Items related to Ethical Addresses (Volume 8)
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1901 Excerpt: ... THE RELIGION OF DUTY. BY FREDERIC HARRISON. I have been asked to speak to-day on the Ethics of the Gospel and the Ethics of Science, and I shall seek to contrast them as a basis for a truly religious life. I can only speak from my own point of view, and without at all assuming that that point of view is accepted by all my hearers (without at least much modification) I shall submit to you my own ideas of how a scientific system of Ethics may become, far more truly than any assumed revelation, the basis of a truly practical religion. An ethical and human religion (like every real religion whatever) must go at once to the root of the matter which is--how to purify the human heart--how to elevate the human nature--how to make good lives. And this it must do in the way that every system which ever influenced mankind has done, by having its own view of human character, and by having its own mode of appealing to the dominant motives in human hearts. It was a great step in morality when the old moralists said, "Do unto others as you would be done by." It regulated conduct, it made justice--equity--the rule of life. But this is an appeal to external act--not to the A lecture given before the Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia, Sunday, March 10, 1901, by Mr. Frederic Harrison, President of the London Positivist Committee. heart. It makes self the standard of duty. And there was great danger of its being interpreted to mean--give what you get--treat men as they treat you--Do ut des. It was a great advance when Christ said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." The same words had been used by Confucius very much earlier, and by others. But the Gospel made this rule a central principle, and forced it deep into the conscience of men. The new principle became not Justi...
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