IC-NRLF 
 
 *B 2bM Sbfl 
 
 >THICS 
 
 COfAE,; 
 
 GlNN St. COM PA! 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Deceived JAN 3 1.8.93..., f g 9 
 Accessions No. if Q % I O ... Class No, 
 
PRIMER OF ETHICS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 BENJAMIN B. COMEGYS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TALKS WITH BOYS AND GIRLS," " BEGINNING LIFE," " How 
 TO GET ON," "OLD STORIES WITH NEW LESSONS," "ADDRESSES 
 
 TO THE PUPILS OF GlRARD COLLEGE," ETC. 
 
 bo4 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A.: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY. 
 1891. 
 
MR. ABBOTT'S PREFACE. 
 
 THERE are few teachers who do not feel the need of 
 some additional means and facilities to aid them in the 
 cultivation of the moral sentiments of their pupils ; but 
 to provide these facilities is a very difficult and delicate 
 task. It is true that nothing is easier than to write 
 lectures inculcating moral truth ; and, at the same time, 
 scarcely anything is more difficult than to convey such 
 instruction so as to secure admission for it to the minds 
 and hearts of children, and a permanent influence there. 
 This little work, however, is an attempt to accomplish 
 this object. It consists of a series of lessons, designed 
 to explain and illustrate to young children their most 
 simple and obvious duties, and those traits of moral 
 character which it is most desirable should be early 
 formed. 
 
 The teacher will observe that each lesson consists of 
 three distinct portions : 
 
 i. A general statement of the principle or duty about 
 to be explained and enforced. It stands at the head of 
 the lesson, and is intended to be committed to memory 
 by the class. It may be recited by the whole of the 
 
VI MR. ABBOTT S PREFACE. 
 
 class in rotation, or by any part of it, either before the 
 reading, or immediately before the questions upon the 
 reading, which are given at the close of the lesson ; or 
 the committing of it to memory may be dispensed with 
 entirely according to the discretion of the teacher. 
 
 2. There follows an explanation, illustration, and 
 enforcement of the principle. This reading should be 
 accompanied with suitable explanations and remarks 
 by the teacher. The writer has endeavored to present 
 the subjects discussed in such points of view as to 
 awaken the attention and excite the interest of chil- 
 dren ; but, in treating the subjects, he has not con- 
 fined himself to the language of children, as one great 
 object of such an exercise is to advance the pupils' 
 knowledge of language, and add to their vocabulary of 
 English words. It will be desirable, therefore, that the 
 teacher should frequently question the readers about 
 the meaning of words, and take other measures to secure 
 the full understanding of the lesson by the class ; and it 
 will be especially beneficial if the various topics discussed 
 lead to additional remarks and explanations by the 
 teacher, and to conversations with the members of the 
 class, in order that their minds may be made thoroughly 
 familiar with the principles which the book inculcates. 
 
 3. To each lesson is added a series of questions. 
 Some of these arise directly from the lessons ; others 
 relate to the subject generally, and the answer is to be 
 furnished by the pupil himself from his own reflections. 
 
MR. ABBOTT'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 These questions, or a part of them, with such others as 
 the teacher may add, can be put to the class, in succes- 
 sion, at the close of each exercise. The pupil should be 
 encouraged to use his own language in expressing his 
 replies ; and, in fact, it will be observed, as has been 
 before intimated, that there are questions for which no 
 direct answers can be found in the lessons, and which 
 the pupil must consequently answer from his own reflec- 
 tions, and in his own language. They are intended to 
 lead him to reflect upon what he has read, and, by thus ex- 
 ercising his thinking and reasoning powers, to strengthen 
 his judgment and cultivate hi$ moral sense. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TRUTH . i 
 
 OBEDIENCE . 9 
 
 INDUSTRY 17 
 
 HONESTY 22 
 
 FIDELITY . . .31 
 
 JUSTICE 36 
 
 POLITENESS 44 
 
 DUTIES AT SCHOOL 48 
 
 DUTIES TO PLAYMATES 52 
 
 BENEVOLENCE 58 
 
 DUTIES TO DUMB CREATURES 63 
 
 TREATMENT OF ENEMIES 69 
 
 PROFANITY 77 
 
 CONSCIENCE 82 
 
 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS 88 
 
 DUTY TO PARENTS 95 
 
 FORGIVENESS . 102 
 
 GRATITUDE 108 
 
 PURITY 113 
 
 REPENTANCE 119 
 
 DUTY TO GOD 124 
 
A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 Truth is sincerity ; and in all we say and do, we must be sin- 
 cere. We must not make false impressions, directly or indirectly. 
 
 THERE are many ways by which we may mislead and 
 deceive others by what we say ; and these ways differ 
 very much from each other in criminality. Some of the 
 principal of them are these : 
 
 1. Saying a thing when we know it is not true. 
 
 2. Saying a thing when we do not know whether it is 
 true or not. 
 
 v 3. Prevaricating. 
 
 4. Misrepresenting. 
 
 5. Exaggerating. 
 
 All these are different forms of untruth ; let us con- 
 sider them in order : 
 
 I. Saying a thing when we know it is not true. This 
 is absolute falsehood ; and whoever is habitually guilty 
 of it after he is old enough to understand the nature of 
 the sin, is depraved. Young people are perhaps most 
 frequently led into this sin at first by having committed 
 some other fault, and then telling a lie to conceal it. 
 Sometimes there are circumstances which seem to draw 
 
 i 
 
A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 one into the falsehood without any previous intention to 
 say what is not true. A boy was led to tell a false- 
 hood in this way, very much as many others have been. 
 
 There was a deep pond behind his father's garden. 
 Early in the winter it froze over. One morning he took 
 the axe from the shed, and cut a hole in the ice to fish. 
 After he had cut the hole, the axe slipped from his 
 hands, fell through the hole, and went to the bottom. 
 The boy ought to have gone at once and told his father ; 
 but he was afraid to do this, and so he said nothing 
 about it. 
 
 Shortly after this, his father wanted the axe, and told 
 his son to see if he could find it. If his father had asked 
 him directly if he knew where it was, probably he would 
 have told him the truth ; but, as he asked him to look 
 for it, the boy said nothing, but went and looked in the 
 shed, and in the barn, and in the shop, and then came 
 back, and said the axe was nowhere to be found. This 
 was dishonest, but it was not strictly false. He had 
 said, thus far, nothing which was not true ; but he was 
 gradually getting himself entangled in a difficulty which, 
 it might easily be seen, would probably lead him to a 
 direct falsehood. 
 
 His father, thinking it very strange that the axe 
 should disappear, went with his son to look for it, and, 
 on the way, he abruptly asked him. whether he could 
 not recollect having had it lately ; and the boy hastily 
 answered, " No." He had only an instant to reflect ; 
 and in that instant the thought flashed through his 
 mind that he could not now confess that he had lost the 
 axe, without exposing the deception he had practised in 
 pretending to look for it, and also the thought that it 
 
TRUTH. 3 
 
 was some time before this that he had lost the axe ; and 
 his father's question was, whether he had seen it lately. 
 This enabled him to quiet his conscience a little, and to 
 flatter himself that he was not telling an absolute lie. 
 The next moment, his father asked him whether he had 
 seen it anywhere since they were splitting the log in the 
 shed; and he answered, " No, sir." His father then 
 went away; and the son sat down on a log before the 
 wood-pile, and covered his face with his hands, over- 
 whelmed with the bitter reflection that he had been 
 gradually led on to tell his father an absolute and un- 
 qualified lie. His peace of mind was destroyed. All 
 that afternoon and evening he was afraid to meet his 
 father, for fear he would say something about the axe. 
 The sight of the shed, of the wood-pile, of the ice, and 
 even of the wood burning in the fire-place, seemed to 
 recall to his mind the thoughts of his sin ; and he was 
 afraid all the time, that his father would go down to the 
 pond, and see the hole cut in the ice, and so would dis- 
 cover his guilt. At first, he thought that the hole would 
 soon freeze over again ; but then he reflected that it 
 would leave a sort of scar upon the spot, which would, 
 perhaps, remain all winter to reproach and betray him. 
 At night he could not sleep ; and at last he was so mis- 
 erable that he got up and went to his father's chamber, 
 and confessed that he had lost the axe through the ice, 
 and had told falsehoods about it; and he said that he 
 was so wretched in consequence, that he did not know 
 what to do. 
 
 It is very often in a way somewhat like this that 
 young people are led to tell their first wilful falsehoods. 
 Then, unless they go and confess them honestly, as 
 
4 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 this boy did, they bear the reproaches of conscience 
 for a time, until they gradually forget the offence ; and 
 then, on the next occasion, they commit the sin a little 
 more deliberately, and with less compunction. They go 
 on very fast in the downward course, when they have 
 thus begun. They say what is false more and more 
 frequently and boldly, until, at length, they are ready at 
 any time to tell a lie to conceal their faults, or to gain 
 their wishes. Their characters always become known ; 
 neither their parents nor their teachers can believe 
 them ; and even their acquaintances know that there is 
 no dependence to be placed upon anything they say. 
 
 2. The second form of untruthfulness mentioned is : 
 making a statement when we do not know whether it 
 is true or not. A woman went away one afternoon, and 
 left the house in charge of her daughter, directing her 
 to stay in the house, and attend to any one who might 
 come. After her mother had gone, the daughter went 
 to play in the garden, until just before the time for her 
 mother to return ; and then, when her mother came 
 home, and asked her if there had been anybody there, 
 she said "No." 
 
 Now, this was not a direct and absolute falsehood ; but 
 there was an indirect falsehood implied in it ; because, 
 when she said that nobody had called at the house, she 
 wished her mother .to understand that she had been 
 faithful at her post, and knew that what she said was 
 true. Her mother did understand her so, and was de- 
 ceived ; so there was falsehood involved in her answer, 
 though it was not directly expressed. A farmer asked his 
 boy if the cows were all in the barn-yard, and the boy 
 said, " Yes," when he did not know whether they were 
 
TRUTH. 5 
 
 there or not, but only supposed they were there, and 
 did not wish to take the trouble to go and see. A man 
 had a horse to sell, and said that he was only seven 
 years old, when he did not know how old he was. Now, 
 both these persons were guilty of indirect falsehood. The 
 falsehood was not absolute and express, as it would have 
 been if the boy had known that the cows were not all in 
 the yard, and if the man had known that his horse was 
 more than seven years old. They presumed, and hoped, 
 that what they said was true ; but they did not know that 
 it was true ; and, by asserting it as if they did know, and 
 by intending to lead others to suppose that they knew, 
 they were guilty of indirect falsehood. There is very 
 much of this kind of falsehood in the world. Many 
 persons, who would on no account say what they know 
 to be false, often say what they have no sufficient reason 
 for believing to be true. 
 
 3. Prevaricating. This means saying something which 
 is not in itself strictly and absolutely false, but which 
 is intended to convey a false meaning ; as, when a boy 
 said that he had not a single nut in his pocket, while in 
 fact, he had many. When the nuts were found there, 
 he attempted to justify himself by saying he had not a 
 single nut he had several. A man had a house to 
 sell, and the purchaser asked him whether it had a good 
 well of water, and he answered that the water was excel- 
 lent, and it afterwards appeared that, though the water 
 was excellent while it lasted, yet that the well was dry 
 for two months in the summer. This man was guilty of 
 prevarication. It is a kind of falsehood which is very 
 common. Even if not so wicked as an absolute lie, it is 
 very wrong. We ought never to say what will make 
 a false impression. 
 
A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 4. Misrepresentation. We misrepresent when we tell 
 a part of the truth and conceal the rest ; or when we 
 distort or color it, in the interest of our own feelings. 
 When two boys have any disagreement or contention, 
 and attempt to give an account of the circumstances to 
 their mother or teacher, they almost always misrepresent 
 the ease. Each conceals or passes over very slightly 
 what he himself did which was wrong, and states very 
 emphatically and strongly what the other did which was 
 wrong. A boy is knocking a ball, and the bat acciden- 
 tally hits another boy, and he complains that the first 
 boy struck him with a great stick ; this is misrepresen- 
 tation. It gives a wrong idea. This is a fault to which 
 all persons are exposed. Yet it is a kind of falsehood. 
 We are led into it by our feelings, by anger, by irrita- 
 tion, by our desire to gain our point, whatever that may 
 be, and by other strong emotions. But we ought to 
 guard against it with the greatest care, and watch our- 
 selves, especially when our feelings are strongly inter- 
 ested in any case, lest we turn truth into falsehood, by 
 intentional or unintentional misrepresentation. 
 
 5. Exaggeration. This is lying by representing any- 
 thing greater than it really is ; as when a boy says that 
 he has been trying very hard indeed, for a long time, to 
 do a certain example on his slate, when he had not, in 
 fact, been very diligent, and had only been employed 
 upon the work a short time. Young people exaggerate 
 their sickness sometimes, when they are only a little 
 unwell, but want to be excused from going to school, 
 or from doing some work. They exaggerate the diffi- 
 culties in doing anything they do not want to do; and, 
 in describing what they have seen or done, they often 
 
TRUTH. / 
 
 make it much greater or more wonderful than it really 
 was. Travellers often exaggerate the dangers they have 
 passed through, or the marvellousness of the sights 
 which they have seen. There are very few persons, 
 whether old or young, whose accounts of what they see 
 and hear can be fully depended upon, as strictly accu- 
 rate and just. Their feelings, their interests, and even 
 the excitement of conversation or of argument, are 
 often sufficient to lead them to overstate facts, so that 
 their statements cannot be depended upon. Yet, by 
 all these exaggerations, truth is sacrificed. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 There are several ways mentioned at the beginning of the lesson, 
 by which we may deceive and mislead others ; name any of them 
 that you can recollect. Which is said to be the worst of them f 
 
 How is it that boys are generally led to begin to speak falsehood ? 
 
 Describe the case of the boy who lost the axe. 
 
 When he said that he could not find the axe, did he tell an abso- 
 lute lie? Was he dishonest? 
 
 What ought he to have done when he first lost the axe? 
 
 What is the second offence against truth, which is mentioned in 
 the lesson ? 
 
 Tell the story of the girl left in charge of a house. 
 
 Did she know that what she stated was not true? 
 
 Was she to blame for saying nobody had been there ? Was she 
 as much to blame as she would have been if she had known that 
 somebody had been there, and yet had said what she did? 
 
 Do you remember any other cases of this kind of falsehood ? 
 
 What is prevaricating ? 
 
 How is this seen in the case of the man who had a house to sell ? 
 
 What is misrepresentation? 
 
 Which do you think is most common, prevarication or misrepre- 
 sentation? 
 
 Is prevarication always intentional ? 
 
8 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 Is misrepresentation always intentional? 
 
 Which should you consider generally the more wicked, to prevari- 
 cate or to misrepresent? 
 
 In what cases are children under very strong temptation to misrep- 
 resent? 
 
 Did you ever know any children who would not misrepresent in 
 such cases? 
 
 What is exaggeration? Can you give an example of it? 
 
 Do you think these principles are too strict ? 
 
 Should you like to have all your playmates and companions live 
 up to them ? 
 
 Can lies be told without speaking words? 
 
 How can any one act a lie ? 
 
 How early in life can a child tell lies ? 
 
 May persons who are known to be saying extravagant things for 
 fun do so without lying? 
 
 How? Nobody is deceived. 
 
 How can any one think a lie? 
 
 Is this as bad as a spoken lie? 
 
 Are people often tempted to tell lies ? 
 
 Can a liar have the respect of good people ? 
 
 What are lying lips said to be ? 
 
OBEDIENCE. 
 
 Obedience is doing what is commanded, or not doing what is 
 forbidden, because it is commanded or forbidden by one who has 
 authority. Obedience should be prompt, faithful and cheerful. 
 
 IN the various circumstances in which we are placed 
 in life we are all under obligation to obey. The soldier 
 must obey his officer, the sailor must obey his com- 
 mander, the apprentice must obey his master, and every 
 citizen must obey the laws of the land. Children and 
 youth are under special obligations to obey their parents, 
 their teachers and their guardians. In all these, and in 
 many other cases, persons are bound to obey. 
 
 Now, obedience is doing what is commanded, because 
 it is commanded, and not because we think it is best to 
 do it. 
 
 It is important to understand this, because it often 
 happens that when young people receive a command 
 from their parents or teachers, instead of obeying it, 
 they stop to ask for the reason of it, as if it were 
 necessary that they should understand the reason before 
 they obey. This is wrong. When we are commanded 
 to do anything by a person who has authority, we ought 
 to do it because it is commanded, and not because we 
 see a reason for it. It is very proper for young people 
 to wish to know the reasons for their parents' com- 
 mands ; but they must never delay their obedience to 
 
 9 
 
IO A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 inquire. They should obey first, and ask the reason 
 afterwards. 
 
 A child may know what the reason of the command 
 is, and yet not be satisfied with it : and think, on that 
 account he may refuse to obey. His father tells him 
 not to go upon a certain piece of ice, because he thinks 
 it is not strong enough to bear him ; and the boy 
 thinks -it is strong enough : but he ought to obey, not 
 because he sees the command is reasonable, but be- 
 cause it is a command. So the sailor must take in sail 
 at once, when the captain orders him to do it, even if 
 he thinks it ought not to be taken in ; and the appren- 
 tice, or the boy, or man, ought to do the work as the 
 master or employer directs, even if he thinks he knows 
 a better way. 
 
 And more than this : a case may happen in which a 
 boy may know that his father or mother was mistaken, 
 and that the command was an unnecessary one ; still it 
 ought to be obeyed. A farmer once was sending his 
 boy some miles to a grist-mill, and he told him to go 
 round by the bridge to get across the stream, as the 
 fording-place was not safe. Now, the boy knew that it 
 was safe ; he had crossed the ford many times, and he 
 knew that his father was mistaken. His father was old, 
 and feeble, and timid, and his son was sure that he was 
 needlessly afraid. Still he obeyed him. He might have 
 taken the short road through the ford, instead of going 
 round by the bridge, and his father would probably never 
 have known of his disobedience. But he would not dis- 
 obey. He knew that the reason why he must obey his 
 father, was not because it was certain that his father 
 would always be right, but because he was his father, 
 
OBEDIENCE. 1 1 
 
 and that he had the right to command his son. This is 
 the very nature of obedience, and young people should 
 understand that it is obedience which they owe to their 
 parents. When, therefore, a boy's father or mother 
 directs him to do anything, he must remember that it 
 is a command, not advice ; and therefore it is not 
 necessary that he should know or be satisfied with 
 the reasons, or refuse to obey because he is not told 
 them. 
 
 r Obedience ought to be prompt ; that is, the command 
 must be obeyed as soon as it is given, or at the time 
 directed. Sometimes children delay, ask the reason for 
 the command, or make objections ; sometimes they are 
 doing something else which they do not wish *o leave ; 
 and sometimes, when the duty is not very pleasant, they 
 move so slowly and reluctantly in doing it, as to consume 
 more time than is necessary to accomplish the object. 
 
 Prompt obedience is worth much more than that 
 which is reluctant and slow. He who obeys tardily 
 does not more than half obey. He who moves slowly 
 when he is told to do something ; who spends much 
 time in making preparations to do it ; who stops to ask 
 questions, or to make objections, or to propose some 
 other way ; who loiters when sent with a message, and 
 who puts off as long as he can every duty, such a 
 boy would be of very little service to his employer. 
 7 Then, too, prompt obedience is much the more pleas- 
 ant. If a disagreeable duty is to be performed, the 
 easiest way to get through it is to do it at once. Two 
 boys have paths to make every morning after a snow- 
 storm. One, as soon as he is dressed, is out at his 
 work, facing the cool morning air as a General would 
 
12 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 face an enemy. The other peeps out to see if it is cold ; 
 then comes back and stands for a long time about the 
 fire, putting on his mittens and warming his feet, and 
 dreading his work. At last he is just ready to begin 
 when the first boy is finishing. Which, now, gets 
 through his work more easily and pleasantly ? The way 
 to make a disagreeable or painful duty as disagreeable 
 and painful as possible, is to perform it in a reluctant, 
 inefficient 'and dilatory manner. 
 
 7 Obedience ought to be cheerful. It must necessarily 
 be that many commands which we have to obey are 
 disagreeable. Still they must be obeyed ; and they are 
 made much more disagreeable to all concerned by being 
 obeyed in a sullen and ill-natured manner. The com- 
 mands which are given to young people are of different 
 kinds ; but there is good reason for obeying them cheer- 
 fully and pleasantly. Some are given solely upon the 
 child's own account, to do him some good, as when he is 
 sent to school ; or to save him from future suffering, as 
 when he is required to take medicine when he is sick, 
 or when he is told to put down a penknife with which 
 he wants to play. Many of the restraints and priva- 
 tions which are imposed upon children are of this kind. 
 They are for their own good. It is true this is not 
 enough to make them agreeable to bear, but it is enough 
 to make it the duty of a child to bear them cheerfully 
 and without murmuring. Other commands are for the 
 benefit of the parent, as when there is work to do, or a 
 message to carry, or a young child to be watched and 
 taken care of. These duties often come at a time when 
 children find it very inconvenient to attend to them ; 
 but they must be attended to ; and whatever we have to 
 
OBEDIENCE. 13 
 
 give up of our own wishes and plans, to help a father or 
 mother, or any other person, ought to be given up cheer- 
 fully. Those children who have any sense of gratitude, 
 and who consider how many painful, and wearisome, and 
 long-continued anxieties and labors the parent has suf- 
 fered for the child, without a word of repining, will not 
 think it right to repine at any inconveniences they can 
 be called upon to submit to in return. 
 
 Obedience ought to be faithful. When any work is 
 to be done by boys and girls, they ought to go forward 
 as steadily and industriously when they are not watched 
 as when they are. It is not enough to go through the 
 forms of obedience. If a boy should be set to write or 
 to study for an hour, in a room by himself, he must not 
 only remain there at his post, but he must give his 
 mind diligently to his work. A faithful boy will do so 
 whether he is observed or not. He is impelled by an 
 inward principle of duty, and by a desire for the satis- 
 faction and happiness which fidelity will always secure. 
 And so in school. Faithful boys know from experience 
 that the time passes most pleasantly when they are 
 most industriously employed. They do not think it 
 enough, merely to sit still while the mind is straying 
 far away. 
 
 There are many different ways of giving commands. 
 Thus, in a ship at sea, the orders of an officer are some- 
 times given by his own voice, sometimes in writing, 
 sometimes by a messenger, sometimes by peculiar flags 
 hung out as signals, and sometimes even by a whistle. 
 The boatswain has a peculiar kind of whistle, which he 
 blows in various ways, so as to tell the sailors when they 
 must pull upon a rope, and when they must ceasq 
 
14 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 pulling ; when they must come up on deck and when 
 they must go down. The shrill whistle can be heard 
 more distinctly amidst the roar of the winds and waves 
 than other sounds. You know in a street car, orders to 
 stop or go on are given by pulling a bell. Many of the 
 orders given to the engineer of a railway train are given 
 by bells, or by whistles which are sounded through the 
 air-brakes, or by electric wires. So in the army, men 
 are directed by the cavalry bugle and tap of drum. 
 
 Now, it makes no difference in which of these ways 
 an order is given. The sailors, engineers and soldiers 
 are bound to obey in one case as much as in another. 
 And so with children in a family or pupils in a school ; 
 they are bound to obey their parents and teachers, in 
 whatever way the order is communicated. A boy who 
 does not come in when the bell rings, disobeys. The 
 touch of bell was the order. If a mother beckons to 
 a child who is out at play, it is a command to come 
 in, as certainly as the most decided language could be. 
 If a direction is sent from a parent, by the youngest 
 child as a messenger, it is to be obeyed as promptly and 
 faithfully as if it were delivered by the parent himself. 
 All that is necessary is, that the wish of the parent 
 should be made known ; it is certainly immaterial in 
 what manner this is done. 
 
 Young people and children are bound also to obey the 
 laws of the state or commonwealth. A boy or girl has 
 no more right than a man or woman would have, to 
 disobey laws made for the protection of property or the 
 security of the rights of others. The sign " Trespass- 
 ing forbidden under the penalty of the law," is a com- 
 mand to be observed by children as well as grown people. 
 
OBEDIENCE. 1 5 
 
 A boy who fires a toy pistol or uses a sling-shot within 
 limits forbidden by law, is as truly a bad citizen as a 
 man who commits an act 'which brings him under 
 punishment of the law. 
 
 Such is the kind of obedience which young people 
 ought to render to their parents, to their teachers 
 and to the state ; and they ought to render it of their 
 own accord and willingly, without making it necessary 
 to exercise force. But if they will not obey of their own 
 accord, it is most undoubtedly the parent's or teacher's 
 duty to compel them to obey. This is a very painful 
 duty, but it must be performed. Children are not old 
 enough to understand the reasons for all the commands 
 and prohibitions which their parents or teachers think 
 necessary. In some cases where they might understand, 
 there is not time to explain them. Then, even where 
 the reasons can be understood, and are fully explained, 
 young people, as we all know perfectly well, cannot be 
 depended upon to do what they know is best, without 
 being required to do it. They have not sufficient firm- 
 ness, constancy and self-denial. It is not reasonable to 
 expect it of them. It becomes necessary, by the very 
 nature of their minds, that there should be a power 
 above them, to make up, by its authority, for their want 
 of mental and moral energy and self-control. Parents 
 and teachers must therefore have authority. They 
 cannot depend upon advice or persuasion ; they must 
 command. And children must obey. Obedience is 
 absolutely necessary to good government in the family, 
 the school, and the state. 
 
l6 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Are men as well as children often under obligation to obey? 
 
 What cases can you mention where men have to obey ? 
 
 What is meant by obeying ? 
 
 When we have a command to obey, is it necessary that we should 
 understand the reasons for it? 
 
 Is it wrong for us to wish to know the reasons for it? 
 
 Is it right to postpone obeying the command in order that we 
 may ask the reasons for it? 
 
 Is it any excuse for 'not obeying, that the reasons do not seem 
 satisfactory ? 
 
 Suppose we know our parents are mistaken, must we obey? 
 Would it be hard to obey good-humoredly in such a case? Would 
 it be duty to obey? 
 
 What case is given to illustrate this ? 
 
 What is meant by prompt obedience ? 
 
 Describe the case of the two boys. 
 
 What is the meaning of prohibition? 
 
 Is it possible that the commands and prohibitions of a parent 
 should always be pleasant? 
 
 Is it possible that they should be obeyed pleasantly? 
 
 Do you recollect anything which is said of faithful obedience? 
 
 Must children obey the laws of the state? 
 
 How can they disobey them? 
 
 Mention some of the different ways by which commands are given 
 at sea. 
 
 Do these different ways cause any difference in regard to the duty 
 of obeying? 
 
 In what different ways do parents sometimes communicate their 
 orders ? Is the obligation to obey of the same nature in all these 
 cases ? 
 
 Can young people be depended upon always to do what they ought 
 to do, when they know what it is? 
 
 Is it necessary, then, that they should be made to obey? 
 
 Suppose they will not do it of their own accord, what is the duty 
 of the parent or teacher? 
 
 Can there be good government anywhere without obedience ? 
 
INDUSTRY. 
 
 Industry is constant diligence in any proper employment ; and 
 we are happier when employed than when idle. 
 
 INDUSTRY, to be most successful, must be steady, per- 
 severing and wisely directed. 
 
 / i. Industry ought to be steady. When a young boy 
 and a man of maturity and. experience go out together 
 to work, we shall see a very marked difference in their 
 manner. They go into the forest, on a winter morning, 
 with a sled drawn by oxen, to get in wood. The boy is 
 running hither and thither, and jumping about the sled ; 
 and when he comes to the woods he begins cutting, with 
 great zeal and earnestness, to see if he cannot get a log 
 cut off sooner than the man. The man moves deliber- 
 ately. He takes no unnecessary steps ; he makes no 
 violent exertion. The boy is exhausted in an hour, and 
 after that can do very little more ; while the man is 
 able to continue his labor steadily till the sun goes 
 down in the evening. 
 
 Industry to be steady must not be violent ; and the 
 most effectual way to accomplish any purpose is, gener- 
 ally, to exert ourselves with moderation, and then we 
 can continue to work longer. 
 
 > Boys and girls are very often unsteady in what they 
 do. It is not because they mean to do wrong ; it results 
 from the nature of youth, which is, to be ardent, but 
 
1 8 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 easily fatigued. So when sent upon an errand, they will 
 set off upon the run, and then, when half-way to their 
 place of destination, they sit down to rest. When work 
 is given them, they begin with the greatest energy ; but 
 in a few minutes their breath is spent, their strength is 
 gone. Now, industry must be steady. The work 
 should be begun with moderation, so that the strength 
 may endure. Emergencies of haste or danger require 
 extraordinary exertions, no doubt ; but for ordinary 
 duties, it is best always to begin in such a way as to 
 be able to go on ; and then we must have resolution to 
 go on steadily to the end. 
 
 ? 2. Industry must be persevering. One cause of want 
 of perseverance among some persons, is their loss of 
 interest in what they have begun, so they abandon it 
 for something else. Thus they go on, and waste time 
 and strength upon unfinished undertakings. There was 
 a boy who began to build himself a little shop. He got 
 the boards together, and sawed some of them so as to 
 make them of the proper length. This consumed all 
 his leisure time for two days. Then he saw a squirrel 
 upon a wood-pile, and that put it in his head to make a 
 trap. He worked upon this trap until he got it all ready 
 to nail together, when one day a boy brought a boat to 
 school, rigged very prettily, and then he concluded to 
 make a boat as soon as possible. Thus he abandoned 
 one thing after another and in the end accomplished 
 nothing. He worked many days upon his shop, trap 
 and boat, but he produced nothing which was of any 
 value whatever. We cannot expect, when we begin 
 large undertakings, that the interest with which we be- 
 gan will continue to the end, As soon as the novelty 
 
INDUSTRY. 19 
 
 is gone, and the exertions begin to tire, then those who 
 are only stimulated by novelty and momentary zeal, find 
 their energies failing, and the undertaking is abandoned. 
 But the persevering press on. Resolution and energy 
 come in to take the place of the excited interest with 
 which they began, and they go on with firmness and 
 steadiness of purpose till their object is accomplished. 
 Labor, without perseverance, is often wasted. 
 
 Young people very often show a want of perseverance 
 in the studies which they begin in school. When some 
 new study is spoken of, they are very desirous of under- 
 taking it. They are sure that they will like it. And so 
 they will like the beginning of it, which is all that they 
 can distinctly foresee ; and the interest and pleasure 
 which really belong to the novelty of the undertaking, 
 they think will attach permanently to the study itself. 
 They begin with great zeal ; but when the first ardor is 
 over, and they find that the new study, which looked so 
 attractive, requires the same hard work that the old 
 studies did, they are disappointed and discouraged, and 
 their interest is gone. The remedy for this is to under- 
 stand very fully, and never forget, that all undertakings, 
 pursuits and studies, after the impulse and novelty of 
 the first onset are over, demand patient and persevering 
 application for their successful accomplishment ; and 
 then, when the excitement and interest of novelty fail, 
 we may hope that a spirit of perseverance and energy 
 will take their place. 
 
 , 3. Industry must be well directed. Making a railroad 
 is a well-directed industry. The interest and pleasure 
 of construction are great, and the road is a public conven- 
 ience. So is the building of a ship or a bridge. Chil- 
 
2O A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 dren waste time in doing things which they have not the 
 power to finish, and sometimes upon things which will 
 do them no good and give them no pleasure if they do 
 succeed in completing them. A boy undertook to make 
 a little saw-mill, on a stream. He found an old saw- 
 plate, which he was going to use for the saw of his mill ; 
 and then with the tools which his father had, he under- 
 took to make the wheels and the frames, and to fit all 
 the parts together. But the work was beyond his 
 power. After spending much time and labor, he had 
 to give up the work in despair. His industry was ill 
 directed. Another boy has undertaken to keep two 
 balls in the air, catching one as it comes down, while 
 the other is going up. He practises every day, some- 
 times an hour at a time, and perseveres wonderfully. 
 But his industry is ill directed. The accomplishment 
 will be good for nothing but to make idle boys wonder, 
 when he has learned to do it. Two boys are building a 
 bridge across a stream where they often go to play. 
 They are laying a solid abutment of stone at the edge 
 of each bank, constructing them carefully, as they have 
 seen masons build a wall. They have selected a plank, 
 which they are going to place across, when the abut- 
 ments which are to support the ends of the plank are 
 completed. This is well-directed industry. There is a 
 reasonable prospect that they can accomplish the work, 
 and they will have the pleasure of crossing and recross- 
 ing upon their bridge for months and months after all 
 the labor of building has been forgotten. 
 
 Much of the industry of men, as well as that of boys, 
 is wasted in ill-directed efforts. Sometimes, for want of 
 proper care and deliberation in forming the plan, the 
 
INDUSTRY. 21 
 
 whole enterprise fails. Sometimes they attempt to do 
 what is impossible; and sometimes, after a long period 
 of toil and anxiety and heavy expenditure, they accom- 
 plish their object; but they find that it entirely disap- 
 points their expectations and hopes when it is obtained. 
 Therefore, in all our undertakings, whether in the play 
 of childhood or in the serious pursuits of life, we ought 
 to consider whether it is worth while to do what we pro- 
 pose, and if so, how it shall be done, before we begin to 
 expend our energies upon it ; and thus our industry will 
 be wisely directed. If we are steady and persevering 
 also, the results may be of great value. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is industry ? 
 
 What is necessary to make it successful ? 
 
 What may be the consequence of a too eager beginning of any 
 work? 
 
 Is it easy for young persons to be steady in their work ? 
 
 Is it easy for them to be steady in their studies ? 
 
 How must we begin our labors if we wish to go on steadily? 
 
 What is perseverance? 
 
 Give an account of the management of the boy who did not stick 
 to one thing. 
 
 Was he industrious? 
 
 Was his industry persevering? 
 
 How do children often manifest a want of perseverance in school ? 
 
 What is it generally, in new studies, that really interests them? 
 
 Can the interest of novelty be expected to last long? 
 
 What is the example of a well-directed industry? 
 
 What is an abutment? 
 
 Do men as well as children often waste their strength in ill-directed 
 efforts? 
 
 What do you think of the boy and his balls ? 
 
 Have we any time to waste in this way? 
 
HONESTY. 
 
 . It is wrong to take the property of others without their con- 
 sent, or to get any advantage from them by deception or con- 
 cealment, or any false contrivance. He who does this, or attempts 
 to do it, or even desires to do it, is not honest. 
 
 PROPERTY is something which one owns and has a 
 right to own ; it may be a house, a farm, a ship, a box 
 of tools, money in the bank or in the pocket, a horse, 
 a dog, a penknife, a pencil, a watch, an apple, a book, 
 or anything else. 
 
 People own these things because they have received 
 them as presents, or have inherited them from friends 
 who have died, or have bought them with their own 
 money, or have earned them by labor or by good be- 
 havior. Everything which you see or touch belongs 
 to you or to somebody else. If it belongs to you, you 
 have the right to do what you please with it, provided 
 you do not abuse it : if it belongs to somebody else, 
 you have no right to it whatever. 
 
 Property may be disposed of, or may be got rid of, by 
 giving it away, by trading with it, that is, by giving one 
 thing for another, by selling it for money, by wasting it 
 in bad living, or by actually destroying it. 
 
 The grossest form of dishonesty is stealing taking 
 the property of another without his knowledge and con- 
 sent a sin which is and must be severely condemned 
 
HONESTY. 23 
 
 and punished. Some people are constantly watching for 
 opportunities to steal. They are thieves, and are feared 
 and abhorred by all. When one of them steals some- 
 thing, the whole community is interested in detecting 
 him, and he is hunted by the officers of justice till he is 
 taken, convicted and sent to prison. He is the common 
 enemy of mankind. 
 
 Another class of dishonest acts are frauds. Defraud- 
 ing is cheating. There are many people who will not 
 steal, being afraid of the prison, and yet they will be 
 guilty of dishonesty by defrauding those who deal with 
 them. Though these people may be very secret and 
 careful in their frauds, their characters gradually become 
 known : they are suspected and shunned, and they can 
 never enjoy their ill-gotten gains. Whatever comes by 
 dishonesty brings a sting with it which destroys the 
 pleasure of having it. It is far better to be perfectly 
 honest, for then our consciences will be at rest : we can 
 meet every one without misgiving or fear, and whatever 
 we have, we can enjoy, feeling that it is entirely our 
 own. Perfect honesty means several things. 
 , i. An honest boy will not take any property which 
 belongs to other persons without their full consent, either 
 expressed or understood. There are many ways in which 
 property is exposed, and must be exposed, and those who 
 are dishonest can take it if they choose. Property is 
 exposed in families, which children may take. Parents 
 are not generally suspicious of their own children, and 
 do not always watch them very closely to prevent their 
 taking without leave what they like. And sometimes 
 children persuade themselves that to take money, or 
 fruit, or anything else, from their parents, is not so 
 
24 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 wicked as it would be to take it from other persons. 
 But it certainly is as wicked ; in fact, in one respect it 
 is more so ; for to the guilt of theft is added the guilt 
 of ingratitude and treachery. Is it any the less wicked 
 to steal from a benefactor and friend, than to steal from 
 a stranger ? Our deceitful hearts always lead us to 
 excuse ourselves for our own particular sins ; but con- 
 science cannot be entirely silenced in respect to this. It 
 warns and remonstrates very loudly when the guilty 
 child is going secretly to the forbidden drawer or closet. 
 It destroys his peace of mind, it makes him afraid to 
 meet the eye of his father or mother, and it punishes 
 him with its painful sting long after the pleasure is over, 
 which his dishonesty secured for him. 
 . 2. A boy who is honest will not take advantage of 
 another person by stealth or deception. Such a boy 
 once asked a gentleman to let him ride his horse a little 
 way ; and he was told he might ride him to the stream, 
 which was about a half-mile off, and let him drink. The 
 boy rode to the stream, and there he found another and 
 larger boy on another horse, who asked him to ride a 
 little farther down the road, saying that the owner of the 
 horse would never know it. The younger boy would not 
 go. He had an instinctive feeling that it would be 
 wrong. And it would have been wrong. It would 
 have been dishonest. He would have taken something 
 by stealth and deception, without the owner's consent. 
 What was it that he would have taken ? Why, the use 
 of the horse for a longer period than he had obtained 
 leave to use him. The pleasure of a ride as far as the 
 stream he could have honestly ; but if he had tried to 
 extend the pleasure any farther, it would have been 
 pleasure dishonestly gained, 
 
HONESTY. 25 
 
 A man hires a horse to go on a journey of twenty 
 miles, and then at the end of that journey goes on ten 
 miles farther, intending to say nothing about it when 
 he returned. He is not honest. He would save a little 
 money, but he would lose his peace of mind. We must 
 not only not steal property itself, but we must not steal 
 the use of property, nor take it in any way without the 
 owner's consent, either expressed or implied ; for the 
 owner has as good a right to the use of his property 
 as he has to the property itself ; and to deprive him of 
 one by stealth or deception is as truly dishonest as to 
 deprive him of the other. There is a difference in the 
 degree of guilt. It is more dishonest to take a thing 
 altogether than it is to take the use of it without the 
 owner's consent ; but both sins are the same in kind. 
 
 Some street-cars have drivers, but not conductors. 
 A boy gets on the back platform to ride without paying. 
 He clings to the car until the driver comes back to send 
 him off. The boy steps off until the driver goes back 
 to his horses, and then gets on again. When asked 
 why he does it, he says it is "good fun." But this boy 
 is really trying to steal a ride and he is beginning 
 to steal. 
 
 Sometimes it is right to take what belongs to another 
 without the owner's expressed consent. The consent 
 may be implied or taken for granted. If you are riding 
 along a farm in the country, where there are wild rasp- 
 berry bushes, it would be right for you to gather as 
 many raspberries as you wish without asking the con- 
 sent of the owner of the land. The reason is, it is so 
 universally understood that any person may gather wild 
 raspberries, that the owner's consent, though it has not 
 
26 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 been expressed in words, is implied. You have good 
 reason to know that the owner would have no objection. 
 If you were spending some days on a visit at a friend's 
 house, and your friend had gone out one morning, and 
 had left you alone in the house, and if you wished to 
 write a letter home, and you were to take out a sheet 
 of paper from a drawer and write your letter and send 
 it away, it would not be dishonest. True, you would 
 have taken the property of another person without any 
 expressed consent, but still consent would have been 
 implied. You might know that your friend would be 
 perfectly willing that you should have the paper ; and 
 if she were to return while you were writing the letter, 
 you would not feel guilty and afraid, and attempt to 
 hide the paper away as if you had done something 
 wrong. 
 
 In these instances the value of the property is very 
 small. But upon the same principles, property of a 
 greater value may be taken without any dishonesty, if 
 the circumstances are such that we are perfectly sure we 
 would have the owner's implied consent. A man once 
 went into a house and took some provisions while the 
 family was away, without doing any wrong. You wonder 
 how this could be. The case was this : he was travel- 
 ling through the woods and got lost. After wandering 
 about a long time, he came at last upon a farm-house in 
 a solitary place. The family had gone into the field, far 
 away from the house. Now, he knew that if the farmer 
 had been at home, he would willingly have given him 
 some food, as he was almost exhausted by fatigiys, 
 hunger and anxiety. So he opened the door and found 
 something to eat ; and then when refreshed a little by 
 
HONESTY. 27 
 
 food and rest, he went off into the fields to find the 
 farmer, and offered to pay him. But the farmer would 
 not take any pay, saying if he had been at home he 
 would have given him food. So if a man were wrecked 
 with the ship he sailed in, upon a desert island, and he 
 were the only one saved, he might take all the cargo 
 of the ship and use it for his own benefit. 
 
 The dishonesty of an act does not consist merely in 
 our taking property that does not belong to us, nor 
 does it depend upon the value of the property ; it 
 depends upon our state of mind. Unless we are per- 
 fectly sure that the owner would have no objection 
 to our taking it, or if we should feel a little guilty 
 should he come unexpectedly and find us taking it, or 
 if we detect in ourselves a secret wish to conceal from 
 him that we have taken it, then we are dishonest, 
 no matter how small the value of the article may be. 
 But if we are sure we have the consent of the owner, 
 either expressed or implied, we are not dishonest, no 
 matter how great the value of the article may be. 
 
 When it is thus distinctly explained to young people 
 that it is sometimes right to take the owner's consent 
 for granted, they must not presume the consent to be 
 implied when they have no right to do so. It will not 
 do to say, " Oh, I think he will let us have it," and 
 then take things, unless we are sure the owner has no 
 objection to our taking them. Nor is it enough to know 
 that he would let you have it if you asked for it. You 
 must know that he would be willing to let you have it 
 without asking for it. A man who had a large orchard 
 would, no doubt, give apples to boys if they asked him ; 
 but it does not follow that he would be willing that boys 
 
28 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 should take apples from his orchard without asking. 
 We must never take what belongs to another, unless we 
 are quite sure he would be perfectly willing for us to 
 take it without permission ; as, for instance, raspberries 
 from his fields, or wild flowers from his meadow, or a 
 drink of water from his well. These things are all his 
 property. But we may take them without leave because 
 it is absolutely certain, not only that he would be will- 
 ing to give them to us, but also that he would not even 
 wish us to ask him for them. But when, for any reason 
 whatever, we have any cause to doubt the owner's con- 
 sent, then the property must not be taken, whether its 
 value is great or small ; as, if instead of wild raspberries 
 from the farmer's field, it is strawberries from his garden 
 which boys wish to gather, though the value of the fruit 
 is nearly the same, it may be very right to take the wild 
 raspberries, and yet very wrong to take the strawberries 
 from his garden. 
 
 , 3. An honest boy will be honest in fulfilling his 
 agreements. To fail of fulfilling an agreement, openly 
 and avowedly, is unjust. To contrive some artful or 
 secret way of evading what we agreed to do, is dis- 
 honest. There are many temptations to dishonesty in 
 fulfilling agreements for work ; for the man who engages 
 the workman to do it, very seldom knows exactly how 
 it ought to be done. He contracts, perhaps, with a 
 carpenter to build him a house, and he does not know 
 himself what kind of materials ought to be used for all 
 the various parts, nor how the work ought to be exe- 
 cuted. It is so with the painter, the mason, the black- 
 smith, and all the other trades. Those who work at 
 them can, in fulfilling their contracts, take advantage of 
 
HONESTY. 29 
 
 their employer's imperfect acquaintance with the details 
 of the work. But it is dishonest to do so. A contractor 
 or builder ought to be as faithful as if all the world 
 understood every particular of his work, and could 
 judge of its thoroughness as well as himself. An honest 
 mechanic will do so. He may at first not get so great 
 a profit, but he enjoys a high satisfaction ; his mind is 
 at peace, and he will secure a fine reputation ; while the 
 dishonest workman, for the sake of a little greater gain, 
 wounds his own spirit, and arouses conscience to com- 
 plaints and murmurings and bitter reproaches, and after 
 a time nobody will trust him. 
 
 4. An honest boy is honest in regard to property 
 which some other person has lost, and which he has 
 found, and he endeavors to restore it to the true owner. 
 A dishonest boy does not wish to find the true owner 
 and restore it to him. He wishes to secure it to him- 
 self. On some dangerous coasts where vessels are 
 liable to be wrecked, men sometimes go and live in huts 
 on the beach, to be ready to plunder the cargoes and 
 the passengers, as they are driven ashore by the waves. 
 And sometimes they hold out false lights to deceive the 
 sailors. They have no compassion for the unhappy men 
 who barely escape a terrible death, and lose nearly all 
 they have. They only wish to get what is left for them- 
 selves. So they leave the suffering people to perish 
 upon the sand, while they rob the passengers and carry 
 away whatever of the cargo they can find. The honest 
 man and honest boy think of the losers when they find 
 what is lost, and do all they can to restore the property 
 to the owner. 
 
30 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is honesty? 
 
 What is property? 
 
 Mention some things which we Call property. 
 
 How may we get property? 
 
 How may we lose it? 
 
 What are we bound to do with property? 
 
 What is the grossest act of dishonesty? 
 
 How are thieves universally regarded among men ? 
 
 What is the second class of dishonest acts called ? 
 
 Is it possible to avoid having property exposed, so that persons 
 may take it dishonestly if they will ? 
 
 Is property exposed before children generally? How? 
 
 Do children generally think it as wi,cked to take things from their 
 parents as it would be to steal from other people? 
 
 Is there any reason why it should be considered more wicked? 
 
 Is it wrong to gain any advantage or pleasure at the expense of 
 other people, without their consent, or to take their property? 
 
 Describe the case of the boy going to ride the horse to water. 
 
 How can one steal the use of property? 
 
 Describe the case of the man who hires a horse to go twenty miles. 
 
 What is a boy in danger of becoming, who tries to ride on a car 
 without paying? 
 
 What is the meaning of expressed consent? 
 
 What is the meaning of implied consent? 
 
 Can you mention any case where a person would have an implied 
 consent? 
 
 What great danger are children exposed to in regard to this 
 subject ? 
 
 In what way are mechanics sometimes dishonest in respect to 
 their work ? 
 
 What does honesty require of us when we find things that have 
 been lost? 
 
FIDELITY. 
 
 We must not neglect nor slight the duties we owe to ourselves 
 or others ; but we must do them earnestly and carefully. This is 
 faithfulness or fidelity. 
 
 THERE. is a difference between honesty and faithful- 
 ness which may be illustrated thus : A boy is sent with 
 a basket of fruit, to give to a sick person in the neigh- 
 borhood. An honest boy will not take any of the fruit 
 himself, but will deliver it safely. But suppose, when 
 he has gone a little way, he should see some other boys 
 playing, and should put his basket down and stop to 
 play with them; he would be unfaithful. He would 
 not be performing his duty in a thorough and careful 
 manner. 
 
 S Unfaithfulness often leads to dishonesty. If a boy 
 slights or neglects duty from thoughtlessness, or forget- 
 fulness, or want of care, he is merely unfaithful. If he 
 does so with a secret design to deceive and defraud, he 
 is unfaithful, and dishonest too. 
 
 The workmen who attempt to defraud their employers 
 by doing their work in an imperfect and insufficient 
 manner are examples of this. They are unfaithful in 
 their work, and dishonest to their employers. 
 
 The distinction may be shown, too, in respect to 
 promises. If we make any promise, secretly intending, 
 when we promise, that we will not perform it, or that 
 we will not perform it well, we are dishonest. Even if 
 
 31 
 
32 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 we afterwards do fulfil the promise perfectly, we were 
 dishonest in making it. But, on the other hand, if we 
 make it in good faith, that is, honestly intending to 
 keep it, and afterward from carelessness or design, 
 neglect the fulfilment, we are unfaithful. Once a boy 
 promised his sister that if she would give him a certain 
 picture-book, he would make her a boat, to sail on the 
 pond. She understood him to mean a wooden boat 
 with masts and sails ; and he intended that she should 
 understand him so. But he meant secretly to make her 
 only a paper boat, which would be good for nothing ; 
 for as soon as it was set afloat, it would begin to soak 
 up the water, and very soon turn over or sink. He was 
 dishonest in making his promise. Another boy, how- 
 ever, who promised his sister a boat, really intended to 
 make one ; but the time passed away and he did not 
 do it ; other things interested him ; and, though his 
 sister asked him for her boat many times, he never 
 made it. This boy was honest in making his promise, 
 but unfaithful in keeping it. 
 
 The temptation to unfaithfulness is greatest in those 
 duties or services which are somewhat indefinite in their 
 nature; and it is in these that we ought to be particu- 
 larly on our guard. If a man agreed to dig a cellar of a 
 certain size, and to have it done on a certain day, the 
 engagement would be very distinct and well defined. 
 If, however, he were to undertake to build a dam across 
 a stream sufficient for a mill, the engagement would be 
 more indefinite and vague ; and the temptation to be 
 unfaithful would be much greater in this last case than 
 in the other ; because there are many ways of building 
 a dam, which may have different degrees of strength 
 
FIDELITY. 33 
 
 and durability ; and the man, wishing to do the work 
 with as little labor and expense as possible, would be 
 very likely to think the dam strong when it was really 
 not so. And then, his unfaithfulness could not be so 
 easily and clearly proved against him in this case as in 
 the other. So, if a teacher should give a boy, for a les- 
 son, four examples in arithmetic to do, and should say 
 that when he had got the answers which are given in 
 the book, he might go out to play, it would be a very 
 definite task; and the temptation to unfaithfulness 
 would be comparatively small. But if he were to give 
 him for his lesson two pages of a book, and require him 
 to choose out and study all the difficult words in it, as a 
 spelling lesson, this would be indefinite and vague ; 
 because it is very uncertain, first, how many of the 
 words the boy would have to consider as difficult words ; 
 and secondly, how much he ought to study them. If 
 the boy was in haste to go out to play, he would be 
 much more likely to slight this lesson than the other 
 one. It is best, therefore, that all commands, and all 
 agreements and contracts, should be well defined, and 
 clearly and distinctly expressed. Thus the tempta- 
 tion to unfaithfulness is lessened. Young people are 
 much exposed to the danger of being unfaithful. It 
 requires, sometimes, much firmness and self-denial to 
 be careful and persevering and thorough in what we 
 do, when there is nobody to see whether we are so or 
 not ; and then children are not often aware how. great 
 the secret satisfaction is, which we feel when faith- 
 ful work is done. A boy who is studying at his desk 
 sometimes finds the temptation to be idle and to play 
 very great, if the teacher is occupied with other duties ; 
 
34 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 but yet, if he studies faithfully, whether he is observed 
 or not, he will have peace and happiness, when the 
 duties of the day are done, which the idle and unfaith- 
 ful never enjoy. 
 
 There is a nobleness in the character of the boy who 
 is strictly faithful in the discharge of his duties. If he 
 goes on steadily and firmly, always the same, whether 
 he is observed by others or not, it shows that he is gov- 
 erned by right principles, which make him worthy of 
 confidence. The farmer's boy, who will work just as 
 industriously whether his father is with him in the field 
 or not, the trusty messenger, who is as careful of the 
 property committed to him as he would be of his own, 
 are characters that are respected and valued by all ; 
 while he who does his duty only so long as he is 
 watched, and when left to himself has no principle to 
 sustain him, is suspected and disliked as soon as his 
 character becomes known. 
 
 Boys who acquire a character for fidelity enjoy many 
 privileges and advantages which others do not. In fact, 
 very many of the privations and restraints which most 
 boys have to bear are occasioned by the fact that they 
 cannot be trusted. They are not allowed to take a 
 book or tool which they want, because they cannot be 
 depended upon to use it carefully and to bring it back 
 They are often kept at home when they want to go out, 
 because they cannot be trusted to come back at the 
 proper time. And so, in many ways, they suffer incon- 
 venience and privation just because they are not faithful, 
 and cannot be depended upon. A boy really faithful 
 would so gain the confidence of his parents and teach- 
 ers, that his requests would very seldom be refused. 
 
FIDELITY. 35 
 
 The advantages of a character for fidelity become 
 still greater when the child grows up to be a man. The 
 most important and desirable situations and employ- 
 ments in life are such as require that those who are 
 appointed to them should be trustworthy. Who would 
 give the command of a ship, or the charge of a manu- 
 factory, or the custody of money, or the building of a 
 house, to men who could only be depended upon so 
 long as they are watched ? Unfaithful men are shunned, 
 so far as their characters are known ; while the faithful 
 are sought for and prized, and through the whole of life, 
 in childhood and manhood, they are far more prosper- 
 ous and happy. A character for fidelity is invaluable ; 
 and the way to establish a character for faithfulness is 
 to be faithful in reality. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is the difference between honesty and faithfulness? 
 
 Is it dishonest or unfaithful to neglect a duty from thoughtlessness? 
 
 What is said about promises? 
 
 Can a person be honest in making a promise and yet unfaithful in 
 keeping it? 
 
 Can he be dishonest in making it and yet faithful in keeping it? 
 
 Relate the story of the boy who promised his sister a boat. 
 
 In what kind of duties is the temptation to unfaithfulness greatest? 
 
 What example is given of an engagement that would be indefinite? 
 
 In which case would the temptation to unfaithfulness be the 
 greater? 
 
 What examples are given of definite and indefinite lessons? 
 
 Are children peculiarly exposed to the danger of being unfaithful? 
 
 Do they gain a momentary pleasure by being unfaithful ? 
 
 Do they do themselves any injury by it? What injury? 
 
 What advantages would a child enjoy who was known to be 
 faithful? 
 
 Of what advantage is a character for strict fidelity to a man ? 
 
JUSTICE. 
 
 Justice requires that every person should enjoy all the priv- 
 ileges and rights that are his due ; and we must not do wrong to 
 any one, especially to the weak and defenceless : nor must we 
 encourage wrong-doing by others. 
 
 ONE may injure another without being unjust to him; 
 for injustice is that particular kind of injury to any one 
 which consists in violating his rights. A captain of a 
 ship engages a boy to go with him to sea, to be his 
 cabin-boy, and promises not only to take good care of 
 him, but that he shall not have any severe or dangerous 
 duties to perform. When they are out at sea, and the 
 boy is entirely in the captain's power, he sends him 
 away from the cabin, into the forecastle, with the sail- 
 ors, some of whom are bad men, and makes him go 
 aloft, and out on the spars, in the dark and stormy nights. 
 This is unjust, for the boy has a right to different treat- 
 ment ; and the captain in treating him in such a way is 
 depriving him of his rights ; and so~ is unjust to the boy. 
 
 But if, instead of taking the boy from the shore, and 
 agreeing to take care of him, he had found him at sea, 
 upon a wrecked vessel, just ready to perish, and had 
 taken him on board his own ship, then such treatment 
 would not be strictly called unjust. It might be harsh 
 or cruel and it might be very wrong ; but it would not 
 be that particular kind of wrong which is called injustice, 
 36 
 
JUSTICE. 37 
 
 because the boy in this case would not have any partic- 
 ular rights on board the captain's ship. There would 
 have been no agreement made with him ; and therefore 
 the captain, in treating him as he did all the other sail- 
 ors, would not violate any of his rights. 
 
 A boy is playing with his ball in a field, and it acci- 
 dentally gets lodged in a tree, and he asks a larger boy to 
 climb up and get it for him. It is not unjust for the 
 larger boy to refuse to go. He did not lose the ball, 
 and the first boy has no right to call upon him to go and 
 get it. It might be that he ought to go, from a feeling 
 of kindness and good will, still he would violate none of 
 the first boy's rights in refusing ; and therefore, he 
 could not be said to be unjust. 
 
 But if the larger boy had been playing with the ball, 
 and had lost it in the tree, then he would be unjust in 
 refusing to climb up and get it ; for the little boy would 
 have a right to require that whoever lost his ball should 
 get it for him again, or at least try to get it. If, there- 
 fore, the larger boy should go away, and leave it there, 
 he would be guilty of injustice. 
 
 Persons have a variety of rights, and there are many 
 ways by which they may be violated. Very few of these 
 ways can now be particularly explained. We ought to 
 have a strong sense of justice in our hearts, as a set- 
 tled principle, and then whatever the particular circum- 
 stances may be, we shall be ready and willing to act 
 justly. Those who have not such a settled principle 
 are continually encroaching upon the rights of those 
 who are smaller or weaker than themselves, or who are 
 in any way in their power. There are many ways in 
 which this injustice may appear, 
 
38 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 i. Young people may be unjust in what they do. 
 They may by some act deprive a brother or playmate 
 of a right or an enjoyment which was properly his, or 
 impose upon him some duty or labor which is more than 
 his share. A boy was once sent by his father to carry 
 a heavy basket to another house. His little brother 
 was to go with him to help him. They put a pole under 
 the handle of the basket, and then they took hold of the 
 pole, one at each end. While they were getting it 
 ready, the elder boy said to himself, " My little brother 
 don't understand about placing the pole. If the handle 
 of the basket comes just across the middle of it, then it 
 will be just as heavy for him as for me. But i I slip the 
 basket over nearer to him, his end will be heavy, and 
 mine will be light ; he will carry more than half of the 
 load, while I carry but little ; and he will not know that 
 there is any difference, for he does not understand about 
 placing the pole. But yet I will not do so. I should 
 be unjust if I were to do so ; and I will not be unjust." 
 Then the elder slipped the basket over nearer to his 
 side of the pole ; and so he had to carry more than half. 
 Thus he had a heavier load ; but he had the satisfaction 
 of fe'eling that he was not unjust ; and that more than 
 made it up to him. 
 
 One boy takes a plaything from another and will not 
 give it to him when he asks for it. He is unjust. He 
 violates his rights. Every one has a right to his own 
 property at all times. A boy knocks another's ball 
 over a fence or wall, or trundles his hoop off down the 
 street, or sets his little boat adrift upon the water. He 
 is unjust. He is violating the other's rights. It is the 
 same spirit which makes men oppressors and tyrants. 
 And yet such cases are very common. 
 
JUSTICE. 39 
 
 A large boy borrows a ball from a little boy upon the 
 playground, and then keeps it after the owner begs him 
 to give it back to him. When you remonstrate with 
 the large boy for doing so, he says, in excuse, " I was 
 not going to keep his ball ; I was going to give it to 
 him again." He admits that it would be very wrong to 
 take away the ball, and keep it for his own use, but 
 seems to think it is not wrong to keep it a little while. 
 But it certainly is wrong. The wrong is of the same 
 kind, and differs only in degree, whether you take away 
 a person's property and keep it from him one hour or 
 keep it forever. So long as you do keep it, after you 
 know he wishes it to be returned, you are guilty of 
 taking what belongs to another. You violate his rights. 
 It is unjust ; it is oppressive. 
 
 2. Young people may be unjust in what they say. 
 When we find fault with and condemn the absent, with- 
 out hearing or considering what they might say in 
 defence of themselves, we are unjust. When we are 
 offended with a companion, and with angry words tell 
 other persons of the wrong he has done, while we con- 
 ceal or pass over slightly the wrong which we did our- 
 selves, we are unjust. When we complain to a parent 
 or teacher of some injury which a playmate has done us, 
 while we say nothing about the provocation we gave 
 him or the angry words we used, we are unjust. He 
 has a right to claim that, if we tell the story at all, we 
 shall tell it as it was, and not magnify his guilt and pass 
 lightly over our own. If, therefore, we do not state the 
 case fairly and impartially, we violate his rights, and do 
 him injustice. 
 
 We may be unjust in what we say to others as well 
 
4O A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 as in what we say of them. We may get angry with 
 them without a cause, and so reproach them and hurt 
 their feelings when they have not done any wrong. A 
 boy asked his playmate to hold his kite for him till the 
 breeze should come, and then toss it up, while he stood 
 at a little distance with the string. His playmate took 
 the kite, and when the breeze came and the other boy 
 said, "Now," he tossed it up. But the tail got twirled 
 somehow or other around his body and was broken off ; 
 the kite rose a little way, and then, having lost its 
 counterpoise, dived to the ground and broke its back- 
 bone. The boy who owned the kite was very angry, 
 and reproached the other bitterly. He was unjust. 
 The breaking of the kite was an accident, for which the 
 boy who tossed it up was not at all to blame. He did as 
 well as he could ; and the other wounded his feelings 
 by his harsh language and was guilty of great injustice. 
 It is exceedingly common, both among boys and men, 
 for persons to be vexed and irritated by an accident, and 
 then to do great injustice to those who are innocently 
 the cause of it, by assailing them in violent and angry 
 language. 
 
 3. Young people can do injustice by their thoughts. 
 When we hear complaints or accusations against any 
 person, and readily believe them, without knowing what 
 the accused might say in self-defence, we are generally 
 unjust. Even if a person is very much to blame, he will 
 generally appear less to blame, when we understand the 
 case fully, than he did after we had only heard what was 
 said against him. We must therefore be careful, and 
 not judge hastily ; and we must not, even in our minds, 
 
JUSTICE. 41 
 
 condemn the absent unheard. We should not like to 
 be judged and condemned thus ; and it is unjust for us 
 to form opinions in this way about others. 
 
 Thus there are many ways by which we may be un- 
 just ; and in all these cases the injustice may be delib- 
 erate and wilful, or it may arise from some error or 
 bias of mind of which we are not conscious. Two boys 
 determine to make a summer house in the garden, but 
 cannot agree upon the place to build it, and they 
 refer it to their sister to decide which is the better 
 place, and the older boy tells her secretly that he will 
 give her an apple if she decides in his favor. Now if she 
 does so, while yet the place chosen by the other brother 
 is the better, she is guilty of deliberate, intentional 
 injustice. She knows very well that in deciding in 
 favor of one brother, for the sake of the apple, she is 
 doing injustice to the other ; so, it is a wilful wrong. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, no bribe is offered, and if 
 the older boy has been generally more kind to her so 
 that she loves him better, her partiality may blind her 
 judgment, so that she may decide in his favor without 
 being conscious of any intentional injustice toward the 
 other. Our feelings and our wishes do in many ways 
 blind our minds and make us unjust. This is wrong, 
 though it is not deliberate and wilful wrong. We ought 
 to watch ourselves more carefully and be on our guard 
 so as not to be led astray by our own prejudices, or 
 by the representations of others. This kind of injus- 
 tice is therefore wrong ; though deliberate and inten- 
 tional injustice is much more criminal, and conscience 
 is generally ready to make it known to us, more or less 
 
42 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 distinctly, when we are about to treat our companions in 
 an unjust and oppressive manner, in any of these ways. 
 We are often under a great temptation to be unjust ; 
 but we shall always promote our happiness, as well as 
 do our duty, by resisting it. It is true that we can 
 often gain something by violating the rights of our 
 companions, by taking away some of their enjoyments 
 or imposing upon them more than their share of incon- 
 venience or labor. But those who will make the experi- 
 ment will find that the satisfaction and happiness of 
 being just, are far greater than any gain we can pos- 
 sibly derive from encroachments upon the rights of 
 others. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Are all kinds of injuries to be considered as injustice? 
 
 Relate the case of the captain and the cabin-boy. 
 
 Would this be injustice? Why? 
 
 Relate the other part of the supposition. 
 
 Would this be a case of injustice, strictly speaking? Why? 
 
 How is this illustrated by the story of the boys and the ball? 
 
 Are there many ways of doing injustice? 
 
 Is it possible to describe them all, and make rules against them? 
 
 What is the only way by which a person can be preserved from 
 doing injustice? 
 
 What is the first of the ways mentioned in which children may 
 be unjust? The second? The third? 
 
 Relate the story of the boy and the heavy basket. 
 
 Did he act wisely ? 
 
 How may we be unjust in what we say? 
 
 Do you recollect the story told to illustrate this? 
 
 Was the boy who tossed up the kite in fault? 
 
 What is the meaning of counterpoise ? 
 
 Do you think it is common for boys to do each other injustice in 
 such ways as this? 
 
JUSTICE. 43 
 
 How can we be unjust in our thoughts ? 
 Is all injustice deliberate and wilful ? 
 Can a person be unjust and yet not be sensible of it? 
 Relate the case of the two boys who referred a question to their 
 sister. 
 
 What is this intended to show? 
 
POLITENESS. 
 
 (> In school at work at play at home abroad, we meet 
 with other people ; and we should treat them kindly not give 
 them pain. 
 This conduct, when marked by good manners, is politeness. 
 
 *' Politeness is to do and say 
 The kindest things in the kindest way." 
 
 ? SOCIAL customs are different in every country, but 
 true politeness is the same everywhere. Politeness is 
 good manners, refinement of manners, polish or ele- 
 gance of manners, good breeding. It is pleasing others 
 by kind and gentle treatment, by anticipating their wants 
 and wishes, and by carefully avoiding giving them pain. 
 
 Let us think of politeness as controlling our behavior, 
 ^.t home, at school, in the street, at work, in the cars 
 or steamboats and in church. 
 
 ? AT HOME. It is not polite to interrupt a conversation 
 ^between persons older than yourself, unless you have 
 something very important to say. It is not good man- 
 ners. 
 
 It is not polite to choose the best seat in the room, 
 or at the table, or near the light in the evening, or 
 near the heat in cold weather. 
 
 Say "I thank you," not "thanks," when you are 
 helped to anything, or when any civility or kindness is 
 shown you. 
 44 
 
POLITENESS. 45 
 
 It is not polite to frown or sulk or "answer back," 
 when you are reproved for some neglect or offence. 
 
 It is not polite to complain of the quality or the quan- 
 tity of the food, which is set before you. 
 
 AT SCHOOL. Always salute your teacher distinctly 
 "when you enter the schoolroom. Do the same to your 
 classmates, even if it be only with a bow or a smile. 
 
 A well-bred scholar will give the teacher as little 
 trouble as possible. 
 
 Treat your teachers always as you would like to be 
 treated, and ought to be treated, if you were a teacher. 
 
 If your teacher seems to be harsh or partial, do not 
 take it for granted that he is so ; possibly you are mis- 
 taken. Wait a while. 
 
 If there are brighter scholars in the class than you, 
 be proud of them, praise them ; do not dislike them ; 
 try by all fair means to excel them. 
 
 IN THE STREET. You have a perfect right to your 
 share of the sidewalk, but to no more than your share. 
 You have no right to stand in a pathway anywhere, so 
 that the people who would pass must go around you. 
 Always give choice of way to women, and to men who 
 are older than yourself. 
 
 Never smoke a pipe, a cigar, or a cigarette in the 
 street. It denies the air. It is not polite to spit on a 
 pavement ; if necessary, go to the gutter. 
 
 If you are trundling a hoop, or riding on any kind of 
 wheels on a sidewalk, give the right of way to all foot- 
 passengers. 
 
 > AT WORK. Treat your fellow-workers with respect. 
 Many of them are probably well-bred people ; if not, 
 you can help them to be so, by your treatment of them. 
 
46 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 Do not try to put any work that belongs to you on 
 others ; better take a part of theirs. 
 
 Do not be rough in speech or manners, and do not 
 scold harshly one who is under you in any way. 
 
 Treat your employers with unfailing respect, and if 
 their character and conduct is such that you cannot 
 safely or properly stay with them, seek employment 
 elsewhere. 
 
 - IN CARS OR STEAMBOATS. It is not polite to rush for 
 the best seats, nor to occupy more room than you are 
 fairly entitled to. In steam railway carriages you pay 
 for one seat do not claim two. Do not talk or laugh 
 in such a manner as to attract public attention. If you 
 should smoke tobacco when you grow to be men, do 
 not sit or stand where the wind blows the smoke past 
 other passengers. It is not polite to spit on the floors 
 of cars. You have no right to defile the floor which 
 other people's clothing may touch. It is not polite, it is 
 hardly decent, to be in the habit of spitting in the sight 
 of other people. 
 
 7 IN CHURCH. Be in your seat before the services be- 
 gin. Do not talk in church. Do not look at your 
 watch during the service. Do not look around the 
 congregation. It is not polite to do these things. Be 
 quiet in church. Be ready to offer your seat and your 
 book to a stranger. Do not use a fan to the annoyance 
 of those near you. If you must fan yourself, do it very 
 gently. 
 
 Do not put on your gloves or overcoat until the ser- 
 vices are all concluded. After the benediction, be per- 
 fectly still for at least a quarter of a minute. 
 
POLITENESS. 47 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is politeness ? 
 
 Where can we show politeness ? 
 
 Is it polite to interrupt conversation? 
 
 May you choose the best place or seat? 
 
 May you answer back when rebuked? 
 
 Should you treat others as you would be treated ? 
 
 Is it good manners to obstruct the way of others? 
 
 Is it good manners to smoke or spit in public? 
 
 Is it better to be rough or gentle? 
 
 What is correct behavior in cars or on steamboats? 
 
 What are good manners in church? 
 
 What is your idea of a polite, well-bred boy or girl? 
 
 Is your behavior likely to affect your success in life ? 
 
DUTIES AT SCHOOL. 
 
 Children at school are under obligation to their parents or 
 guardians to be diligent and faithful in making the best use of 
 their time. They must obey their teachers promptly and cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 THE first duty for children at school is to be diligent 
 and faithful in improving their time and privileges. 
 There is pleasure in play, and advantage in study. 
 But children make a great mistake in attempting to 
 enjoy the pleasures of play in school hours. There is 
 so much fear of detection, and such constant uneasiness 
 from doing wrong, that playing in school is anything 
 but pleasure. The fears, the anxieties, the forebodings, 
 which necessarily attend it, almost always make it a 
 source of suffering rather than enjoyment. 
 
 Even more : idleness in school generally carries its 
 own punishment along with it. Time passes very 
 slowly and heavily to a boy or girl who is idle and 
 listless, waiting for time to pass away, and for close 
 of school. Such a pupil sits restlessly at his seat, 
 now looking out of the window, now counting up how 
 many more classes have yet to recite, and now musing, 
 his elbow upon his desk, and his cheek upon his 
 hand, forlorn and miserable. His neighbor, however, 
 in the next seat, is preparing his lesson for the next day. 
 He says to himself, " It is useless to be idle. Here 
 4 8 
 
DUTIES AT SCHOOL. 49 
 
 I must stay till school is done. I should like very 
 well to go out to play ; but as I cannot do that, I may 
 as well be employed and forget play." And thus 
 the time passes quickly. So he works diligently upon 
 his next day's lesson, and takes great satisfaction in 
 feeling that he is going on with his duty ; and when 
 at last the bell is struck, he is surprised to find that 
 the time for dismission has come so soon. 
 
 It requires an effort sometimes a great effort to 
 bring the mind to a state of diligent application ; but if 
 the effort is made, it is at once rewarded by the satis- 
 faction and enjoyment which faithful industry affords. 
 Besides, it is very wrong to waste or misimprove the 
 privileges which are provided for children. Parents and 
 teachers know the value of education, and they wish 
 to secure it for those who are now in the schools. 
 
 Children are bound to submit with cheerfulness to 
 all the requirements of their teachers, as to their studies 
 and conduct in school. Children cannot choose their 
 studies. The teacher will establish rules which the 
 pupil sometimes thinks unnecessary or too strict. But 
 it is of no consequence if he does think so. The 
 teacher must decide. A pupil should never put his 
 opinion or his will in opposition to that of the teacher. 
 He must reflect that when he grows up, it may be his 
 time to command. But now it his duty to obey. 
 
 In almost all schools there are some dull pupils, who 
 are unprincipled in character as well as weak in intellect, 
 who busy themselves in tricks and roguery. They do 
 all they can to lead better boys to practise the same 
 things ; and they contrive plans for making difficulties, 
 disturbing the order of the school, and giving the teacher 
 
5O A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 trouble. If there can be any satisfaction in disturbing 
 the teacher's peace and happiness, they certainly get it, 
 for nothing is more likely to give a teacher pain, than to 
 find any pupils in a state of deliberate and wilful hostil- 
 ity to the authority of the school. Such characters are 
 to be shunned, and their guilty practices to be discoun- 
 tenanced and discouraged in every way. If they find 
 that the intelligent and the good altogether disapprove 
 of their course, they may perhaps abandon it and return 
 to their duty. 
 
 Do not trouble the teacher with frivolous complaints 
 about other pupils, or be a tale-bearer to carry stories 
 of their misconduct. If the teacher does anything 
 which you think is wrong, do not tell the story exult- 
 ingly and with exaggeration. Remember, when you 
 speak of the teacher or of the pupils away from school, 
 that they are not present to hear your accusations, 
 and to excuse, explain, or defend their conduct. You 
 must be very careful, therefore, not to do them injus- 
 tice. State everything fairly, just as it is, and mention 
 all the favorable as well as the unfavorable circum- 
 stances. We ought never to accuse or censure the 
 absent, unless peculiar circumstances render it nec- 
 essary or unavoidable ; and then we ought to be very 
 careful lest we do them injustice. 
 
 While children should be very unwilling and slow 
 to speak of the faults of others, yet, when they are 
 required by a parent or teacher to give information 
 in regard to any wrong that has been done, they should 
 do what witnesses are sworn to do, when they give 
 evidence in courts of justice : they should state all that 
 they know, promptly, fully, and with exact justice to all 
 
DUTIES AT SCHOOL. 5! 
 
 concerned. It is dishonorable to be constantly making 
 complaints of others for the sake of getting favor to 
 one's self ; and it is always so considered. Such a 
 person is an informer, a tale-bearer. But to make 
 honest statements of facts, when required to do so by 
 the proper authorities, is honorable and praiseworthy ; 
 and this is universally so considered among men. It 
 is giving testimony. No gentleman refuses to do it, 
 when called upon the stand in court ; and no child ought 
 to make any difficulty in doing it, when he, too, is called 
 upon by those who have a right to make the demand. 
 
 It undoubtedly requires firmness and decision to re- 
 sist all the various temptations which occur at school, 
 and to be at all times diligent, faithful, and persevering, 
 in fulfilling the duties which arise there. But when 
 good habits are formed, it will be easy to continue 
 them ; and the effort which it is necessary to make, 
 will be richly rewarded by the great advantages which 
 they will bring in future life. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is the first duty of a child at school? 
 
 Is it pleasant to be idle in school hours ? 
 
 Does it make the time seem shorter or longer to be busy ? 
 
 What did the industrious boy say to himself? 
 
 Do children always like to do what their teachers direct? 
 
 Ought they to obey the rules whether they approve them or not? 
 
 Ought they to obey good-humoredly ? 
 
 How may children treat their teachers unjustly? 
 
 Is it right to tell the faults of other scholars ? 
 
 When it is required by the teacher, how should it be done? 
 
 Should unkind tales of other scholars be repeated out of school ? 
 
DUTIES TO PLAYMATES. 
 
 v When with playmates, we must avoid those who are vicious ; 
 ^^we must encourage those who do right ; we must discourage 
 those who do wrong, and protect the weak and defenceless. We 
 must promote good feeling, and be kind to all. 
 
 ^ I. One of the most important things for boys to con- 
 sider, as to their playmates, is to avoid the company of 
 the vicious. The vicious are such as lie, cheat, steal, 
 and use profane and corrupt words. If a boy goes into 
 a new neighborhood, or comes to a new school, or is 
 thrown among boys whom he did not know before, he 
 will soon learn who are the vicious. They will betray 
 themselves by their language, or be openly unjust and 
 oppressive to the smaller boys, or they will have some 
 plan for deceiving the teacher, and, perhaps, will pro- 
 pose to the other boys to join them in a deliberate lie. 
 Whenever you discover such a character as this, avoid 
 him. Be civil when you meet him, but have as little to 
 do with him as possible. You must be especially on 
 your guard if you find that he tries to keep your com- 
 pany, or wants you to go with him. Be firm and reso- 
 lute in avoiding him. If not, he will probably make 
 you as bad as himself. 
 
 7 2. Always try to encourage doing right, and to dis- 
 courage doing wrong, among your playmates, by every 
 means in your power. Boys are very often led to do 
 what is wrong, by knowing that other boys are looking 
 52 
 
DUTIES TO PLAYMATES. 53 
 
 on and approving what they do. Bystanders, who thus 
 encourage others in doing wrong, share the guilt of it. 
 They are accomplices. A boy was once led to throw 
 stones at the back windows of the schoolhouse and 
 break the glass, by the influence of boys, who stood by, 
 and dared him to do it. So, if one man is breaking into 
 a house in the night, and another holds the light for him, 
 and a third stands doing nothing, but yet consenting to 
 the deed, and another acts as a sentinel to prevent dis- 
 covery, they are all alike guilty. If a circle of boys 
 gather around two, who are quarrelling or fighting, and 
 look on with interest and gratification, they all partake 
 of the wrong-doing. A true, manly boy will not do this. 
 If he sees anything wrong, or hears anything wrong pro- 
 posed, he will discourage and prevent it if he can ; and 
 if not, he will go away. He will not countenance, by 
 his presence, anything which his conscience condemns. 
 
 3. Always try to protect the weak and defenceless, 
 and to help all who are in any difficulty or trouble. We 
 might suppose that no one would degrade himself so 
 much, as to be guilty of cruelty and oppression to those 
 who are younger and smaller than himself. But there 
 are boys who will do this. Their consciences, however, 
 condemn them while they do it ; and the influence of 
 the good opinion of others will sometimes keep them 
 from doing wrong. They know it is wrong, and if the 
 other boys condemn it, they will often refrain from 
 doing it. By taking part with the oppressed, it is 
 often possible to diminish very much the oppression; 
 and there are many other ways by which a just and 
 conscientious boy may help to protect his playmates 
 from injury. 
 
 ':UHI7ERSIT7" 
 
 oy 
 
54 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 -7 4. Promote peace and good will among your play- 
 mates, A boy may do much to secure harmony among 
 his companions, by explaining misunderstandings, by 
 representing things that occur, in a favorable light, and, 
 by being an example of kindness and good nature, in all 
 his conversation and conduct. On the other hand, he 
 may do much to cause discord and ill will, by trying to set 
 one boy against another, by repeating harsh things which 
 have been said, by exaggerating difficulties and misunder- 
 standings, and by indulging, and encouraging others to 
 indulge a revengeful and a passionate spirit. One of 
 the most common ways of causing ill will, both among 
 children and grown persons, is, when we hear anything 
 said in ridicule or censure of an absent person, to go and 
 tell him of it, and thus exasperate him against the person 
 who said it. This is very wrong. We never should 
 repeat what is likely to produce ill will, unless some 
 peculiar circumstances render it necessary. Some per- 
 sons do it on purpose to make difficulty. They go to 
 one person and tell him what severe things another has 
 said of him. Then they go to the other, and make the 
 same complaint to him against the first, exaggerating, 
 and perhaps wholly inventing, the things which they 
 say they have heard. Such a character is a tale-bearer. 
 We must never listen to a tale-bearer when he comes to 
 tell us unkind stories about others'. We must be very 
 careful also, not to speak ill of persons absent, so as 
 to give any tale-bearer who may hear, an opportunity to 
 repeat our words to them, and make them angry. And, 
 in all our own conversation with our companions, we 
 must endeavor to soften their angry feelings and make 
 them excuse the faults of others ; and we must care- 
 
DUTIES TO PLAYMATES. 55 
 
 fully suppress and conceal all that would tend to alienate 
 one of our playmates from another, and produce secret 
 ill will, or, perhaps, open quarrels. 
 
 5. Young people should be courteous to one another 
 in their manners. Boys ought to be gentlemanly, and 
 girls ladylike, in all their conversation and demeanor. 
 There is every reason for this. It is proper in itself. 
 Politeness is only gentleness and kindness expressed in 
 our manners and conversation. Gentleness and kind- 
 ness are agreeable ; they promote happiness ; while a 
 rude, rough, and ill-natured manner makes others un- 
 comfortable. All sharp and hasty words, quick contra- 
 dictions, eager selfishness about little things, struggles 
 for the best seats and best places, taunting and uncivil 
 questions, rude answers, and all loud, rough, and bois- 
 terous conduct, in the presence of grown persons, in the 
 house or anywhere else, all such manners are rude 
 and unbecoming. They disturb the peace and happiness 
 of others ; and whoever wishes to be conscientious in 
 duty, will be careful to form very different habits of 
 conduct. 
 
 Two boys are running to overtake their companions, 
 and they come to a stone wall where there is only one 
 good place to climb over. They rush together for the 
 gap. They scramble and crowd into it, each pulling 
 back the other. The stronger boy prevails. He throws 
 the other back among the fallen stones, and then dashes 
 through, and runs on, leaving his playmate behind, 
 bruised, vexed, and unhappy. 
 
 Two other boys come up to the gap in the wall under 
 the same circumstances. The elder, with instinctive 
 politeness, slackens his pace an instant, to let the other 
 
56 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 pass over before him. Small boys never like to be 
 behind in overcoming a difficulty. It makes them 
 anxious, and afraid that they will be left behind. The 
 elder therefore helps his young companion through, 
 and then follows ; then they run on, both in undis- 
 turbed fun. The politeness has wasted no time; it 
 has diminished no pleasure; it has caused no pain. 
 And so it always is. Politeness and kind consider- 
 ation for others, smooth the roughness of play, over- 
 come difficulties and heighten enjoyment. They bind 
 playmates together in strong bonds of affection, and 
 form in boys and girls such manners and habits, as 
 make them objects of regard and affection while they 
 are young, and secure for them great advantages, when 
 they grow up, in their intercourse with the world at 
 large. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 In choosing playmates, whom must we avoid? 
 
 What are vicious boys? 
 
 How do vicious boys generally show their characters ? 
 
 What effect is the acquaintance of a vicious boy likely to have ? 
 
 In what way ought a boy to use his influence over his playmates? 
 
 If a boy encourages another to do wrong, does he not share in 
 the guilt of it? 
 
 How is this illustrated by the case of the broken windows? 
 
 Suppose you know of a wrong about to be done, and you cannot 
 prevent it, what must you do? 
 
 What is the third direction given in the lesson? 
 
 Do cases of oppression and cruelty often occur among boys ? 
 
 Can good boys do anything to prevent it? How? 
 
 Can a boy do anything to promote peace among his playmates ? 
 In what way? 
 
 Can he do anything to promote dissension and ill will? In what 
 way? 
 
DUTIES TO PLAYMATES. 57 
 
 Do these principles apply to girls as well as boys ? 
 Did you ever know boys or girls to take pleasure in telling their- 
 playmates the evil which others have said of them ? 
 Is this right or wrong? What harm does it do? 
 What is meant by being courteous? 
 Describe the cases of the boys and the stone wall. 
 
BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 It is our duty to do good to other people and make them 
 happy. This is benevolence. Doing intentionally anything that 
 gives other people pain, without just cause, is malice. 
 
 MALICE is very hateful. We must not suppose, how- 
 ever, that in every case where a person causes suffering 
 to another, there is malice. It is not malicious un- 
 less he intends to make others suffer. Two boys go 
 down to the water, to sail a toy boat. It is at a place 
 where the road passes along by the shore, and where 
 the water is shallow, and the bottom is sandy, so that 
 travellers can drive their horses in a little way to let 
 them drink. The boys play with their boat until at last 
 it gets out beyond their reach, and they do not know 
 what to do. 
 
 Now, suppose a gentleman and a lady should come 
 along in a carriage, busily engaged in talking, and 
 should drive into the water, and run over the boat, let- 
 ting the horses trample it down, because they would 
 not take the trouble to turn aside ; and then the gentle- 
 man were to say, "There, boys, we've run over your 
 boat ; but you'd no business to have it in the way." 
 This would be harsh ; but it would not be malicious. 
 It would only be a selfish disregard of the happiness of 
 others. The gentleman did not particularly wish to 
 run over the boat, but he did not take pains to avoid it. 
 
 But, suppose a 'rough boy were to come along on foot, 
 58 
 
BENEVOLENCE. 59 
 
 and, seeing the boat floating away, should take up stones 
 to throw at it ; and, after throwing several times, should 
 succeed in hitting it and breaking it to pieces ; and then 
 should go away, laughing at the sorrow and distress 
 which the children would feel. This would be malicious. 
 
 And, again, suppose instead of the malicious boy on 
 foot, two boys were to come along in a wagon, and, see- 
 ing the boat out upon the water, should say to the chil- 
 dren, " Can't you get back your boat ? " and when the 
 children say, " No," suppose they were to cut a long 
 stick, and drive in as far as they could go safely, and 
 then reach out with the stick, and carefully draw the 
 boat to the shore. This would be benevolent. 
 
 Suppose another man were to drive over the boat, 
 without seeing it, and then, after his horse had finished 
 drinking, were to drive on, without knowing that he 
 had done any mischief. This would not be benevolent, 
 nor malicious, nor selfish. It would be merely an acci- 
 dent, and worthy of no praise, and of no blame. 
 
 Thus we may injure others accidentally ; or we may 
 injure them because we do not care about their happi- 
 ness, but only wish to secure our own ends, which is 
 selfishness ; or we may injure them intentionally, for 
 the sake of giving them pain, and gratifying bad pas- 
 sions by seeing them suffer ; this is malice. Malice is 
 always hateful. But it is not always malicious to do 
 a person an injury ; and we must, therefore, when harm 
 is done to us, consider the case calmly, and not charge 
 a person who injures us with being malicious, unless 
 the case is such as to prove that he really is so. 
 
 There is some distinction to be made in regard to 
 acts of kindness and benevolence. If we do good to 
 
6O A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 others accidentally, or without a design to do them 
 good, it is not benevolence ; as, for instance, where a 
 gardener threw the cuttings and trimmings of the garden 
 in a heap, and a boy found some rose-bush shoots, with 
 little roots, among them, and set them out ; and where 
 a man overflowed his meadow, to kill the alders, and 
 thus made a fine skating-ground for the boys. He 
 intended, it is true, to overflow his meadows, but he did 
 not intend any advantage to the boys by it. Therefore 
 it was not benevolent. 
 
 And even when we do intend to benefit other persons 
 by what we do, if our object, in the end, is to benefit 
 ourselves, it is not benevolence. A man wants to have 
 his horse watered, and, having no other convenient way, 
 tells a boy who lives near him that he may ride him 
 down to the stream, and let him drink. Now, although 
 the man knows very well that the boy would like to 
 go, yet, if his object is, not to give the boy the gratifi- 
 cation of a ride, but only to get his horse watered, then 
 there is no benevolence in the action. Most men, in 
 such cases, are influenced by both motives ; and thus 
 the action is, in part, a benevolent one. 
 
 When one does what seems to be benevolent, while 
 yet his real intention is to gain some good for himself, 
 he may be doing right or he may be doing wrong ; it 
 depends upon circumstances. But, right or wrong, it is 
 not benevolence. As malice, or malevolence, consists 
 in doing evil for the purpose of gratifying bad passions, 
 by making persons suffer, so benevolence consists in 
 doing good for the purpose of making them happy. 
 The latter is excellent and lovely ; the former is to be 
 abhorred. 
 
BENEVOLENCE. 6 1 
 
 To tease, or torment, the weak and defenceless 
 make them unnecessary trouble, or give them pain 
 is malicious. Wounding their feelings, by ridiculing 
 them, or calling them nicknames, or terrifying them by 
 threats of violence, to gratify our own bad passions, or 
 to make amusement for ourselves or others, is mali- 
 cious. So is every mode of worrying or torturing the 
 poor defenceless animals, that cannot speak to remon- 
 strate against our cruelty, or beg to be spared, all 
 this is malicious. It is one of the darkest traits that 
 the human character can assume. So far as it prevails 
 at the school, upon the playground, or at home, it 
 makes misery. It destroys peace ; it banishes smiles ; 
 and it clouds the face with an expression of suffering 
 and sorrow. It promotes revenge, hatred, mutual ill 
 will, and continual strife. It is detestable. 
 
 On the other hand, kindness and good will carry a 
 charm with them wherever they go. Even in little 
 things, where good feeling shows itself only in pleasant 
 words and gentle looks, it is like sunshine, which glad- 
 dens every group and every scene that it falls upon. 
 A good-natured and obliging boy, who will be ready 
 to help those who are in difficulty ; to protect the 
 defenceless and the oppressed ; to share his enjoyments 
 with his playmates, and to speak in a kind and gentle 
 manner to all, one such boy sometimes diffuses happi- 
 ness over a whole school, or a whole neighborhood ; and 
 if the world were filled with such people, a very happy 
 world it would be. 
 
62 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is benevolence? 
 
 What is malice ? 
 
 When one person occasions suffering to another, is it always 
 malicious ? 
 
 What is essential in order to make it so ? 
 
 Relate the case of the children and the boat. 
 
 Who came there first, and what did they do ? 
 
 Was this malicious? 
 
 Did they wish to do any injury to the boat? 
 
 Who came next, on foot? What did he do? 
 
 Did he intend to destroy the boat? 
 
 Was this malice? 
 
 Did the suffering of the children give him pain, or amuse him? 
 
 Who came in a wagon? 
 
 What did they do ? 
 
 What kind of conduct was this ? 
 
 Did it pain or amuse these boys to see the children suffer from 
 the loss of their boat? 
 
 Is it likely the boat was a valuable one? 
 
 Would that make any difference in regard to the character of the 
 transactions? 
 
 How might the boat have been injured accidentally? 
 
 Suppose a person does some good to others, for the sake of 
 gaining some object of his own : is that benevolence ? 
 
 What influence does a malicious boy exert upon those connected 
 with him? 
 
 What influence does a kind and benevolent boy or girl exert? 
 
 Do you sometimes observe malicious character and conduct 
 among boys and girls? 
 
 Do you sometimes observe kind and benevolent acts ? 
 
DUTIES TO DUMB CREATURES. 
 
 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the animals that creep 
 or walk on the earth, were made for man's use, and are more or 
 less under his power. They cannot speak, and their defenceless 
 condition is an appeal for kind treatment. 
 
 THERE are at least three reasons why we should treat 
 dumb creatures kindly. 
 
 - I. FOR THE SAKE OF THE CREATURE ITSELF. Do HOt 
 
 make it wretched. Cruelty to dumb creatures and 
 cruelty to children are alike in kind ; it is the strong 
 oppressing the weak, aggravated in the case of dumb 
 creatures, for they cannot complain, they cannot defend 
 themselves, and they do not revenge their wrongs. If 
 dumb creatures could talk, we would not be so likely to 
 be cruel to them. 
 
 2. FOR OUR OWN SAKE. One who is tender and com- 
 passionate in his feelings will not confine his pity to 
 man alone, but will pity dumb creatures also. A boy 
 who is cruel to dumb creatures will, unless he is changed, 
 become cruel to any persons under him. The feelings 
 become blunted and hardened ; the tendency is toward 
 the savage. 
 
 3. FOR GOD'S SAKE. The Bible abounds in references 
 to the dumb creatures. "A righteous man regardeth 
 the life of his beast." " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox 
 that treadeth out the corn." " Doth God care for the 
 
 63 
 
64 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 oxen ? " " Not even a sparrow falleth to the ground 
 without your Heavenly Father," etc. 
 
 A boy of twelve years was driving a pair of very small 
 oxen on the shore of a bay of salt water. It was a warm 
 day in May, and the oxen were tired and thirsty. See- 
 ing the water, and not knowing it to be salt, they broke 
 from the little driver's control, and rushed into the water 
 to drink ; but they could not drink salt water. The boy 
 beat them over the head with his rough stick and soon 
 brought them under control again. A gentleman who 
 saw it, talked with the boy, who was angry, and tried 
 to show him how cruel it was to beat the oxen, for they 
 only tried to get water ; and especially he told the boy 
 of the danger of beating them over the head, lest he 
 should hurt their eyes and make them blind. The boy 
 took the advice kindly ; he had never been talked to 
 about it before ; he promised not to do so again. 
 
 One of the best things the English author Sterne 
 ever wrote, was the incident of Uncle Toby and the fly. 
 The fly had been buzzing about Uncle Toby's face and 
 head during dinner, until he was compelled to catch it. 
 The first impulse was to crush it, but the kindly old 
 man did a better thing. He rose from the table, opened 
 the window and threw it out, saying, " Go, poor thing, 
 get thee gone ; there is room enough in the world for 
 thee and me both." 
 
 In London there is a hospital or refuge for homeless, 
 friendless dogs, where they are saved from starvation ; 
 and if not found to be of any value, or not called for by 
 owners, they are put to death without pain. All honor 
 to the people who establish and support such an asylum. * 
 
 There are places in other cities where sick and 
 
DUTIES TO DUMB CREATURES. 65 
 
 wounded cats and dogs are received and treated with 
 much care and tenderness, and a great University has 
 prepared a place where sick horses and other animals 
 may be cared for. 
 
 Much of the cruelty which is inflicted on dumb crea- 
 tures is from thoughtlessness and indifference. Little 
 children will worry and vex young kittens and dogs, not 
 knowing how much pain they give. Boys who drive 
 cattle, use heavy sticks which bruise the flesh. A boy 
 driving a cart will use the heavy end of his whip on the 
 horse or mule. The driver of a street car will beat a 
 horse if he slips or stumbles. A refinement of cruelty 
 is to rein up a horse by a kind of bridle, which compels 
 him to hold up his head to a painful and unnatural height. 
 Street cars are too often overloaded, and the suffering to 
 which the horses are thus subjected is deplorable. 
 
 Rabbits and other animals, by the hundreds, are tor- 
 tured by medical students in order to learn what has 
 been learned often before by other students, the results 
 of which have been published. This is called vivisec- 
 tion. The poor, helpless, dumb creatures are tortured 
 by man for his profit, in his passion, or in the name 
 of science. 
 
 Cruelty to dumb creatures has become such an ad- 
 mitted fact, that societies have been formed for its pre- 
 vention, whose agents look after animals and punish 
 people who ill-treat them. Much of this ill-treatment 
 is due to thoughtlessness ; but the want of thought is 
 itself wrong, and ought to be corrected. An idle boy 
 at school digs with a penknife a hole in the top of his 
 desk, then fits a little piece of glass in it, and catches 
 and imprisons flies in it to perish. Boys sometimes 
 
66 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 catch flies and stick pins through them, and so fasten 
 them to a board or desk ; or pull off their wings or legs. 
 Boys tease and worry cats, and sometimes stone them 
 to death. Some boys carry gum-elastic slings (sling- 
 shots) to shoot pebbles at birds. This causes suffering 
 and sometimes death to living creatures, for no other 
 purpose than the excitement of learning to shoot accu- 
 rately. 
 
 It is quite common to put up pigeons in a coop and 
 gather a company of sportsmen for practice in shooting. 
 The birds are let loose, and the gunners fire at them as 
 they fly. Killed and wounded, they fall to the ground, 
 and records are kept of the successful shooting. Can 
 anything be more cruel ? There is not even the excuse 
 that the birds are killed for food ; it is only for sport. 
 An exhibition of this kind was once made on a large 
 scale. Thousands of pigeons were killed, wounded, and 
 crippled by men who shot at them for the purpose of 
 ascertaining who could kill, wound, and cripple the 
 greatest number. The prize was a diamond badge, and 
 the winner was called a champion, precisely as if he had 
 performed some notable feat. Champions of this sort 
 ought to go to jail. The dumb beasts, as well as human 
 beings, are God's creatures. He made them all ; He 
 cares for them all. 
 
 The hunter shoots and wounds the squirrel. The 
 poor creature creeps to its hole, lies writhing in agony, 
 and finally dies a lingering, painful death. How little 
 the gunner thinks or cares for this ! How do we know 
 
 but that 
 
 " the poor beetle that we tread upon, 
 In corporal suffering feels a pang as great 
 As when a giant dies ? " 
 
DUTIES TO DUMB CREATURES. 6? 
 
 Some young men go to a livery stable, hire a horse 
 and carriage, and go off to a tavern, get drunk, and 
 drive the horse until he drops dead. A man overworks 
 a horse in a cart ; the wheel gets into a rut ; the horse 
 is unable to pull it out, but he cannot say so, and the 
 man falls to beating him, not with a whip, but with a 
 heavy stick, or bludgeon. The horse cannot defend him- 
 self ; he cannot even complain of this cruel treatment. 
 
 There are vicious people who train chickens and dogs 
 for fighting. We call this brutal. It is not the proper 
 word ; the brutes are better than this. 
 
 To do wrong or to hurt one who is younger or weaker 
 than ourselves is the act of a coward, and any one who 
 needlessly hurts a dumb creature is a coward. It is a 
 serious offence to call a person a coward, but it is not 
 too harsh a word to apply to one who ill-treats a helpless 
 dumb creature. 
 
 By common consent many dumb animals are claimed 
 by man for food, and the claim generally is not ques- 
 tioned ; but we cannot eat them alive, so we put them to 
 death. This, however, should be done as quickly and 
 with as little pain as possible. Fish, when caught for 
 food, should not be allowed to die slowly gasping for 
 their natural element, but should be killed promptly. 
 Young people should not be permitted or encouraged 
 to be present when animals are put to death. It is for 
 this reason that people having the care of boys, in seek- 
 ing suitable work for them, will not willingly have them 
 taught the trade of a butcher, however necessary that 
 occupation may be, lest the sight of blood and of death 
 should be hurtful to the young mind. 
 
68 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What are dumb creatures ? 
 How many reasons for treating them kindly? 
 What are they ? 
 
 What is the story of the boy and the oxen? 
 Tell the story about Uncle Toby. 
 Are there hospitals for sick animals ? 
 Mention some ways in which people are cruel to animals. 
 Is it right or wrong to have shooting-matches? 
 What about fishing? 
 Should we fish for sport simply? 
 
 Is it brave or cowardly to hurt those who are younger or weaker 
 than we are? 
 
 What is it when a dumb creature is abused ? 
 
 When animals are killed for food, how should it be done ? 
 
TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. 
 
 If we have enemies, we ought not to do them evil; but so far as 
 it is in our power, we ought to do them good. If we cannot do 
 them good, we must bear their enmity with a patient and forgiving 
 spirit. This is best for us, and best for our enemies; and it is a 
 duty which God requires. 
 
 AN enemy is one who wilfully does us an injury. If 
 a boy gives pain or suffering to another accidentally, he 
 is not his enemy. If a parent punishes a child, and 
 thus gives him pain, the parent is not on this account 
 the child's enemy ; for his design is to do good, and not 
 evil. Enmity is a feeling which leads one to desire to. 
 do evil to another, not because it is necessary in order 
 to accomplish some good object, but to gratify hatred 
 or revenge. 
 
 A person may do an injury to others, not for the sake 
 of injuring them, but :o gain some advantage himself. 
 In such a case, he is not, strictly speaking, their enemy. 
 If some boys were to get into an orchard to steal the 
 fruit, they would not be, on this account, the owner's 
 enemies ; for their motive is only to obtain the fruit for 
 themselves ; they do not particularly wish to do the 
 owner any injury. They have no feelings of enmity and 
 ill will towards him. If there were apple-trees growing 
 in the road, they would as readily take them there, as go 
 into the orchard for them. So they are not his enemies. 
 
 69 
 
7<D A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 But if some boys, hating the man for any cause, were 
 to go into the orchard to break down the branches of 
 the trees, not to do themselves any good, but only to 
 do the owner injury, then they are his enemies. Their 
 motives are resentment and ill will. If there were trees 
 in the road, it would not satisfy them at all to break 
 them down, for their special object is to do this man an 
 injury. 
 
 It is plain, then, that it is wrong for any person to be 
 another's enemy. Sometimes it is necessary to give 
 other persons pain, but it is always wrong to do this 
 wilfully and intentionally, and with hostile feelings. 
 Parents and teachers are compelled sometimes to inflict 
 pain upon children, as punishment ; in such cases, how- 
 ever, their object is not suffering itself, but the good 
 which they hope the suffering will be the means of 
 accomplishing. In punishing children and pupils in a 
 proper manner and with a proper spirit, they who pun- 
 ish are friends of the children, and not their enemies. 
 There are many other ways by which persons may give 
 pain, without being moved to do so by malice or ill will. 
 But if a person is actuated by feelings of malice and 
 ill will, when he gives any other person pain, for the 
 sake of giving pain, he is always wrong. We ought to 
 do good to others, and not evil. We ought to desire 
 to make them happy, not to see them suffer. 
 
 When other persons do evil to us, with hostile in- 
 tentions, the first impulse is to repay them by doing 
 evil to them. If a man injures his neighbor in any 
 way, and if his neighbor injures him in return, this is 
 retaliation. 
 
 It might at first be supposed that retaliation would 
 
TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. /I 
 
 have a good effect in preventing the enemy who injures 
 us once from doing so again. If he finds that every 
 time he does anything to cause us pain, we retaliate, 
 he will learn, we might suppose, that he always brings 
 injury upon himself by attempting to injure us, and 
 thus that he would soon be compelled to cease. We 
 might suppose that this would be the effect ; but when 
 we come to see what the effect really is, we find it is 
 very different. A bad boy gets some stones together 
 to throw at me, when I am going to school. If I 
 throw stones at him as I pass along, instead of mak- 
 ing him give up such hostile acts afterwards, it only 
 encourages him to collect more stones for the next 
 day. It makes him a greater enemy than before, 
 more hostile, more malicious, more bent on doing evil 
 than ever. 
 
 But, as I pass along the street the next day, I see that 
 boy carrying something very heavy in a basket, and I 
 go to him and say, " Let me help you carry it a little 
 way," and take hold with him and carry it along, it 
 is very probable that, after that, he will not throw any 
 more stones. Retaliation makes his hostility greater ; 
 showing him kindness makes it less, or takes it away. 
 If I do evil to him, I make it more probable that he will 
 try hereafter to do evil to me. If I do him good, I am 
 almost certain to prevent him from ever trying to injure 
 me again. 
 
 This is one reason why our Saviour said, " Love your 
 enemies ; do good to them that hate you." He saw 
 that this was a far better way than retaliation, to protect 
 ourselves from future injuries. But there is another 
 reason, which is, perhaps, stronger still. And that is, 
 
72 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 that doing good to our enemy is not only better for us, 
 but it is very much better for him. The angry and 
 malicious feelings in his heart are very wrong, and make 
 him miserable, and we must not do anything to increase 
 them. If we can in any way make him give up such 
 feelings, and cherish friendliness and good will towards 
 us, we make him a great deal happier, as well as our- 
 selves. 
 
 A man lived in a village where there were two or 
 three bad boys ; and one of them, who had become dis- 
 pleased with him in some way or other, one evening 
 broke the glass in a window which opened into a tool- 
 room. The man caught the boy, and held him until he 
 saw who it was, and then let him go, so that he might 
 have time to consider what he should do. As he was 
 considering, he said to himself, " I could easily have 
 whipped the boy for breaking my window, but that 
 would not have prevented him from breaking my win- 
 dows again ; it would probably have made him only 
 more secret about it. Besides, to keep my windows 
 from being broken is not the most important thing. 
 His heart is in a very wrong and wretched state. Now, 
 if I can change the character of his feelings, I shall do 
 him a great deal of good. And it is much more impor- 
 tant for him that this should be done, than it is for me 
 to prevent his breaking any more of my windows." 
 
 Some days after this, the man was going towards 
 home, and he overtook this boy, who was walking before 
 him. It was winter, and the man was riding in a sleigh. 
 He stopped his horse and asked the boy to get in and 
 ride with him. The boy felt ashamed when he saw 
 who it was, and at first refused to get in ; but the man 
 
TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. 73 
 
 insisted upon it so strongly and with so good-humored 
 an air and manner, that he got in. But he trembled 
 and was afraid, expecting that he would have to receive 
 very severe rebukes for breaking the window. 
 
 Instead of reproaching him, or saying anything what- 
 ever to him about his fault, the man said, " If you like 
 to drive, take the reins and the whip, and drive me into 
 the town." The boy did like to drive very much indeed. 
 So he drove into the town, and when he got pretty near 
 his own house, they stopped, and he got out, and said, 
 " Good by, sir. I am much obliged to you for my ride ; 
 and I am very sorry indeed that I broke your window." 
 
 The excellence of this way of managing such a case, 
 does not arise so much from the fact that it was a very 
 good way to prevent the boy from breaking any more 
 windows, but that it had so good an influence upon the 
 boy's mind, in making him ashamed of his bad passions. 
 Retaliation would only have exasperated him. Just 
 punishment, inflicted by his father or teacher, or by any 
 one who was authorized to punish him, might have done 
 him good ; but anything from the man whom he had 
 injured, of the nature of retaliation and revenge, would 
 only have exasperated him. This free forgiveness soft- 
 ened and subdued him. Revenge would have strength- 
 ened the bad feeling which was in his mind. Forgiveness 
 removed it. 
 
 Whenever, therefore, we find that we have enemies, 
 and it is in our power to do them either good or evil, 
 as we may choose, it is our duty to do them good. But 
 sometimes the circumstances may be such, that it seems 
 not to be in our power either to injure them or to do 
 them good ; as when a young boy comes to a school 
 
74 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 where there is a large boy who takes pleasure in oppress- 
 ing him and in giving him pain, by every means in his 
 power. This .is sometimes called hazing. The young 
 boy is too weak to retaliate upon the one who thus 
 injures him, even if he desires to do so. And, on the 
 other hand, day after day passes, without bringing any 
 opportunity to do him good. The poor boy's oppressor 
 is above his reach and beyond his power. What shall 
 he do in such a case as this ? 
 
 There is nothing for him to do but to be patient, 
 taking care to avoid his guilty tormentor as much as 
 he can, and bear with a quiet spirit what he cannot 
 escape. This forbearance and gentleness will do much 
 more to subdue hostility than any angry resistance ; and 
 even if it would not, still it is our duty to exercise it. 
 There is very much oppression and iniquity in this world 
 for which there is no remedy, and the innocent are often 
 hopelessly held in the power of the wicked. It is in 
 such cases useless as well as wrong, to allow our minds 
 to become irritated and vexed, and to struggle in fruit- 
 less anger against evils which we cannot overcome, and 
 which, therefore, must be borne. Let us always bear 
 wrong done to ourselves with a patient and submissive 
 spirit as long as we possibly can. 
 
 We must be very careful not to think that any per- 
 sons are our enemies when they are really not so. A 
 person who is very ready to believe, without any good 
 reason, that other persons are wishing to injure him, 
 causes himself unnecessary pain. He is always suspi- 
 cious and distrustful. Sometimes we imagine from a 
 person's countenance that he dislikes us, or we inter- 
 pret some action which was really innocent as a sign 
 
TREATMENT OF ENEMIES. 75 
 
 of hostility. A girl went to school one day, and found 
 several girls talking together in a corner, and the expres- 
 sion of their countenances indicated displeasure. So 
 she concluded at once that they were saying something 
 against her, and she was very much offended. But it 
 was without any reason whatever ; for they were really 
 talking about something else, and had just finished 
 what they had to say, when she came in ; and so just at 
 that moment they stopped talking and got up and went 
 away. 
 
 We ought to consider the conduct of others as favora- 
 bly as we can, and above all things never to think that 
 they are hostile to us, without clear and positive evi- 
 dence. It has very often happened that two persons 
 have gradually got into a serious quarrel, from no cause 
 whatever, except that each was unreasonably suspicious 
 of the other. In such a case if both, besides being sus- 
 picious, have a spirit of retaliation, the difficulty soon 
 becomes irreconcilable. For the spirit of retaliation 
 always leads on from bad to worse. 
 
 We see then that the way to treat our enemies and 
 all who show any ill will or hostility to us, is this : 
 
 , I. If those who injure us are in any way in our power, 
 we must use that power to do them good and not evil. 
 A spirit of good will and forgiveness will not only be 
 best for us, but it will be best for those who injure 
 us ; as it is exactly calculated to make them sorry for 
 the wrong which they have done, and unwilling to re- 
 peat it. 
 
 , 2. If those who injure us are not in our power, and if 
 we cannot do them good or evil in return for their 
 injuries, then we must bear patiently and quietly what 
 
?6 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 we cannot prevent. If we become vexed and irritated 
 against those who show this hostility, we increase our 
 own sufferings, and perhaps make our enemies worse 
 than before. 
 
 3. We must not be jealous and suspicious, but always 
 ready to put the most favorable construction upon what 
 we observe in others. We ought to suppose that their 
 feelings are friendly, until we have the most positive 
 proof that they are not ; and we must always treat them 
 with kindness and good will, even if we have good cause 
 to doubt the kindness and good will which they render 
 to us in return. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is an enemy ? 
 
 Is any one who does us an injury accidentally, our enemy? 
 
 If any one gives us pain with a design to do us good, is he an 
 enemy? 
 
 What example of an enemy is given ? 
 
 What was the case supposed in respect to the boys stealing the 
 farmer's apples? 
 
 Were they, strictly speaking, his enemies? 
 
 What is the case supposed in which they would be his enemies? 
 
 Is it ever right for us to be the enemy of any person ? 
 
 What is the first impulse which people generally feel when any 
 one does them an injury? 
 
 What is this called? 
 
 Does retaliation do any good? 
 
 Does it do any injury? What injury? 
 
 Relate the story of the boy who broke the window. 
 
 Suppose the person who is injured has no power to do the one 
 who injures him either good or evil : what is his duty? 
 
 Do such cases often occur among boys? 
 
 Can you state the general rules given at the end of the lesson? 
 
PROFANITY. 
 
 In common conversation and in anger, we often hear the name 
 of God used irreverently. It is taking His name in vain, and 
 it is wicked. This is profanity. 
 
 THE habit of profane swearing is a most detestable 
 one, and adds no force to language. It is very com- 
 mon among boys, even very young boys. The mind 
 easily catches that which is evil, and retains it in the 
 memory. The habit of swearing, if acquired in boyhood, 
 is apt to cling to one all through life. Many men are 
 so careless of their example, that they swear in the 
 presence of young boys, who, unless they are on their 
 guard, will quickly form the habit also. There seems 
 to be an impression that seamen especially are excusa- 
 ble for swearing ; and it has been said that common 
 sailors will not do their best work unless the officer 
 swears at them. But there are sea-captains who do 
 not swear in 'giving their orders ; and it is not true 
 that an order which is given with an oath has more 
 force and is more likely to be obeyed. 
 
 There are many persons so unwilling to take the 
 name of God on their lips, except in worship, that 
 they will not take the judicial oath before a magis- 
 trate, but make a solemn affirmation. We must have 
 high respect for such persons, even if we do not adopt 
 their method. Profanity is one of the most vulgar, 
 
 77 
 
78 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 vicious, and wicked of all vices. There is absolutely 
 no reason or justification for it. "Other sins offer at 
 least some appearance of pleasure, or some poor excuse 
 of temptation : this sin of swearing offers none." 1 Men 
 say they do it thoughtlessly and do not mean anything 
 by it. Boys take it up because they hear men swear, 
 and they think it is manly. It is not manly ; it is mean. 
 Nothing is more awful than to hear from thoughtless, 
 flippant lips, the name of Jesus Christ uttered as an oath. 
 And when such words come from the lips of a boy, they 
 are appalling. Would any boy dare to swear in the pres- 
 ence of his mother ? How very unreasonably wicked 
 it is for men or boys to cultivate or indulge habits of 
 speech so immoral, that no lady could properly imitate 
 them ! And how low and degrading is this vice of 
 profane swearing ! It is the language of low and 
 ill-bred people. The use of it always lowers one in 
 the estimation of those whose good opinion is worth 
 having. 
 
 There are few habits into which a boy may fall, so 
 utterly ruinous to him, as the use of profane language. 
 It seems to destroy the fine sensibilities, the best affec- 
 tions and generous feelings. Such a boy knows that 
 he is doing something which is wrong, something he is 
 afraid to have his parents and best friends know, and 
 he loses that frankness and open-heartedness which a 
 manly boy enjoys. 
 
 This vice seems to lead to other vices. It deadens 
 conscience, and makes one so reckless of everything 
 that is delicate and high-minded, that the profane boy 
 
 1 Farrar. 
 
PROFANITY. 79 
 
 is very likely to grow to be a rough, coarse man. Very 
 probably he will add other vices to this, such as drink- 
 ing, gambling and other kinds of dissipation. 
 
 The influence of this wicked practice is so destructive 
 of everything estimable in character, that a boy who is 
 in the habit of profanity is not a fit companion for other 
 boys, and should be banished from the playground and 
 the school. He is contaminating every one who asso- 
 ciates with him. 
 
 God's name may be taken in vain by the irreverent 
 repeating of a prayer, or by thoughtless trifling in sing- 
 ing a hymn or saying a grace at table. 
 
 There is such a thing as profanity without spoken 
 words. One may swear in his mind without speaking. 
 There is much of this kind of swearing when people 
 are in a passion, or under some high provocation. Now 
 this is not quite so bad as spoken words, because the 
 evil is confined to the person who has such thoughts ; 
 but it is a great sin against God, and the stain of 
 every such thought is left on the mind, and cannot 
 easily be erased. You cannot take a live coal in your 
 hand and not be burned ; you cannot touch pitch and 
 not be defiled. Avoid this most senseless of all vices ; 
 and if any boy has unfortunately fallen into it already, 
 let him break it off, no matter what it costs him. Other- 
 wise, his example may be eagerly copied by those who 
 are younger than he, and he will do much evil by the 
 indulgence of this most pernicious habit. 
 
 When the American army were at their winter- 
 quarters in New Jersey, during the Revolutionary War, 
 General Washington one day invited his staff -officers 
 to dine with him. The use of profane language was 
 
80 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 then very common among the officers of the army. 
 One of them uttered an oath at the table. General 
 Washington suddenly laid his knife and fork upon the 
 table in such a way as to attract the attention of every 
 guest, and raising his hands, exclaimed, "I really thought 
 that I had invited none but gentlemen to dine with me." 
 The reproof was of course deeply felt, and exerted a 
 very great influence in checking the vulgar and despic- 
 able vice. 
 
 Remember that God hears every word you say ; and 
 you cannot give utterance to a profane or indelicate 
 word, without destroying the delicacy of your feelings 
 and paving the way to ruin. And what a terrible 
 thought it is that a child would never swear if it did 
 not hear other people swear ! What an awful sin lies 
 on the consciences of those who swear in the presence 
 of children, knowing full well that those children will 
 themselves swear, when they are not afraid of being 
 punished ! How can a father punish his boy for profan- 
 ity when he is himself profane ? 
 
 -" It chills my heart to hear the blest Supreme 
 Lightly appealed to on each trifling theme. 
 Maintain your rank, vulgarity despise. 
 To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is profanity? 
 
 Is it common? 
 
 Is it right or wrong? 
 
 Do we easily fall into evil speech ? 
 
 Do we learn it by example ? 
 
 Is profane swearing justifiable? 
 
 Can it be necessary? 
 
PROFANITY. 8 1 
 
 Is the habit acquired when we are young? 
 
 Can God's name be taken in vain in prayer ? Or in singing hymns ? 
 Can one swear without speaking the words ? 
 Is this as bad as spoken oaths ? 
 
 What is the story of General Washington at his dinner-table? 
 What effect is swearing likely to have on the character? 
 Is it likely to lead to other vices ? 
 
 Is a profane boy a fit companion for others in school or on the 
 playground ? 
 
 Do boys think it manly to swear? 
 
CONSCIENCE. 
 
 That inward feeling which makes us peaceful and happy when 
 we do right, and which condemns us when we do wrong, is 
 conscience. 
 
 CONSCIENCE is very faithful ; it tells us what we ought 
 to do and what we ought not to do. There are several 
 ways in which conscience is faithful to us. 
 
 I. Conscience warns us, before we begin to do wrong. 
 Do you know what warning means ? If a man were to 
 see a little girl going towards a deep well, with nothing 
 around it to keep her from falling in, and should tell 
 her to take care and not go there, that would be warn- 
 ing her. So conscience warns us. When we are about 
 to do anything wrong, yes, when we are just beginning 
 to think of doing wrong, conscience warns us not to 
 do it. 
 
 A boy was playing in the yard, and he found by the 
 side of the fence a large red apple. He put it in his 
 pocket. He knew that it belonged to another boy ; but 
 he thought he would carry it away alone, and eat it 
 after school. Just then the bell rang. He went in and 
 took his seat, with the apple in his pocket. 
 
 All that afternoon he was restless and uneasy. There 
 
 was something in his heart which seemed to say, " That 
 
 apple is not yours ; you must not keep it. You must 
 
 not eat it after school." This was conscience warning 
 
 82 
 
CONSCIENCE. 83 
 
 him not to do wrong. For he had not yet actually done 
 anything outwardly wrong. The apple was safe in his 
 pocket. He had not yet had an opportunity to give it 
 to the boy to whom it belonged. He had not yet begun 
 to carry it away to a secret place to eat it. But conscience 
 looked forward to, and warned him against the dishonest 
 act which he was going to do. He tried to amuse him- 
 self by thinking of something else ; but conscience 
 would not let him rest ; until, just before school was 
 over, he resolved that he would carry the apple to the 
 boy who owned it. Then his mind was relieved, and 
 he became quiet in spirit and happy again. 
 
 2. Conscience remonstrates while we are doing wrong. 
 Do you know what remonstrates means ? Some chil- 
 dren walking in a garden, go to a tree and get some 
 apples which are not ripe, and which their father has 
 forbidden them to take. One of the children, more 
 obedient than the rest, says, " You must not take those 
 apples ; it is wrong ; you ought not to disobey father." 
 This is remonstrating. So conscience remonstrates 
 when we are doing anything wrong. We feel uneasy 
 and unhappy while we are doing it ; and we cannot help 
 thinking that it is wrong, and that we ought not to do it. 
 
 3. Conscience reproaches us after we have done 
 wrong, and makes us anxious, unhappy and afraid. We 
 are afraid that somebody saw us, or will find out the 
 wrong we have done. We are unhappy. We cannot 
 help thinking of the sin, though we try to forget it. 
 When we are alone, conscience reproaches us ; it re- 
 minds us of our guilt, and we feel ashamed and wretched. 
 We are afraid. We dare not be alone. We know that 
 we have done wrong, and our hearts sink with fear. 
 
84 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 How much better it would be for us always to do right, 
 than thus to wound the conscience, and load our hearts 
 with anxiety and suffering. 
 
 y 4. Conscience becomes quiet again when we confess 
 the wrong that we have done, and resolve to do so no 
 more. Probably the principal reason why conscience is 
 given us, is to prevent our doing wrong ; and so, when 
 we cease to do wrong, it ceases to give us pain. 
 
 When a boy is only intending to do something wrong, 
 but has not yet begun to do it, and his conscience is 
 warning him, and making him feel restless and uneasy, 
 he can very easily quiet its warnings, and obtain peace 
 of mind again, by giving up his thought of doing wrong, 
 and determining to do right. When he has already 
 done wrong, and injured any one by it, if he will de- 
 termine to do so no more, and confess his fault, and 
 make reparation for the injury then he will be happy 
 again. 
 
 A boy found a piece of money in his mother's bureau 
 drawer. He took it and determined to keep it himself. 
 He thought if his father should ask him where he got 
 it, he could tell him that he found it. " For," he said to 
 himself, " I did find it in the drawer." His father did 
 ask him, when he saw him playing with the money ; and 
 he told him that he had found it. He felt guilty when 
 he took the money. He felt still more guilty when he 
 told his father that he had found it Then his father 
 asked him where he found it. He had not expected 
 this question. He was confounded. He answered 
 suddenly, "In the street." His father wondered who 
 could have lost it, but said no more, and so the boy 
 escaped detection. 
 
CONSCIENCE. 85 
 
 But though he was pleased that he was not detected, 
 his sense of guilt made him miserable. Every time he 
 felt the money in his pocket, the touch seemed to arouse 
 his conscience to reproach him. 
 
 If he had gone at once and returned the money to 
 his father, and confessed that he did not find it in the 
 street, but that he took it from his mother's drawer, he 
 might have been happy again. Instead of that he went 
 and bought nuts with it. Some of the nuts he ate, and 
 the rest he gave to other boys. Thus he fixed the 
 feelings of guilt and wretchedness in his mind ; he made 
 conscience his enemy, and prepared himself to commit 
 greater crimes. 
 
 A boy once suffered for many months from the re- 
 proaches of conscience ; and he at last quieted her voice 
 and regained his peace of mind by confessing his sin 
 and making reparation. The case was this : one night 
 he climbed over into a gentleman's garden, not far from 
 the village where he lived, to get some plums. He got 
 his cap full of sweet plums, and came back safely. 
 Conscience warned him not to go ; conscience remon- 
 strated with him while he was going, and while he was 
 upon the tree ; and conscience bitterly reproached him 
 after the deed was done. The poor boy found that for 
 the sake of a few plums he had almost entirely destroyed 
 his peace of mind. He often thought of his sin at 
 night and when he was alone. He was always afraid 
 when he met the gentleman to whom the garden be- 
 longed ; and the lane where before he always liked to 
 walk and play, now made him feel so wretched, that he 
 kept away from it entirely. 
 
 At last, one day, he went to the gentleman and told 
 
86 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 him what he had done. He said he had no money to 
 pay for the plums, but if the gentleman would let him 
 work for him or do errands to make reparation, he 
 would be glad to do it. 
 
 The gentleman said that he was very glad that the 
 boy had come and confessed his fault ; that he would 
 willingly forgive him ; and that he need not come and 
 work for him, for he did not wish him to make any 
 reparation. But the boy replied that he wanted very 
 much to pay him for the plums, and that if the gentle- 
 man had any work for him to do, he wished he would 
 let him do it. So the gentleman let him work for him 
 two hours one afternoon. By this means the boy's 
 peace of mind was restored ; and he loved to play in the 
 green lane as well as ever. 
 
 Thus conscience utters warnings and remonstrances, 
 to prevent us from doing wrong. And if we will cease 
 to do wrong and be faithful in doing our duty, she will 
 restore our peace of mind, and cheer and encourage us 
 by her approval. Peace of mind and a quiet con- 
 science are of inestimable value. Without these, all 
 other means of enjoyment will fail of making us happy ; 
 and with them, whatever other privation we may suf- 
 fer, life will pass pleasantly. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 What is conscience ? 
 What is warning? 
 
 What does conscience do when we think of doing wrong? 
 What is the story of the boy and the apple ? 
 What should we do when we find anything? 
 What does conscience do while we are doing wrong? 
 
CONSCIENCE. 87 
 
 What does conscience do after the wrong is done ? 
 
 What brings peace of mind ? 
 
 What is the story of the piece of money? 
 
 What did the boy gain ? 
 
 What did the boy lose? 
 
 What is making reparation? 
 
 What is the story of the plums ? 
 
 What did that boy gain ? 
 
 What did he lose? 
 
 What does this story illustrate ? 
 
 Is peace of mind desirable ? 
 
 TWITSRSITT. 
 
 ^iws*^ 
 
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 
 
 Conscientiousness is obeying conscience. It is being strict and 
 faithful in doing what is right, with a determination not to do 
 what is wrong, conscience being the judge. 
 
 OUR last lesson explained, in general, the nature and 
 powers of conscience. One who is conscientious will 
 obey this voice strictly in regard to all his duties. 
 Whenever he has a secret feeling that anything which 
 he is tempted to do is wrong, he will not do it ; and 
 on the other hand, whatever he inwardly feels to be 
 his duty, that he will at all times faithfully perform. 
 
 A fixed and steady principle of conscientiousness, 
 with the Divine help, is the only safe guide ; for it is 
 plain that any rules of conduct which can be given 
 must be very general. As to almost all the particular 
 acts which we perform, their being right or wrong 
 depends upon the circumstances of each case, and upon 
 the secret intention. A boy on his way to school is 
 standing still, in the street. Is he doing right or wrong ? 
 If you say he is doing wrong, it may be answered, per- 
 haps not ; he may be waiting for his little brother who 
 is behind, having ample time yet to get to school in 
 season. Do you say he is doing right ! Perhaps not. 
 It may be that he is idling away his time, watching a 
 monkey on a hand-organ; or looking to see if some 
 other boys are coming, that he may stop and play with 
 88 
 
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 89 
 
 them upon the way ; and he may be late at school. 
 Thus the guilt or the innocence of the act depends upon 
 the intention of his mind. 
 
 Two boys in the winter, come to a pond. One road 
 leads around the pond, and the other goes across, 
 upon the ice. Neither of the boys has received any 
 directions from his father which way to go. One sup- 
 poses his father would prefer him to go around the 
 pond, notwithstanding the distance, rather than venture 
 upon the ice. The other supposes that his father con- 
 siders the ice perfectly safe, and would wish to have 
 him go across it to save time. If the two boys go down 
 to the shore, and one after the other goes upon the ice, 
 we should see no difference between them. One acts 
 just like the other. All that we see in both cases is 
 the same ; but the act, though apparently the same in 
 each, would be right in the case of one boy, and wrong 
 in the other. 
 
 Thus it is with most of our actions. Whether they 
 are right or wrong cannot be decided by their outward 
 appearance. It depends upon circumstances seen and 
 unseen, and upon the hidden intent and purpose of the 
 mind. Rules, therefore, cannot be given to govern 
 every case. Conscience, or the inward sense of right 
 and wrong, will decide. This power of our minds will 
 be ready to act in each particular instance, and will vary 
 its directions according to the nature of the case. It 
 will tell one boy, who is standing still, on his way to 
 school waiting for his little brother, that he is right. It 
 will tell the other, who is standing the next day in the 
 same place, and in the same attitude, that he is wrong. 
 
 When the two boys come down to the shore, con- 
 
QO A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 science will discriminate between the cases, and say to 
 one that if he wishes to be dutiful and obedient as a 
 son, he must not go around the pond, he must go 
 across ; and to the other, that if he would be dutiful and 
 obedient, he must not go across, but around. Whoever 
 desires to obey this inward monitor, and wishes, 
 wherever there is a right and a wrong, to do the right, 
 and to avoid the wrong, is conscientious. He is gov- 
 erned by his sense of duty. 
 
 Conscientiousness is a right principle of action, and 
 it ought to be the strongest. There are, however, 
 many other principles. In other words, if we do any- 
 thing because we ought to do it, or if we do not do it 
 because we ought not to do it, we are conscientious ; 
 but there may be many other motives for doing or not 
 doing things. And many of them are right motives. 
 It is not wrong to be influenced by them; but then 
 we must not mistake them for conscientiousness, and 
 flatter ourselves that we are acting from a sense of 
 duty when we are not. A boy may study diligently in 
 school in order to get a prize, or to rise in the class. 
 This is not wrong ; but it is very different from being 
 led to study by a sense of duty. A boy may be very 
 industrious in gathering apples in an orchard for several 
 days, because his father has promised him one bushel 
 for every ten he gathers. It is all very well for him to 
 be influenced by such a motive, but yet the motive is 
 not a sense of duty, it is hope of reward. There are 
 many other motives which very properly influence us, 
 but they are not sense of duty. A sense of duty may 
 indeed mingle with them, and often does. The boy 
 in gathering his apples may be diligent and faithful, 
 
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. QI 
 
 partly because he knows he ought to be, and partly 
 as a means of obtaining the pay. Most good boys 
 would be faithful under the influence of such a double 
 motive, in such a case. And generally, the various 
 motives unite and mingle their influences, in governing 
 our conduct ; and it sometimes requires much skill and 
 pains to separate them, when we are studying our own 
 characters, or investigating the motives of our conduct. 
 
 There is one motive that young people very often 
 mistake for conscientiousness, and that is, the wish to 
 be approved by their parents and teachers. This is a 
 good motive. It is right for a child to wish to enjoy 
 the approbation and praise of his father and mother. 
 Suppose they give him, on some afternoon in the spring, 
 the work of putting the yard in order, and raking it over 
 smoothly. He works industriously for several hours, 
 thinking how pleased his parents will be to see how 
 neatly he has done his task. It is the hope of his 
 parents' approval which animates him. True, he does 
 what is right, but he does not do it simply because it is 
 right, but because he loves to see his father and mother 
 pleased. Now, this is a very good motive, only it is 
 of a different kind from conscientiousness. 
 
 But, now, if he should put the yard in order as faith- 
 fully and carefully, at some time when his father and 
 mother were away upon a journey, and when there was 
 nobody at home to take any interest in his work, and 
 when his motive for doing so would be simply because 
 it was his duty to do it, and without any hope of reward 
 or praise, this would be acting from conscientious- 
 ness, or a sense of duty. This is a higher motive than 
 the other. It is more noble. He who is under the 
 
92 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 habitual control of it has an inward principle of moral 
 energy, which carries him onward, whether he is noticed 
 and praised or not. He may like to be noticed and 
 praised, by his parents and teachers. It is very right 
 that he should value their good opinion. But he goes 
 on doing his duty the same, when he expects, and when 
 he does not expect it. And thus, when he leaves home, 
 and goes among people, who would perhaps praise him 
 for doing wrong, he is not led astray by it. His con- 
 trolling principle is a determination to do what is right. 
 
 Thus conscientiousness is a very elevated and noble 
 principle of action. But it may be diseased and so lead 
 a person astray. A boy may be so anxious and afraid 
 lest he should do wrong in some cases, as to be pre- 
 vented from doing right. Persons sometimes carry 
 their scrupulousness so far, as to make it a source of 
 unnecessary inconvenience and trouble to themselves 
 and their friends. There are several ways in which 
 such a spirit may show itself. 
 
 Sometimes persons have a morbid or diseased con- 
 scientiousness, in respect to truth. They are afraid 
 to say that a thing is, or that it is not, because they 
 are not absolutely certain. A man, away from home, 
 is asked if his family is well. He is afraid to say 
 "Yes," because he is not sure that something may not 
 have happened since he left home, half an hour before, 
 and so he would be very careful to say that he 
 believed they were well, or that they were well when 
 he left home. There are many such cases, where we 
 say that a thing is true, when we have evidence that it is 
 true, even although it is barely possible that it may be 
 otherwise, Thus, a boy carrying his dinner along to 
 
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 93 
 
 school tells another boy that he is going to stay at 
 noon ; or says that his sister, who is coming behind 
 him, has two apples in her basket ; or, a man who has 
 made all his arrangements for taking a journey to the 
 city the next day, says to his neighbors, that he shall 
 certainly go, whatever the weather may be; or he 
 might say, that he should probably be back in a week, 
 and certainly in a fortnight. Or, if he were standing 
 by a fording-place in a river, where he had often crossed, 
 and a traveller should come down and inquire, he might 
 say that it was perfectly safe. In all these cases, it is 
 right to assert positively ; and yet strictly speaking, the 
 certainty is not absolute. In the last case, for instance, 
 it is barely possible that the current, or some other 
 cause, may have so altered the bed of the river, since 
 the man crossed, as to make it not perfectly safe now. 
 Still, the probability of this is so faint, that it is not to 
 be regarded. The doubt is so small that we cannot 
 express it, without expressing too much. If we say, in 
 such a case, that we suppose the ford is safe, or we have 
 very little doubt that it is safe, we make the traveller 
 think there is some appreciable danger. So we convey 
 a wrong meaning by being too anxious to convey ex- 
 actly the right one. ' We must therefore use language 
 in all such cases just as other persons use it, and they 
 will understand us. When we say, in ordinary con- 
 versation, that a thing is so, or that it is' not so, all 
 that we mean, and all that other persons understand us 
 to mean, is, that we have satisfactory reasons for believ- 
 ing that it is as we say. Extraordinary possibilities are 
 not taken into account. Conscientiousness in regard to 
 all duties, ought to be enlightened and reasonable. We 
 
94 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 must not be excessively scrupulous about trifling things 
 and little points of form ; but our sense of duty must 
 rest on solid grounds, and we must act in reference to 
 what is essential in principle and substantial in fact. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is conscientiousness ? 
 Can rules be given for all our conduct ? 
 
 Does the character of an act always depend upon the outward 
 appearance of it ? 
 
 How is this shown by the boy on his way to school ? 
 What principle does this case illustrate? 
 What is the only right principle of action ? 
 Name some of the other principles of action. 
 What motive may be mistaken for conscientiousness? 
 How is this shown by the boy working in the yard? 
 May conscientiousness be diseased? 
 Name some instances of this. 
 
DUTY TO PARENTS. 
 
 Children are dependent on their parents for food, clothing, and 
 instruction. They should, therefore, submit to their authority, 
 and love and honor them. 
 
 i. Children ought to submit to parental authority. 
 To submit is to yield a willing and cheerful obedience. 
 The child who openly disobeys his father or mother is 
 guilty of great sin. He is not submissive. He rebels 
 against the authority of his parents, and thus breaks the 
 command of God. So with the child who secretly dis- 
 obeys. If we obey our parents while in their presence, 
 and disobey when we are not observed, we fail in our 
 duty. It is wrong to disobey, openly or secretly, those 
 who are placed over us with the right to command. 
 
 Children often show a want of submission to the 
 authority of their parents, when they do not actually 
 disobey them, either openly or in secret. For, true sub- 
 mission will lead them, not only to obey commands, but 
 to do it cheerfully and pleasantly. If a child, when her 
 mother calls her in from play, comes in with a discon- 
 tented and ill-natured look, she is not submissive. She 
 is not openly disobedient, but her heart rebels. It is 
 wrong to allow even the heart to rebel against a father 
 or mother. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary that children should not 
 only be clothed, fed, sheltered, and instructed in duty, 
 
 95 
 
96 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 but that they should be governed. We see this neces- 
 sity very early. Just so soon as the young child begins 
 to act at all, it is necessary that he should be controlled. 
 He is creeping upon the floor, perhaps, scrambling along 
 as fast as he can go towards the fire. Now, will it do 
 to argue with him ? Will it do to instruct him ? Will 
 it do to persuade him ? No ; nothing will do but to 
 control him. He must be stopped by authority, if he 
 has been taught to submit to authority ; and, if not, by 
 force. His mother must say sternly, " No, no, you 
 must not go there." He cannot understand the words ; 
 but he may understand the look and tone and manner, 
 and may voluntarily submit to authority. If not, he 
 must be turned away from danger by force. 
 
 When children grow older, there is no longer any 
 need of parental authority to keep them from going 
 into the fire. That danger they have learned to under- 
 stand and avoid. But there are other dangers which 
 they are apt to run into. A boy of ten years of age 
 wants to be out in the streets in the evenings to play 
 with other boys. If he is allowed to do it, unless he is 
 in good company, it will be very likely to corrupt and 
 ruin him. He cannot see the danger. It is concealed 
 from his view. He cannot be convinced that it is un- 
 safe ; he cannot be persuaded to give up his wish to be 
 out at night without leave. He must be controlled. 
 His parents must have authority, not arguments, to 
 depend upon ; or else he will burn himself with a fire 
 far worse than that in the stove. 
 
 There are many difficulties and dangers that children 
 are exposed to, which they cannot see or understand. 
 And in the same manner, they cannot see the necessity 
 
DUTY TO PARENTS. 97 
 
 or value of the instruction which it is necessary for 
 them to receive. When they are learning the alphabet, 
 how little idea can they form of the pleasures and ad- 
 vantages of being able to read ! It is the same with all 
 the studies of later years. Children cannot realize the 
 value of knowledge sufficiently to induce them, of their 
 own accord, to make the necessary effort to obtain it. 
 
 If young people were allowed to do as they please 
 about attending to their studies, how soon would spell- 
 ing-books and slates be laid aside, and the schoolrooms 
 deserted ! It is not reasonable to expect in children, 
 the foresight and the consideration and the firmness of 
 purpose necessary to induce them, of their own accord, 
 to make the effort, and submit to the self-denial, nec- 
 essary to acquire knowledge and to form virtuous 
 habits. Very few children will take medicine when 
 they are sick, unless they have been trained to obedience. 
 It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that children should 
 be controlled by parental authority. They ought to see 
 and acknowledge the necessity, and always submit 
 readily and cheerfully. 
 
 2. Children should respect and honor their father and 
 mother. It is very wrong ever to speak disrespectfully 
 to them. Children often do this, sometimes when they 
 are displeased, and sometimes from thoughtlessness. 
 But it is always wrong. If they answer their parents 
 in an ill-natured manner, or express feelings of dislike 
 or resentment, or make them subjects of jest or ridi- 
 cule, or trifle with their feelings in any way, they do 
 wrong. Such treatment is entirely inconsistent with 
 the principles which ought to govern the intercourse 
 between the child and its parent. 
 
98 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 It is wrong, also, to be disrespectful towards parents in 
 speaking of them to others. If a child, whose mother had 
 told him to do something which he did not like to do, were 
 to control his displeasure while in her presence, and then 
 go into another room, or out of doors, and use disrespect- 
 ful or contemptuous expressions in speaking of her, he 
 would do very wrong. He would break God's command, 
 which requires him to honor his father and mother. 
 
 Children should treat their parents with respect as 
 well in their manner towards them, as in their words ; 
 that is, be silent when they are speaking ; come at once 
 when they call ; bring them a seat when they are stand- 
 ing ; not come in their way when they are busy ; nor 
 interrupt them when they are reading ; nor be eager to 
 argue with them, nor contradict anything they say. By 
 observing these principles and treating parents with 
 respectful attention, children can give them great pleas- 
 ure. For nothing gives parents higher enjoyment than 
 to be honored by their children. 
 
 3. Children ought to give very ready and careful 
 attention to their parents' instructions. They are very 
 dependent for all they learn, upon the instruction which 
 their parents give them, and they ought to receive these 
 instructions with docility and readiness. And yet, 
 sometimes children do not wish to learn what their 
 parents teach them. Sometimes they think there is a 
 better way than that which they recommend ; so they 
 do not follow their directions. There was a boy who 
 was left-handed. He had had great inconvenience and 
 trouble from it. When he was very young, his mother 
 told him that it would be better for him to learn to use 
 his right hand. She tried to persuade him to change 
 
DUTY TO PARENTS. 99 
 
 the habit which he was gradually forming of giving his 
 left hand the preference ; but he would not make any 
 effort. He thought his mother was mistaken. He 
 could not see why it was not as well to use one hand 
 as another; and so he went on, making no effort to 
 change, until, at length, he became incurably left-handed. 
 When he grew up and experienced the inconvenience 
 and awkwardness of his habit, he was very sorry that 
 he had been so foolish when he was young, as to think 
 that he knew better than his mother. His repentance 
 came too late. 
 
 Whatever a good father or mother recommends, be 
 sure to do. Whatever the way may be in which they 
 direct you to do anything, do it in that way. Whenever 
 they give you any information or advice, listen to it 
 attentively, treasure up the information in the mind, 
 and follow the advice faithfully. This is the only course 
 that is wise and safe, and what is more important still, 
 it is the only one that is right. 
 
 4. Children ought to be grateful to their parents for 
 all their kindness and care. It is true that it is the duty 
 of parents to provide for their children ; but in doing 
 it they do not .act coldly and formally, as if they were 
 merely discharging a duty ; their hearts are rilled with 
 warm affection and love. How tenderly will a mother 
 watch over her sick child in its cradle ! She sits by its 
 side, gently soothing its uneasiness and pain while it is 
 awake, and watching it while it sleeps. She hushes 
 every noise, keeps off every breath of cold air, bathes 
 the little sufferer's face and hands to soothe its restless- 
 ness, carries it back and forth across the room with its 
 cheek upon her shoulder until her arms ache with the 
 
IOO A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 fatigue, and at midnight when she lies down to rest, the 
 least movement at its cradle brings her to its side. 
 
 When this child has recovered from his sickness and 
 has grown to be a large boy, and his mother is sick in 
 her turn, will he, instead of being a comfort and a bless- 
 ing, make himself a source of trouble and care ? Will 
 he disturb her quiet by his loud voice and noisy plays, 
 and add to the troubles of the family by his unreasonable 
 requests, his complaints, his fretfulness, and his insubor- 
 dination ? No ; not if he is grateful. He will remem- 
 ber his mother's kindness and love to him, and will re- 
 joice in the opportunity to make a kind return. He will 
 be quiet and still. He will move gently from room to 
 room, trying to be useful, and to do something to express 
 his affectionate interest in her, who has been so devoted 
 in her attachment to him. And he will succeed. His 
 conduct will revive and cheer his mother's heart. 
 
 When we think how much fatigue and anxiety and suf- 
 fering, parents endure for their children, it would seem 
 at first, that they never can be repaid ; yet when we con- 
 sider how much power children have to gladden their 
 parents' hearts and lighten their labors and cares, by 
 kind and affectionate and dutiful behavior, we are almost 
 ready to believe that they may fully compensate them 
 day by day. Children do not know how much pain they 
 give their parents by unkindness, ingratitude, and neg- 
 lect; nor can they realize how great a source of enjoy- 
 ment they become, when they are docile, obedient, 
 dutiful, and grateful for the kindnesses they receive. 
 
DUTY TO PARENTS. IOI 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is the first duty of children toward their parents ? 
 What is it to be submissive ? 
 
 Is there more than one way of being unsubmissive? 
 Must children be governed? 
 How early is this necessary? 
 Give an illustration. 
 
 When children grow older, must they still be controlled? 
 Why was it right to prevent the boy from playing in the street in 
 the evening? 
 
 Can children be kept from harm by persuasion alone? 
 
 Can children understand the dangers to which they are exposed? 
 
 Would they always avoid them if they could ? 
 
 What is meant by respecting and honoring parents ? 
 
 In what ways may children show disrespect? 
 
 How should children receive their parents' instructions ? 
 
 What reasons have children for feeling grateful to their parents ? 
 
FORGIVENESS. 
 
 When a person has suffered an injury from another, and con- 
 siders and treats the offender as if he had not done the wrong, 
 this is forgiveness. 
 
 THERE are three courses that we can take as to the 
 injuries done to us by others. We can forgive them 
 freely ; we can punish them and also forgive ; we can 
 take revenge. 
 
 1. When we forgive an injury, we no longer feel any 
 anger or ill will toward the person who has done it. We 
 consider how often we ourselves have done wrong, and 
 so we forgive him who has injured us, and dismiss from 
 our minds all thought of doing him any injury. 
 
 2. When we deliberately and honestly think that the 
 evil which any person has done, will be likely to be done 
 again by himself, or that the example will be imitated by 
 others, unless the guilty one suffers some penalty ; and 
 when we have a right, by our being the parent, or guar- 
 dian, or teacher of the one who has done wrong, to 
 inflict the penalty ; and when we do it honestly, for the 
 sake of doing him or others good, and not to gratify 
 our bad passions, then we do right to punish. Pain in- 
 flicted, not angrily as a retaliation, but calmly and delib- 
 erately as a remedy, is punishment. Some persons have 
 a right to punish, and some have not. Parents and 
 guardians have a right by nature and by the law of God 
 
 102 
 
FORGIVENESS. 103 
 
 to punish their children, and masters have the right by 
 law to punish their apprentices. Teachers have it by 
 delegation, that is, parents and guardians, by sending 
 the children to school, delegate or commit the right to 
 punish them to the teacher. In all cases punishment 
 should be followed by full forgiveness, as soon as the 
 offender expresses his sorrow and repentance. 
 
 3. Revenge is very different from punishment. It is 
 inflicting pain upon those who have injured us, not to 
 do them good, nor to prevent others from following 
 their example, but to requite them for the harm they 
 have done us. Thus there is a great difference between 
 revenge and punishment. Punishment tends to make 
 the subject of it better ; revenge tends to make him 
 worse. Punishment, if it is actual punishment, and is 
 inflicted with feelings of compassion, does not irritate 
 and enrage the one who suffers it, but it subdues and 
 softens him. If it is not inflicted with calmness and 
 compassion, there is revenge mixed with it, and that 
 prevents the proper effect. For revenge, whether alone 
 or connected with punishment, tends to stir up the bad 
 passions of the one who suffers. It arouses him to 
 anger or else to secret hatred and ill will ; and so it 
 perpetuates evil passions and bitter strife. 
 
 If, after a person has done us an injury, we go from 
 one to another of our acquaintances, complaining of it 
 in harsh and angry language and endeavoring to make 
 others dislike him, it is revenge. Anything whatever 
 that is intended to give pain, and which expresses our 
 anger and ill will, is of the nature of revenge. And 
 in whatever form it appears, its influence is evil. It 
 does not tend to soften or mitigate the evil, but to 
 
IO4 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 aggravate, to extend, to perpetuate it. Revenge puts 
 oil upon the flames of discord ; punishment sometimes 
 puts on water; but forgiveness causes them to die away 
 of themselves. 
 
 In almost all cases where one does wrong, there are 
 some circumstances which extenuate the guilt, that is, 
 which lessen it ; and there are other circumstances which 
 aggravate the guilt, that is, they magnify it, make it 
 appear greater than it really is. A boy, one afternoon, 
 when his father was sick, instead of going to school, 
 went away to play, persuading his younger brother to 
 go with him. In the middle of the afternoon he began 
 to be sorry for his fault ; and though he did not dare to 
 go into school then, he came home and went to work in 
 the garden, telling his brother that he was sorry that 
 he had persuaded him not to go to school, and that he 
 was determined never to do so again. In such a case 
 it would be right to consider some of the circumstances 
 as aggravating, and some as extenuating the offence. 
 His father's sickness is an aggravating circumstance ; 
 it makes the guilt greater. For it is more criminal to 
 take advantage of a time of sickness and suffering in 
 the family, to commit so wrong an act, than it would 
 be to do the same thing at any ordinary time. It was 
 an aggravation of the offence also, for the boy to lead 
 his younger brother astray with him. On the other 
 hand, his coming back early and going to work in the 
 garden and expressing his sorrow for his fault to his 
 brother, and promising to do so no more, are extenuating 
 circumstances. They make his guilt less than it would 
 have been if he had persisted in his sin to the last. 
 
 Jf we wish to form a just judgment of any wrong 
 
FORGIVENESS. IO5 
 
 act, we must become acquainted with, and consider 
 all the circumstances of the case, those that exten- 
 uate and those that aggravate the offence. If we are 
 ignorant of the extenuating circumstances, we shall 
 think the person more criminal than he is. If we are 
 ignorant of the aggravating circumstances, we shall 
 think him less criminal than he is. But the fact is, 
 we seldom do examine the case fully. In the offences 
 which we commit against others, we remember and 
 explain to our friends all the extenuating circumstances, 
 and pass over and forget those which aggravate the 
 guilt. But in the faults which others commit against 
 us, our minds dwell on the aggravations, and we com- 
 plain of them bitterly to others, while we take no 
 notice of the circumstances which extenuate the fault. 
 And, in regard to the wrongs which we hear of by 
 report, we are often satisfied to take the story just as 
 it comes, with only a very few of the circunv stances 
 related to us ; and so we form our judgment hastily 
 from a very imperfect knowledge of the facts.. One 
 person hears the circumstances which tend to di ninish 
 the guilt, and another, those that increase it ; anO each 
 forms a decided opinion, from the imperfect account 
 which he himself has heard. 
 
 Now it will help us very much to exercise a mild and 
 forgiving spirit towards those who have injured us, if 
 we take pains to ascertain and consider calmly, all the 
 extenuating circumstances of the case, and make all the 
 excuse for them that we possibly can. If they acted in 
 any way under a mistake, if we gave them any provoca- 
 tion, if they had been badly brought up, so as not to 
 have had good opportunities to learn how they ought 
 
IO6 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 to act towards others, or whatever may have been the 
 extenuating circumstances, we must take pains to think 
 of them all, and to allow them their full weight. This 
 will moderate our displeasure and make it easier for us 
 to forgive. 
 
 The grandest example of forgiveness ever known was 
 that of Jesus Christ praying for the forgiveness of his 
 executioners. And it is noticeable that he spoke not of 
 the circumstances which aggravated their guilt, but of 
 those which might in some slight degree excuse it. 
 ''Father, forgive them," said he, "for they know not 
 what they do." Their ignorance of the tremendous 
 consequences of the deed which they were committing 
 was a slight extenuation of it. 
 
 We ought to follow this example. We must make 
 many excuses in our minds for others, and few for our- 
 selves. When we are injured, we must seek for con- 
 siderations to diminish the guilt of those who injure us. 
 We must make all the allowances for them that we can. 
 What we cannot excuse, we must forgive ; and we must 
 pray that God will forgive the offenders. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What are the three courses which we can take, in respect to those 
 that do wrong? 
 
 What is it to forgive an injury ? 
 
 What is it to punish an injury? 
 
 Have all persons a right to punish ? 
 
 What persons have a natural right to punish ? 
 
 What is meant by delegation? 
 
 What persons have a delegated right to punish? 
 
 Have children ever any right to punish ? 
 
FORGIVENESS. IO/ 
 
 What case is mentioned as an illustration of this? 
 
 What is revenge? 
 
 When punishment is inflicted with feelings of irritation and anger, 
 what is said of it? 
 
 What different modes of revenge are mentioned? 
 
 What is meant by extenuating circumstances? 
 
 What is meant by aggravating circumstances? 
 
 Why ought we to take both into the account in judging of an 
 action? 
 
 Describe the case of the truant boy. 
 
 What were the extenuating circumstances? 
 
 What were the aggravating circumstances? 
 
 Which do we, generally, take most into the account, in our own 
 case? 
 
 Which in the case of other persons who do us injury ? 
 
 What ought we to do in such cases? 
 
 What is said of Jesus Christ's forgiveness? 
 
GRATITUDE. 
 
 When we receive a gift or benefit from another, we ought to 
 show kindness and good feeling in return. This is gratitude. 
 
 GRATITUDE is one of the highest virtues, pleasant to 
 feel, pleasant to show, pleasant to realize ; while its 
 opposite, ingratitude, is vile, base, dark, and hideous. 
 
 Gratitude must be developed by careful training. 
 There are many ways by which children can show grati- 
 tude to their parents ; such as good behavior, industry, 
 good service, and others. The love which a very young 
 child feels towards its mother from the beginning has 
 nothing like gratitude in it. After a time when the 
 child learns to think, it can be told how much its mother 
 has done for it, and then, if properly instructed, it will 
 begin to see what gratitude is. And this is so with 
 many who are no longer young. They receive many 
 gifts and benefits with no thought of doing any kindness 
 in return. We need not go far to find instances of this. 
 We often receive kindness, and think the debt is paid 
 by the expression of thanks, and take no pains to show 
 kindness in return. A teacher is at great pains to make 
 a lesson plain to a boy, but the boy does not always say 
 even as much as " Thank you." Nor is the pupil more 
 careful after this, to behave better or study more dili- 
 gently. Gratitude is not only what we feel in return 
 for what we receive from others, but it is a desire to do 
 something in return, to show that we have this feeling. 
 108 
 
GRATITUDE. IOQ 
 
 A young boy, who has been nursed through a long 
 and severe illness by a sister older than himself, will no 
 doubt often say that he is grateful for her kindness ; 
 but if he is not more careful ever after, to please her 
 and help her as much as he can, it cannot be said that 
 he is grateful. Nothing that he can do is too much, in 
 return for the great care and nursing she gave him, while 
 he was so sick and helpless. 
 
 A boy who is poor and without friends to give him a 
 start in work or business, finds employment with a 
 merchant who treats him kindly and gives him oppor- 
 tunities for advancement. He works faithfully for his 
 employer, and is successful in reaching a higher place in 
 the store. He knows that he is indebted to his friend 
 for his success, and he says so, more than once, while 
 everything goes on well. After a time the merchant 
 fails in business, and after trying to recover himself, 
 sinks in despondency and dies, leaving his family in 
 poverty. The young man goes elsewhere, is quite suc- 
 cessful, and becomes very prosperous. One day a son 
 of his former master calls upon him for employment, 
 and he tells him that he has no vacancy in his store, and 
 he can do nothing for him. If he had been truly grate- 
 ful, he would have used all the means in his reach to 
 help the son of his benefactor. Here was no gratitude 
 for the kindness shown to him when he was poor and 
 friendless. 
 
 Ingratitude is very common. Young people often 
 forget the kindness, the love, the care, of their parents. 
 All these seem to come as a matter of course, for they 
 come every day, and it is easy to forget from whom they 
 come. A boy was bathing in a stream, and getting into 
 
I IO A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 deep water, and not being able to swim, was just about 
 to sink and be drowned, when his teacher plunged 
 in and saved him. For many days after this, the boy 
 felt very grateful to his teacher and gave him no trouble 
 in the school ; but he was usually an idle, lazy boy, and 
 after a while he forgot how much he owed his teacher, 
 and fell back into his old indolent habits. 
 
 A gentleman who is interested in boys helps one to 
 get a good situation. The boy has few friends who are 
 able to help him, and he accepts the place procured for 
 him with great pleasure. There are many reasons why 
 he should do his very best in all things, to please his 
 employer and succeed in the business, whatever it is ; 
 and one especially is, that by faithful labor and care, 
 he can show his gratitude to his friend who got the 
 place for him ; but after a while he becomes so care- 
 less and idle that he loses his place, and when his friend 
 reasons with him and reproves him for his folly, he treats 
 him with indifference and will not take his advice. 
 
 One cold night a man who had lost his way in the 
 woods, saw a light in the distance, and going towards 
 it, found a farmhouse. The farmer took him in and 
 gave him a good supper and a place to sleep. In the 
 morning, rising up before the family, the stranger stole 
 the silver spoons which he had seen put in a drawer, 
 and went off. 
 
 A watchmaker had a son who was a Sunday-school 
 scholar. One day there came to the Sunday-school a 
 strange boy, who said he had recently come from Eng- 
 land, and that he was poor and friendless. The watch- 
 maker's son took the strange lad home with him, and 
 his father was so much interested in the stranger, that 
 
GRATITUDE. 1 1 1 
 
 he offered him a place in his store and gave him his 
 meals at his own house. The stranger made himself 
 very useful to his kind friend, and, continuing in the 
 Sunday-school, made many friends there, who gave him 
 books, and in other ways showed their confidence 
 and their interest in him. After some months the 
 watchmaker had such trust in his clerk, that he allowed 
 him to put the valuable goods in the safe before shut- 
 ting up the store at night. But one evening, while pre- 
 tending to do this, the young clerk secreted and stole 
 some of the most valuable watches and rings, and disap- 
 peared. All these are instances of ingratitude. 
 
 The highest kind of gratitude is that which we owe 
 to God. He is our Creator our constant Benefactor. 
 He continues us in life, He preserves us in health, He 
 gives us sleep when we are tired, He awakens us in the 
 morning. In some respects sleep is like death. We 
 should never awake, if God did not awaken us. He 
 protects us in danger, He feeds us, He clothes us, 
 He gives us the right use of our minds and of all our 
 bodily faculties. 
 
 Gratitude is the easiest of all the virtues to cultivate. 
 It requires no self-denial ; it brings its own reward imme- 
 diately ; it is within the reach of everybody. There is no 
 one who does not receive some favor or kindness from 
 some other person, and there is no one who cannot say, 
 "I thank you." And if these words are sincerely 
 spoken, and if the conduct is what it ought to be, it is 
 what is meant by gratitude. 
 
112 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is gratitude? 
 
 Is ingratitude very common? 
 
 Is it partly due to thoughtlessness ? 
 
 Who saved the boy about to be drowned ? 
 
 What was the effect upon the boy? 
 
 How did the boy treat the friend who found a place for him ? 
 
 How did the stranger treat the hospitable farmer? 
 
 What is the story of the watchmaker's boy? 
 
 Who has the highest claim upon our gratitude? Why? 
 
 Is gratitude a difficult virtue to cultivate? 
 
 Does it do good to giver and receiver? 
 
PURITY. 
 
 ^ Purity is freedom from all such thoughts, words, and actions as 
 modesty and delicacy condemn; it is to avoid these things our- 
 selves and never willingly to witness them in others. 
 
 THE sins against purity, which may be committed by 
 the young, cannot be particularly explained to them, 
 because our instinctive sense of modesty and propriety 
 forbids it. But though the boy, as he advances into 
 life, has to encounter dangers against which he cannot 
 be particularly warned by his teachers or parents, God 
 has given conscience special charge to watch him, and 
 to give him plain warning, in every case when he begins 
 to go astray. 
 
 As to most of the other faults and sins that young 
 people are in danger of committing, they seem to need 
 instruction and information more than they do about 
 this. An ignorant boy might, possibly, do some dis- 
 honest or unjust things, without being aware that they 
 were dishonest or unjust. He needs to have some 
 things particularly explained to him, in order that their 
 true character may be known. But, as to all actions, 
 and words, and thoughts, which are immodest and im- 
 pure, he knows that they are so by instinct ; that is, as 
 the birds know how to build their nests, by a natural 
 impulse, without ever being taught. His shame, his 
 downcast looks, his careful concealments, all show that 
 
 "3 
 
114 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 he knows perfectly well that he is guilty, though no 
 parent or teacher may have pointed out to him the guilt. 
 Nature points it out to him. Nature, even if the parents 
 do not give him minute instruction, takes effectual care 
 to give it to him herself ; and he cannot sin, either in 
 thought, word, or deed, in the most secret manner, with- 
 out feeling self -condemned and ashamed. 
 
 The various kinds of sin which children commit in 
 childhood are only beginnings. They are very bad in 
 themselves, but they lead on to what is very much 
 worse. If a father detects his son in stealing some fruit 
 from the storeroom, the sorrow that he feels is not so 
 much for the loss of the fruit ; nor is it, perhaps, alto- 
 gether on account of the guilt his son has incurred by 
 that one sin. He looks forward. He sees all the suc- 
 cessive steps of dishonesty, as they are likely to be 
 developed in future years, and he is overwhelmed with 
 the fear, that his son may grow up to be a thief. He 
 has a distinct idea of the depths of guilt and suffering 
 which such a beginning leads to, and the companions, 
 the haunts, the vices, the shame, the trial, the prison, 
 the punishment, and all the multiplied miseries of such 
 a career. The boy himself, however, cannot understand 
 all this. He may know something of it in general ; 
 but he cannot form any distinct and clear ideas, of the 
 extent and variety of the sufferings which he is bring- 
 ing upon himself, when he begins to be dishonest ; 
 that is, he enters upon a course of sin, while he has not, 
 and while it is impossible that he can have, any idea of 
 the awful penalties which God has annexed to it, and 
 which will certainly come upon him if he goes on. 
 
 And this is still more strikingly the case in respect to 
 
PURITY. 115 
 
 impurity. It seems to the young to be wrong, but 
 harmless ; they cannot shut their eyes to the guilt of it ; 
 but they have no reason to suppose that it is likely to 
 be attended with very serious consequences. This 
 seems to be a case where God has made known to them 
 the law very distinctly, but has concealed the penalty. 
 Conscience charges them, in the most solemn manner 
 even at the tenderest age, not to do, not to say, not to 
 think, what the instinctive sense of modesty and propri- 
 ety forbids ; but there is no way by which they can form 
 any clear conception of the terrible sins and miseries, to 
 which such things lead. The child who begins by lov- 
 ing to hear impure language, and then gradually learns 
 to use it himself, commences a course which ends in 
 vices, and crimes, and sufferings, of which he can form 
 no idea. The remorse, the shame, the abandoned com- 
 pany, the bodily suffering, the horrible diseases, the 
 wretchedness and degradation, which a life of impurity 
 brings, would terrify the soul of every guilty boy, if it 
 were possible, at his early age, that he could understand 
 and realize them. The most degraded, and miserable, 
 and wretched men and women that are to be found in 
 the world, are made so by the consequences of impurity. 
 But young people can only have a very general idea 
 of these consequences. They are not old enough to 
 understand how the use of language which they know 
 is wrong, but which seems to do no immediate in- 
 jury, will lead them on from sin to sin, until it ends 
 in the very extreme of human degradation and misery. 
 When the end comes upon them, they say, that if they 
 had only known, they would not have commenced so 
 awful a career. If they had only known ! But they 
 
Il6 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 did know the guilt, though they did not know the 
 penalty. The beginnings may have seemed harmless, 
 it is true ; that is, the first offences appeared not to 
 do any immediate injury. But they never could have 
 seemed innocent. Conscience was always ready to 
 testify that they were very, very wrong. They have, 
 therefore, in their sufferings, no cause to complain of 
 the justice of God. When He clearly makes known 
 His commands, they who dare to disobey them, do it 
 at their own peril. They cannot complain if awful 
 consequences follow, which they could not possibly have 
 foreseen. 
 
 Let young people, then, be pure, pure in thought, 
 pure in word, and pure in deed, and let them close 
 their ears against all impure words, and their eyes 
 against all impure reading and pictures. Then they 
 will escape present guilt and shame, and future vice and 
 misery. 
 
 There is often conversation of an indelicate nature 
 among boys, conversation which they would be very 
 unwilling that their father or mother should hear : with- 
 out great care in early life, their minds will be so pois- 
 oned and corrupted in this way, that it will be a calam- 
 ity to them all their lives. They will, during all the 
 years of manhood, have cause to mourn that such impure 
 words and thoughts ever entered the mind. There is 
 hardly anything more important to the welfare and hap- 
 piness of a boy than a caution on this subject. He can- 
 not be too careful to avoid all such words and thoughts. 
 He should never utter a word of this character which 
 he would not be willing to repeat to his parents. He 
 cannot understand the dreadful consequences of having 
 
PURITY. 117 
 
 an impure mind. It would be far less a calamity to lose 
 a foot, or a hand, or an eye, than to lose delicacy and 
 purity of mind. When we think of the temptations 
 to which boys are exposed in this respect, the bad boys 
 with corrupt hearts, whom they must inevitably meet, 
 the indelicate words they must almost unavoidably hear, 
 we cannot too earnestly warn them of their danger. 
 When they are present where such conversation is 
 going on, they should escape if they possibly can. 
 They should resolve that they will not listen to that 
 which conscience tells them to be wrong. And con- 
 science will be very faithful on this subject. It warns 
 loudly and earnestly, whenever the approach is made 
 to the region of impropriety. If a boy indulges himself 
 in this sin, he will not do it ignorantly, and he will 
 suffer for it as long as he lives. Many a good man has 
 been unable, even to the end of his life, to blot out from 
 his mind, the impressions left there by impure thoughts. 
 Dr. Johnson was once in company, where a person 
 related an anecdote which was of an indelicate character. 
 As soon as he had finished, Dr. Johnson, sternly looking 
 at him, said, " Sir, if you ever intend to repeat that 
 anecdote in my presence, I will thank you to inform me 
 of it, that I may leave the room. Such thoughts cannot 
 pass through the mind without leaving a trace of pollu- 
 tion behind them." And more recently, at a dinner-table, 
 one of the guests after looking around before he began 
 to tell an indelicate story, said, " I believe there are no 
 ladies present." "No," said another guest, "but there 
 are gentlemen present " ; and so he prevented the story. 
 And any one who has self-respect, be he man or boy, 
 will spurn the language of impurity. 
 
Il8 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 If any boy should fall into this habit of foolish and 
 wicked talk, and should let it grow upon him, as it 
 surely will, he cannot hope that his teachers or other 
 instructors will respect him ; that any right-minded man 
 will ever want his services, however valuable those 
 services may be, or however useful he might be. And 
 let him remember also, what is of vastly more conse- 
 quence than anything in this world, that when he comes 
 to stand before God on the judgment day, with such 
 evil habits clinging to him not repented of, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What is meant by instinctive ? 
 
 Does a child know what impurity is without being taught? 
 How does conscience protect him ? 
 
 Do children know all the consequences of the sins they commit? 
 Could they understand them if they were explained? 
 Is this any excuse for committing the sin? 
 
 Ought children to associate with those that use improper lan- 
 guage? 
 
 Ought they to listen to immodest talk? 
 
 What did Dr. Johnson once say on this subject? 
 
 What did the guest at dinner say ? 
 
REPENTANCE. 
 
 All people frequently fall into temptation and do wrong. They 
 ought always to be sorry for it, acknowledge it, and resolve to 
 do so no more. 
 
 ALL persons often do wrong. One great difference 
 between the good and the bad, is, that the good acknowl- 
 edge the wrong, and at once return to their duty ; but 
 the bad persist, and make false excuses, and are angry 
 at being reproved, and continue in their wrong-doing. 
 
 When we are reproved for a fault, we should never 
 hastily deny or begin to excuse what we have done. If 
 there is a misunderstanding of the case, so that we are 
 really innocent, when we are supposed to be guilty, it is 
 certainly right that we should/in a gentle and proper 
 manner, make the truth known. But such cases are 
 rare. The excuses and defences which children gen- 
 erally make, arise merely from their being unwilling to 
 admit that they have done wrong ; they prefer to per- 
 sist, to disguise or conceal the truth, or to turn the 
 censure off upon some other person. 
 
 But it is better to acknowledge the fault. To feel 
 and to express sorrow for wrong-doing is not only the 
 right way to get out of a difficulty, but it is altogether 
 the pleasantest way. It is repentance. Endeavoring 
 to excuse or to hide a fault only prolongs the mental 
 uneasiness which wrong -doing brings. If you arc 
 
 119 
 
I2O A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 charged with a fault, listen to the charge patiently, con- 
 sider it candidly, and then, if you see that you have 
 done wrong, fully and freely confess it. You will find 
 that to be the quickest, the easiest, and the pleasantest 
 way of getting out of the difficulty. 
 
 It is not enough, however, merely to say that you 
 know you have done wrong. Repentance must be sin- 
 cere ; it must come from the heart. We must feel how 
 evil it is to do wrong, even in what might be considered 
 a trifling matter. A boy pushes his little sister down, 
 because she has done something that he did not like. 
 Now, when he is reproved for it, he ought to think that, 
 though a little push is very trifling, yet that an angry 
 spirit, leading to an act of violence, is very serious. It 
 is the thought as well as the deed, which gives the 
 character to an action ; and this we should think of, 
 whenever we have done wrong, and acknowledge, not 
 carelessly and indifferently, but with real sorrow for 
 the wrong spirit which the action showed. 
 
 When we are doing wfong, and are told of it, we should 
 immediately and good-humoredly stop, and begin to do 
 right. There are many faults which young people fall 
 into, from thoughtlessness or momentary impulse ; 
 and then, if they seem willing to be told of them, and 
 immediately change their course, the evil is kept within 
 very narrow limits. But if they persist in them, and 
 seem displeased at being reproved, it makes the wrong 
 far greater ; it changes a mere thoughtless fault to a 
 deliberate and wilful sin. 
 
 Therefore, make it a rule to abandon at once whatever 
 you are doing that is wrong, as soon as your attention 
 is called to it by your parent or teacher or by any friend. 
 
REPENTANCE. 121 
 
 This is the way a certain boy received reproof, when 
 his father told him that he was making too much noise 
 with his brother, in the parlor : he immediately ceased 
 making a noise, and went at once, pleasantly, and took a 
 book, and sat down by the fire. 
 
 His sister, however, could not bear to be told of her 
 faults. At school, when she was sitting in a wrong 
 attitude, if the teacher called her attention to it, she 
 would look displeased, and change her position as little 
 as possible, without seeming absolutely to refuse to 
 obey. When the teacher asked her to read louder or 
 more slowly in the class, she would change her mode 
 of speaking as little as possible, thus persisting in the 
 fault, instead of abandoning it. How much better it 
 is to yield at once, with good-humored readmess, than 
 to cling to our faults, and regard, with looks of sullen 
 displeasure, those who point them out to us ! 
 
 True repentance is essential to restore our peace of 
 mind and happiness, when we have committed any great 
 and serious sins. True repentance makes us willing to 
 see and to admit that we have been guilty ; it makes us 
 truly sorry that we have thus yielded to temptation and 
 done wrong, and it makes us desirous to abandon the 
 sinful course at once, and to return to duty. Thus true 
 repentance brings with it reformation ; and it leads us, 
 not only to avoid sinning again, but to repair as far as 
 we can whatever injury our sin has already done. 
 
 There is a false repentance. That is, there are cer 
 tain feelings which seem like repentance in some de 
 gree, but which really are not, but are something very 
 different. A boy took the key of his own chest, one 
 afternoon, when his father was gone away, and tried to 
 
122 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 unlock his father's desk with it, to steal some money. 
 He put his key into the lock, but it did not fit exactly, 
 and at length, in turning it, it was caught so that he 
 could not get it either back or forward, and, at last, 
 after trying a long time to get it out, he had to go away 
 and leave it, his mind in a state of great agitation 
 and terror. He was afraid that his father would come 
 home at night, and find his key in the lock of the 
 desk, and so he would be detected. He was very 
 sorry, indeed, that he had ever attempted such an act. 
 But his feeling was not repentance ; it was fear of de- 
 tection. He was not troubled by the thought of the 
 wickedness of stealing his father's money, but of the 
 danger that he should be detected and punished. It 
 was remorse and terror, not repentance ; and it did not 
 lead him to confess and forsake his sin, but only to 
 think of every possible way that he could contrive to 
 conceal it. 
 
 True repentance is not fear of being detected, nor 
 fear of being punished ; nor is it merely the feeling of 
 guilt and self-condemnation at having done what is 
 wrong. It is such a sorrow for the wrong as leads us 
 to acknowledge, and not to conceal it, and to repair 
 the injury it has done ; and it makes us sincerely desire, 
 and firmly determine, to do so no more. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Do all persons sometimes do wrong? 
 
 What is one great difference between the good and the bad, in 
 regard t any wrong which they have done ? 
 
 What is our duty when we are reproved for our faults? 
 
REPENTANCE. 123 
 
 Which is the right course when we have done wrong, to ac- 
 knowledge the fault, or to defend ourselves and make excuses? 
 
 Which is the more pleasant course ? 
 
 State the case of the boy who was told to be quiet. 
 
 How did his sister bear reproof ? 
 
 Can our peace of mind be restored, after we have done wrong, 
 except by true repentance? 
 
 What is false repentance? 
 
 Describe the case of the boy and the false key. 
 
 Was his anxiety, when he found he could not get the key out, 
 true repentance ? 
 
 What feeling was it? 
 
 What does true repentance lead us to do ? 
 
DUTY TO GOD. 
 
 God is our creator, and we ought to adore Him. He has made 
 laws, and we ought to obey them. He forgives the penitent He 
 loves all His creatures; and we ought to love Him. He is always 
 near us, and ready to listen to us, and we ought to pray to Him for 
 help, guidance and protection. 
 
 No one is able to conceive of the greatness and maj- 
 esty of God. We cannot understand Him. He has no 
 form or shape like a man. He is everywhere, and 
 knows everything ; but He does not see with eyes, or 
 hear with ears, as we do. He is everywhere at the same 
 time. He does not walk from place to place with feet, 
 as we do. His works are going on, too, constantly, in 
 all parts of the universe ; but He does not work with 
 hands, as we do. He has no eyes, or ears, or feet, or 
 hands. He has no shape or body. He is a spirit. This 
 is mysterious. It is most difficult to conceive of God. 
 
 God is everywhere. You plant a seed in the ground 
 in the spring ; there comes from it in a few days a little 
 sprout. There are two parts : the part that is for the 
 root turns down and grows into the ground ; the part 
 that is for the stem and leaves turns up, and comes out 
 into the air. How do the root and the stem know which 
 way they must grow? They do not know. God is 
 there, where you plant that seed, and He guides the 
 growing of it ; and all over this vast world you cannot 
 124 
 
DUTY TO GOD. 125 
 
 find a place where you can put the smallest seed, but 
 God will be always ready there, to send the little leaf- 
 lets up and the root down. 
 
 And so God is watching over and sustaining every 
 star that shines in the sky. The stars are great worlds, 
 very great indeed, though they are so many mil- 
 lions of miles from us that they look twinkling and 
 small. They are far, very far, away from us ; but God 
 is there, always present with every one. 
 
 When you see a little cloud floating in the sky, you 
 may know that God is there to form it. He gathers 
 together the little drops of water so small that they 
 will float, high in the air. He increases the number of 
 them, till the cloud which they form becomes large and 
 black, and He brings down, one by one, every drop that 
 falls in rain. He makes the lightning to flash and the 
 thunder to roll. 
 
 While God is in the sky, among the stars, and clouds, 
 and storms, He is also present in every part of the 
 earth and of the deep sea. If we could go off a thou- 
 sand miles from the shore, and then go down, down, very 
 deep into the ocean, we should find that God is always 
 there. Millions of plants and animals, which we never 
 see or know, He is continually 'forming there; and He 
 watches and rules over every one of them, as they spend 
 their lives, clinging to the ragged rocks, or gliding 
 through the green waters. 
 
 Did you ever feel your pulse ? Do you know what 
 makes the pulse beat ? It is the throbbing of the blood 
 as it is driven along through a little channel, into your 
 hand. It is by means of this that your hand is kept 
 alive, and warm, and made to grow. Your blood beats 
 
126 A PRIMER OF ETHICS. 
 
 its way thus into every part of your body; and if it 
 should cease this motion, you would soon become cold 
 and stiff, and die. Now, who makes your pulse beat? 
 Do you do it ? Can you make it beat, or stop its beat- 
 ing ? No. It is God. His power is always present 
 with you and around you ; and He causes the pulse to 
 beat, all the time, wherever you are, and whatever you 
 are doing, whether you are awake or asleep, at home 
 or abroad, running or playing, or sitting still. How 
 strange that God should never for a moment forget, and 
 leave His work undone ! He is great and mighty, and 
 is always present and always acting everywhere. We 
 ought to adore Him for His greatness and majesty, love 
 Him for His goodness, dread His displeasure, and ask 
 His forgiveness and protection every day. 
 
 Every duty which we have to perform, is required of 
 us by God ; so that we cannot neglect any duty what- 
 ever, without disobeying Him ; which is, as it were, a 
 double sin. If a boy were to make his younger brother 
 drag him about upon his little wagon, when they were 
 at play, he would do wrong; he would be unjust and 
 oppressive to his little brother. If, moreover, his father 
 had expressly forbidden his doing so, then, in addition 
 to the sin against the child, he would be guilty of diso- 
 bedience to his father. Now, the law of God clearly 
 forbids all the sins of which we can be guilty against 
 any one ; so that we cannot do any wrong without diso- 
 beying Him. If a child is unjust to his playmate, he 
 disobeys and displeases God. If he attempts to deceive 
 his parents, he disobeys and displeases God. If he 
 wastes his time, or is insubordinate and troublesome at 
 school, he disobeys and displeases God. Every offence 
 
DUTY TO GOD. I2/ 
 
 which we can commit, small as well as great, is a trans- 
 gression of His law; and we cannot be really happy after 
 we have committed such transgressions, until we obtain 
 His forgiveness. We ought, therefore, to make it the 
 great duty and business of our lives to secure and enjoy, 
 at all times, the favor of Almighty God, our Father 
 in heaven. We should seek His pardon for our sins, go 
 to him always in our trouble, look to Him for protection 
 in danger, for strength in temptation, for comfort in sor- 
 row, and for peace and happiness in duty ; and we should 
 cultivate such constant habits of intercourse and com- 
 munion with Him, as shall help us, under all the circum- 
 stances of life, to feel that He is our refuge and strength, 
 and a very present help in time of trouble. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 What feeling should be awakened in our minds by the power and 
 majesty of God ? By His decision in punishing sin ? By His kind- 
 ness and mercy to us? 
 
 What is meant by being a spirit? 
 
 What takes place when a seed is put into the ground? 
 
 Does this prove that the power of God is present there ? 
 
 What is said of God's presence in the heavens? In the sea? 
 
 What causes the pulsations we feel in the wrist? 
 
 Do we keep up these pulsations by our own power? 
 
 What would be the consequence if they should cease ? 
 
 Are we, then, dependent upon God every moment? 
 
 What is meant by double criminality? 
 
 How is this illustrated by the case of the boy who should compel 
 his brother to drag him upon his little wagon? 
 
 Does the law of God include every duty? 
 
 Then, whenever we do wrong, or neglect any duty, do we not 
 disobey God ? 
 
 From what we know of God, what five things should we do? 
 
 Adore Him. Obey Him. Fear Him. Love Him. Praise Him. 
 
ELEMENTARY ENGLISH. 
 
 [Send for our Common School Catalogue.] 
 
 Stickney's Readers. 
 
 Introductory to Classics for Children. By J. H. STICKNEY, author ol 
 The Child's Book of Language, Letters and Lessons in Language, etc. 
 Introduction prices": First Reader, 24 cents ; Second Reader, 32 cents ; 
 Third Reader, 40 cents ; Fourth Reader, 50 cents ; exchange allowances 
 respectively : 5 cents, 8 cents, 10 cents, and 10 cents. 
 
 are distinctively reading-books. Their object is to help 
 " the pupil to a mastery of the rudiments of reading in the 
 easiest way and the shortest possible time, and to provide an ample 
 quantity of the reading-matter that will be best for practice, for 
 implanting a literary taste, and for personal culture. 
 
 Whitney's Essentials of English Grammar. 
 
 For the Use of High Schools, Academies, and the Upper Grades of 
 Grammar Schools. With a Supplement of Extracts for practice in 
 parsing. By Prof. W. D. WHITNEY, of Yale University. 12mo. Cloth. 
 287 pages. Mailing price, 85 cents; introduction, 75 cents; allowance 
 for old book, 25 cents. 
 
 is an English grammar of the English language, prepared 
 " by the best philologist in the country. It is clear, practical, 
 and complete. It proceeds from facts to principles, and from these 
 to classifications and definitions. Mechanical forms, unnecessary 
 classifications, and abstract definitions are avoided. 
 
 The exercises, selected from the best English writers, leave none 
 of the usual and regular forms of English structure untouched. 
 
 The facts of English grammar are presented in such a way as to 
 lay the best foundation for the further and higher study of lan- 
 guage in all its departments. 
 
 F. J. Child, Prof, of English, Har- 
 vard University : I do not know that 
 I ever before saw an English gram- 
 mar which I would permit my chil- 
 dren to look into, so great the chance 
 
 has been that they would learn noth- 
 ing or be taught something false. I 
 regarded Prof. Whitney's undertak- 
 ing and book as a service to human- 
 ity as well as to education. 
 
Z ELEMENTARY ENGLISH. 
 
 CLASSICS FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 (See first page of Contents for list.) 
 
 In forming the mind and taste of the young, is it not better to use authors who 
 have already lived long enough to afford some guaranty that they may survive 
 the next tioenty years f 
 
 " Children derive impulses of a wonderful and important kind from 
 hearing: things that they cannot entirely comprehend." SIK WALTER 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 TT is now seven or eight years since we began publishing the 
 
 Classics for Children, and the enterprise, which at first seemed a 
 novel one, may fairly be said to have passed the stage of experiment. 
 
 It has been the aim to present the best and most suitable litera- 
 ture in our language in as complete a form as possible ; and in 
 most cases but few omissions have been found necessary.. Whether 
 judged from the literary, the ethical, or the educational standpoint, 
 each of the books has attained the rank of a masterpiece. 
 
 The series places within reach of all schools an abundant supply 
 of supplementary reading-matter. This is its most obvious merit. 
 
 It is reading-matter, too, which, by the force of its own interest 
 and excellence, will do much, when fairly set in competition, to 
 displace the trashy and even harmful literature so widely current. 
 
 It is believed also that constant dwelling upon such models of sim- 
 ple, pure, idiomatic English is the easiest and on all accounts the 
 best way for children to acquire a mastery of their mother-tongue. 
 
 A large portion of the course has been devoted to history and biog- 
 raphy, as it has seemed specially desirable to supplement the brief, 
 unsatisfactory outlines of history with full and life-like readings. 
 
 The annotation has been done with modesty and reserve, the 
 editors having aimed to let the readers come into direct acquaint- 
 ance with the author. 
 
 The books are all printed on good paper, and are durably and 
 attractively bound in 12mo. A distinctive feature is the large, 
 clear type. Illustrations have been freely used when thought de- 
 sirable. The prices are as low as possible. It has been felt that 
 nothing would be gained by making the books a little cheaper at 
 the expense of crowding the page with fine type and issuing them 
 in a style that would neither attract nor last. 
 
 The best proof of the need of such a course is the universal 
 approbation with which it has been received. 
 
ELEMENTARY ENGLISH. O 
 
 CLASSICS FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 series now includes nearly forty volumes. Those suitable 
 only for primary and grammar school grades are named only 
 in the price-list at the beginning of this Catalogue. (For a fuller 
 description, see our Common School Catalogue.) The following 
 are designed for the higher grades. The first of the two prices is 
 the mailing price, the second is for introduction. 
 
 Scott's Lady of the Lake. 
 
 EDWIN GINN. 268 pa 
 50 cents. Canto I., 5 ce 
 
 Scoffs Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 MARGARET ANI 
 30 cents. Cloth 
 
 Scott's Talisman. 
 
 DWIGHT HOLBROOK, Principal of Morgan School, Clinton, Conn., with 
 an Introduction by Miss CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. xii + 454 pages. Boards: 
 60 and 50 cents. Cloth: 70 and 60 cents. 
 
 Scott's Quentin Durward. 
 
 EDWIN GINN. 268 pages. Boards: 40 and 35 cents. Cloth: 60 and 
 50 cents. Canto I., 5 cents. 
 
 MARGARET ANDREWS ALLEN. 150 pages, with map. Boards : 35 and 
 30 cents. Cloth : 45 and 40 cents. 
 
 CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 312 pages. Boards: 50 and 40 cents. Cloth: 
 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 Scott's Old Mortality. 
 
 D. H. MONTGOMERY. 510 pages. Boards : 70 and 60 cents. Cloth : 85 
 and 75 cents. 
 
 Scott's M arm ion. 
 
 D. H. MONTGOMERY : 307 pages. Boards: and cents. Cloth: 
 and cents. 
 
 Scott's Guy Mannering. 
 
 CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 525 pages. Boards: 70 and 60 cents. Cloth: 
 85 and 75 cents. 
 
 Scott's Ivanhoe. 
 
 CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 554 pages. Boards : 70 and 60 cents. Cloth : 
 85 and 75 cents. 
 
 Scott's Rob Roy. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 1 
 Cloth: 85 and 
 
 Stories of the Old World. 
 
 ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A., author of Stories from Homer, Livy, Virgil, 
 etc. 3o4 pa^es. Boards : 50 and 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. viii + 507 pages. Boards: 70 and 60 cents 
 Cloth : 85 and 75 cents. 
 
ALICE H. WHITE. 291 pages. Boards: and cents. Cloth: and 
 cents. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. Illustrated. 376 pages. Boards: 50 and 
 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 4 ELEMENTARY ENGLISH. 
 
 Plutarch's Lives. 
 
 From dough's Translation. Edited by EDWIN GINN, with Historical 
 Introductions by W. F. ALLEN, xvi + 333 pages. Illustrated. Boards : 
 50 and 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 Irving's Sketch Book. 
 
 HOMER B. SPRAGUE, Ph.D., and M. E. SCATES, formerly of the Girls' 
 High School, Boston. 126 pages. Boards: 30 and 25 cents. Cloth: 40 
 and 35 cents. 
 
 Irving^s A/hambra. 
 
 ALICE H. WHITE 
 
 cents. 
 
 The Arabian Nights. 
 
 EDWARD EVERET' 
 40 cents. Cloth : < 
 
 The Vicar of Wakefield. 
 
 238 pages. Boards: 35 and 30 cents. Cloth : 55 and 50 cents. 
 Hughes's Tom Brown at Rugby. 
 
 CLARA WEAVER ROBINSON, with a Sketch of the Author's Life by 
 D. H. MONTGOMERY, xiii + 387 pages. Boards : 60 and 50 cents. Cloth : 
 70 and 60 cents. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 His Autobiography and a continuation of his Life compiled chiefly from 
 his own writings. D. H. MONTGOMERY. Illustrated, viii + 311 pages. 
 Boards : 50 and 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 Swiffs Gulliver's Travels. 
 
 The Voyage to Lilliput and the Voyage to Brobdingnag. ix + 162 pages. 
 Boards : 35 and 30 cents. Cloth : 45 and 40 cents. 
 
 Johnson's Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. 
 
 viii + 157 pages. Boards : 35 and 30 cents. Cloth : 45 and 40 cents. 
 Selections from Ruskin. 
 
 EDWIN GINN, with Notes and a Sketch of Ruskin's Life by D. H. MONT- 
 GOMERY, xxv + 148 pages. Boards : 35 and 30 cents. Cloth : 45 and 
 40 cents. 
 
 The Two Great Retreats of History : 
 
 I. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand, taken from Grote's "History of 
 Greece " ; II. Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow, an abridgment of Count 
 Segur's narrative. D. H. MONTGOMERY, xv + 318 pages and two maps. 
 Boards : 50 and 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 50 cents. 
 
 Heroic Ballads, 
 
 With Poems of War and Patriotism. Edited with Notes by D. H. MONT- 
 GOMERY, vii + 319 pages. Boards : 50 and 40 cents. Cloth : 60 and 
 50 cents. 
 
ELEMENTARY ENGLISH. 
 
 THE SERIES OF CLASSICS FOR CHILDREN 
 
 TTAS been most cordially approved by the press and the critics, 
 and endorsed by teachers, superintendents, and school boards. 
 The books are in wide use (1) as regular readers, (2) as supple- 
 mentary readers, and (3) in school and home libraries. Out of 
 hundreds of testimonials we can present but a very few : 
 
 The Critic, New York: A capital 
 series. 
 
 Education, Boston: These books 
 are remarkably cheap, well printed, 
 well edited, and should have an ex- 
 tended use. 
 
 William H. Payne, Pres. of Pea- 
 body Normal College, Nashville, 
 Tenn. : I think too much cannot be 
 said in favor of this list of publica- 
 tions, destined, I believe, to create a 
 correct taste for reading, and to dis- 
 place much that is now working in- 
 jury to the mental and moral habits 
 of the young. 
 
 J. H. Vincent, Supt. of Instruction, 
 Chautauqua Assembly : I desire to 
 express my great satisfaction with 
 the taste, skill, and wisdom of the 
 work. I wish it abundant success. 
 
 Mellen Chamberlain, Librarian, 
 Boston Public. Library : These pub- 
 lications seem to me to be of great 
 value, whether regarded as home 
 reading or for use in public school. 
 
 H. 0. Wheeler, Supt. of Schools, 
 
 Burlington, Vt. : These books form 
 an admirable series for reading in 
 the home as well as in the school. 
 
 F. Louis Soldan, Prin. of Normal 
 School, St. Louis, Mo.: The idea un- 
 derlying these books is meritorious 
 in itself, and its execution admirable. 
 
 W. M. Crow, Supt. of Schools, Gal- 
 veston, Tex. : Permit me to say that I 
 regard your series of Classics for Chil- 
 dren as the best literature in the best 
 form that has ever been presented to 
 the young people of our country. 
 
 B. B. Snow, Supt. of Schools, Au- 
 burn, N. Y. : As to results, I venture 
 to say, from our experience, that no 
 one who undertakes the method [of 
 dispensing with regular " readers "] 
 will willingly abandon it. Our read- 
 ing exercise is the most interesting 
 exercise of the day. The pupils look 
 forward to it eagerly, the interest is 
 absorbing, and the exercise is reluc- 
 tantly discontinued. I may add that 
 the teachers are as much interested 
 as the pupils. 
 
 Open Sesame ! (See Common School Catalogue.) 
 
 About one thousand pieces of the choicest prose and verse, compiled by 
 Mrs. B. W. BELLAMY and Mrs. M. W. GOODWIN. Vol. I. for children 
 from four to ten years old ; Vol. II. for children from ten to fourteen 
 years old ; Vol. III. for pupils of fourteen years or over. Each is illus- 
 trated, handsomely bound in cloth, and contains about 350 pages. Price 
 of each to teachers, and for introduction, 75 cts. ; by mail, 90 cts. 
 
 E. A. Sheldon, Prin. State Normal 
 School, Osicego, N.Y.: It is very 
 good indeed. We think it the best 
 of all the collections. 
 
 F. B. Palmer, Prin. State Normal 
 School, Fredonia, N.Y.: I think it 
 
 by far the best collection of memory 
 pieces I have ever seen. 
 
 W. E. Buck, Supt. Public Schools, 
 Manchester, N.H.: It is a beauty, 
 and of all similar works I have seen, 
 it has the most desirable selections. 
 
HIGHER ENGLISH. 
 
 [See also Classics for Children, pages 2 to 5.] 
 
 Lessons in English. 
 
 Adapted to the Study of American Classics. A text-book for High 
 Schools and Academies. By SARA E. H. LOCKWOOD, Teacher of Eng- 
 lish in the High School, New Haven, Conn. 12mo. Cloth, xix + 403 
 pages. Mailing price, $1.25; for introduction, $1.12; allowance for an 
 old book in exchange, 35 cents. 
 
 Thanatopsis and Other Favorite Poems of Bryant. 
 
 Prepared especially to accompany Lockwood's Lessons in English. 
 12mo. Paper. 61 pages. Mailing price, 12 cents ; for introd., 10 cents. 
 
 rpHIS is, in a word, a practical High School text-book of English, 
 embracing language, composition, rhetoric, and literature. It 
 aims to present, in simple and attractive style, the essentials of 
 good English; and, at the same time, to develop a critical literary 
 taste, by applying these technical rules and principles to the study 
 of American Glassies. 
 
 The plan provides for a course in English extending over the 
 pupil's first year and a half in the High School, the work being 
 preparatory to the study of English Literature as usually pursued 
 in schools of this grade. These " Lessons " include the most im- 
 portant facts concerning the History and Elements of the Lan- 
 guage, Common Errors in the Use of English, the Study of Words, 
 Rules for the Construction of Sentences, Figures of Speech, Punc- 
 tuation, Letter -Writing, Composition, and Biographical Sketches 
 of the seven authors particularly studied, Irving, Bryant, Long- 
 fellow, Whittier, Hawthorne, Holmes, and Lowell. 
 
 No other text-book on English includes so much. It is at once 
 a text-book of rhetoric, a hand-book of composition, and an in- 
 troduction to American Literature. A valuable addition to the 
 book will be found in the lists of references given at the close 
 of most of the chapters and after each biographical sketch. These 
 are intended to aid teachers in their preparation of the lessons, 
 and to furnish pupils with additional sources of information. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 
 i& CJT^ ^ 
 
 -j "7 i7A 
 
 1 - ' ~* 
 
 
 c-3 78 
 
 ^ v2 
 
 
 ' ^'630 ft* 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 rrn 9 A Wfil 
 
 MAYl ^ 1971 
 
 ZH 
 
 rfc,p 6 4 '3 J 
 
 MAY 1 ' 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 nf SPRING 
 
 subject to recall attdr 
 
 -a^fi * 
 
 
 LD 21A-50m-3,'62 
 (C7097s30)476B 
 
 JUN 1 9 1973- 
 
 General Kl 
 
 vjrencrai julbrary 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 IOAN AHC 
 
 I M> v 
 
VB 0543 
 
 ou 
 
 , . : 
 
 'fr 
 
 I*.