese, 85;

among the Romans, 250;

condemned by Christianity, 279

Synagogue, 163, 164

Tantalus, 187

Taoism, 56

Telemachus, Christian monk, 381 n. 1

Temperance, Greek virtue of, 176

Templars, the, 308

Terence, 238

Theology, moralization of, 360, 361

Thirty Years’ War, 375

Thucydides, 192

Toleration, under Buddhism, 112, 120;

influence of doctrinal Christianity upon virtue of, 285;

how affected by the Protestant Reformation, 338

Towns, medieval, as molders of morals, 321, 330

Transmigration, 98

Truce of God, 312–314

Truthfulness, virtue of, Japanese lack of reverence for, 85;

highly esteemed by the Persians, 128, 132–134;

low estimation of, among Greeks, 184

Tyrannicide, among Japanese, 86;

views of Roman moralist on, 249

Ulfilas, bishop, 304

Unearned increment, 349

Universalism, ethical, pre-Christian, 236

Urban II, Pope, 305

Usury, 155

Veracity, fostered by science, 353

Vergil, 235

Vicarious suffering, doctrine of, 160

Wager of battle, 304;

disuse of, 331, 332

War, abolition of, a moral issue, 376;

abrogation of the ordinary moral code by, 377;

obsolescence of, as school of morals, 380

War ethics, as group morality, 20;

as survival from barbarism, 20;

beginning of rules of, 25–29;

Egyptian, 42;

Assyrian, 51;

Chinese, 65;

Brahmanic, 104;

Greek, 193–195;

Roman, 245 n. 1;

Mohammedan, 290, 294;

syncretism of pagan war ethics and Christian peace ethics, 300–306;

influence of martial ethics of Islam upon Christian ethics, 305;

progress in, in Middle Ages, 314–316;

progress in, in modern times, 375, 376;

atavistic character of war code, 378;

unfavorable reaction of, upon peace code, 378–380

Wealth, moral effects of unequal distribution of, 228

Wedgwood, Julia, 9

Wellhausen, 3

Wisdom, Greek virtue of, 176

World state, ethical basis of, 220

Wundt, Wilhelm, 5

Zarathustra, 126

Zeno, 206

Zoroaster, see _Zarathustra_

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a

predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they

were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation

marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left

unbalanced.

Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of the pages that referenced them,

have been collected, sequentially renumbered, and placed at the end of

the main text, just before the Index.

The Index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page

references.

Page 159: “the good Osiris” was printed that way, but may be a misprint

for “the god Osiris”.