The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-23
OUT AND ABOUT.


Prof. Lewis G. James Of Cambridge
lectured at the Woman's Club yester-
day afternoon under the auspices of the
science committee, Mrs. Laura c. Con-
ant chairman. His subject was The
evolution of morals" He treated it in
a profound and deeply philosophical
manner In opening, he traced the or
igin Of the sense Of moral obligation in
man, while the latter part of his lee
ture was occupied with an inquiry into
the nature Of the ethical system based
ron the theory of moral evolution. 1T
| used to be considered" he said in part.
| that mans moral obligations depend
ed on God or the gods, but the new
science of ethics holds that they rest
! on the relations between man and man.
! that they are intrinsic rather than ex-
trinsic, that evil doing is not bad be-
| cause of any penalty attached to it,
| but because it is registered in the char
acter, making the man less manly, the
woman less womanly. 1t is to be
feared. however, that after the old
theologic idea has lost it's power over
men and before this new unitarian
idea is graSped, there will be a period
of lapse, q moral interregnum.
This new scientific view" he con-
( tlnued, lis based not on theology, but
upon the nature of things. 1t perceives
that morals are but part of conduct
and that before morals can be under
stood, we must first know what con-
duct is. Conduct has been defined as
action adapted to an end, and it there
fore refers only to voluntary and defin-
lite actions, not to those which are per-
formed automatically. AS life de-
yeloped from the polyp, the functions
that are under voluntary control grow
increasingly definite and complex, and
the problem increases in intensity
/ while gradually the desire to perpetuate
| the race comes in to divide with the
( impulse to live, and with these two in
! herlted instincts man emerges from
| brutehood.
EARLY man was not immoral, but
rather immoral 1t is observable that
all the terms for right and wrong orig
/ lnally meant something unethiCal
( Right, for instance, meant straight
| while wrong meant crooked; virtues
We're things customary; conscience
| was knowledge ought and duty We're
| commercial expressions. These all
came to be ethical by a process of eY-
/ oluuon. If We ask why ethics should
! go under these Indifferent terms, il
must be answered, because the words
| are older than the ethical ideas they
! have come to designate. 1t would ap-
ginnings in certain social or sympa-
| theCic STRINGS in the human breast,
/ and that the long duration of the in
/ fancy Of the human baby proved g
! very positive influence in developing
! by means of the family q sense of the
/ larger self. The change from the in
/ diVidua self to q realization of the
-
| of conduct.
! The great nations have all been de-
| Neloped from the family as the So
! cial Unit, More ard more the obliga-
| ton to serve other has been substitu-
| ted for the obligations to self, man
/ having continuously learned to inter
/ est himself in larger group Of his fell
! loWmen, until motives that began by
/ being purely selfish came in time 10
. be aluuistic, the selfish elements being
! eliminated by force Of habit and grad
! ually merging into the imperative sense
, of duty.
Conscience is the inheritance Of all
| the impulses Of the past toward duty.
! lntuitive, it may appear, hut like other
! intuitions, it is the growth of past ex-
/ perienCes Conscience is not the infal-
! lible guide in conduct that it is sup
| posed to be, for it leaves the way to
! the intellect man being held account
/ able for the results of his actions as
well as for the vague desire to do
right, The new. evolutionary system Of
ethics unites with old in believing that
| obedience to God is the end of life.
and that happiness which is not itself
a legitimate object Of pursuit, is at
tanned through that obedience. But
lust what course to pursue in obeying
Goo is often difficult to discover and
what seems best under the civcumstan-