aimed at in human progress, the principles which must guide and the methods which are most effective in attaining those ends. In a paper read before the American Social Science Association in 1869, General Garfield said: "Society is an organism whose elements and forces conform to laws as constant and pervasive as those which govern the material universe, and the study of these laws will enable man to ameliorate his condition, to emancipate himself from the cruel dominion of superstition and from countless evils which were once thought beyond his control, and will make him the master, rather than the slave of nature." This is true, with the explanation that society is subject both to the laws of nature and to the moral law. As implicated in nature man is subject to the laws and course of nature; in heredity and all physiological and physical processes nature acts through his physical organization as really as through the trees. Here is one sphere of sociology in studying the physical and physiological laws of man's nature and applying them to improve his physical condition, constitution and development. But as a rational free-agent man is above the fixed course of nature; he determines the direction and exertion of his energies and so becomes, as Gen. Garfield says, "the master rather than the slave of nature." As rational and free, the law to which he is subject is the moral law of love. This does not, like a law of nature, declare the uniform fact that he does conform to the law, but only his obligation or duty, while he is free to obey or disobey. Here is another and higher sphere of sociology, in investigating the dependence of the prosperity and progress of society on the development of man's moral and spiritual capacities and on his conformity to the law of love to God and man, and in studying the motives and the methods of presenting them most influential in inducing men to live right and so to realize the highest possibilities of their being. Here, in entire consistency with man's freedom, sociology may investigate what the well-being of the individual and of society is and what are the wise methods of promoting it. All questions of reform and progress and of the methods of promoting them are within its sphere: as, the legitimate sphere of legislation in promoting good morals; the penal legislation most effective to protect society from crime; the legislation which will present the most influential motives to stimulate industry and to insure the largest development of the resources of the country. For instance, sociology may ascertain in respect to protection or free-trade whether legislation should follow the principle that the prosperity of a nation is promoted by the peaceful prosperity of other nations, or the contrary principle that the prosperity of a nation is hindered by the prosperity of other nations. Whichever principle is found to be sustained by facts, sociology will proceed to ascertain what methods are most effective in applying the principle. In such studies, however, the sociologist must not refuse to take notice of the principles of morals and religion, nor dismiss with a sneer as "sentimentalists" and "doctrinaires" those who are trying to advance society towards conformity with these principles as essential to its true welfare. Recognizing morality and religion as great factors in human history, sociology must ascertain by what errors and misapplications they have been perverted from their legitimate influence, and by what methods they can be made most effective in eradicating vice and purifying and elevating the moral and spiritual tone of society. The education of the young, for example, is a topic for sociological investigation. But the question of moral and religious instruction is inseparable from the institution of public schools. The restriction of education in the public schools to intellectual instruction, excluding the teaching of morals as founded in reverence for God and consisting in love to God and our neighbor as commanded by God's law, is a very simple way of settling the question. It is as unscientific and superficial as it is simple, and if ever generally carried strictly into practice, will prove itself a fatal error. It has been found in the progress of the Christian nations, which for ages have been the only progressive ones, that the principles which society has gradually come to apply in the development of its civilization, are the same which are taught in the life and teaching of Christ. The dignity and worth of a man by virtue of his personality, or, as we say, his manhood; the consequent sacredness of his rights; the rights of the individual in society as against despotic government, and the duties of society, however governed, to the individual; these and kindred truths have been powers in the political progress of the three last centuries. Whatever speculative recognition of them may be found here and there among the greatest heathen writers, it is indisputably Christianity which has made them practical powers in the creation of modern civilization. It was the revival of Christianity in the Protestant Reformation, going back beyond accumulated traditions and corruptions to the primitive principles and power of Christianity, which initiated this great movement and has given it its vitality. The principles which are to solve the social problems now urgent, lie waiting their application in the Christian law of service: "Whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many;"-Greatness for service; Greatness by service. And this principle our Lord announces explicitly as the principle of a new and Christian civilization: "Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you." Thus the progress of Christian civilization has been the slow but brightening revelation of the gospel of Christ as "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people;" "The poor have good tidings preached to them." "Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul according well, May make one music as befors, But vaster." CHAPTER XVI. PERSONALITY. 75. Definitions. I. A PERSON is a being conscious of self, subsisting in individuality and identity, and endowed with intuitive reason, rational sensibility and free-will. All beings constitutionally devoid of these characteristics are impersonal. God alone is self-existent and independent, unconditioned and allconditioning. Finite persons are always dependent on him; but they are in the image of God as endowed with reason and free-will, and are also in some respects self-conditioning. Hamilton remarks that while physical action is conditioned in space and time, the action of the human mind is not conditioned in space, but in consciousness and time. But because the mind is conscious of itself in all its acts and its consciousness is spontaneous and entirely within itself, it may be said to be, in this respect, self-conditioning. A personal being has also intuitive knowledge of rational principles. Thus are opened to him those ultimate realities of reason, the True, the Right, the Perfect and the Good. He is therefore autonomic; the truth that enlightens and the laws that regulate thought and action are within himself. And the Good, which is the end to be acquired for himself, since it consists primarily in his own perfection, is within himself. And to this extent he is self-conditioning. He also has knowledge of outward things, not as phenomena merely but as real beings, and of their real energies; by his rational intelligence he discovers the scientific principles and laws which regulate nature, and the cosmos or orderly system which it constitutes. In the light of reason he reads in nature the archetypal thoughts which it expresses and the rational ends which it subserves. Thus nature does not so much hem him in with limits as it opens a sphere to his thoughts and reveals to him the grandeur of his own reason. In his rational sensibilities his being lies open to influences that come on him from the sphere of the spiritual; he becomes conscious of a presence and a power transcending sense and arousing him to interest in truth and right, in perfection and beauty, and in good which reason estimates as having worth and in comparison with which sensual enjoyment is held of small account. In his will he is self-directing, self-acting and free. Here also nature, which seemed a restriction, is found to open a sphere of action in which man conquers nature and compelling it to reveal and surrender to him its powers and resources, develops himself and discovers and reveals his own powers. In all these respects man is self-conditioning. And, as in the enlargement of his knowledge and the development of his powers he comes upon the conditions and limitations of his being, he finds them not ultimately in nature, but rather in his dependence on God and his subjection to his law. Thus the very limitations and conditions of his being reveal his greatness, as subject ultimately only to the supreme and absolute Reason, hedged about only with the truth and laws, the ideas and ends eternal in the divine wisdom and love, and bound within these flaming barriers to be a worker together with God in the universal moral system for the realization of its highest ends. The component parts of this definition have already been considered and need no further explanation. II. A Moral Agent is a person considered as under obligation to obey the moral law, with freedom to obey or disobey it, and thus responsible for his action and character as right or wrong. All moral agents are persons. An impersonal being cannot be a moral agent. A dog may neglect every duty required in the moral law; but it cannot be a transgressor of the law, for it is constituted incapable of knowing the law and destitute of the qualities of a free and responsible person. There may be, however, persons or moral beings who cannot with strict propriety be called moral agents. A new-born infant is properly called a person or moral being, because it has the constitution of a person, though not yet developed into action. So the newly-born whelp of a tiger is properly called a carnivorous animal, though a long time may pass before it becomes capable of eating flesh. Yet this infant can hardly be called with propriety a moral agent until it is capable of the consciousness of moral obligation and of responsibility for its actions. III. Nature is the whole of impersonal being considered as conditioned in space and time and the subject of continuous transition in the uniform and necessary sequences of cause and effect. Nature is always "becoming;" it is never for two successive moments in the same condition; everything in it acts only as it is acted on, and in necessity not in freedom. "It must go on creating, changing, Through endless shapes forever ranging, |