too well aware that each right has a corresponding duty in our relations with every other human being. So much, then, for the extension of the ideas of right and duty to all mankind.

We can make progress, as well, in the thoroughness with which we conceive and apply the idea of our duty to the persons with whom we have the most to do. In other words, our morality may be intensive as well as extensive. As we come to make no exceptions in the matter of persons, and thus include all other human beings in the range of duty; so we also make progress morally by deepening and intensifying the moral life,

thought, feeling, word, and act. Some persons seem to think or to care very little about right and duty; they do not pay attention to their own ways and habits to see if these may be improved morally, so as to be juster or kinder. Their life may not be vicious; and, if they are naturally amiable and cheerful, it may have much in it to commend. But thoughtlessness about one's own conduct can never properly be praised. The art of human life together is the greatest of all arts, and it can never be learned too thoroughly. We can make the most and the surest progress in it by "giving heed" to it.

We are not to become morbid and think overmuch about ourselves: we should look out, not in; up, not down; forward, not back; and be ready to lend a hand. But observation of the moral life in others, who excel in truth and goodness, should be frequent, that we may learn of them to be and to do better. We should not be satisfied with a low standard of right, content to do as most others are doing in our neighborhood, or town, in our political party, or our section of the country. To do a thing because others do it is not a sufficient reason. We are bound to consider if it is right, according to our highest and most correct ideas of right; if it is not right we are bound, in reason and

nonor, not to do it. No moral progress would be possible if some one did not set the example of following his conscience rather than complying with a bad habit which many persons are practising. The strictly conscientious and honorable people are usually in the minority; but we should look to them, not to the majority, to discover the whole extent of our duty. If the truly honorable of the earth are wise, their practice in a particular field must in time widen and widen, until it has become general.

A very important part of our duty is to enlighten our minds by thought and discussion and reasoning on moral matters. We easily get into the rut of personal routine and class prejudice, and we often need to have a free play of fresh thought and feeling over the surface of our living. It is a good practice, in this respect, occasionally to go away for a time, from our work and our homes, even from those who are dearest to us. Returning, we find ourselves stronger and more interested in our work, and more appreciative of the beauty and love at home. It is good, too, every day to read and consider some inspiring word about conduct by one of the many great teachers who can help us to live in the spirit. Like Goethe, we can refresh ourselves and lift up the whole level of the day with five minutes spent over a poem or a picture. Thus we learn, little by little, what magnanimity is, and, however slowly, come to live nobly. Upon our actual practice a stream of earnest thought should play; and strength to do the highest right will come by exercise of the power we have, as we understand better and feel more deeply the full meaning of the whole moral law. So feeling, we rejoice to repeat the magnificent eulogy of the "Stern Lawgiver" in the "Ode to Duty

"Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,

:

And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong."

With Wordsworth we join in the petition:

"To humbler functions, awful Power!

I call thee: I myself commend
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
Oh, let my weakness have an end!
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!"

NOTES.

THE evolution of morals has been the theme of numerous writers of the present day, who have industriously collected a great amount of information concerning the conduct of mankind in all times and countries. But the difficulties to ethical theory presented by the wide variations of conduct among men have long been a familiar topic with writers on ethics. See for an example of a recent treatment of the subject, in Paul Janet's Theory of Morals, the chapter on the universality of moral principles and moral progress.

"The world advances, and in time outgrows

The laws that in our fathers' days were best;
And doubtless after us, some purer scheme
Will be shaped out by wiser men than we,
Made wiser by the steady growth of truth."
LOWELL.

Civilization grows largely in proportion to the willingness and ability of men to coöperate; and coöperation demands great moral qualities which we cannot begin too soon to cultivate.

"All are needed by each one:

Nothing is fair or good alone."

"The enthusiasm of humanity" is the name happily given by Professor J. R. Seeley to the highest type of desire to work for others. Mr. Leslie Stephen has worked out the conception of society as a moral organism in his Science of Ethics; the idea of "social tissue" is fully developed by him. He concludes, however, "But it is happy for the world that moral progress has not to wait till an unimpeachable system of ethics has been

elaborated." Progressive Morality, by T. Fowler, and Moral Order and Progress, by S. Alexander, contain able discussions of the advance of morality.

The moral progress of most importance to each one of us is indicated in Wordsworth's "Happy Warrior" :

"Who not content that former worth stand fast,

Looks forward, persevering to the last,

From well to better, daily self-surpast; "

in Dr. Holmes's "Chambered Nautilus," and in D. A. Wasson's "Ideals."

CHAPTER XV.

LIFE ACCORDING TO THE GOLDEN RULE.

Every art has its ideal, the standard of perfection, toward which the efforts of all who practise it are more or less consciously directed. In human conduct, the greatest of all arts for the mass of mankind, this ideal would be, theoretically, the realization in one life of all the virtues that we can name. But they are so many, and human beings have such different natural dispositions, temperaments, and talents that, practically, we do not expect any person, even the best, to be "a model of all the virtues:" such a phrase is ironical on the face of it. But there is one rule for conduct, observance of which is universally allowed to be a mark of every thoroughly good person. It is the precept known. to us all as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. This is so extremely important a rule of conduct to bear in mind constantly and to obey every hour, that we shall do well to consider it carefully.

The beginning of morality, we have seen, is obedience to the law of life together, and this means selfcontrol, the willingness to do our part, no less, and to take our share, no more. But the greatest foe of the good life is the intense and irrational impulse almost every person has to assert himself, even to the loss or injury of others, to take more than his due share of the good things, and less than his share of the work, the hardships and the sufferings of human life. The extreme point of this selfishness is murder and war, in which one takes away from others even life itself, the