The San Francisco call., 1909-03-26
BRITISH DIPLOMAT
DELIVERS LECTURE
James Bryce Speaks on Ethics
and Religion Before Big Au-
dienee at University

BERKELEY, March 25. When
James Bryce, British ambassador to
the United States, began his lecture on
Ethics and Religion in Modern Life
in Hearst hall tonight a crowd of
1,500 persons was packed into the au-
ditorium and many were turned away
for lack OF room. The lecture was the
first of series of five to be given by
Bryce under the E. t. Earl foundation
under the auspices of the Pacific theo-
logical seminary. The speaker dealt
with the subtopic of the relation of
ethics and religion before the appear
ance Of Christianity.
Rev. j. X. Mclean, president Of the
Pacific Theological seminary, intro
duced DR.. Bryce. prefacing his intro
ductory remarks with a brief explana-
ton of the scope of the lectures and
their Importance and significance to
the people, of California. He gave a
brief history of the Earl foundation.
DR.. Bryce observed at the outset that
the subject on which he was to speak
was so large and had been treated so
often that it might seem impossible to
add anything new.
1t was, however, open to any one,
said the speaker, to deal with the re-
lation of religion to moral theory and
moral conduct in our time by showing
what those relations had been in pre-
vious times. and by considering what
was the application in our own time of
the ancient moral precepts. Without
attempting to give an exact definition
they might understand religion to mean
the conception man forms of the deity,
his idea of his own relation TO the un-
seen power that governs the universe.
DEFINITION OF ETHICS
BY ethics or morality would be un-
derstood to mean mans conception of
his relation to his fellow creatures and
of the duties he owes them. The re-
suits of this view of his relation to
others appear in the conduct of his
life. That conduct is also influenced
by his religious beliefs; so the subject
to be considered is the influence of re-
ligion upon moral theory, and the in
fluence of both taken together on the
actual conduct and behavior of men.
This had greatly varied in different
times and countries. DR.. Bryce said
that he would attempt to cover only a
small part of the ground, but the
treatment of some branches of the sub
ject would at any rate serve as illus
traions.
RELIGION AND MORALITY
Most people now think religion and
morality to be practically insepara bic" "
I.a.t ID
ued, this had not always been so.
There had been religions in which
there was very little morality, faiths in
which belief had told very little upon
practice. There had also been systems
of morality which could hardly be said
to rest upon religion, systems, at any
rate, in which the idea of any deity
to whom man was responsible was ex-
tremely faint and dim. Some of the
eastern religions belonged to this
class"
In order to understand the influence
which Christianity had exerted on
Dr. Bryce pointed out. it was
necessary to know something of the
religions and ethical systems of the
ancient world before Christianity ap-
peared. He sketched in outline the his
tory of the religions of the Greco |
Roman and oriental world. omitting
luOS6 OL HUH dHO OHl0d. he dUVSTIeQ
to those forms of primitive polytheism |
In which the deities, more or less per-
sonifying the forces of nature, had at
first little or nothing Of a moral char
acter and showed how by degrees moral !
Ideas grew UP and came to be placed |
under divine sanction.
IN HOMER
In the Homeric poems there was a |
real, however imperfect. morality. and !
It had a religious character said the |
speaker. Later on philosophy came in |
10 refine and develop the conception Of |
/ deity and OF his relation to mankind. |
Socrates recognized his responsibility |
10 the divinity, whatever it was. and |
indeed there was hardly any moral |
teaching more noble and elevating than |
hat ascribed to him by Plato. declared |
DR.. Bryce. The followers of Plato and /
Aristotle and the stole philosophers in |
particular worked out a comprehensive I
Ind logical scheme Of ethics, and their
ethical philosophy and practical moral
)recepts became a sort of religion for
many of the better minds In the two
centuries before and the two centuries
lfter the Christian era.
This philosophical and practical stoi-
ism, explained the speaker culmi-
lated in the teachings of Epictetus and
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonnus..
These two names. together with the
'Erito" and the Apologize" of Plato.
marked the greatest height to which
.ncient heather morality rose.
>OF MASSES
The lecturer pointed out how small a
art of the population these philosoph-
cal doctrines affected and discussed the
,eneral moral and religious condition
f the masses of the people, indicating
he small influence of such religious
eliefs as existed upon moral conduct
here was plenty of superstition, but it
Id not affect action, and there was of
curse the usual conventional morality
ut it had little to do with religion.
his was the world Into which Chris
ianity came.
The second lecture will be delivered
'riday evening at Hearst hall