Practical Ethics — William De Witt Hyde
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 : Practical Ethics Author : William De Witt Hyde Release date : January 20, 2008 [eBook #24372] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24372 Credits : Produced by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been underlined in the text. Position your mouse over the word to see the correction. A complete set of notes follows the text. PRACTICAL ETHICS BY WILLIAM DeWITT HYDE, D. D. President of Bowdoin College NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Copyright , 1892, BY HENRY HOLT & CO. THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. PREFACE. The steady stream of works on ethics during the last ten years, rising almost to a torrent within the past few months, renders it necessary for even the tiniest rill to justify its slender contribution to the already swollen flood. On the one hand treatises abound which are exhaustive in their presentation of ethical theory. On the other hand books are plenty which give good moral advice with great elaborateness of detail. Each type of work has its place and function. The one is excellent mental gymnastic for the mature; the other admirable emotional pabulum for the childish mind. Neither, however, is adapted both to satisfy the intellect and quicken the conscience at that critical period when the youth has put away childish things and is reaching out after manly and womanly ideals. The book which shall meet this want must have theory; yet the theory must not be made obtrusive, nor stated too abstractly. The theory must be deeply imbedded in the structure of the work; and must commend itself, not by metaphysical deduction from first principles, but by its ability to comprehend in a rational and intelligible order the concrete facts with which conduct has to do. Such a book must be direct and practical. It must contain clear-cut presentation of duties to be done, virtues to be cultivated, temptations to be overcome, and vices to be shunned: yet this must be done, not by preaching and exhortation, but by showing the place these things occupy in a coherent system of reasoned knowledge. Such a blending of theory and practice, of faith and works, is the aim and purpose of this book. The only explicit suggestions of theory are in the introduction (which should not be taken as the first lesson) and in the last two chapters. Religion is presented as the consummation, rather than the foundation of ethics; and the brief sketch of religion in the concluding chapter is confined to those broad outlines which are accepted, with more or less explicitness, by Jew and Christian, Catholic and Protestant, Orthodox and Liberal. WILLIAM DeWITT HYDE. Bowdoin College , Brunswick, Me. May 10, 1892. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction, 1 I. Food and Drink, 9 II. Dress, 19 III. Exercise, 25 IV. Work, 32 V. Property, 40 VI. Exchange, 46 VII. Knowledge, 53 VIII. Time, 60 IX. Space, 65 X. Fortune, 70 XI. Nature, 81 XII. Art, 89 XIII. Animals, 98 XIV. Fellow-men, 104 XV. The Poor, 117 XVI. Wrongdoers, 127 XVII. Friends, 137 XVIII. Family, 144 XIX. State, 157 XX. Society, 167 XXI. Self, 179 XXII. God, 194 OUTLINE OF PRACTICAL ETHICS See Last Paragraph of Introduction. Object. Duty. Virtue. Reward. Temptation Vice of Defect Vice of Excess Penalty Food and drink, Vigor, Temperance, Health, Appetite, Asceticism, Intemperance, Disease. Dress, Comeliness, Neatness, Respectability, Vanity, Slovenliness, Fastidiousness, Contempt. Exercise, Recreation, Cheerfulness, Energy, Excitement, Morbidness, Frivolity, Debility. Work, Self-support, Industry, Wealth, Ease, Laziness, Overwork, Poverty. Property, Provision, Economy, Prosperity, Indulgence, Wastefulness, Miserliness, Want. Exchange, Equivalence, Honesty, Self-respect, Gain, Dishonesty, Compliance, Degradation. Sex, Reproduction, Purity, Sweetness, Lust, Prudery, Sensuality, Bitterness. Knowledge, Truth, Veracity, Confidence, Ignorance, Falsehood, Gossip, Distrust. Time, Co-ordination, Prudence, Harmony, Dissipation, Procrastination, Anxiety, Discord. Space, System, Orderliness, Efficiency, Disorder, Carelessness, Red Tape, Obstruction. Fortune, Superiority, Courage, Honor, Risk, Cowardice, Gambling, Shame. Nature, Appreciation, Sensitiveness, Inspiration, Utility, Obtuseness, Affectation, Stagnation. Art, Beauty, Simplicity, Refinement, Luxury, Ugliness, Ostentation, Vulgarity. Animals, Consideration, Kindness, Tenderness, Neglect, Cruelty, Subjection, Brutality. Fellow-men, Fellowship, Love, Unity, Indifference, Selfishness, Sentimentality, Strife. The Poor, Help, Benevolence, Sympathy, Alienation, Niggardliness, Indulgence, Antipathy. Wrong-doers, Justice, Forgiveness, Reformation, Vengeance, Severity, Lenity, Perversity. Friends, Devotion, Fidelity, Affection, Betrayal, Exclusiveness, Effusiveness, Isolation. Family, Membership, Loyalty, Home, Independence, Self-sufficiency, Self-obliteration, Loneliness. State, Organization, Patriotism, Civilization, Spoils, Treason, Ambition, Anarchy. Society, Co-operation, Public Spirit, Freedom, Self-interest, Meanness, Officiousness, Constraint. Self, Realization, Conscientiousness, Character, Pleasure, Unscrupulousness, Formalism, Corruption. God, Obedience, Holiness, Life, Self-will, Sin, Hypocrisy, Death. INTRODUCTION. Ethics is the science of conduct, and the art of life. Life consists in the maintenance of relations; it requires continual adjustment; it implies external objects, as well as internal forces. Conduct must have materials to work with; stuff to build character out of; resistance to overcome; objects to confront. These objects nature ha