A NOTE OF EXPLANATION TO THE

READER

IN publishing this volume of lectures it should be stated quite frankly that I am not presuming to offer a new or important contribution to ethical literature. It may be that there is not a single original idea contained in these pages. But any one man's opinions have a certain value simply as opinions, if they have come to him through considerable thinking, study, and experience. The thoughts outlined in these lectures have developed for me one after another in my efforts to meet the problems of life as these problems have arisen in connection with the work of an ethical lecturer. I have not entered into the metaphysical aspects of the subject, preferring to wait and do that some time later on, after much longer reflection. The attitude taken in the volume is neither that purely of the scholar nor that of the man wholly immersed in practical life. A teacher in ethics or religion occupies a position between these two classes. He will read extensively and think a great deal; but his deepest convictions or beliefs will be shaped while he is seeking to apply his reading or thinking to the questions of life. as they come up from day to day. Only from this standpoint is it possible that these lectures may be worthy of perusal. When a man endowed with a deeply religious nature, and educated in the conventional orthodox faith, is driven gradually to abandon many of the views of his earlier days, naturally he will be compelled to think out all the great issues of life over again. This Ethical Movement met the cravings of my religious nature, and made up to me for what I had lost. It has given me something to live for and believe in. And now, in drawing to the close of the first ten years of labour as Lecturer of the St. Louis Ethical Society, I am bringing these thoughts together

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and publishing this volume in commemoration of that event. should be stated with the greatest explicitness that I am speaking only for myself in these lectures, and that no other person and no other body of people should be considered as represented by them. While ethical societies have been established in numbers both in Europe and America, each, however, stands by itself, independent of what may be said or taught on other platforms. Yet I cannot refrain from expressing how much I owe to my friends and co-workers, Mr. S. Burns Weston and Mr. W. M. Salter. But above all others, there is one with whom I have discussed these subjects, to whom I have submitted several of the manuscripts of these lectures, to whom I owe any number of valuable suggestions, and through whose influence I came into the work, the one by whom I have been inspired more than by any other living man and the one whom I regard as the true leader of the Ethical Movement of to-day. He would probably disagree with many of the views in this volume. Yet this only makes my debt of gratitude for his sympathy and help all the greater. That one, it is needless to say, is the one to whom this volume is dedicated.

ST. LOUIS, MO., February, 1896.

W. L. SHELDON.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE ETHICAL

SOCIETIES

ABOUT twenty years ago Dr. Felix Adler, then lecturer at Cornell University, took the first steps leading to the organization of the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City. The movement had a number of strong and earnest supporters at the start. Lectures were given on Sunday mornings in Standard Hall. After a short interval the Society moved to Chickering Hall, and for upwards of fifteen years the lectures were given there during the winter season.

The Society had not been long established before it became active in practical reform work in the city. The leader of the movement, ably seconded by those who gathered around him, inaugurated plans for district nursing in the homes of the poor, tenement-house reforms, and a number of other important undertakings, the chief of which was a large kindergarten and day school that should give educational opportunities of the most advanced kind to the children of the humbler classes. This latter branch is now known as the Workingmen's School. Several hundred are taught in it, and it has become an influential factor in educational work throughout the United States. It is supported by an association, separate or distinct from the Ethical Society, but has been guided all along by one and the same leader.

The history of the Society in New York would require a volume in itself, so varied and important have been its practical undertakings. The inspiration for all the effort came mainly from the Sunday morning lectures. The movement stood apart from the churches, and yet it seemed to be able to inspire men to do much the same kind of work as the church had been supposed exclusively capable of accomplishing. Already some years

ago it was apparent that the audiences had outgrown Chickering Hall, and now the Sunday morning lectures are held in the large and beautiful auditorium of Carnegie Hall. Most of the addresses are by the leader himself, although occasionally Dr. Adler invites others to occupy the platform in his place.

After the Society had been active for a few years, a number of young men from different parts of the country were drawn to it and became eager to enter upon the same line of effort. They worked in New York in each instance for a length of time, studying the Society's methods, acting under the guidance of the lecturer and rendering him such assistance as they were capable of. Then one after another they went to found new societies in other cities. Twelve or thirteen years ago Mr. W. M. Salter became the lecturer of an ethical society in Chicago. Later on another such society was founded in Philadelphia under the guidance of Mr. S. Burns Weston. The fourth to be established was in St. Louis ten years ago. Other young men are now in New York also expecting ere long to go forth in the same cause. Each of these societies has its own individuality. None of them are as large in numbers or play so important a rôle in their respective communities as the Society in New York. Yet there is a certain marked resemblance in the character of their efforts and work. The same peculiar blending of ethical religion with practical measures for social reform, has been a striking feature of the whole movement in America. Many a stranger attending the lectures would at first be a little at a loss to know whether or not he was present at the "services" of a church. These four societies, each with a regular lecturer, hold their meetings on Sunday mornings, the meetings always being open to the public.

At first the conservative element looked askance upon the movement and in some ways were strongly antagonistic to it. There was something unique about it which the outside public could not understand. These new societies seemed to bring all the various classes together. Both the mechanic and the man of wealth were seen co-operating here for the same purpose. Gradually some of the opposition to the movement has subsided, although it is still apparent and probably will survive for a length of time.