Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-29


pothesis that morals can only be rightly
taught from theological point of depart
ure, it is shown to be quite inconsistent
with experience, and to be in fact an
hallucination or a fallacy. For morals
are the rules of conduct which are
evolved from the experience of society, or
which are gradually established through
some tribal or social differentiation or
caprice. There has never been any
general agreement upon the fundamental
concepts of morals among mankind, nor
are there two codes of ethics in the world
which at all closely resemble one another.
In fact morals are as much the result of
social growth as religious beliefs are, and
as to the latter it is now well known that
while they tend to represent certain large
atonement, rewards and punishments,
homage by prayer, and imageworship,
they are as different in detail as are the
manners of the various races and nations.
No doubt theology has in all ages exer-
cised marked influence upon society. In
certain periods it has exerted powerful
influence upon the moral standard also.
But its tendency has always been to de-
cline from the high ideals it has set up,
and in the long run it has been more
largely controlled by its surroundings than
controlling them. 1t is of course idle to
imagine state of society from which all
theological education would be banished.
Such state of things is possible in the
future, but it is not possible in the present,
because no man now living Is or can be
free from the inherited theological train
ing Of centuries past. Consciously or un-
consciously that training influences modern
thought more or less, and it may be as
serted that it has its representation
in the existing stability of public morals.
Since that can neither be proved nor dis
proved it is not worth while to discuss it,
but we think it is possible to show that
| there is no further need OF theological
foundations for morals, if ever there was
such need. And in the first place, to
make clear the separation between morals
and religion, we will take the example
of Roman Catholic country. There
the priest stands between every man and
his conscience There the nominal blend
ing of morals and religion is most COM
plete. There the educational machinery is
in the hands of the Church. There the
sacerdotal hypothesis has full play. And
what are the results, Are such coun-
tries more moral than those in which
Church and State are separated Than
those in which religion is excluded from
the schools? Nothing of the kind. But
on the contrary we find that the ignorance
which Catholicism in many countries has
fostered among the masses, renders them
more inclined to immortality than are the
poor of other lands. The moral standard
cannot be high among people who have
learned to think more of some ceremonial
practice than of robbery or assassination.
Yet there are a great many Catholics in
Southern Europe who would think it a
more venial offense to cut throat than to
refrain from kneeling when the Host
passed them.
When Mr.. Wallace, the naturalist, was
in the Malay archipelago, he visited an
island called DObbo, upon which men OF
all races were accustomed to meet for pur-
poses of commerce. Almost every East
ern race, Chinese, Papuans, Javanese,
Ceramese, Bugis, and so forth, most Of
them uncivilized peoples, here assemble ii
the most irregula way, and manage tc
live without government or laws of any
kind. Says Mr., Wallace ''This motley
Ignorant, bloodthirsty, thievish popula
GO ton live here without the shadow of &;
government, with no police, no courts
"and no lawyers; yet they do not cut
leach others Threats, do not plumber eacl
other day and night, do not fall into the
anarchy such state of things might b,
"supposed to lead to-" The truth is tha
the self-interest of these savage men mad,
them moral, and thus without any relIg
ious or secular restraints they nevertheless
preserved a state of order the like of which
more civilized societies find it Difficult
emo Ugh to maintain even with all the com
plicated machinery of modern government
to help them This shows, in very clea
way, what self-interest is capable of doing
and the application of the illustration
consists in the deduction that order il
society was originally due to precisely thu
same agencies as kept the peace on tn
Island of Dobbo Morals must have ex
listed before religion, in fact. The codes o
ethics were of course subsequent growths
but practical morality was coincident will
the dawn of society. As many wrong idea
have obtained in regard to right and wrong
as in regard to anything else. In fact MAJ
has almost always tried every erroneou
path before hitting upon the true one, ant
he has only been driven to the latter b,
suffering and bitter experience. 1t is thi
experience which has been the great codi
fer of moral law, and whenever theolog,
has strengthened morality it has done $
by adopting some principle which expert
ence had already sanctioned and tested
But the codes of ethics which rest upol
theology alone are not salutary or benef
cent. They of necessity inculcate, as tn
primary duty of the scholar, the blind &C
ceptance of dogmas which are either con
trary to or beyond experience, and whic
therefore demand the exercise of dan
gerous credulity, or require such viola
ton of all sense of logical sequence an
natural law as is certain to warp and injur
the judgment. Thus theology teaches MOI
ais by immoral means, and in her efforts t
control the mind she perverts it. w
have seen already how indepeuden
: of practical morality the most despoti
theological government may be, and usual
is. But if this is the natural tendency {
theological government, how can it be til
only or the best guide to moral education
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