Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools — John Ormsby Miller
J. O. Miller, M.A. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools Author : John Ormsby Miller Release date : August 11, 2013 [eBook #43439] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43439 Credits : Produced by Greg Bergquist, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF J. O. MILLER, M.A., Principal of Bishop Ridley College TORONTO: THE BRYANT PRESS 1895 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture, by REV. J. O. MILLER, M.A., St. Catharines, Canada. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. DUTY 7 II. OBEDIENCE 15 III. TRUTHFULNESS 19 IV. COURAGE 24 V. PURITY 30 VI. UNSELFISHNESS 35 VII. HONESTY 40 VIII. FAITHFULNESS 45 IX. PROFANITY 50 X. JUSTICE 54 XI. BENEVOLENCE 59 XII. AMBITION 63 XIII. PATRIOTISM 68 XIV. BODILY EXERCISE 72 XV. HABIT 77 XVI. INDUSTRY 82 XVII. SELF-CONTROL 88 XVIII. SELF-RELIANCE 91 XIX. FRIENDSHIP 95 XX. GENTLEMANLINESS 100 XXI. COURTESY 105 XXII. REPENTANCE 110 XXIII. CHARACTER 115 XXIV. CONSCIENCE 120 PREFACE This little book has grown out of periodical addresses to my own pupils. An experience of over ten years has convinced me of the necessity of teaching systematically the fundamental principles of Morality. The scarcity of books suitable as elementary texts is a sufficient proof that the subject is neglected in our schools. It cannot be right that children should be left to master so wide a subject from incidental instruction and from example. I should be sorry if any one thought, from glancing at the topics I have treated, that I seemed content to put lessons in practical Morality in place of instruction in the Scriptures and definite religious teaching. Nothing can take the place of the Scriptures. But I feel convinced that these two aspects of Truth must go hand in hand. The young mind requires the truth to be presented to it from all sides, and nothing appeals to it so strongly as a modern example. My own idea as to the use of such a book as this is that it should supplement Bible instruction. The lessons are short enough to be taught in half an hour. If one topic is taken up each week, and thoroughly explained, and enlarged on by fresh examples from current life and history, the whole book can be easily mastered in the school year, and leave ample time for review and examination. If it should prove helpful to other teachers, my labour will be amply rewarded. Bishop Ridley College, St. Catharines, Feb. 28th, 1895. Μἑγας γαρ ὁ ἁγων, μἑγας, οὑχ ὁσος δοκεἱ, τὁ χρηστὁν ἡ κακον γενἑσθαι. — Plato. [Greek: Megas gar ho agôn, megas, ouch hosos dokei, to chrêston ê kakon genesthai.] No. I. DUTY Duty is something which is due, and which, therefore, ought to be paid or performed. It is something owed by everybody, to God, to self, or to others. No other word is more disliked by the slothful than the word Duty. The mention of the word itself causes weariness to a boy or man of that kind. We can only get to like the word and the thing itself by accustoming ourselves to perform it regularly, a little at a time. A boy or girl with a fine ear and a natural talent for music hates, at first, the daily practising and the uninteresting lessons; but, as soon as the difficulties are mastered, playing an instrument becomes a delight. Duty, in itself, is not a distasteful thing; it is because we hate anything which gives us trouble that it seems unbearable. We can teach ourselves to like taking pains. Duty is, in one sense, the great law which governs the universe. The planets revolving about the sun, the moon encircling the earth, even the erratic comets, in fulfilling the laws of their being, perform the duties which they are set. So, too, the plants and animals of the lower creation obey the laws under which they live. Even of inanimate things, pieces of human mechanism, may this be said. The pendulum of the clock will tick until it is worn out, if it receive the care necessary for its work. We see what wonderful things a machine can be made to do for man in Edison's marvellous inventions of the kinetoscope and the kinetograph. Human duties differ from those of the lower creation and of the inanimate world in this, that in the latter the duties are performed by virtue of the great law of necessity, whereas man is free. That is what makes human duties moral—that is where the ought comes in. If we love idleness, and most of us do at first, we naturally hate the idea of Duty. If we give way to our feelings and desires, we shall only hate Duty more intensely, and we are in danger of becoming not much better than the brutes around us; in fact, we are giving way to the brute part of our nature. Human nature differs from brute nature in having a Conscience, which continually whispers in our hearts, "I must not," and "I ought." It is our first duty to listen to Conscience. The longer we practise doing duties the easier they become. A great man once said: "A man shall carry a bucket of water on his head and be very tired with the burden; but that same man, when he dives into the sea, shall have the weight of a thousand buckets on his head without perceiving their weight, because he is in the element, and it entirely surrounds him." After running two miles for the first time, a boy feels great stiffness, but after he has done it twenty times he feels nothing but the pleasure of good health arising from pleasant exercise. In the same way, he translates a single sentence in his Latin grammar with great difficulty at first,