In Egypt the Belief in Immortality Reached its Highest Development-Mysticism and Idealism. All the Higher Ideals of Christian Morality Firmly Estab- lished Principles throughout the World Ages before our Era-The Resemblance between Christian Worship and the Worship of Earlier Faiths. The Origin of the Faith-The Doctrines of Jesus-A Glance at the Present State of Christianity in America. An Ultimate Analysis Essential to an Understanding of Morality-The Scope of Moral Perceptions-The Effect upon Conduct of the Belief in a Personal God and a Future Life-Language and Intelligence as Factors in Morality-The Origin of the Idea of Duty or Obligation -The Questions of Personal and of National Purity. XXIV. APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA IN BEHALF OF THE RELIGION OF PHILOSOPHY. The Question Considered with Regard to Nations and Men -The Question Considered with Regard to Children- Religion is the Highest or Most General Thought and Feeling; Morality the Embodiment of Both in Action Thales-Anaximenes Diogenes of Apollonia-Anaximander Pythagoras. NIGGE IN searching, for the dawn of philosophy one becomes lost in the perspectives of the past. The comprehension of any study depends so largely upon what is brought to it by the student, upon the suggestions of his own knowledge, that in reading the myths and theories which have come down to us from the most ancient thinkers, it is natural to imagine them pregnant with the deepest meaning. We see in these early efforts to comprehend man and nature vague expressions of the very problems which occupy us to-day. Thus, owing to the plane of experience from which we regard ancient thought, we are apt to overestimate its significance. For us the difficulty is, to limit the meaning of the language of the ancients by the actual knowledge which they possessed. In this difficulty a knowledge of the nature of language comes to our assistance. Language itself is but a system of symbols representing ideas by virtue of an agreement which is the slow outgrowth of usage. The nicety of the adjustment of words to ideas is to be estimated by the precision with which the ideas are called up by the words. If, for instance, a certain combination of words leaves a choice or uncertainty as to the idea intended to be conveyed, the expression is imperfect in proportion to the extent of the uncertainty. In thinking, we are obliged to employ words, 3 |