The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-16 00:00:00

SOCIAL SCIENCE IN ST. PAUL'S
CATHEDRAL.

The Rev. Canon Gregory delivered, on Tuesday
evening, the third of his series of lectures on "The
Bond of Society, Put and Present, Physical, Social,
and Moral," to a congregation of men assembled under
the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Canon Gregory said he proposed to consider the motives
on which we must rely for the right discharge of those social
duties of which he had spoken in the proceeding lec-
ture, for upon the motives from which they preceded the
eventual character of our relations to others, and of our
actions lathe world, must necessarily depend. The moral
bonds of society were fashioned rut of those motives, and
those motives represented the prlnciplea of light and
wrong under the influence of which we acted, and by the
operation of which we sought to fulfil what we
believed to be the end of our being, the cause for which we
came into the world. There were two such ends, on one or
other of which every human life we. being fashioned : the
one we. self, the other was God. The termer might be ac-
cepted consciously or unconsciously, the manner of acting
under its inspiration might be wise or unwise; might
manifest Itself in the justification of the impulse of the
moment, or in the development of far reaching plans of
the deepest sagacity; might be governed by appetite,
or have learned to eubdue every prompting of sense;
might be sheltered under the cloak of philosophy, or be
dignified with the name of a religion. The principle or
motive evolved from the latter might be real or unreal, true
or untrue in Its aspirations and beliefs; and so far as its
power over the human soul was concerned, it might exist
In very different measures or degrees. In denouncing
the coarser farms of selfishness all were united. They
were but vices. With its higher development the
case was altogether different, Every system of materialistic
philosophy must practically make self, as manifested In
Individual men, its centre. Every scheme of political
government that took policy for its guide must really
depend upon the selfish instinct in man for securing
the result at which It aimed. Every individual who
curbed his passionsor appetites because they Interfered with
some deeply-cherished desire; who regulated his astions
with • view to future advantage, who toiled hard to gain
wealth, honour, or the gratification of some ambitious enn—
ui like manner made self his object, though mach more
wisely, and more for the general good, than did less thought-
. fataad tar-seeing persona
Did this principle of action furnish a moral bond sufficiently
strong and availing for the preservation of society f That it
wielded • prodigious power was undeniable. Much might
be said in favour of Its being the governing force in the
world. We all instinctively appealed to sottish motives in
others, which proved their power over ourselves. There was
a natural and evidently designed power in this influence of
self; it was obviously intended by the great Creator to be a
strong emotive force with us. The question WM not whether it
was or was not powerful, but whether it should be all-
powerful and supreme, or be subdrdinated strictly and in
all things to a higher will, to a principle or rule of conduct
given by an external authority that was supreme and un-
erring. It was against the suffidiency of materialism,
whether as a philosophy, a religion, or an Instinct, to bind
eoriety rgrmanently together that he contended.

However enlightened self-interest might b., there was
nothing to secure its permanence. In this case, at sli events,
there could be no doubt that experience confirmed revels-
eon. Who that knew the men and women of England as
they were in fact, not is what it WAS possible to imagine
them to be in theory, could doubt that with the mass en-
lightened self-Interest would be powerless Indeed? The m-
eant would outweigh the Inter,: ' tat us eat and drink to-day,
lie, die to-m..rrow," would be them". To risk the future of
society upon snob a bond is this was surely to prepare for its
certain eventual ruin. Whenever society had been penetrated
with the idea that there was no rem moral motive but this,
It had been prepared for dissolution, which had come more
or less rapidly, acoording to circumstance.
The materialistic plaUceophy of the Encyclopedists pre-
pared the way for the Treece levolutton by hnpisaling the
Ides that a ewes own personal interests wee the only
lidnp to be onnetdered ; end b 7 dbohnehins the balance