Ethical Addresses - Seventh Series

The Seventh Series of Ethical Addresses, published in 1901, included lectures from Felix Adler (1), William M. Salter (3), Walter L. Sheldon (4), and Percival Chubb (2). The lectures range from philosophy (Marcus Aurelius to socialism) to literature (Ruskin to Kipling) to practical matters related to self-culture clubs in St. Louis with a special bonus review of the Nineteenth Century as the Twentieth Century begins. 

Walter L. Sheldon's two-part "sketch" of the history of the Wage-Earners' Self-Culture Clubs of St. Louis (pp. 39-78) is a noteworthy contribution both to the history and the philosophy of Ethical Culture. The idea of self-culture--personal development--is central to the Movement founded by Felix Adler.  The self-culture clubs of St. Louis reflected motives similar to those that inspired the settlement work in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere.  Sheldon is careful to explain how St. Louis differed from those areas and how it is less suited to the solutions offered through settlement houses.  Instead he details the genesis and inspiration of the self-culture clubs, emphasizing that the goal for the clubs was personal development without any religious proselytization and without the element of training for economic advancement.  The clubs depended on hundreds of volunteers and became well respected in the larger community of St. Louis.  Sheldon adds the practical reasons for legally incorporating the clubs as entities separate from ECSSL, matters of governance and funding, and detailed examples of programming.  Readers today may find interest both in the historical record that Sheldon presents and a model that can be applied--with a few updates--to current needs for community engagement in other cities that are home to Ethical Culture Societies.

Although the St. Louis clubs began with programs for men, they did eventually include programming for women and youth.  Sheldon admits that the racial history of St. Louis, a city located at a point of strategic value in the US Civil War and divided in its loyalties throughout the war, added difficulties in providing similar clubs for "the large colored element of St. Louis."  He does, however, note that doing so would be "the next step, probably," indicating awareness of need and a desire to serve the whole community of "wage-earners" in St. Louis.

Another notable lecture from Sheldon was delivered on "the last Sunday of the Nineteenth Century," presumably also in St. Louis.  His "A Survey of the Nineteenth Century" is an eye-opening review of the accomplishments of a century that Sheldon nonetheless asserts was not a creative age.  Instead, he argued that the 19C was a period of reaping the seeds that were sewn in previous centuries in science, philosophy, etc.  (Hence the self-rake reaper shown above.)  This reaping included the expansion and development of democracy, scholarship that established the Bible as literature, application of the principles of evolution, development of the novel, and on to the applied arts that led to so many inventions.  Sheldon likened the product of earlier centuries to great thinkers with great ideas, but the 19C proved more powerful by the spread of those ideas to the many.  His analogy with the growth of a coral island made that notion of the strength of multitudes even more vivid.  Sheldon's conclusion about the 19C, however, sounds an alarm:

The first effect of the mighty achievements of the nineteenth century has been to set up such a worship of the body-side of life, such a care for physical comfort, for the good things of life, as they are called, for the surface-side, for external pleasures, the play-side of life, that the spirit of man or in man has been in a process of decay. In a sense, this has been the most unspiritual age for the last two thousand years.  

Sheldon ends his survey with hope but also a clear call for more attention and care for the "spirit-side" of life.   

Ethical Addresses -- Sixth Series Continued

 

Enid Stacy (Widdrington)

The non-Adler articles included in the Sixth Series of Ethical Addresses (1900) were written by Leaders of the Western Societies in Chicago and St. Louis, with the exception of a new voice from England:  Enid Stacy Widdrington.

William M. Salter, founder of the Chicago Society,  provides a platform delivered to multiple Societies in existence at that time (St. Louis, Chicago, and Philadelphia):  "The First Thing in Life," pp. 1-16.  He also provided a set on two "opposing" analyses of Walt Whitman:  "The Great Side of Walt Whitman" (pp. 121-144) and "The Questionable Side of Walt Whitman" (pp. 145-166) as well as lecture on "The New Militarism" (pp. 85-104).  The latter lamented the rising pressure from religious and economic leaders to the arm the US in anticipation of greater involvement in expansionist actions.

Walter L. Sheldon, founder of the St Louis Society, contributed a two-part summary of a series of eight lectures originally titled "The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher Criticism" as well as a single platform--"Why Prosperity Does Not Always Bring Happiness" (pp. 167-186).  NB:  As gloomy as the latter may sound, Sheldon's recommendation is to be more temperate in one's expectations.  "Money can buy a certain degree of happiness," Sheldon says, "But money cannot guarantee happiness."

The new voice that Enid Stacy (Widdrington) provides for Ethical Addresses is the experienced voice of a British activist and lecturer.  She provides an interesting history of the issues arising from the strategic importance of the southern tip of Africa to colonial commercial and military ventures.  Widdrington's clear and detailed recital of the history of settlement and government in southern Africa point, at the time of a rebellious war in that area, to the role of the British government in making peace impossible.  Her lecture on "The Moral Issues of the Transvaal Question" leads ultimately to an expression of hope for a British victory, but one which is worthy of the higher values of her countrymen:  

The only kind of British supremacy I care for is that my country may lead the world, not in territorial expansion, military strength or commercial greatness, but in the purity and honor of its government, the happiness of its citizens, the high character and ennobling influence of its civilization. If with these qualities, and by means of them, comes imperial expansion, well and good. It will mean that countries are attracted to our flag by respect for our laws and desire for our protection. If we degrade the higher and nobler elements in our civilization by love of power, greed for gold and the desire to outstrip trade rivals, such supremacy is not worth fighting for.

The lecture was given on November 12, 1899, at the Philadelphia Society, two months into the Second Boer War, which did not end until May 31, 1902.

Adler Lectures in Series Six

Helen Goldmark Adler

The Sixth Series of Ethical Addresses (1900) includes two platforms by Felix Adler.  The first, "The Spiritual Meaning of Marriage" (pp. 17-36), was originally presented on January 26, 1896, at Carnegie Hall.  As was usual at the time, the New York Times reported the gist of the speech, a lovely paean to the mutual support offered, one to another, by husband and wife, as they live in an Ethical marriage:

Man says to woman, 'Be thou my judge.'  Woman says to man, 'Do thou, by the influence of thy mind and nature upon mine, aid me to ever broader and wiser standards.'

My role here is not to be critical of progressive 19th century standards in the 21st century, but to look at the bibliographic history associated with this text.  In that role, I note that a typescript of this platform exists in the NYSEC-AEU archives and differs slightly from the published text.  I leave it to other scholars to consider the differences as reported and published.

The second Adler lecture, "The Teachings of Jesus in the Modern World" (pp. 105-120), was presented on Easter, April 2, 1899.  This platform fares better in the 21st century as it points to four areas in which the "Modern World" of 1899 also appreciated the teachings of Jesus:  

1. Do not do evil to do good:  " . . . [I]t is wrong in principle and disappointing, so far as the result goes, to fight the devil with fire; to try to defeat the evildoer by using his own weapons; meeting fraud with fraud and violence with violence" (pp. 111-112).
2. All humans have worth:  " . . . [I]n contrast to arguments drawn from so-called Darwinism and aristocratic pride, we shall not forget the moral equality that underlies the diversity of gifts and talents" (p. 116).
3. Love one another:  ". . . [T]he higher and better kind of love, the spiritual love, it is in our power to create in ourselves and ever again to recreate. The desire to help to uplift the other is the indestructible safeguard of that love" (p. 119).
4. In hope is our renewal:  "This is, in effect, what he says: that in the nobler inspirations of man there never is occasion to despair; that in things of the spirit there is no such word as fail; that, however low a human being may sink, it is always within his ability to rise again. There is this invincible power of renewal, of being born again, of beginning at any moment the new and the better life" (p. 120.).

Interestingly, I can find no evidence that the New York Times reported on this platform despite ample coverage of Christian services on the same day.

Ethical Addresses - Series Five

 Series Five (published 1899) was added to the Bibliography more than a year ago, but I had to set further work on the project aside while I undertook other duties on behalf of the American Ethical Union.  I am grateful, at last, to return to this much loved project and my hope to compile a Bibliography fit to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Ethical Culture on May 15, 2026.

The fifth volume of Ethical Addresses adds one new writer to the table of contents (Percival Chubb) and includes several lengthy studies that extend for two or three articles.  These include Adler's work on the discipline of children, Salter on the value of the Bible, and Sheldon on the plan of the Sunday School.  Individual contributions come from Adler ("The Ethical Culture Society as the Meeting Ground of Jew and Gentile"), Salter ("A New Nation and a New Duty"), as well as Chubb ("The Conservative and Liberal Aspects of Ethical Religion").

Chubb was a founding member of the Fabian Society in London and soon after a member of the Ethical Society there.  When he immigrated to the US, he eventually became an associate Leader for the New York Society for Ethical Culture (1897 - 1910) and then senior Leader for the Ethical Culture Society of St. Louis (1911 - 1932).  After his retirement, he served as President of the American Ethical Union from 1934 to 1939.  

Looking for a copyright-free picture of Chubb, I did run across this blog post about his early efforts to reform the "comic supplement," about which, he opined, there is "no single influence that is poisoning America at the fountain sources more than the so-called comic supplement.” [“The ‘Comic’ Nuisance,” The Outlook, March 6, 1909, pp. 527-529.  Authorship is not attributed in the journal itself, so it is yet to be confirmed.]

Adler's work, The Punishment of Children, was published by Abingdon Press (New York, 1920) as one volume.  It is available as a reprint from multiple publishers through Amazon.  Scanned copies are available for free download from Project Gutenberg as well as from Google Books.