oV
 
 1876 1896 
 
 TWENTY YEARS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 E/tlaical JVlovement 
 
 IN 
 
 NEW YORK AND OTHER CITIES. 
 
 PHII.ADRI.PHI A : 
 
 S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch Street. 
 1896.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY 15, 1876, by FELIX ADLER .... i 
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NEW YORK 
 ETHICAL SOCIETY, MAY 15, 1896: 
 
 ADDRESS BY ALFRED R. WOLFF 17 
 
 ADDRESS BY WM. M. SALTER 22 
 
 ADDRESS BY M. M. MANGASARIAN 25 
 
 ADDRESS BY FELIX ADLER 26 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES : 
 
 THE NEW YORK ETHICAL SOCIETY 35 
 
 THE CHICAGO ETHICAL SOCIETY 42 
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA ETHICAL SOCIETY 45 
 
 THE ST. Louis ETHICAL SOCIETY 49 
 
 THE ETHICAL MOVEMENT IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND 
 
 SWITZERLAND 53 
 
 APPENDIX : 
 
 THE CONGRESS OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN ETH- 
 ICAL SOCIETIES AT ZURICH, by FELIX ADLER, . . 55
 
 PRINTED BY INNE8 & SON, PHILADELPHIA
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY ISTH, 1876. 
 
 At Standard Hall, New York.* 
 BY FELIX ADLER. 
 
 FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt 
 in the community that, without prejudice to existing 
 institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be 
 employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general 
 good. During the past few years this conviction has 
 steadily gained in force and urgency, until lately a 
 number of gentlemen have been impelled to give it 
 shape and practical effect. 
 
 Conceiving that in so laudable an enterprise they may 
 justly hope for the sympathy and co-operation of the 
 friends of progress, they have invited you to join in their 
 deliberations this evening, and upon me devolves the 
 task of stating, as frankly and plainly as may be, the 
 end we have in view and the means by which its 
 achievement will be attempted. At such a time, when 
 we are about to set forth on a path hitherto untried and 
 likely to lead our lives in a new direction, it appears 
 eminently desirable and proper that we should, in the 
 first place, briefly review the public and private life of 
 the day, in order to determine whether the essential 
 elements that make up the happiness of states and indi- 
 
 * Given at the meeting called to organize the first Society for Ethical 
 Culture. 
 
 (I)
 
 2 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 viduals are all duly provided, and if not, where the need 
 lies and how it can best be supplied. 
 
 On the face of it, our age exhibits certain distinct 
 traits in which it excels all of its predecessors. Eulogies 
 on the nineteenth century are familiar to our ears, and 
 orators delight to descant upon all the glorious things 
 which it has achieved. Its railways, its printing presses, 
 its increased comforts and refined luxuries all these 
 are undeniable facts, and yet it is true none the less, that 
 great and unexpected evils have followed in the train of 
 our successes, and that the moral improvement of nations 
 and their individual components has not kept pace with 
 the march of intellect and the advance of industry. 
 Before the assaults of criticism many ancient strong- 
 holds of faith have given way, and doubt is fast spread- 
 ing even into circles where its expression is forbidden. 
 Morality, long accustomed to the watchful tutelage of 
 faith, finds this connection loosened or severed, while no 
 new protector has arisen to champion her rights, no 
 new instruments been created to enforce her lessons 
 among the people. As a consequence we behold a 
 general laxness in regard to obligations the most sacred 
 and dear. An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire 
 for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, 
 and in instances no longer rare the most precious and 
 permanent goods of human life have been madly sacri- 
 ficed in the interests of momentary enrichment. 
 
 Far be it from me, indeed, to disparage the import- 
 ance of commerce or to slight its just claims as an 
 agent in the service of humanity. In a country of such 
 recent civilization as ours, whose almost limitless treas- 
 ures of material wealth invite the risks of capital and
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 3 
 
 the industry of labor, it is but natural that material inter- 
 ests should absorb the attention of the people to a degree 
 elsewhere unknown. But all the more on this account 
 it is necessary to provide a powerful check and counter- 
 poise, lest the pursuit of gain be enhanced to an import- 
 ance never rightfully its own, lest, in proportion as we 
 enhance our comfort and well-being, comfort and well- 
 being become the main objects of existence, and life's 
 grander motives and meanings be forgotten. We have 
 already transgressed the limit of safety, and the present 
 disorders of our time are but precursors of other and 
 imminent dangers. The rudder of our ship has ceased 
 to move obedient to the helm. We are drifting on the 
 seething tide of business, each one absorbed in holding 
 his own in the giddy race of competition, each one 
 engrossed in immediate cares and seldom disturbed by 
 thoughts of larger concerns and ampler interests. Even 
 our domestic life has lost much of its former warmth 
 and geniality. The happy spirits of unaffected content 
 and simple endearment are sadly leaving our low-burnt 
 hearth-fires. Fagged and careworn the merchant re- 
 turns to his home in the evening. He finds his children 
 weary. His own mind is distracted. In these troub- 
 lous times business cares not unfrequently dog him even 
 into the seclusion of the family circle. How, then, is he 
 to discover that tranquil leisure, that serenity of soul 
 which he needs to be a true father to his little ones. 
 He cannot form their characters ; he cannot justly esti- 
 mate their needs. Perforce he leaves their education in 
 part to the wife and modern wives have their own 
 troubles and are often but little fitted to undertake so 
 arduous a task in part he must abandon it to strangers.
 
 4 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 It has been said that the modern world is divided 
 between the hot and hasty pursuit of affairs in the hours 
 of labor, and the no less eager chase of pleasure in the 
 hours of leisure. But even our pleasures are calculated 
 and business like. We measure our enjoyments by the 
 sum expended. Our salons are often little better than 
 bazars of fashion. We wander about festive halls, chew- 
 ing artificial phrases which we neither believe nor desire 
 to be believed. We breathe a stale and insipid perfume 
 from which the spirit of joy has fled. The brief ex- 
 hilaration of the dance, the physical stimulus of wine 
 and of food, the nervous excitement of a game of hazard, 
 perhaps these make up the sum total of enjoyment in 
 by far the majority of our so-called parties of pleasure. 
 Surely, of all things melancholy in American life, Amer- 
 ican mirth is the most melancholy ! And were it not 
 for Music that divine comforter which sometimes wins 
 us to higher flights of emotion and speaks in its own 
 wordless language of an ideal beauty and harmony far 
 transcending the prosy aspirations to which we confess 
 our life would be utterly blank and colorless. We 
 should be like the bees that build, they know not why, 
 and hive honey whose sweetness they never enjoy. 
 There is a great and crying evil in modern society. It 
 is want of purpose It is that narrowness of vision 
 which shuts out the wider vistas of the soul. It is the 
 absence of those sublime emotions which, wherever they 
 arise, do not fail to exalt and consecrate existence. 
 True, the void and hollowness of which we speak is 
 covered over by a fair exterior. Men distil a subtle 
 sort of intoxication from the ceaseless flow and shifting 
 changes of affairs, and the deeper they quaff the more
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1 876. 5 
 
 potent for awhile is the efficacy of the charm. But 
 there comes a time of rude awakening. A great crisis 
 sweeps over the land. The sinews of trade are relaxed, 
 the springs of wealth are sealed. Old houses, whose 
 foundations seemed as lasting as the hills, give way 
 before the storm. Reverse follows reverse. The man 
 whose energies were hitherto expended in the accumu- 
 lation of wealth finds himself ruined by the wayside. 
 His business has proved a failure. Is his life, too, there- 
 fore a failure ? Is there no other object for which he can 
 still live and labor? Nor need we turn to such seasons 
 of unusual disaster in order to exhibit the instability 
 and insufficiency of the common motives of life. There 
 are accidents to which we all are alike exposed and 
 which none, however favored by fortune, can hope to 
 avoid. A blight comes upon our affections. The dearest 
 objects of our solicitude are taken from us. Our home 
 is darkened with the deep darkness of the shadow of 
 death. In such hours, what is to keep our heart from 
 freezing in chill despair, to keep our head high and our 
 step firm, if it be not the deep-seated, long and carefully 
 matured conviction, that man was set into the world to 
 perform a great and unselfish work, independent of his 
 comfort, independent even of his happiness, and that in 
 its performance alone he can find his true solace, his 
 lasting reward ? To arouse such courage, to build up 
 and buttress such a conviction, would not this be a 
 loyal and much-needed service ? 
 
 Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the 
 fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt. 
 
 When on the 3Oth of April, 1789, General Washing- 
 ton was for the first time inducted into the presidential
 
 6 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 office in this city of New York, he declared that "the 
 national policy would be laid in the pure and immutable 
 principles of private morality." And he appealed to 
 the wisdom and integrity of those first legislators whom 
 the country had chosen under its new constitution, as a 
 pledge and safeguard of the Republic's future welfare. 
 Could he return to us now in this season of jubilation, 
 how sadly altered would he find the condition of our 
 affairs ! There is not a morning's journal that reaches 
 us that is not besmirched with tales of theft and per- 
 jury. The very names that ought to be held up as lumi- 
 naries of honor have become bywords of villany, and 
 the foul stench of corruption fills our public offices. 
 See how the Nation, in this the festal epoch of her mar- 
 riage to Liberty, stands blackened with the crimes of 
 her first dignitaries, and hides her head in shame before 
 the nations ! And for what have these miserable men 
 bartered away their honor and that of the people ? For 
 the same unhallowed und unreasoning desire of rapid 
 gain which has brought such heavy disaster upon the 
 commercial world : to support the extravagance of their 
 households ; to deepen, perhaps, the potations of a 
 carousal ! Statesmen and philanthropists are busy sug- 
 gesting remedies for the cure of these great evils. But 
 the renovation of our Civil Service, the reform of our 
 Primaries, and whatever other measures may be devised, 
 they all depend in the last instance upon the fidelity of 
 those to whom their execution must be intrusted. They 
 will all fail unless the root of the evil be attacked, unless 
 the conscience of men be aroused, the confusion of right 
 and wrong checked, and the loftier purposes of our
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 7 
 
 being again brought powerfully home to the hearts of 
 the people. 
 
 I have spoken of our private needs and of the larger 
 claims of the public well-being. But another question 
 now presents itself, fraught with deeper and tenderer 
 meanings even than these. The children, the heirs of 
 all the great future, what shall we do for them ? Into 
 this world of sinfulness and sorrow, with its thousand- 
 fold snares and sore temptations, shall we let their white 
 souls go forth without even an effort to keep them stain- 
 less ? Do you not struggle and toil and trouble, that 
 you may leave them, when you die, some little store of 
 earthly goods, something to make their life easier, per- 
 haps, than yours has been that you may turn to your 
 long sleep, knowing that your children shall not want 
 bread ? And for that which is far more precious than 
 bread shall we make no provision ? When your bodies 
 have long been mouldering in the grave, they will live, 
 men and women, fighting the world's battles and bearing 
 the world's burdens like yourselves. Would you not 
 feel the benign assurance that they will be true men and 
 noble women ? that the fair name which you transmit to 
 them will ever be clean in their keeping ? that they will 
 be strong even in adversity, because they believe in the 
 destiny of mankind and in the dignity of man ? And 
 what efforts do we make to attain this end ? We teach 
 them to repeat some scattered verses of the Bible, some 
 doctrine which at their time of life they can but half 
 comprehend at best ; and then, at thirteen or fourteen, 
 at the very age when doubt begins to arise in the young 
 heart, when in its inefficient gropings towards the light, 
 youth stands most in need of friendly help and counsel
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 we send them out to shift for themselves. Is it with 
 such an armor that we can equip them for the hard hand- 
 to-hand fight of after-life ? Or do you conceive a magic 
 charm, a talismanic power to guard from evil, to reside 
 in these empty words which you teach your children's 
 lips to spell ? 
 
 Already complaints are multiplying on every hand 
 that that most gracious quality of all that adorns the 
 age of childhood the quality of reverence is fast 
 fading from our schools and households ; that the old- 
 time respect for father and mother is diminished, and 
 grown rarer and more uncertain. Twenty years ago, 
 what high prophecies did we not hear of the future of 
 the generation then growing up ! What inspiriting 
 promises of the full bloom into which the still closed 
 petals of their life would one day open ! Have the 
 young men of the present day fulfilled these pledges ? 
 Has the passive reverence of the child developed into 
 the active aspiration of the man ? Do you find them in 
 the higher walks of their professions I say take them 
 as a whole, and set aside a few brilliant exceptions 
 have they illustrated the sterling qualities of the race 
 they sprang from, the dearer virtues of our common 
 humanity ? We have sown the seeds of long neglect. 
 We are but reaping the bitter Sodom fruit of dead hopes 
 and fair promises turned to ashes. And now I need not 
 appeal to your business instincts to show that any 
 change, if it is to come and a change must come can 
 be brought about only, first, by united effort ; secondly, 
 by applying that great principle which has been the 
 secret of the enormous progress of industry and com-
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 9 
 
 merce in the past century the salutary principle of 
 division of labor. 
 
 You do not build your own houses, nor make your 
 own garments, nor bake your own bread, simply because 
 you know that if you were to attempt all these things 
 they would all be more or less ill done. But you go to 
 the builder to build your house, to the baker to bake 
 your bread, because you know that in limitation there is 
 power, that limitation and combination are the essentials 
 of success. On this account you limit your own ener- 
 gies to some one of the many callings which society has 
 marked out, and by combination with your fellows, are 
 certain that in proportion as your own part is well per- 
 formed, you may command the best services in every 
 department in exchange for what you offer. What is 
 true of material wants is also pertinent in the case of 
 intellectual needs. If you desire information on some 
 point of law, you are not likely to ponder over the pon- 
 derous tomes of legal writers in order to obtain the 
 knowledge you seek, by your own unaided efforts. But 
 you apply to some one in the profession in whose abili- 
 ties you see reason to confide. The same holds good in 
 every department of knowledge. In every case you 
 turn to the specialist, trusting that, if from any source at 
 all, you will obtain from him the best of what you need. 
 Nor is it otherwise in education. For though you pos- 
 sess a sufficient knowledge of the branches taught in 
 our schools, yet you are well aware that it is one thing 
 to know, and quite another to impart knowledge. And 
 so again you step aside in your own persons to intrust 
 the office of training your children in the arts and sci- 
 ences to an instructor, to a specialist. And if all this
 
 10 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 be true, then it follows that, if the moral elevation of 
 ourselves, the moral training of our children, be also an 
 object worth achieving, ay, if it be the highest object of 
 our life on earth, then we dare not trust for its accom- 
 plishment to the sparse and meager hours which the 
 busy world leaves us. Then, here as elsewhere, society 
 must set apart some who shall be specialists in this, who 
 shall throw all the energy of temper, all the ardor of 
 aspiration, all the force of heart and intellect, into this 
 difficult but ever glorious work. 
 
 The past speaks to us in a- thousand voices, warning 
 and comforting, animating and stirring to action. What 
 its great thinkers have thought and written on the deep- 
 est problems of life, shall we not hear and enjoy? The 
 future calls upon us to prepare its way. Dare we fail 
 to answer its solemn summons ? 
 
 And now for all these purposes we propose to unite 
 our efforts in association, and to set apart one day of 
 the seven as a day of weekly reunion, a day of ease, 
 that shall come to repair the wasted energies of body 
 and mind, and whereon, in the enjoyment of perfect 
 tranquillity, the finer relations of our being may find 
 time to acquaint us with their sweet and friendly influ- 
 ences. What that day shall be it is not for us to deter- 
 mine. The usages of American society have long since 
 settled that practically it is, and for the present at least 
 can be, only the Sunday. This is the sole day of respite 
 whereon the great machine of business pauses in its 
 operations, and leaves you to direct your thoughts to 
 other than immediate cares. In the ancient synagogue 
 the Monday and Thursday, in the early church the 
 Wednesday and Friday, were set apart for purposes of
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. II 
 
 higher instruction, over and above the stated Sabbath 
 meetings. If the Monday, the Thursday, the Wednes- 
 day, or the Friday had in our community been elimi- 
 inated from the week of labor, we should accept any 
 one of them with the same willingness. The name of 
 the day is immaterial. It is the opportunity it offers 
 with which alone we are here concerned. And how 
 others see fit to spend the day is foreign to our consid- 
 eration, and whatever mischievous construction may be 
 placed upon our work will quickly be dispelled, depend 
 upon it, by the character and testimony of the work 
 itself. The young men, at all events, can desist from 
 labor upon no other day than the Sunday. Heads of 
 firms may, if they see fit, incur the risk of taking an 
 exceptional position in the business community ; but the 
 young men, who depend upon others for patronage and 
 employment, cannot in this matter select their own 
 course, and if they attempt it will be met by innumer- 
 able and insuperable obstacles at every step. But it has 
 been urged by some that the Sunday should be devoted 
 to the intimate intercourse of the domestic circle, from 
 which our merchants are so often debarred at other 
 times. This is an honorable motive, surely, which we 
 are bound to respect. But is it, indeed, believed that a 
 single hour spent in serious contemplation will at all 
 unduly infringe upon the time proper to the home circle ? 
 Rather will it give a higher tone to all our occupations, 
 and lend a newer and fresher zest even to those enjoy- 
 ments which we need and seek. 
 
 The exercises of our meetings are to be simple and 
 devoid of all ceremonial and formalism. They are to 
 consist of a lecture mainly, and, as a pleasing and grate-
 
 12 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 ful auxiliary, of music to elevate the heart and give rest 
 to the feelings. The object of the lectures shall be 
 twofold : First, to illustrate the history of human aspi- 
 rations, its monitions and its examples ; to trace the 
 origin of many of those errors of the past whose 
 poisonous tendrils still cling to the life of the present, 
 but also to exhibit its pure and bright examples, and so 
 to enrich the little sphere of our earthly existence by show- 
 ing the grander connections in which it everywhere stands 
 with the large life of the race. For, as the taste is refined 
 in viewing some work of ideal beauty some statue vivid 
 with divine suggestion, some painting glowing with the 
 painter's genius so in the contemplation of large 
 thoughts do we ourselves enlarge, and the soul for a 
 time takes on the grandeur and excellency of whatever 
 it truly admires. Secondly, it will be the object of the 
 lecturers to set forth a standard of duty, to discuss our 
 practical duties in the practical present, to make clear 
 the responsibilities which our nature as moral beings 
 imposes upon us in view of the political and social evils 
 of our age, and also to dwell upon those high and tender 
 consolations which the modern view of life does not fail 
 to offer us even in the midst of anguish and affliction. 
 Do not fear, friends, that a priestly office after a new 
 fashion will be thus introduced. The office of the public 
 teacher is an unenviable and thankless one. Few are 
 there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's 
 life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to 
 stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile 
 minds. Moreover, the lecturer is but an instrument in 
 your hands. It is not to him you listen, but to those 
 countless others that speak to you through him in
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 13 
 
 strange tongues, of which he is no more than the 
 humble interpreter. And what he fails to express, 
 what no language that was ever spoken on earth can 
 express those nameless yearnings of the soul for some- 
 thing better and happier far than aught we know of 
 Music will give them utterance and solve and soothe 
 them. 
 
 We propose to entirely exclude prayer and every form 
 of ritual. Thus shall we avoid even the appearance of 
 interfering with those to whom prayer and ritual, as a 
 mode of expressing religious sentiment, are dear. And 
 on the other hand we shall be just to those who have 
 ceased to regard them as satisfactory and dispensed 
 with them in their own persons. Freely do I own to 
 this purpose of reconciliation, and candidly do I confess 
 that it is my dearest object to exalt the present move- 
 ment above the strife of contending sects and parties, 
 and at once to occupy that common ground where we 
 may all meet, believers and unbelievers, for purposes in 
 themselves lofty and unquestioned by any. Surely it is 
 time that a beginning were made in this direction. For 
 more than three thousand years men have quarrelled 
 concerning the formulas of their faith. The earth has 
 been drenched with blood shed in this cause, the face 
 of day darkened with the blackness of the crimes per- 
 petrated in its name. There have been no direr wars 
 than religious wars, no bitterer hates than religious 
 hates, no fiendish cruelty like religious cruelty ; no 
 baser baseness than religious baseness. It has destroyed 
 the peace of families, turned the father against the son, 
 the brother against the brother. And for what ? Are 
 we any nearer to unanimity ? On the contrary, diver-
 
 14 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 sity within the churches and without has never been so 
 widespread as at present. Sects and factions are multi- 
 plying on every hand, and every new schism is but the 
 parent of a dozen others. And it must be so. Let us 
 make up our minds to that. 
 
 The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every 
 individual man, and diversity will continue to increase 
 with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the 
 human intellect. But if difference be inevitable, nay, 
 welcome in thought, there is a sphere in which una- 
 nimity and fellowship are above all things needful. Be- 
 lieve or disbelieve as ye list we shall at all times re- 
 spect every honest conviction. But be one with us 
 where there is nothing to divide in action. Diversity 
 in the creed, unanimity in the deed! This is that prac- 
 tical religion from which none dissents. This is that 
 platform broad enough and solid enough to receive the 
 worshipper and the " infidel." This is that common 
 ground where we may all grasp hands as brothers, 
 united in mankind's common cause. The Hebrew 
 prophets said of old, To serve Jehovah is to make 
 your hearts pure and your hands clean from corruption, 
 to help the suffering, to raise the oppressed. Jesus of 
 Nazareth said that he came to comfort the weary and 
 heavy laden. The philosopher affirms that the true 
 service of religion is the unselfish service of the com- 
 mon weal. There is no difference among them all. 
 There is no difference in the law. But so long have they 
 quarrelled concerning the origin of law that the law itself 
 has fallen more and more into abeyance. For indeed, as 
 it is easier to say, " I do not believe," and have done with 
 it, so also it is easier to say, " I believe," and thus to
 
 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 15 
 
 bribe one's way into heaven, as it were, than to fulfil 
 nobly our human duties with all the daily struggle and 
 sacrifice which they involve. "The proposition is peace !" 
 Peace to the warring sects and their clamors, peace also 
 of heart and mind unto us that peace which is the 
 fruition of purest and highest liberty. Let religion un- 
 furl her white flag over the battlegrounds of the past, 
 and turn the fields she has desolated so long into sunny 
 gardens and embowered retreats. Thither let her call 
 the traveler from the dusty high-road of life to breathe 
 a softer, purer air, laden with the fragrance of the 
 flowers of wonderland, and musical with sweet and 
 restful melody. There shall he bathe his spirit in the 
 crystal waters of the well of truth, and thence proceed 
 again upon his journey with fresher vigor and new 
 elasticity. 
 
 Ah, why should there be any more the old dividing 
 line between man and his brother-man ? why should the 
 fires of prejudice flare up anew between us ? why should 
 we not maintain this common ground which we have 
 found at last, and hedge it round, and protect it the 
 stronghold of freedom and of all the humanities for the 
 long years to come ? Not since the days of the Refor- 
 mation has there been a crisis so great as this through 
 which the present age is passing. The world is dark 
 around us and the prospect seems deepening in gloom. 
 And yet there is light ahead. On the volume of the 
 past in starry characters it is written the starry legend 
 greets us shining through the misty vistas of the future 
 that the great and noble shall not perish from among 
 the sons of men, that the truth will triumph in the end, 
 and that even the humblest of her servants may in this
 
 16 ADDRESS OF MAY I5TH, 1876. 
 
 become the instruments of unending good. We are 
 aiding in laying the foundations of a mighty edifice, 
 whose completion shall not be seen in our day, no, nor 
 in centuries upon centuries after us. But happy are we, 
 indeed, if we can contribute even the least towards so 
 high a consummation. The time calls for action. Up, 
 then, and let us do our part faithfully and well. And 
 oh, friends, our children's children will hold our mem- 
 ories dearer for the work which we begin this hour.
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE 
 
 OF NEW YORK, 
 
 CARNEGIE HALL, FRIDAY EVENING, MAY I5TH, 1896.* 
 
 ADDRESS BY ALFRED R. WOLFF, f 
 
 Well may the joyous strains of solemn music fill the 
 air, well may the glorious beauty of blooming flowers 
 greet the eye, for we are here to-night to celebrate a 
 great occasisn. Oh, that our feeble speech could as fit- 
 tingly translate the gladness of the heart ! 
 
 Imbued with a love for the Society and for the princi- 
 ples it inculcates, we rejoice in our existence these twenty 
 years. We rejoice in what has been accomplished in 
 the past ; we rejoice still more in the greater and better 
 things to be accomplished in the future. We rejoice that 
 our movement has spread and is spreading on fruitful 
 soil here and abroad, in the new world and in the old. We 
 rejoice that new and strong leaders have espoused our 
 
 * The Hall was beautifully decorated with flowers, and classical music 
 was rendered, before and after each address, by the Musical Art Society 
 of New York, under the direction of Mr. Frank Damrosch. 
 
 f On behalf of the members of the Society for Ethical Culture of New 
 York. 
 
 (17)
 
 1 8 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 cause. We rejoice that our own distinguished leader, 
 he who called this great movement into existence and 
 who has been its fountain source, our trusted and beloved 
 guide these many years, is with us to-day, in the prime 
 of his power, undimmed in intellect, ripe in experience, 
 rich in soul, his life bound up with and consecrated to 
 the cause. 
 
 Those of us who, looking backward, remember the 
 many prophecies of our speedy and effective dissolution, 
 cannot but feel that the very fact of having existed 
 twenty years counts for much, for in all this time there 
 has been no backsliding, no change of principle, no 
 change of heart, merely a healthy development and a 
 vigorous growth. 
 
 We hold in grateful memory the small band of earnest 
 men who launched the ship and helped steer it in the 
 right course. We glory in their enthusiasm and self- 
 sacrifice, and, kindled by their example, we resolve that 
 henceforth our efforts will be more worthy of theirs. 
 
 We are attached to our Society. We believe in the 
 principles it represents. We recognize that nothing 
 should be left undone to discover the right. We favor 
 the broadest inquiry, we court the deepest philosophy, 
 the closest introspection, but the mere formulation of 
 the right in the abstract does not satisfy our needs. We 
 know that the right must be translated practically into 
 every action of our lives. Our home life must show 
 plain evidence of this, so must our career in business or 
 in the professions. Our duties as citizens must be con- 
 ceived in a high spirit, and the great social reforms and 
 humanitarian problems of the world must claim our 
 hearty co-operation and loving devotion. We may be
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. IQ 
 
 frail and weak and not always succeed, but we recognize 
 the obligation, even when we score a failure. 
 
 In the existing complex and interwoven organization 
 of society the individual is dependent on his fellowmen, 
 and right living is difficult, not to say impossible, if there 
 be not a congenial and responsive environment. It is 
 this which makes association of those who would dis- 
 cover and act the right so important ; it is the answer to 
 those who would favor individualism in ethics and dis- 
 courage societies for ethical culture. The moral hero 
 may need no impulse from without, for him temptations 
 may not exist, but the ordinary mortal, anxious to live 
 his part well, requires spiritual companions, the hand of 
 fellowship, the strength of good example, encourage- 
 ment, and a sympathetic surrounding. Then, too, the 
 social conditions are still so bad, there is so much remedial 
 and curative work to be done, that only co-operation and 
 the active association of many can accomplish even 
 slight changes in the right direction. Our individualistic 
 moral hero may lead a beautiful inspiring life passively, 
 but to do so with equal success actively he cannot ignore 
 the outer world, but must co-operate with other spirits 
 whose aims are high. We, members of the Society for 
 Ethical Culture, know we are but ordinary mortals who 
 need the light of wisdom and inspiration which others 
 wiser and better can give us ; who need the strength 
 which comes from high endeavor, from union in a good 
 cause, the fellowship of congenial souls, and, therefore, 
 we are banded together. We feel we are better fitted to 
 do our part in the world's work because of this union. 
 
 On this, our twentieth anniversary, it is pardonable to 
 note with gratification that we have been enabled to con
 
 2O TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 tribute our little share to some important educational and 
 social reforms. Our Workingman's School, in which the 
 training of the hand, the mind, and the heart is brought 
 into one harmonious union, in which culture in its broad- 
 est sense is the goal, is rated by educators the world 
 over as a pioneer institution of undoubted success, a far- 
 reaching influence for the good. The district nursing 
 system, which has brought relief to many sufferers has 
 proved of such value that it has become a regular insti- 
 tution of the leading Dispensaries. We might recall 
 much other important work, but let us rather in this 
 hour of joy and happiness feel that what has been done 
 is as nothing to what has been left undone and still re- 
 mains to be done. Let us rather contemplate the past 
 in the spirit of consecration and dedication to the future, 
 resolved that henceforth we will strive to do better, 
 and, above all, to be better. For it is the inward peace 
 which we must gain : so to live that we feel in touch 
 with the divine purpose which permeates tne world. 
 To the extent we realize this, to that extent do we realize 
 the spirit of religion, which should be the flower of an 
 ethical inspiration, of an ethical life. The more our 
 souls are filled with and guided by the love of the right, 
 the more our every action and principle in life is the out- 
 growth and the logical result of this spirit, the greater 
 will be our achievement, the greater our peace, and there 
 will come to us a faith in the triumph of the right which 
 is certainly akin to, if it be not, religion. 
 
 Because this is our belief, therefore are we members of 
 the Society. To us the Society represents a vital issue and 
 a vital force. It is not a club, it is not a purely secular 
 organization ; we cherish it as an aid and a necessity to our
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 21 
 
 soul-life. It represents to us a church, teaching no tenet 
 inconsistent with the severest logic and the profoundest 
 science, but still a church, for it recalls to us our rela- 
 tion to the life universal and bids us do our part fittingly, 
 manfully, well, despite any discouragements, despite any 
 hardships, despite any temptations. It teaches the ulti- 
 mate triumph of the right, and that it is our part to be 
 a factor and an agent to help bring about this triumph. 
 
 I have spoken as a member of the crew. The ship 
 we sail is steering for the City of the Light. Far dis- 
 tant as we are from the coveted shore, our trained and 
 faithful captains feel its magnetic influence. Inspired, 
 they describe to us their vision and bid us follow them 
 and work with renewed, untiring energy. We know we 
 cannot reach the shore, but we are happy in the thought 
 that our work may bring the ship nearer its destination. 
 It is a noble cruise. We recall to-night that we have 
 sailed the ship for twenty years ; we have made some 
 headway on the voyage. Privileged to be of the crew, 
 we proclaim our eagerness to continue the voyage bound 
 for the same goal, under the same fine guidance, our 
 hearts full of joy that we can do our small part in the 
 onward course of the good ship. With Longfellow we 
 say : 
 
 " In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
 
 In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
 
 Are all with thee all with thee !"
 
 22 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 ADDRESS BY WILLIAM M. SALTER. 
 
 Members of the Society for Ethical Culture, this is a 
 glad day for you here. But it is my privilege to say 
 that beyond the city of New York there are those who 
 are rejoicing with you. This is a local anniversary, but it 
 awakens a national, I might say, an international interest. 
 You of this Society have started a stream of influence 
 and the stream may be stronger at its fountain head than 
 anywhere else but it is a stream that has reached other 
 cities and other lands and has refreshed dry and thirsty 
 hearts wherever it has gone. 
 
 Six years after you began here, a kindred society 
 sprang up in Chicago. Two years later, a society arose 
 in Philadelphia. In one year more the St. Louis Ethical 
 Society was born. And the proudest testimony which 
 these spiritual children of your leader could give to him 
 is that so much of his vitality and vigor has passed into 
 them that even without him they could hold a successful 
 convention in some respects the most successful con- 
 vention the American Ethical Societies ever had 
 recently in St. Louis (in connection with the tenth anni- 
 versary of the local Society). A few years later yet, the 
 West London Ethical Society formed itself under the 
 leadership of Dr. Coit, and since then three other socie- 
 ties have been formed in that great city. Germany, too, 
 has given birth to an ethical movement, and through 
 Germany the movement has gone to Austria, Italy and 
 Switzerland. France has an at least similar movement, 
 though not so directly an offspring of the American 
 movement as those in other countries. All of these
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 23 
 
 societies are rejoicing in your anniversary to-day, or 
 would, if they knew of it. 
 
 Out of several messages that have been received I will 
 read these two : 
 
 VIENNA, May 15, 1896. 
 Felix Adler, New York : 
 
 Heartiest wishes from Austrian Ethical Society. 
 
 BREZINA, President. 
 
 BERLIN, May 15, 1896. 
 Felix Adler, New York : 
 
 To to-day's celebration the German Society for Ethical Culture 
 sends most cordial good wishes and fraternal gratitude. 
 
 As I came over on the train from Philadelphia this morn- 
 ing I read the address made by your leader in Standard 
 Hall just twenty years ago. I marveled at the clear 
 vision and the firm hand with which he portrayed the 
 evils of the time which your Society was designed to 
 meet, and when he said at the close : " And oh, friends, 
 our childrens' children will hold our memories dearer for 
 the work which we begin this hour," I wondered if he 
 had any idea of children in the larger and less local 
 sense, such as those to whom I have referred. Children 
 from afar as well as those in New York, children whom 
 you may never see, as well as those growing up under 
 your eyes, rise up in spirit and bless you for the bold, 
 brave stand taken by your leader twenty years ago, and 
 for the ready and ever loyal response which you have 
 given to his appeals. Few men, I think, have accom- 
 plished so much in twenty years as Felix Adler, particu- 
 larly in so difficult a field as that of moral reform ; and, 
 after all, the work is but in its beginnings. 
 
 One actual problem now is to hold the ethical move-
 
 24 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 ment together. It has grown so large, it is spreading 
 so rapidly, that it is even difficult to keep track of it 
 not to say, hold it together in bonds of conscious fel- 
 lowship. With the new day we need new institutions. 
 We need what I might call a Home and Foreign Secre- 
 tary who should keep in touch with the societies, old 
 and new, and keep them in touch with one another. We 
 do not wish to have the movement disintegrate and split 
 up into mere local, self-centered, organizations, but to 
 remain one body and to have a common spirit and a 
 common life. There is danger of irresponsible societies 
 arising and doing injury as well as good to our cause, 
 unless we are alert to these needs and aggressive in 
 meeting them. 
 
 And then how great the need of leaders ! There is 
 not a large city in our land in which an Ethical Society 
 might not be planted, had we the right men to put at 
 their head. And in a new movement, leaders are abso- 
 lutely necessary. Interest, even enthusiasm, are not 
 sufficient. There must be intelligent direction. What 
 an opportunity is thus open to young men yes, I might 
 add, young women ! The fact is our movement is grow- 
 ing beyond our power to wisely direct it at once a 
 splendid tribute to you who begot it and yet a matter 
 for anxious concern and serious consideration. 
 
 Yes, friends of the New York Society, there is just 
 one thing that gives me disappointment in these twenty 
 years of your history. You and your leader have left a 
 noble record of yourselves in the large undertakings of 
 public utility you have set on foot in this city, in the 
 elevated utterances from your platform, in the example 
 and the help you have lent to sister societies elsewhere.
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 25 
 
 But you have not given us another ethical leader out of 
 your own midst. And we need one. We need one 
 born and bred under the influences that have only come 
 to the rest of us in later years, and that, had they come 
 earlier, might have made us twice the men that we are. 
 Yes, why shall I not say it ? We need another son of 
 Israel, one of that race to whom imagination and genius 
 and eloquent speech come like gifts of nature, who can 
 fire the heart as perhaps we of colder blood cannot, and 
 of whom, according to an authority revered all over the 
 Christian world, human salvation comes. Would there 
 were within reach of my voice to-night some one who 
 in all humility, and yet in all confidence, might heed 
 the call, on whom the rich mantle of your leader might 
 fall and who might do elsewhere the great and beneficent 
 work which he has been doing here ! If I could drop 
 a thought of this sort into fruitful ground here I should 
 count myself happy indeed. 
 
 Society for Ethical Culture of New York, your friends 
 and children from near and from far greet you through 
 me now ; we want more like you, we want more leaders 
 like yours ! 
 
 ADDRESS BY M. M. MANGASARIAN. 
 
 Not having received the manuscript of Mr. Manga- 
 sarian's address, we can only give a brief resume of 
 what he said. He began by saying that he wished to 
 congratulate the New York Society upon the great 
 work they had achieved, and hoped that their devotion
 
 26 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 to the cause and their example would inspire the sister 
 societies to larger action. He wanted to see the idea of 
 the movement more widely spread in this country and 
 to have it stand for large affirmations, for affirmations 
 that would in time create an ethical liturgy in which 
 both lecturer and congregation could take part. The 
 aim of our movement is not to rob the world of faith 
 and hope, but to rationalize and elevate them. The 
 message of ethics is not a message of doubt, of uncer- 
 tainty, but of positive faith in the moral verities of life. 
 Ethics is synonymous with hope, not despair ; it is a 
 religion to all who believe that the moral life is the 
 supreme end of human endeavor. 
 
 ADDRESS BY FELIX ADLER. 
 
 It is under the stress of deep feeling that I address 
 you to-night, at the close of the second decade of our 
 existence. A score of years has passed since a small 
 company of men and women a mere handful agreed 
 to associate themselves together for purposes which 
 seemed to them exceedingly, nay, incomparably, signifi- 
 cant. The seed that was then planted has not perished. 
 The words then spoken have had a certain resonance. 
 We have heard this evening echoes of them from across 
 the sea. And yet this is no occasion for self-congratula- 
 tion. Truly, the legend of St. Christopher is applicable in 
 a wider sense than its literal meaning would imply the 
 legend of the man who undertook to carry the Christ-
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 27 
 
 child on his shoulders across a stream. And the deeper 
 he entered into the water the heavier became the burden 
 which he had assumed so lightly at the start, until it 
 pressed upon him like a mountain, and he threatened to 
 succumb beneath its weight. Such is the experience of 
 all who, in the sanguine days of youth, have assumed 
 the divine burden of a reformation of any kind ; and 
 there is no salvation for them unless their strength shall 
 increase in proportion as the load increases. This, 
 then, is an occasion useful and needful for us, that we 
 may renew our strength, our courage, our hope. And 
 we can best do so by going back for a moment to the 
 source from which we derived our original impetus, by 
 reviewing the reasons which led to the formation of our 
 Society, by coming face to face with those principles 
 which were the incentives that prompted us. It is said 
 that the mere sight of the gods is rejuvenating. So, 
 also, is the contemplation of god-like ideals. 
 
 The motive that prompted the formation of the So- 
 ciety was the desire for an institution which, for its 
 members, should take the place of a church. The 
 church, in its broadest sense, has a social function. 
 The function of the church is to present the ideal of 
 society as it ought to be, in the midst of human society, 
 imperfect as it actually is. It is also to be a fair pat- 
 tern, a living embodiment, a suggestive type, of more 
 ideal relationships than those which commonly prevail. 
 As the ideals of society differ, so do churches differ. 
 But the church, in the widest meaning of the word 
 call it by whatever name you please is not perishable. 
 It will last as long as the state lasts, or, rather, until 
 it shall have absorbed the state into itself. Now the
 
 28 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 church, it should be remembered, has a service to ren- 
 der to the families as well as to the individuals of which 
 it is composed. The family life, if it is to be thoroughly 
 wholesome and fine, requires the consecration of con- 
 scious connection with the larger social life that sur- 
 rounds it. And there are a variety of points at which 
 this connection needs to be particularly accentuated. 
 The first point is at the inception of the family life, when 
 the foundations of a new home are laid, when the mar- 
 riage tie is knit. The state can only legalize marriages. 
 It is in the name of the ideal society, and its exalted 
 purposes, from which the new home receives the light 
 that is to fill it, that marriages are solemnized. Another 
 point of connection is to be found in the moral educa- 
 tion of the young. If, indeed, a piece-meal morality is 
 not deemed sufficient ; if it be desirable that the frag- 
 mentary virtues which are learned by casual precept and 
 example, be combined into a consistent scheme of con- 
 duct, then there must be offered to the minds of grow- 
 ing youths and maidens a distinct social ideal from which 
 all the several duties may be derived, in which they may 
 all be united, and which shall fill the young with a 
 noble enthusiasm for social service. The individualist is 
 mistaken if he believes that he can discharge this deli- 
 cate pedagogical duty. An institution is needed to 
 provide for the satisfaction of this need. And again, 
 in the hour of bereavement, the family realizes its de- 
 pendence on the larger human society by which it is 
 enveloped. When the common fate has struck us, and 
 we relalize in our own case the common lot, it is only 
 the thought of the common purpose of mankind's exist- 
 ence on earth that can sustain us. It is Humanity, the
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 29 
 
 bearer of age-long sorrows, acquainted with nameless 
 griefs ; humanity with its tear-stained face, with its scars 
 and wounds, and yet also with the radiant eye that looks 
 beyond and beyond, and its sad, wise smile of patience 
 and resignation, that alone can hush our private griefs ! 
 And it is this voice, through whatever mouth-piece, that 
 should be heard in the house of mourning. To solemnize 
 marriages, to whisper the reconciling words into the 
 silence of death, to give point and unity to the moral 
 life of the youg these are some of the services to be 
 expected from such societies as this. It is not good for 
 families to stand alone, if they would have the best 
 family life. Nor does the loose association of a group 
 of friendly families, changeful, dependent, often, on mere 
 accident, interest, or sentiment, supply the need. It is 
 requisite that the family should not only be imbedded in 
 the community, but organically related to it, and that 
 through the medium of an association, which has in it 
 an element of permanence and greatness, because it 
 stands for what is most lasting and greatest in the in- 
 terests of society at large. 
 
 But our association has a duty to perform for the in- 
 dividuals, as well as for the families, of which it is com- 
 posed. There is a vessel of purest gold, says the Bud- 
 dhist story, for which, when the Buddha saw it, he gave 
 all that he had in exchange ; and then ran swiftly to the 
 river's brink and plunged into the flood, risking his life 
 in the attempt to save his treasure from those who would 
 have robbed him of it. There is a pearl of great price, 
 says the parable of the New Testament, for which the 
 merchant who sought goodly pearls sold all his posses- 
 sions in order that he might purchase it. There is one
 
 3O TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 thing needful yes, for us, too one thing needful. We 
 want a new doctrine of life to take the place of the disin- 
 tegrating creeds. We want to lay our hands upon the 
 sovereign throne of truth, even if the figure that sits 
 thereon be veiled. We want to come into touch with 
 the ultimate power in things, the ultimate peace in things, 
 which yet, in any literal sense, we know well that we 
 cannot know. We want to be morally certain ; that is, 
 certain for moral purposes of what is beyond the reach 
 of demonstration. Agnosticism, in the absolute sense, 
 does not exist. The strictest constructionist of the 
 limits of knowledge does yet plant certain stupendous 
 affirmations in the realm of the unknowable, certain 
 postulates such as that of the uniformity of nature's 
 processes the truth of which he can never fully verify, 
 which serve him rather as instruments for discovering 
 truths which he can verify. So we, too, are justified in 
 planting in the realm of*the unknowable the working 
 hypothesis of human conduct, a postulate upon which 
 we depend in order to extend the boundaries and pro- 
 mote the ends of the good. And the postulate I have 
 in mind is identical with what is commonly called moral 
 optimism the belief, namely, that the better side of 
 things will come uppermost ; that moral progress is not 
 a chimera ; that the course of evolution is not circular 
 but ascending ; that something worth while is develop- 
 ing in the world ; that the labor and the anguish are 
 not in vain ; that the good and the tt ue are rooted in 
 the nature of things, and mingle their spurs in the sub- 
 soil of the universe. But this moral optimism, which 
 includes the darkest facts that pessimism can oppose 
 includes and transcends them how can we obtain it?
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 3! 
 
 To this question the answer is given in our name 
 " Ethical Culture." 
 
 Of Goethe Carlyle said that " in his creations is em- 
 bodied the religious wisdom which is proper to this 
 time, which may still reveal to us glimpses of the unseen 
 but not unreal world, that so clear knowledge may 
 be again wedded to religion." If Goethe had uttered 
 the religious teaching proper to this time, why have not 
 the multitudes fed on him and satisfied themselves with 
 his teachings ? Goethe, it is true, more than any one 
 else, inaugurated what is called the era of "culture." 
 But he was poet and artist, and his scheme of culture is 
 suited mainly for poets and artists like himself. The 
 rest of mankind it is calculated to satisfy only on one 
 side of their nature the aesthetic side. To live ear- 
 nestly, so as to produce genuine works of art ; to enter 
 into the deeper understanding of art, so as to give to 
 actual life the formal poise and finish of a work of art ; 
 in other words, to make harmony and beauty the begin- 
 ning and the end of all human endeavor such is the 
 gospel of culture as put forth by Goethe. It is a gospel 
 the value of which as an element of wisdom cannot be 
 denied ; but it cannot, on the other hand, be said that it 
 is "the religious teaching which is proper to our time." 
 It is fitted for those who dwell on Olympian levels, not 
 for the dust-covered fighters in the arena ; for those who 
 stand aloof from the dire struggle for existence as spec- 
 tators, not for those who are subject to its stress and 
 strain. The watchword "culture" we may indeed 
 adopt. But there is needed the qualifying prefix " eth- 
 ical " to give it a practical direction, and a still higher 
 aim than the aesthetic one. Culture, therefore, we also
 
 32 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 say, but Ethical Culture ; and by that we mean that we 
 must appeal, not primarily to the feelings, as Goethe 
 did, but to the will ; that we shall seek the truest devel- 
 opment of self, not in subjective enjoyment, however 
 subtle and refined, but in laboring for an objective 
 good ; that we shall ever be willing, if need be, to sac- 
 rifice the present harmony of our lives for the sake of a 
 far-off universal harmony which is to be in the future, 
 of which we can only dimly, faintly, foresee the beauty 
 and the holiness. None the less, in weighty words, has 
 Goethe outlined the method of all culture, and that 
 method prescribes the cardinal rule which we, too, must 
 follow. Words, he says, are incapable of articulating 
 what is best, and where words fail, the act, the deed, 
 clarifies. Deeds, executive efforts, are the means which 
 put us in possession of the principles that should 
 underlie doing. And this is also our persuasion ; and 
 hence the strenuous emphasis which we put on deeds 
 not, as has been superficially understood, as if we 
 recommended what is called " the doing of good" the 
 feeding of the hungry, the nursing of the sick, the edu- 
 coting of the ignorant as a makeshift substitute to 
 console us in the despair of principles ; as a narcotic to 
 allay the pain which is caused by the absence of a great 
 central conviction but deeds as the means of discover- 
 ing principles, as a means of bringing to the birth a 
 truer, broader, and deeper conviction. 
 
 To such deeds we are challenged by the circum- 
 stances of the age in which we live. This age is an 
 age of pleasure for the giddy, an age of anxiety and 
 profound concern for the thoughtful. The murmuring 
 discontent that arises from the laboring masses, the
 
 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 33 
 
 dangers that menace the institution of the family in 
 every civilized country, the failure that has attended 
 every experiment in democratic government thus far to 
 achieve the true welfare of nations, have raised a series 
 of terrifying problems which, sooner or later and better 
 soon than late society must meet. And all these 
 problems, as has been justly said, lead down, if we 
 follow them far enough, to ethical foundations, and. 
 depend for their solution upon two factors : a new 
 influx of moral power, and the evolution of a new con- 
 science that is, the clearer perception of those moral 
 requirements on which, amid the altered conditions of 
 the present, the progress of mankind depends. To aid 
 in the evolution of this new conscience, to inject living 
 streams of moral force into the dry veins of materialistic 
 communities, that was our program twenty years ago 
 when we began. That, seen in sharper outlines, is our 
 program to-day. 
 
 To you, members of my Society, who have accepted 
 this program ; who have, during so long a period, amid 
 manifold discouragements and against the odds of pre- 
 judice and misconstruction, sustained my own incip- 
 ient efforts in this great contention, whose loyalty and 
 trust have been to me perpetual springs of strength, I 
 owe, on this occasion, what ? the expression of my per- 
 sonal sense of appreciation ? No, you do not expect that, 
 and I cannot offer it. What is best cannot articulate itself 
 in words ; and the ties that exist between us are too 
 intimate and delicate to become matter of formal recog- 
 nition. Let us, rather, to-night jointly renew our oath 
 of allegiance to our flag. Let us consecrate ourselves, 
 with a more earnest purpose, to the work that is waiting
 
 34 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 to be done. And let us take heart of hope in the belief 
 that the bells on the great watch-tower of time, as they 
 ring out the passing years, will ring in, at last, the better 
 day. Ring out the old and in the new ! Ring out the 
 false and in the true ! 
 
 " Ring in the valiant man and free, 
 The larger heart, the kindlier hand. 
 Ring out the darkness of the land, 
 Ring in the light that is to be !"
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL 
 SOCIETIES. 
 
 The Society for Ethical Culture of New York. 
 
 In the Centennial year of our national independence, when a 
 general spirit of hopefulness was in the air, and the recollection 
 of great events in the past stirred men's hearts, the corner-stone 
 of the Society for Ethical Culture was laid. Even at that time 
 the number of "liberal" societies in the country was consider- 
 able, and the teachings of men like Channing, Parker, and, 
 above all, Emerson had done much to prepare the way for an 
 Ethical Movement. On the I5th of May, 1876, several hundred 
 persons, interested in the formation of a Society for Ethical 
 Culture, met in Standard Hall, at the corner of Forty-second 
 street and Broadway. Dr. Adler, then lecturer at Cornell Uni- 
 versity, delivered an address in which he gave expression to 
 those principles on which the work of the Society has ever since 
 rested. At the conclusion of the address the Society was regu- 
 larly constituted. Thus the I5th of May became the birthday 
 not only of the Ethical Society in New York, but of the Move- 
 ment in America. The address of that evening is elsewhere re- 
 printed in full. 
 
 The Sunday lectures were at first given in Standard Hall. 
 After a few years, however, the accommodations proving insuffi- 
 cient, the Society removed to Chickering Hall, where it remained 
 until 1892. The audiences having again outgrown the capacity 
 of the Hall, another change became necessary, and during the 
 past four years the lectures have been delivered in the Carnegie 
 Music hall, at the corner of Fifty-seventh street and Seventh 
 avenue. The work of the Society has always attracted much at- 
 tention outside of its own membership. About half the seats in 
 the large hall are reserved for strangers, and many thousands 
 have availed themselves of this privilege and come under the 
 
 (35)
 
 36 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 influence of the Movement, even if they have not directly 
 allied themselves with it. Very early in the history of the Society 
 a number of young men were attracted to the ideas which it rep- 
 resented and prepared themselves to undertake the duties of 
 Ethical leadership. After remaining a few years in New York 
 with Prof. Adler, one after another of these men went out to 
 found new Societies in different cities of the United States. Thir- 
 teen years ago Mr. W. M. Salter became lecturer of the Ethical 
 Society in Chicago.* Two years later another Society was 
 founded in Philadelphia, under the direction of Mr. S. Burns 
 Weston. A fourth was established in St. Louis, just ten years 
 ago, by Mr. W. L. Sheldon. Dr. Stanton Coit, who had also 
 been lecturer in New York for several years, found a congenial 
 field of work in England, and established the West London 
 Ethical Society ; while in Germany, in Austria, in Italy and in 
 Switzerland the same Movement has recently taken root. The 
 following sketch of the various educational and philanthropic 
 activities in which the New York Society is engaged will best 
 show in what way the life of the Society is expressing itself. 
 
 THE ETHICAL .CULTURE SCHOOLS. 
 
 If Ethical Culture is to become a reality, it must be begun among 
 the young and then continued unremittingly in manhood and old 
 age. The moral development of children is promoted to some 
 extent by direct moral instruction, but it depends even in a 
 greater degree upon a thousand subtle moral influences. The 
 home is usually regarded as the place where the child is to be 
 surrounded by such influences. But the daily school also affords 
 the most valuable opportunities for the same sort of influence, 
 and its importance in this connection is not generally recognized 
 as much as it ought to be. If the Ethical Culture Movement is 
 to be perpetuated, it must get hold of the young. If it is to get 
 hold of the young, it must gain possession of the daily school. 
 The New York Society, starting from this conviction, undertook 
 to establish a school of its own, which has steadily grown and 
 which now numbers over four hundred pupils. This school has, 
 
 * Of which the present leader is Mr. M. M. Mangasarian, Mr. Salter having taken 
 charge of the Society in Philadelphia
 
 NEW YORK ETHICAL SOCIETY. 37 
 
 in many ways, marked a new departure. It was the first to in- 
 troduce manual training as a regular part of the curriculum in 
 all classes. The teaching of art and elementary science received 
 particular attention. A system of unsectarian moral instruction 
 was introduced, the aim of which was to demonstrate practically 
 how ethical ideas might be conveyed to the minds of children 
 independently of theological dogmas. The methods of the school 
 have been widely studied, commented on, and partly copied in 
 this and other countries. But what is characteristic of this insti- 
 tution is its spirit rather than its technique. As illustrative of 
 this spirit the following points may be mentioned : 
 
 First, the greatest possible pains are taken by the staff of 
 teachers to discover the bent of every pupil and to develop him 
 along the lines of his natural aptitude, on the principle that every 
 human being that is born into the world is unique to some ex- 
 tent, however slightly, and that his " salvation " consists in being 
 helped to express what he was designed by nature to be. The 
 art, science, technical skill, literary training, etc., employed in 
 this school, besides subserving the purposes of elementary culture 
 in general, are more specifically applied as so many tests for as- 
 certaining the individual bent of the pupils. 
 
 Secondly, a school diary is kept, in which ihe characteristic 
 qualities of the child intellectual and moral as they show 
 themselves, are noted down. This record is carefully continued 
 from the day the child enters the school until it leaves. Its 
 intellectual and moral development is thus, as far as possible, 
 photographed, with the design of helping the teachers and 
 parents more thoroughly to understand the child its needs, its 
 virtues, its defects, the promise which it seems to contain, the 
 peculiar perils by which it seems to be menaced. 
 
 Thirdly, every effort is made to create in the school an enthu- 
 siasm for social service. Labor is the central idea to which all 
 other ideas are correlated labor in the interest of the progress 
 of mankind. The story of human civilization is told as far as 
 children are able to understand it. The inter-dependence of the 
 various occupations and vocations is explained in the same way. 
 The lives of the great thinkers and doers who have led the race 
 forward on its path are held up for admiration. The school con-
 
 38 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 siders its task accomplished if its pupils go forth carrying with 
 them the idea of efficient and thorough work, with scorn in their 
 hearts for slipshod performance of any sort, and with the earnest 
 desire to render some kind of service to humanity according to 
 the measure of their ability. 
 
 Lastly, it may be stated that the school can never degenerate 
 into a class school a rule of the Board of Trustees requiring 
 that at least fifty per cent, of the pupils shall be the children of 
 poor parents. The mingling of social classes the democratic 
 constitution of the school is regarded as an important factor in 
 developing character and creating a right view of life. 
 
 The school at present takes pupils up to the fourteenth year. 
 A system of secondary schools is being planned, and has already 
 been started, which is intended to carry the work of the society 
 up to the beginnings of manhood and womanhood. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE YOUNG MEN. 
 
 Early in the history of the Society there was f6rmed a group 
 of young men, known as the "Union for the Higher Life." 
 This little Union was productive of excellent results. There was 
 a tacit understanding among the members as to certain matters 
 relating to the conduct of life for instance, as to purity and 
 charity. The members taxed themselves strictly for purposes of 
 charity (the main point being that charity should be regarded 
 as a duty, and not be left to mere impulse), and further, they 
 were to make it their aim to increase in ethical knowledge and 
 insight. The little Union has furnished to the Society some of its 
 most faithful members and most earnest workers. For a long time 
 it supported a home for neglected children ; and this home was 
 only discontinued after its inmates had become self-supporting. 
 It is hoped that the Union will be renewed and enlarged during 
 the coming winter. 
 
 Under the leadership of Dr. John Elliott, and with the assist- 
 ance of the young men of the Society, an attempt is being made 
 to disseminate the moral ideas for which the Society stands among 
 the inhabitants of one of the poorest tenement-house districts of 
 New York. A number of clubs for workingmen and boys have 
 been formed for this purpose, the good influence of which is
 
 NEW YORK ETHICAL SOCIETY. 39 
 
 already beginning to be felt in the neighborhood. The imme- 
 diate object of these clubs is to redeem those who belong to them 
 from the half-savage life of the streets, to promote social refine- 
 ment, to create a taste for good literature, to stimulate the slug- 
 gish mind, and to awaken higher and better aspirations. 
 
 The Young Men's Union, so-called, an association consisting 
 of several hundred members, contributes to the social life of the 
 Ethical Society by a series of monthly entertainments, and has 
 been highly useful in furnishing financial aid toward the charities 
 of the Society. 
 
 The Young People's Union of Harlem is engaged in the seri- 
 ous study of ethical and social questions, under the leadership of 
 the best teachers to be found on these subject.* 
 
 THE WORK OF THE WOMEN. 
 
 In the Spring of 1893 the Women's Conference of the Society 
 for Ethical Culture was organized. The various groups of women 
 working within the general lines of the Women's Conference are : 
 
 1. The Ladies' Auxiliary Union, founded fifteen years ago, 
 with a present membership of 1 50. The object of this group is 
 to supply garments and other necessaries for the sick to various 
 hospitals and dispensaries, and indirectly to assist a number of 
 deserving women in earning a decent livelihood. 
 
 2. The Ladies' Committee of the United Relief Works, the 
 object of which is to assure a certain sum every year to the man- 
 agers of the charities of the Society. This Committee has done 
 most efficient work, and has usually raised a sum equal to about 
 one-fourth of the Society's current expenses for charity. 
 
 3. The Visiting and Teaching Guild for Crippled Children. 
 This Guild has been in existence for seven years. Its object is 
 to visit crippled children in their homes, to bring to them the 
 education which they are debarred, by their infirmity, from ob- 
 taining at school, to cheer and comfort them during the months, 
 and often years, of confinement to which they are subject. 
 
 4. The Mothers' Society for the Study of Child Nature. This 
 
 * " The Fortnightly," like the Young People's Union, is devoted to the study of 
 ethical and social questions, with the difference, however, that the discussions are less 
 formal, the subjects being discussed by the members themselves, without the assistance 
 of expert leaders?
 
 40 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 has existed for eight years. Its object is to familiarize mothers 
 with the best educational literature, with the works of Locke, 
 Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, etc., and to prepare them to deal 
 intelligently and sensitively with the educational problems that 
 arise in their own homes. 
 
 5. The Wage Earners' Section of the Ethical Culture Society. 
 The object of this Section is to provide for the women wage- 
 earners, who are members of the Society, special means of in- 
 tellectual culture, to stimulate among them a deeper interest in 
 the so-called labor question, and to assist in practical efforts at 
 improving the condition of female wage-earners. 
 
 Other work of the women of the Society : During the severe 
 distress of the Winter of 1893 relief work-shops were organized 
 by a Committee of the Women's Conference, acting in conjunc- 
 tion with a Committee of the Young Men's Union, for the assist- 
 ance of the unemployed. The sum of $17,000 was raised and 
 hundreds of women were supplied with temporary work sufficient 
 to keep them above starvation. A number of the members of 
 the Women's Conference have also taken a special interest in the 
 formation of a Children's Guild. The aim of this Guild, which 
 was begun in March, 1895, is to unite the children of the Society 
 in a fellowship for good work, and to bring them early into touch 
 with the philanthrophic activities of the Society to which they 
 belong. There are about 125 children enrolled in this Guild, 
 and the income derived from the contributions of the young 
 members is used to support a number of afternoon classes for 
 children in one of the poorer districts of New York. The object 
 of the classes is to furnish both entertainment and instruction in 
 such branches as are more or less neglected in the public schools. 
 
 Besides the practical activities referred to, the Women's Con- 
 ference seeks to discuss and define woman's true position in the 
 state, in industry, in science and art, and in the home. For this 
 purpose monthly lectures are delivered in which the problems 
 involved are considered on the highest plane. 
 
 THE SUNDAY ETHICAL CLASSES. 
 
 Of these they are six, attended by over 150 pupils. It has 
 already been stated that moral instruction can best be given in
 
 NEW YORK ETHICAL SOCIETY. 4! 
 
 the daily school. The seggregation of this branch of teaching 
 into a so-called Sunday-school is a mere makeshift. The whole 
 atmosphere of the daily school should be charged with moral 
 ozone. All the influences that play upon the child should make 
 for character. The object of the moral lesson should be neither 
 more nor less than to fix, develop and clarify habits and senti- 
 ments and ideas which" the child has, so to speak, already ab- 
 sorbed at every pore. The assemblies of the children on Sunday 
 should have the same purpose as the Sunday meetings of their 
 elders. Their object should be to inspire and edify. And as a 
 considerable number of the children of the members of our 
 Society do not attend our daily school, it has been found neces- 
 sary to combine in our Sunday children's meetings the two objects 
 of teaching and edification. The work of teaching is conducted, 
 in the main, along the lines marked out in Dr. Adler's book on 
 "The Moral Instruction of Children." The second object is 
 sought to be attained by exercises in which all the class join, con- 
 sisting of singing, a brief responsorium, and an address by the 
 superintendent or one of the teachers in which an appeal is made 
 to the spiritual nature of the young. 
 
 Ethical classes are also conducted on week-days, in the after- 
 noon or evening, for advanced pupils, in which instruction is 
 given in religious history, and in which the special duties per- 
 taining to the life of young men and young women are con- 
 sidered. 
 
 GENERAL CHARITIES OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 Among these, one of the oldest and one of the most beneficent 
 is the District Nursing System, which was begun by the Ethical 
 Culture Society in 1868, and has been widely imitated in New 
 York and elsewhere. Trained nurses are sent into the homes of 
 the poor to give them skilled attendance in sickness, to relieve 
 pain and to provide conditions favorable for recovery ; and also to 
 bring the civilizing influence of gentleness, patience and refinement 
 into these often squalid and degraded homes. That the nurse 
 must be a lady in the best sense is an indispensable condition. 
 Many thousands of sufferers have been reached in this way. Many 
 a life, we are led to believe, has been saved, and seeds of good 
 have been disseminated which are not likely to be wholly wasted.
 
 42 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 MATTERS EXTERNAL. 
 
 The number of enrolled members of the New York Society is, 
 at present, about 800. As many of these are heads of families, 
 the actual number of persons affiliated with the Society is much 
 larger. The educational and charitable work is chiefly carried 
 on under the auspices of the United Relief Works, an association 
 which has a legal existence of its own distinct from that of the 
 Society for Ethical Culture. But the two associations are identical 
 in spirit and purpose ; the principal workers are the same, and 
 the circle from which their support is derived is largely, if not 
 entirely, the same. It is fair, therefore, in speaking of their 
 resources, to class them together. The annual budget of the 
 Society for the maintenance of its platform and its charities 
 amounts to something over $50,000. Of this $20,000 goes to the 
 Society proper ; $30,000 to the charities. The Society possesses 
 a sinking fund of between $60,000 and $70,000. The United 
 Relief Works own the building at 109 West Fifty-fourth street, 
 in which the school is carried on. In addition, the sum of 
 $100,000 has already been subscribed toward the erection of a 
 new and spacious edifice, in which it is proposed that all the 
 various activities of the Society shall be united. The further 
 prosecution of this much-needed enterprise has been checked by 
 the financial depression which has visited the United States during 
 the past few years. But, with a return of prosperity, it is earn- 
 estly hoped that the plan, which is suspended for the moment, 
 will be taken up with new vigor, and that the Society will secure 
 a home worthy of the place which it now occupies in the com- 
 munity, giving free room for the expansion of those energies 
 which are, at present, cramped and impeded. 
 
 The Chicago Ethical Society. 
 
 The impulse to the formation of the Society for Ethical Culture 
 of Chicago was given by addresses on ' ' The True Method of 
 Religious Reform" and "Do the Ethics of Jesus Satisfy the 
 Needs of Our Time?" by Prof. Felix Adler and Mr. W. M.
 
 CHICAGO ETHICAL SOCIETY. 43 
 
 Salter respectively, in the Grand Opera House, Sunday afternoon, 
 October ist, 1882. Mr. Salter was called the following spring to 
 the lectureship of the Society and gave his opening lecture (on 
 "The Basis of the Ethical Movement") on Sunday morning, 
 April ist, to about sixty-five people, in Hershey Music Hall. On 
 the following Sunday a Children's Ethical Class was started with 
 three members. A Normal Class was formed for the training 
 of future teachers of Ethical Classes. Steps were also taken 
 to form the Relief Works, which initiated District Nursing for the 
 benefit of the sick poor in Chicago, as the Relief Works of the 
 parent Society had done in New York. (The latter work gradu- 
 ally extended itself, but was discontinued after two years, on ac- 
 count of the lack of co-operation of the dispensaries from which 
 the nurses received their cases.) 
 
 In 1884-5 tf 16 Sunday lectures were held in Weber Music Hall. 
 The two following years the Society met in Hershey Music Hall. 
 In the autumn of 1887 it moved to the Grand Opera House, 
 where it has continued ever since. In the main the Society's 
 work prospered. A Ladies' Charitable Union was formed, also 
 a Young People's Union, and a Young Men's Club for the study 
 of Philosophy and Social Ethics. Permanent headquarters were 
 secured for week-day meetings, known as Emerson Hall. The 
 one small Children's Class became an Ethical School of sixty 
 members. The Sunday audiences came to average two hundred 
 and fifty. Reading Circles were started on the three sides of the 
 city and studied in particular the history of the French Revolu- 
 tion. Individual members started enterprises of public benefit, 
 such as the " Economic Conferences between Business Men and 
 Workingmen," and the "Bureau of Justice," and joined in the 
 agitation of questions of popular justice (such as the Eight- 
 Hour Question and the execution of the "Anarchists"). Ill 
 health compelled the resignation of Mr. Salter and his removal 
 to a milder climate, after nearly nine years of serv^pe though not 
 without having secured 'an assurance of the willingness of Mr. 
 M. M. Mangasarian to be his successor. 
 
 Mr. Mangasarian gave his opening lecture (on "The New Eth- 
 ical Preacher") February 7th, 1892. The Sunday audiences at 
 the Grand Opera House to listen to his lectures usually fill the
 
 44 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 house to its utmost capacity, and the lectures are frequently well 
 reported in the press of the city and neighboring towns. 
 
 Regular quarterly meetings are held, at which the members 
 discuss matters of general interest to the Society and transact 
 such business as is required, after which the remainder of the 
 evening is given to social intercourse. 
 
 The Social Union is designed to encourage social intercourse 
 among the members, and to this end literary and musical enter- 
 tainments are often provided. 
 
 The active work of the Society is under the charge of special 
 committees. 
 
 Five young men have charge of the publications, and distrib- 
 ute the literature of the movement at the Sunday meetings. 
 
 The Economic Section is an outgrowth of the Adult Class of 
 the Sunday Ethical School. At the close of the lecture season in 
 1894 the class decided to continue its meetings during the sum- 
 mer, studying social conditions and discussing current social, 
 political and economic questions. Addresses were made by the 
 young men and women of the class, and the attendance contin- 
 ually increased. Many new members were brought into the 
 Society through these meetings. In the autumn of that year the 
 Economic Section was regularly organized and meetings were 
 held on Sunday evenings, prominent persons in local public life 
 being invited to speak. Among those who addressed the meet- 
 ings were Miss Jane Addams, Mr. Henry D. Lloyd, Mr. Hamlin 
 Garland, Mr. J. Keir Hardie of Scotland, Prof. E. W. Bemis, Rev. 
 Carious Martyn, Judge Lorin C. Collins, Mr. Thomas J. Morgan, 
 Mr. William Hope Harvey (Coin's Financial School), Mr. Wil- 
 liam M. Salter, and many others. The aim of this Section is ex- 
 pressed in the words of Prof. Adler, printed at the head of each 
 program, " Be it ours to lift the fallen, to lend free utterance to 
 the complaints of the oppressed, to brand the social iniquities of 
 our time, and to give our hearts' warmth and the labor of our 
 hands to the cause of their redress." The Economic Section is 
 already a recognized influence in the city. 
 
 The Ladies' Union is organized to prepare garments for the 
 sick poor and maintain a visiting nurse. 
 
 The Sunday Ethical School, which has always been a promi-
 
 PHILADELPHIA ETHICAL SOCIETY. 45 
 
 nent feature of the Society, follows a course of study that has 
 been gradually developed and has some features that originated 
 in Chicago. Prof. Adler's "The Moral Instruction of Children " 
 has been found helpful in perfecting the course. The School is 
 divided into eight grades. The children of the first grade (during 
 most of the year divided into two classes) are taught by means 
 of fables and fairy tales. The second grade, composed of chil- 
 dren eight or nine years of age, have selected stories from the 
 Old Testament. ' The Greek heroes and Homer furnish the ma- 
 terial for the work of the third grade. The pupils of the next 
 year have been taking up the "Beginnings" of the earth, of 
 animals and plants, of mankind, of society, religions, etc. Se- 
 lected biographies have been the subject of the work of the fifth 
 grade. In the sixth year the pupils take up systematically a 
 study of the various duties of life. The two higher classes have 
 been studying the lives of the great religious and moral teachers, 
 one class spending the entire year on the life of Jesus, the other 
 dividing the time between Buddha and Socrates. The enroll- 
 ment of the different classes varies from six or seven to nearly 
 twenty. Many of the pupils come long distances those from 
 several families as far as eight miles. The School is opened by 
 twenty or thirty minutes of singing, under the direction of a 
 skillful leader, accompanied by a short talk from the superin- 
 tendent or a stanza of verse repeated by one of the children. 
 
 The Philadelphia Ethical Society. 
 The Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia was organized 
 June ist, 1885. The circumstances which led to the organization 
 of the Philadelphia Society were briefly as follows : During the 
 winter 1884-5 ^ r - S. Burns Weston, then studying and working 
 with Professor Adler in New York, visited Philadelphia to see 
 whether an Ethical Society could be organized there. A few 
 persons interested in the project arranged a course of six lectures, 
 to be given on Sunday mornings in the spring of 1885, explain- 
 ing the ideas and aims of the Ethical Movement. The course 
 was opened April 5th, the first four lectures being given by
 
 46 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 Mr. Weston, the fifth by Mr. William M. Salter at that time the 
 lecturer for the Society for Ethical Culture of Chicago and the 
 closing lecture by Prof. Felix Adler. This resulted in twenty-four 
 persons coming together on June 1st and organizing themselves 
 into "The Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia." 
 
 The Society started out with having women represented on its 
 Board of Trustees, a policy which it has adhered to ever since. 
 The Constitution and Statement of Principles provided for the 
 formation of Sections of various kinds for the Study, discussion 
 and application of ethical principles in the special departments 
 of life which each section should represent. The Constitution 
 also provided that at least one-fourth of the entire income of the 
 Society should be devoted to philanthropic work. The minimum 
 annual membership dues were fixed at ten dollars. 
 
 The regular public work began Sunday, October i8th, 1885, at 
 Natatorium Hall, with a lecture by Professor Adler and a short 
 address by Mr. Weston, who had been invited to become the 
 lecturer of the Society. A Children's Ethical Class was immedi- 
 ately started, and also a Business Men's Section for the study of 
 business ethics, a Household Section to study the economics and 
 the ethics of the home, and a Young Men's Section to discuss 
 questions of special interest to young men. The Section meet- 
 ings were held regularly and gave rise to many interesting papers 
 and discussions by the members. 
 
 Only a few weeks after the active work of the Society began 
 a number of newsboys and bootblacks, found on the street near 
 Natatorium Hall, were organized (November, 1885) into a Boys' 
 Club, which met Sunday afternoons and week-day evenings, 
 various kinds of amusements and instruction being provided. 
 The Clnb increased in size, a larger place was rented, new feat- 
 ures were added, and the work was carried successfully along for 
 a year or two under the direct auspices of the Society. In order, 
 however, to carry on the work on a much larger scale, it was 
 finally decided to hand it over to a new organization, called the 
 Neighborhood Guild Association, composed of prominent citizens 
 outside of the Society, whom the lecturer had invited to come 
 together for this purpose. The Boys' Club was then merged into 
 a "Neighborhood Guild," a name simultaneously chosen in New
 
 PHILADELPHIA ETHICAL SOCIETY. 47 
 
 York and Philadelphia for this kind of social work among the 
 children of the poor in the two cities. Under the auspices of 
 the Neighborhood Guild Association the work assumed larger 
 proportions and was carried on successfully for several years, 
 when it was finally merged into other similar organizations. 
 
 During the first year of the Philadelphia Society steps were 
 also taken to organize a day-school with an educational system 
 similar to that of the Workingman's School of New York. " The 
 Ethical School," as it was called, was opened with a kindergarten 
 and the common school branches in the autumn of 1886, in a 
 central location, a house having been rented for that purpose. 
 A branch school was soon started in West Philadelphia. The 
 teaching in both schools was of a high grade from the first and 
 in accordance with the most advanced methods. For two or 
 three years both schools were continued under the auspices of 
 the Society, when the central school, not being self-supporting 
 but making large financial demands on the Society, had to be 
 discontinued. The West Philadelphia Branch was self-support- 
 ing almost from the first and has had a successful history, being 
 still in a prosperous condition. It is no longer, however, under 
 the auspices of the Ethical Society, its entire control.having been 
 handed over three or four years ago to the able principal who 
 has been at its head almost from the beginning, and who, it may 
 be added, is a member of the Ethical Society. 
 
 In May, 1890, Mr. Weston resigned the lectureship of the 
 Society, after having been its lecturer for five years. For the 
 first four years the lectures were held in Natatorium Hall, on 
 South Broad street, and after that in St. George's Hall, on Arch 
 street, where they were continued until the autumn of 1892, 
 since which time they have been held in New Century Hall, 124 
 South Twelfth street. 
 
 After Mr. Weston' s resignation the Society was without a 
 lecturer for about a year and a half, during which time various 
 people were invited to occupy the platform from Sunday to Sun- 
 day. One miscellaneous section continued weekly meetings , 
 and an adult class met for an hour before the Sunday morning 
 lecture. At this time the Constitution and By-laws were entirely 
 revised and the clause in regard to minimum annual dues of ten
 
 II 
 
 48 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 dollars was abolished, each one being expected to contribute ac- 
 cording to his ability. In place of the long Statement of Princi- 
 ples, drawn up when the Society was organized, this brief state- 
 ment (taken from the Constitution of the American Ethical Union) 
 was adopted : 
 
 " The General Aim of the Society for Ethical Culture of Philadelphia 
 is the elevation of the moral life of its members and that of the commu- 
 nity, and it welcomes to its fellowship all who sympathize with this aim, 
 whatever may be their theological or philosophical opinions." 
 
 In February, 1892, Mr. William M. Salter, formerly the lec- 
 turer of the Chicago Society, assumed the lectureship of the 
 Philadelphia Society. Under his leadership the Society has 
 grown steadily stronger internally, and a hundred and seventy- 
 one new members have joined. 
 
 The Section work has been entirely reorganized and extended, 
 and its various meetings are now an important feature of the 
 Society's work. There are at present the following Sections : 
 Reform Section, Economic Section, Literature and Art Section, 
 Philosophical Section, and a Women's Section. There is also a 
 Young People's Club and a Young Men's Union. The Reform 
 Section was organized for practical work, and its first efforts have 
 been directed towards forming a consumers' League, and it is 
 also interesting itself in forming unions among the working 
 women and girls of Philadelphia. 
 
 In the Sunday Ethical School the Adult Classes continue as 
 before, and there are now five other classes studying respectively 
 Politics, Greek Literature, Personal Duties, Fables, and Fairy 
 Tales and Nature Lessons. The Ethical School was never in so 
 good a condition. 
 
 The Society has had three hundred and fifty-six names enrolled 
 on its membership list since it was organized. Owing to a con- 
 troversy in 1894, which involved the issue as to whether the 
 Society had any moral standard or was simply a Society for 
 ethical study and discussion, twenty-six members withdrew after 
 the annual meeting of that year. 
 
 For the past two years the Society has had rooms at 1 305 Arch 
 street, where an Ethical Library and Reading Room has been 
 started, which is open to the general public at stated hours.
 
 ST. LOUIS ETHICAL SOCIETY. 49 
 
 In 1888 the Philadelphia Society began the publication of the 
 first official organ of the Societies for Ethical Culture, a quarterly, 
 called The Ethical Record. The publication was continued for 
 two years and a half, when it was succeeded, in October, 1890, 
 by the International Journal of Ethics, which, though not the 
 official organ of the Ethical Societies, owes its origin and main 
 support to them. The publication of Ethical Addresses, issued 
 monthly with the exception of July and August, was begun in 
 January, 1894. 
 
 In January, 1895, Mr. Salter began a monthly publication, 
 The Cause, which is " Devoted to Moral Progress and the Inter- 
 ests of the Society for Ethical Culture of Philadeldhia." This is 
 an eight page publication, which, besides giving a full account of 
 the work going on in the Philadelphia Society, contains interest- 
 ing reports of the progress of the movement in other places. 
 It is distributed free at the Sunday meetings of the Society, and 
 is manily supported by voluntary contributions. 
 
 Mr. Salter organized, in January, 1895, an Ethical Society in 
 Kensington, an extensive manufacturing district in the northeast 
 of Philadelphia. Meetings have been regularly held during the 
 lecture season on Sunday evenings, and are attended for the most 
 part by workingmen. 
 
 The St. Louis Ethical Society. 
 
 In the spring of 1886 Mr. Sheldon was invited by a committee 
 to give a course of three lectures in the hall connected with the 
 Museum of Fine Arts. This was the beginning which led to the 
 organization of the Society the ensuing fall when Mr. Sheldon 
 was chosen lecturer, a position which he has now held for ten 
 years. Every season there has been a regular series of lectures 
 given at Memorial Hall. An effort has been made to enlist all 
 classes of people in the great ethical problems of the day, and 
 educational work along ethical lines has been started in different 
 parts of the city. The Society is therefore in part supported by- 
 iflnrfh* 
 
 persons who value it tor g j,lifi_pod it does for St. Louis. It ha 
 beeri~tfra way like an '" Ethical Institute" for the city?
 
 50 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 Among those who have spoken on Sunday morning at Memo- 
 rial Hall, besides the regular lecturer, have been several leading 
 educators of the United States or men occupying professional 
 chairs at the various universities, such as Prof. Josiah Royce and 
 Prof. F. Taussig of Harvard University, Prof. Paul Shorey and 
 Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin of the University of Chicago, as well 
 as all the lecturers of the other Ethical Societies. 
 
 The most important practical educational work started by the 
 Society in St. Louis has been a movement for providing opportu- 
 nities for general self-culture among workingmen and their fam- 
 ilies. The first step taken was to open some free reading rooms. 
 Then a course of lectures was given on Friday evenings. The 
 movement spread elsewhere in St. Louis, and a second branch 
 was opened on the South Side of the city. A year or two ago a 
 third branch was started in a new manufacturing center known as 
 Tower Grove. The basis of this educational work was to be the 
 principle of strict neutrality on matters pertaining to religion. 
 This institution has been steadily advancing until it now occupies 
 two entire buildings in different portions of the city. Five lecture 
 courses are going on every week, with classes in "Cooking," 
 "Dressmaking," "Civil Government," "Elocution," "Litera- 
 ture" and other subjects. Those who attend are members of 
 the "young men's clubs" and " young women's clubs," each of 
 which has its separate lecture courses. 
 
 Some of the lectures are arranged in series. For instance, 
 there has been one course on "Natural Science," a second on 
 "Architecture," a third on "Biographies of great Men," and a 
 fourth on "Biographies of great Women." Nearly all of the 
 leading educators of the city have co-operated in this work : there 
 having been seventy or eighty different lecturers last season, in- 
 cluding eight or ten of the leading clergymen of the city, from 
 the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Unitarian and 
 Jewish churches, and also about an equal number of the fore- 
 most lawyers of the city, including Gen. John W. Noble, who 
 was Secretary of the Interior under President Harrison ; several 
 of the leading business men of the city, a number of the leading 
 physicians, several of the professors of the Washington Univer- 
 sity, ten or twelve members of the Wednesday Club, a member
 
 ST. LOUIS ETHICAL SOCIETY. 51 
 
 of Congress from this city, and others. The attendance is usually 
 very good. The clubs are known as ' ' Wage-Earners' Self-Culture 
 Clubs." 
 
 One conspicuous feature in this undertaking has been what is 
 known as "Domestic Economy Schools." They are intended 
 to teach young girls the elements of knowledge essential in the 
 care of a home. These classes meet on Saturday forenoon and 
 afternoon and have been remarkably successful. 
 
 This branch of work, including the ' ' Domestic Economy 
 Schools" and the "Wage-Earners' Self-Culture Clubs," became 
 so important that it was finally separated from the Ethical Society 
 and made an independent corporation, the only connection with 
 the Society being that the lecturer still has general charge of the 
 educational work of this institution. He has, however, an as- 
 sistant, who resides at one of the Self-Culture Halls and devotes 
 nearly all of his time to the work. The Domestic Economy 
 Schools have been developed through the devoted efforts of a 
 corps of ladies interested in this special phase of education. 
 
 Another interesting educational effort on the part of the Ethical 
 Society has been a series of courses of " Sunday Afternoon Pop- 
 ular Science Lectures," given at one of the down-town theaters 
 during the winter months, or at the entertainment hall of the 
 Exposition Building. The first series was given by residents of 
 St. Louis. The last two years the lectures have been given by 
 eminent scientists from other parts of the United States. Pro- 
 fessor E. D. Cope of the University of Pennsylvania, gave one 
 on "Fishes;" Prof. F. M. Chapman of the American Aca- 
 demy of Natural Sciences, gave one on "Birds;" Prof. L. O. 
 Howard, of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, one on 
 "Insects;" Prof. Angelo Heilprin has given one on " Ice and 
 Glaciers" and another on " Explorations in the Arctic Regions." 
 A small admission fee was charged at these lectures which has 
 just covered the expenses. The attendance has been usually 
 quite large, ranging from six hundred to one thousand people at 
 nearly every lecture. 
 
 The Ethical Society has also tried to start general educational 
 work in special sections of St. Louis, where such work seems to 
 be neglected. During the last two years courses of lectures have
 
 52 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 been given in North St. Louis on "American History " by pro- 
 fessors of the Washington University ; also by several other lead- 
 ing educators of the city. On the other hand, there has been 
 active work for educational purposes on subjects directly ethical 
 in character. Five years ago a club was organized among the 
 women of the city for the purpose of studying "Applied Ethics," 
 taking up the work historically. They began the first year with 
 a study of ' ' Greek Ethics. ' ' The second year was devoted to 
 the " Ethics of Rome ; " the third year to the " Renaissance ; " 
 the fourth year to the " Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ; " 
 and this last season has been given to a study of the ' ' Modern 
 Poets." While the club has been directly in charge of the 
 Ethical Society, it has been attended by people of the most widely 
 divergent views. Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Unitarians, 
 etc. attend the meetings and join in the discussions. The name 
 of the organization was taken from the first year's work. It has 
 therefore been known as the " Greek Ethics Club." 
 
 Another educational work was organized for young men to 
 meet fortnightly Wednesday evenings being known as the 
 " Political Science Club." The intention was to encourage young 
 men to study the problems of Social and Political Science instead 
 of giving so much time to mere discussion. They began found- 
 ing a small library, getting the standard or classical works on 
 these subjects, and subscribing for the leading quarterlies. The 
 first year they had a course of lectures on ' ' Political Economy ; ' ' 
 the second year a series of talks on the ' ' Duties of Public 
 Officers." "The work of a State Governor" was described by 
 a recent Governor of Missouri. "The work of a Cabinet Offi- 
 cer" was described by a member of the Cabinet under President 
 Harrison. The Mayor of St. Louis gave a talk on the " Duties 
 and Work of a City Mayor." Another talk was on the "Work 
 of a Minister to a Foreign Country," by a citizen of St. Louis, 
 who had been Minister of the United States to Switzerland. 
 They have also had a series of talks on Commercial Institutions. 
 A description of a "Board of Trade" was given by a former 
 president of the Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis. The " Bank- 
 ing System " was described by a prominent banker of the city. 
 "A Great City Post Office " was portrayed by the City Postmaster.
 
 EUROPEAN ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 53 
 
 They have also had three talks on the "Supreme Court of the 
 United States, ' ' by one of the foremost lawyers of the West. 
 
 The Ethical Society has Children's Classes, meeting on Sunday 
 morning, similar to those held in other cities. At the close of 
 ten years' work of the St. Louis Ethical Society an Ethical Con- 
 gress was held, including also a Convention of all the Ethical 
 Societies of America. 
 
 The Ethical Movement in Germany, Austria and 
 Switzerland. 
 
 The most decisive impulse toward the formation of Ethical 
 Societies in Germany was that given by the lectures of Prof. 
 Adler in the spring of 1892, previous to which a stimulus in the 
 same spirit had come from Oberstleutenant von Egidy. The 
 translation and dissemination of the writings of Messrs. Salter, 
 Adler and Coit by Prof, von Gizycki of the University of Berlin 
 had also served to prepare the soil for the growth of the Ethical 
 Movement. 
 
 The German Ethical Society was incorporated at Berlin in Oc- 
 tober, 1892, admitting five hundred members within a few 
 months. At present the Society includes nine branches, so 
 called, namely, those of Berlin, Breslau, Frankfort, Freiburg, 
 Konigsberg, Magdeburg, Miinchen, Strassburg and Ulm. There 
 are also five smaller divisions at Karlsruhe, Kiel, Miihlhausen, 
 Nauen and Nordhausen. Besides these, two larger Societies, at 
 Leipzig and Jena, belong to the Movement, but owing to local 
 conditions have not yet joined the larger organization. Thus 
 there are sixteen Societies in the various parts of Germany. The 
 Berlin branch, with four subdivisions, counts about nine hundred 
 members. The others average each about ninety members ; 
 Jena and Leipzig together about one hundred and fifty, so that 
 the total membership of all the Ethical Societies in Germany at 
 present may be estimated at about eighteen hundred. 
 
 The work of these Societies may be summed up as follows : 
 
 I. Mutual intellectual aid and stimulus by means of lectures 
 and discussions on subjects of pedagogical, ethical and sociolog- 
 ico-ethical interest.
 
 54 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 2. The dissemination of literature on the same questions. 
 
 3. Arranging lectures and courses of lectures for the public, in 
 order to give special prominence to ethical and political teachings. 
 
 4. Efforts to influence the press by means of letters on ethical 
 subjects. 
 
 5. Collecting and classifying data and material concerning 
 matters of jurisprudence and penology. 
 
 6. Establishing of bureaux to aid those who are in need of 
 work, of advice or material aid, combined with study of statistics 
 in the care of the poor. 
 
 7. Founding of free public libraries and reading rooms. 
 
 8. Increasing opportunities for all classes to enjoy art. 
 
 9. Co-operation in the settlement and arbitration of strikes. 
 Increase in the membership of the Societies as a rule is a 
 
 matter of slow growth. Far more marked in its influence seem 
 to be the resulting ethical discussion and treatment of pedagogical 
 and social questions, as shown partly in the growth and increas- 
 ing influence of its weekly organ Ethische Kultur. This paper 
 was started in 1893 by the chief founder of the Ethical Society, 
 the late Prof. G. von Giyzcki of Germany. It is at present ed- 
 ited by Dr. F. W. Foerster. 
 
 In Austria the first Ethical Society was founded at Vienna in 
 the beginning of 1895. The present membership is about three 
 hundred. The work of the Society is similar to that of the Ger- 
 man Society as detailed above. 
 
 In Switzerland the first Ethical Society was founded in the 
 latter part of 1895. Its work is closely allied to that of the other 
 Societies. Its membership is about eighty.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE RECENT CONGRESS OF AMERI- 
 CAN AND EUROPEAN ETHICAL 
 SOCIETIES AT ZURICH. * 
 
 BY FELIX ADLER. 
 
 LIGHT is the symbol of life. There is ever a cheer- 
 ing quality in it, whether we see it in a landscape or in 
 a room ; but there are occasions when the benignity of 
 the light comes home to us with a peculiarly satisfying 
 completeness. One such occasion is especially present 
 in my mind at this moment : We have been traversing 
 the sea ; we are about to emerge from the waste of 
 waters ; we approach the land ; but the moment is an 
 anxious one, for the night is dark and the coast is girt 
 with dangerous reefs and rocks. Suddenly, as we peer 
 into the darkness, a beacon light flashes ahead ; it shows 
 but for a moment and disappears ; it waxes and then it 
 wanes, and then as we get nearer it grows and grows 
 until it seems to fill the eye, and through the eye the 
 soul, with its flood of splendor. Ah, how we realize 
 at such a moment the benignity of the light ! How- 
 grateful we are for the friendliness of man ! At great 
 cost and often at the risk of life, have these watch-towers 
 been placed on the fringes of continents to warn men 
 of the dangers which they must avoid and to indicate 
 the port of safety to which they must steer. 
 
 *An Address given at Carnegie Hall, New York, Sunday, Oct. 18, 1896. 
 
 (55)
 
 56 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 So, too, in the moral world watch-towers have been 
 erected to warn us of the dangers to be avoided and 
 to indicate the port of safety to which we must steer. 
 From of old Christianity and indeed all the religions 
 of the past have been busy raising these towers ; but 
 many of them are crumbling into decay ; and new 
 rocks, new reefs, new points of danger have been dis- 
 covered of which the religions of the past have never 
 given us warning and which are now becoming the scene 
 and the cause of frequent disaster. It is the purpose of 
 the Ethical Movement to help to repair these crumbling 
 towers and to place beacons on those dangerous rocks 
 which have heretofore escaped notice. And that the 
 importance of this purpose is being recognized not only 
 in our own community but also abroad in foreign coun- 
 tries among persons who live in an environment totally 
 different from ours, is a fact that marks a significant step 
 in the advance of our cause. I wish to-day to report to 
 you concerning the recent Congress of Ethical Societies 
 at Zurich, in which this community of interest and of 
 purpose became manifest despite great differences. 
 
 The countries represented at the Congress, besides 
 the United States and England, were Germany, Austria, 
 Italy and Switzerland. The conferences were preceded 
 by courses of lectures on ethical subjects by eminent 
 ethical professors ; and at these lecture courses the 
 French government was officially represented by two 
 delegates, the Minister of Education having deputed 
 them to report especially upon the degree to which the 
 Ethical Societies have succeeded in devising a course of 
 ethical instruction for children, a subject in which the 
 French Republic has a notable interest.
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 57 
 
 Now Germany, of all these countries, is the one where 
 the Ethical Movement has obtained, till now, the largest 
 extension ; the number of societies is considerable ; they 
 are planted in all the chief cities of the Empire. And 
 this is all the more interesting when we remember that 
 the entire movement in Europe is only four years old, 
 apart from England. The fact that there are now these 
 numerous societies in Germany, that there is at least one 
 strong society in Vienna, and that, as I shall show you 
 presently, the movement is spreading to Italy and Switz- 
 erland, indicates that there is something in the idea for 
 which the Ethical Movement stands that appeals to 
 people irrespective of nationality, irrespective of local 
 conditions. 
 
 I should like first to say something about the prepa- 
 ration which existed in Germany for the reception of the 
 idea for which this movement stands. Germany has 
 been a very religious country. The German people have 
 been profoundly susceptible to religious influence. The 
 Protestant Reformation, as we all know, originated in 
 Germany, and as late as the last century we find that the 
 thinkers and the men of science were still on the side of 
 positive religion. Even Kant, who shattered the tradi- 
 tional proofs of the existence of a Deity, nevertheless 
 made a place in his system for the belief in a personal 
 God. Now within a hundred years all this seems to 
 have changed. A cold breath has swept over Germany. 
 Intellect seems to be no longer on the side of faith. 
 The highly educated class hold aloof. They are not 
 actively antagonistic to religion they are indifferent ; 
 they no longer lend it their support. Outwardly, indeed, 
 the churches maintain their preeminent position through
 
 58 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 the favor of the government. The military authorities 
 show their respect for the prevailing opinions ; men who 
 take high rank in the various sciences now and then attend 
 divine service ; but it is felt that, on the whole, the sanc- 
 tion of the educated elite of the country is lacking. Of 
 course I do not mean to imply that Germany has ceased 
 to be a religious country. The masses, for instance, are 
 still very powerfully under the influence of religious tradi- 
 tions. I shall never forget a scene I witnessed four 
 years ago at Treve, when the so-called seamless coat 
 of Christ, which is exhibited once every fifty years, 
 was shown to the people. I shall never forget that 
 scene : the eager multitudes, especially the throng of 
 peasants that stood in the streets under the open 
 skies day and night, waiting for a chance to approach 
 the relic singing, chanting, with their crosses, their 
 banners, and their priests leading them. I could not 
 help gathering the impression that religious fanaticism, 
 like a hot bed of coals, is slumbering under white ashes 
 and ready, perhaps, to start into a devouring flame at 
 the first breath, and to become all the more misguided 
 and dangerous because the participation of the educated 
 classes is missing. 
 
 When a country is thus divided into two classes, 
 when there is a gulf between the life of the educated 
 and the ignorant masses, both will suffer. The educated 
 come to be out of touch with the common life and the 
 people are left to their dense and dark superstition. 
 
 But educated Germany has not been without some 
 substitute for the religious impulse which during the 
 last hundred years it has largely lacked. A nation whose 
 emotional life is so profound and whose intellectual as-
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 59 
 
 pirations are so high does not easily resign itself to the 
 loss of that elevation which comes from the pursuit of 
 idealistic ends ; and so there have been substitutes for 
 religion. One of these substitutes has been the idealism 
 of science. I mean by this that exaltation which is 
 brought into the life of the person who devotes himself 
 to the pursuit of abstract truth for truth's sake, without 
 reference to its utilitarian applications and without 
 any thought of pecuniary gain for himself. Of this 
 priestly consecration to abstract truth modern Germany 
 has offered many great examples. And if man were 
 purely an intellectual being, if he could withdraw into his 
 intellectual shell and ignore the emotional and moral 
 interests, this idealism of abstract truth might answer the 
 purpose. But man is not a purely intellectual being, 
 and the longer you make the experiment of feeding him 
 on a merely intellectual idealism the more will the other 
 side of his nature, the practical and the emotional side, 
 rebel, rise in mutiny and press its claims. And as 
 science has very little to offer man on the emotional 
 side, as the theories which prevail in modern science 
 (Darwinism, for instance,) are not such as to present a 
 reconciling view of human destiny, as after all it is but 
 a poor outcome of the effort and labor required in pene- 
 trating the disguises of things to disover behind the 
 scene nothing but the meaningless play of atoms ; it has 
 come to pass that the idealism of science has been di- 
 vested of much of that efficacy which at one time was 
 ascribed to it ; and it is perceived by many, by the very 
 ones who have tried to live on intellectualism, that it 
 does not satisfy. 
 
 Then another substitute has been what in German is
 
 60 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 called Pflichtgefuhl. This word does not merely mean 
 doing one's duty ; it describes a peculiar species of the 
 sentiment of duty, a kind of military promptness in an- 
 swering the calls of obligation, especially when imposed 
 by superior authority. The feeling, it seems to me, 
 has a background of paternalism. It rests on reverence 
 and respect for the constituted rulers of the land. 
 It has been generated, I take it, especially in the mili- 
 tary class and the bureaucracy and from them has 
 spread among the people. It depends for its mainte- 
 nance on confidence in the authorities, and this confi- 
 dence in Germany has been considerably shaken. In 
 place of satisfaction and the quiet spirit of obedience 
 there is deep-seated, far-reaching political and social dis- 
 content. And now what I wish to say is that it is this 
 political and social discontent, taken in connection with 
 the failure of physical science or of mere intellectualism 
 to satisfy, that has prepared the soil for the Ethical 
 Movement in Germany. 
 
 There are some restless, impatient spirits, who seek to 
 provide a remedy for the political and social evils of 
 Germany by sudden and comprehensive social changes ; 
 and it is to tne presence of this class of persons that 
 the spread of Socialism and its poltical strength is 
 due. But there are also others who realize that sudden 
 changes cannot be permanent and who look to a re- 
 newal of moral energy in the different classes of society 
 as the indispensable condition of achieving lasting and 
 beneficient results, and it was this class of persons who 
 have been most interested in the Ethical Movement 
 and most earnest in propagating it. Thus much as to 
 the preparation for the movement in Germany. And let
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 6 1 
 
 me merely add that it is a significant fact, in view of 
 what has just been said concerning the failure of mere 
 intellectualism ultimately to satisfy, that the leader of 
 our movement in Germany is a man of science, a man 
 who occupies a high position in his own department of 
 science, but who profoundly recognizes the need of 
 ethical clarification and inspiration. I allude of course 
 to our honored friend Prof. Foerster. The support of 
 such a man has been of incalculable benefit to the Ger- 
 man Movement. 
 
 And now to speak of the results of the Congress, 
 there are three to which I wish to call attention. First, 
 the creation of an International Secretaryship which is 
 intended to be a means of binding together the European 
 societies among themselves and the European and Amer- 
 ican societies respectively. Dr. Wilhelm Foerster has 
 been created the first International Secretary. He is 
 the son of Prof. Foerster to whom I have just referred, 
 and the editor of the German weekly paper, Ethische 
 Kultur. He was recently arrested and condemned on 
 the charge of I2se-inajest for an article which appeared 
 in his paper, and was confined for several months in a 
 fortress. He was liberated on the eve of the assembling | 
 of the Congress at Zurich, and was enabled to be present 
 at our opening meeting. He intends, as I understand, \\ 
 to give his whole life to the propaganda of the Ethical U 
 Movement. 
 
 The very considerable proportion of university pro- 
 fessors connected with the societies is one of the char- 
 acteristic features of the foreign movement. It is un- 
 doubtedly a source of strength, but also a source of 
 weakness ; because the societies must depend upon such 
 
 \ 
 * 
 
 I
 
 62 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 time as the professors can spare from their duties, and 
 because the university teacher, despite his most perfect 
 intentions, is not able to come into such immediate 
 contact with the feelings of the people, with the popular 
 interests and sentiments, as is desirable in the leaders 
 of Ethical Societies. 
 
 To speak, therefore, of the second result of the Con- 
 gress, it is this : that it has been determined to endeavor 
 
 o 
 
 hereafter to follow the American plan (which the Ger- 
 man Society at first resisted, fearing that a new ethical 
 clergy, as they said, might spring up) and to secure the 
 I services of persons who will give their whole life to the 
 I movement. In other words, the second result has been 
 the decision to establish on neutral ground, in Switzer- 
 * I land, a college for the training of ethical leaders and 
 I I lecturers, the modest beginning of which is to be made 
 I | next summer. 
 
 . * Next, as to the work that has been heretofore done 
 by the foreign societies ; and this will give me an oppor- 
 tunity to speak of the third, and, to my mind, the most 
 valuable and important result of the Congress. The 
 work done by the foreign societies thus far has consisted, 
 in the first place, in the holding of meetings for the dis- 
 cussion and explanation of the principles of the move- 
 ment, especially the essential principle of all, viz., that 
 morality is self-centered, self-sustained, founded on 
 human nature, and independent of dogma, creeds, or 
 philosophic theories. This idea is constantly being con- 
 sidered in all its bearings and the movement is being 
 propagated in this fashion. But, in addition, earnest 
 attempts have been made to testify to the ethical faith 
 by practical philanthropy,, The ^German Socie
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 6j 
 
 identified itself especially with an effort to influence 
 public opinion through the press. Whenever there is at 
 case of injustice ; whenever, through the prejudices Q 
 the ruling classes, the weak seem to be oppressed, seeml^ 
 to be at a disadvantage, especially in the courts, it is one 
 of the aims of the Ethical Society to call attention to- 
 the fact and, if possible, to secure a remedy. 
 
 Particular interest has been taken by the societies in 
 the establishment of free reading rooms. Perhaps we 
 in this country do not quite realize how important it 
 was to take such steps in a country like Germany, where 
 adequate provision in this direction did not exist. The 
 Ethical Society has rendered considerable service in the 
 establishment of such public reading rooms, and their 
 efforts have been recognized and sustained by the muni- 
 cipal authorities of Berlin. 
 
 In Austria courses of lectures have been delivered to 
 parents on the proper training of children. And a very 
 important investigation has been conducted into the 
 conditions of female labor in the city of Vienna Re- 
 ports of this investigation have found their way into 
 the newspapers and have attracted great attention, and 
 the results of the investigation will be published in 
 detail this fall. 
 
 The Swiss Society is only a few months old and has- 
 not yet determined its plans, although there is promise 
 of great activity. 
 
 The Italian Society is extremely interesting in many 
 ways. I hold in my hands a pamphlet entitled " A Page 
 from the History of Sociology ; an Account of the 
 Society for Ethical and Social Culture of Venice." This 
 is the most important of the Italian Ethical Societies,
 
 64 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 The object of the Society is to unite all who believe 
 that the present industrial system is capable of modifica- 
 tion in the direction of more perfect harmony between 
 . the social classes. It seeks to unite persons of different 
 beliefs and different opinions, just as we do, and men 
 'whose views are distinctly and widely divergent have 
 in fact given their sanction to this movement. Here, too, 
 discussion and public meetings are one of the important 
 instrumentalities in use. The Venetian Society was no_ 
 sooner formed than it addressed itself jo the task of 
 philanthropy.,, and the first scheme proposed and at- 
 
 ^ t*^*0 
 
 tempted was that of founding an asylum or shelter, a 
 place for the amusement and instruction of the chil- 
 dren of the working people during the hours when their 
 parents are away in the workshops and factories. This 
 attempt to benefit the children was, however, vehe- 
 mently denounced by the clergy of Venice. In conse- 
 quence a number of ladies who belonged to the com- 
 mittee in charge resigned and the enterprise had to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 The Society then determined to address itself to the 
 adult working people. A college for the social and 
 ethical culture of working people was established, the 
 members of the Ethical Society of Venice themselves 
 being the teachers. This attempt met with astonishing 
 success. The school was opened with seven adult 
 pupils ; after two weeks there were two hundred enrolled, 
 1 and after four weeks there were four hundred, and fur- 
 jther admittance had to be refused owing to lack of 
 ' accommodation. These classes are continued from De- 
 cember to May, and in the summer excursions are 
 arranged, in which hundreds of working people take 
 
 \
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 65 
 
 part, for the purpose of studying the art and historic 
 monuments in which Venice is so rich, also the economic 
 conditions, and the public institutions, especially the 
 public charitable institutions. 
 
 Now all this is very laudable and very interesting, but 
 it did seem to me as if there was one thing lacking in 
 the foreign Ethical Societies or at least if not lacking 
 yet not sufficiently pronounced : that is, the spiritual ele-_ 
 ment. I do not mean anything mystical when I use the 
 word spiritual. When we think of morality, if we con- 
 centrate our attention on the act, on the external part 
 61 ^t, fnen we are not spiritual ; buF if we care chiefly 
 for the Spirit in which the act is done, then we take the ( 
 spiritual view. It seemed to me as if the spiritual side, 
 though not wanting by any means among the leaders 
 in fact it was beautifully emphasized by some of the 
 leaders was nevertheless too much neglected ; asjf the^ 
 drift weje in an externa^ direction, as if the feeling pre- 
 vailed that the ethical society exists for the benefit oT 
 others. I have always felt that this is a wrong attitude 
 to take. I have always felt that an ethical society should 
 take the ground that it exists primarily for the moral 
 benefit of its own members. It is in this way that I 
 have distinguished in my mind between the real mem- 
 'bers and the quasi members of an ethical society. The 
 real member of an ethical society is the person who 
 feels that he has not yet morally finished his educa- 
 tion ; that he is in need of moral development, in need 
 of help, and looks upon the society as a means of help- 
 ing him in his moral development. The quasi member 
 is the person who merely appreciates the society in so. 
 far as it is doing good for others^ He is no real mem-
 
 66 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 her ; at best only an ally, an associate. Now I felt that 
 this sort of external feeling prevails to a considerable 
 degree in the foreign societies as it still largely exists in. 
 our own^ 
 
 ^1 went to Zurich to stand for this view, and in the 
 opening address to the Congress, I laid the main stress 
 upon this idea : that permanence and solidity and depth 
 will be lacking in the Ethical Movement, and that it 
 will not deserve to succeed unless it creates in its midst 
 a new spirit unless a spirit of humility be cultivated 
 among its own members. And the view here indicated 
 met with the readiest response and has been expressed 
 and embodied in the Program which the delegates 
 adopted, as its very first paragraph, and has been made 
 the corner-stone of the Ethical Movement, so far as the 
 delegates who went to Zurich had the power to make 
 it. I will read from that Program : 
 
 The Delegates of the first International Assembly of the Fede- 
 rated Societies recommend to the Federated Societies of the 
 various countries represented, the following statement, subject to 
 future expansion and revision : 
 
 The prime aim of the Ethical Societies is to be of advantage to 
 their own members. The better moral life is not a gift which 
 we are merely to confer upon others ; it is rather a difficult prize 
 which we are to try with unwearying and unceasing effort to 
 secure for ourselves. The means which are to serve to this end 
 are : first, the close contact into which our associations bring us 
 with others having the same purpose in view ; second, the moral 
 education and instruction of the young in the ethical principles, 
 which in their foundations are independent of all dogmatic pre- 
 supposition ; third, guidance for adults in the task of moral self- 
 education. 
 
 Furthermore, the Ethical Societies should define their attitude 
 toward the great social questions of the present day, in the solu-
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 67 
 
 tion of which the part to be played by the moral forces of society * 
 is of the highest significance. 
 
 We recognize that the efforts of the masses of the people to 
 obtain a more humane existence, imply a moral aim of the 
 greatest importance, and we consider it our duty to second these 
 efforts with all possible earnestness and to the full extent of our 
 ability. We believe, however, that the evil to be remedied is 
 not only the material need of the poor, but that an evil hardly 
 less serious is to be found in the moral need which exists 
 among the wealthy, who are often deeply imperiled in their 
 moral integrity by the discords in which the defects of the pres- 
 ent industrial system involve them. 
 
 We regard resistance to wrong and oppression as a sacred duty,^ 
 and believe that under existing circumstances conflict is still indis- 
 pensable as a means of clarifying men's ideas of right and of 
 obtaining better conditions. We demand, however, that the con- 
 flict be carried on within the limits prescribed by morality, in the 
 interest of society as a whole and with a constant eye to the final 
 establishment of social peace as the supreme consummation. 
 
 We expect of the organs of the Ethical Federation that they 
 will endeavor to provide, so far as they are able, intellectual 
 armor to serve in the social struggle by this we mean the pub- 
 lication of careful scientific treatises, which shall have for their 
 object to ascertain whether the positions of individualism and 
 socialism are not susceptible of being united in a deeper philos- 
 ophy of life ; further, statistical investigations to show with the 
 impressiveness of facts how profoundly our present conditions 
 are in need of reform, and furthermore to see to it that the re- 
 sults thus obtained shall be spread far and wide so that the pub- 
 lic conscience may be developed in the direction of a higher 
 social justice. 
 
 We leave it to the several societies, according to the particular 
 circumstances of the countries to which they belong, to carry out 
 the above general purpose in particular ways ; but we especially 
 call upon all the members of the various societies, in their indi- 
 vidual capacity, to promote the progressive social movement of 
 the times by simplicity in the conduct of life and by the display 
 of an active public spirit.
 
 I 
 
 68 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 We recognize the institution of pure monogamic marriage as 
 a priceless possession of mankind, indispensable for the moral 
 development of the individual and for the permanent existence 
 of civilization ; but we demand that the monogamic idea shall 
 express itself in the sentiments and practice of men with a de- 
 gree of consistency which to a very great extent is still wanting. 
 
 We demand for woman opportunity for the fullest development 
 of her mental and moral personality, and realizing that her per- 
 sonality is of equal worth with that of man, we pledge ourselves, 
 as far as we are able, to secure the recognition of this equality 
 in every department of life. 
 
 We regard especially the lot of female wage earners in in- 
 dustrial establishments and in personal service as one of the 
 most grievous evils of the present time, and we will use such 
 influence as we possess to restore to all classes of the population 
 the conditions upon which a true home life depends. 
 
 We regard it as a fundamental task of modern civilization to 
 give back to the educational system the unity which it has in a 
 a large measure lost, and to replace the missing key-stone once 
 supplied by dogmatic teaching in schools and universities by set- 
 ting up a common ethical purpose as the aim of all culture. 
 
 We heartily appreciate the efforts now being made to bring 
 about universal peace among the nations, and we would contrib- 
 ute our share towards the success of these efforts by inwardly 
 overcoming the military spirit, by endeavoring to counteract the 
 attraction that military glory exerts on the minds of the young, 
 and by seeking to provide that the ethically valuable elements 
 which the military system contains may find expression in nobler 
 and worthier forms. 
 
 Furthermore, we would oppose that national egotism and na- 
 tional passion, which at the present day are just as dangerous 
 foes of peace as are the prejudices and interests of the govern- 
 ing classes ; and in times of excitement and of political hatred we 
 will exert ourselves in conjunction with others who think as we 
 do, to compel attention to the voice of reason and of conscience. 
 
 We ask our Ethical Societies not only to direct their attention 
 toward the outward extension of the movement, but to devote 
 their utmost energy to the building up of a new ideal of life,
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 69 
 
 which shall correspond to the demands of enlightened thinking, 
 feeling and living, confident that such an ideal for which man- 
 kind is thirsting will in the end be of equal profit to all classes 
 and to all nations. 
 
 We are not a Pythagorean society ; we are not a band 
 of stoics ; we are not a company of recluses who stand 
 aloof from the concerns of life. We recognize that we 
 are to grapple with the social and political questions of 
 the day, because only by endeavoring to lift these heavy 
 weights will our own moral fiber become strong and 
 firm. But, nevertheless, our moral growth is still the 
 principal aim. We can grow morally only in so far as we 
 take an interest in the moral concerns of the commu- 
 nity. But, on the other hand, it is equally true and 
 equally to be emphasized that, so far as we are con- 
 cerned, we shall endeavor to solve the great social 
 questions, the great public questions, by changes which 
 we effect in ourselves. We are to regenerate society 
 primarily by regenerating the one individual member of 
 society for whom we are responsible. 
 
 This is the difference between an ethical society and 
 the peace societies, the social reform societies, the edu- 
 cational societies and the others that they chiefly lay 
 stress upon what the government ought to do or upon 
 what other people ought to do, or in general upon how 
 the world is to be set aright, while the ethical society, 
 mindful also of these demands, yet lays its chief stress 
 upon the question, What am I to do ? How shall I set 
 the world right by setting myself right ? And this note 
 dominates the entire Statement of Principles which I 
 have read. 
 
 For instance, it is said that the Ethical Society must
 
 70 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 take an interest in the labor question, and immediately 
 we are asked to co-operate in the social movement of 
 the time by leading simple lives. The material distress 
 of the poor is a great evil, but the unease of conscience, 
 in view of the fact that we enjoy exceptional, undeserved 
 advantages, is also a great evil which we must try to 
 remedy. And we must try to remedy it, not by blunt- 
 ing our moral susceptibilities, but by making them still 
 more keen. 
 
 Again the platform insists upon the institution of 
 monogamic marriage as a priceless possession, and it 
 goes on to tell us that the idea of monogamy is not ex- 
 pressed in the sentiment and practice of mankind as it 
 .should be ; whereby is meant that men ought to be faith- 
 ful to the ideal of women before marriage as well as in 
 I marriage, just as women, conversely, are expected to be 
 faithful on their side. 
 
 Even where mention is made of so public a concern 
 as international peace we are yet urged to contribute to 
 it as individuals by trying to counteract the attraction 
 of military glory, by overcoming that hatred of foreigners 
 to which we are all liable, and by stopping at this source 
 those passions which lead to national frenzy and inter- 
 national war. 
 
 I have come back with fresh inspiration and fresh 
 confidence, with an exhilarating sense of a wider broth- 
 erhood, with the feeling that though oceans roll be- 
 tween us, and the barriers of speech and traditions and 
 sentiment may seem to separate us, yet in the essential 
 purpose our friends abroad and we are one. I wish I 
 could communicate this feeling of a wider union to you. 
 It would possibly have gratified your pride could you
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 7 1 
 
 have listened to the ample and generous acknowledg- 
 ments which the delegates made of what they conceived 
 to be their indebtedness to the American Ethical So- 
 cieties. But I confess that a feeling very unlike that 
 of flattered pride was uppermost in my mind as I 
 listened to those words of recognition. It was rather a 
 grave and heavy sense of responsibility, because our 
 foreign friends are very glad to hear of such success as 
 you have met with. They are also willing to learn from 
 your example, so far as it is a worthy one, ; but they are 
 disposed to scrutinize you with a searching carefulness 
 such as possibly you have no conception of; because 
 this is what they say to themselves : " We look to the 
 ethical idea with hope ; we look to it as something that 
 is to be a means of salvation in the midst of the polit- 
 ical and social whirlwinds that are likely to sweep over 
 society ; we look to it with hope, but we want to see 
 whether it is worthy of our confidence. And, how are 
 we to determine ? Why, we will scrutinize the lives of 
 the members of these Ethical Societies in America The 
 Ethical Movement has existed in America for twenty 
 years. In twenty years the ethical idea must have taken 
 root and borne fruit. What are the fruits which it has 
 borne ? " 
 
 What are the ethical fruits not how large are the 
 revenues or the audiences ? but what are the fruits that 
 appear in the life of the Society ? Are the merchants 
 of the Ethical Society, as a rule, stricter in their views 
 than their competitors, or are they like others good, 
 bad and indifferent ? Are the relations between masters 
 and men characterized by a keener sense of right and 
 a more careful considerateness, and, when there are
 
 72 THE INTERNATIONAL ETHICAL CONGRESS. 
 
 faults on one side or the other, by a greater charity ? 
 Are our children educated on nobler principles and in 
 finer ways ? 
 
 Oh, my friends, let us at least try to be able to meet 
 these questions.
 
 "B3 
 
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