Wisdom Gems from Walter L. Sheldon

⏩ September 27  ⏪

Morning. There is no condition of life that excludes a wise man from discharging his duty. —Seneca.

Evening. We cannot now prevent this moment from forming an epoch in our lives; but it depends on us to bear ourselves in a manner which shall be worthy of us.— Goethe.

 ________________

Walter L. Sheldon, Founder and Leader of the St. Louis Society, was a prolific writer and collector of wise words.  In Series Eleven of Ethical Addresses, a substantial portion of the issue (pp. 35 -108) is devoted to his collection:  "A Morning and Evening Wisdom Gem for Every Day of the Year."  Each of these Wisdom Gems are drawn from the writings of Classical and contemporary authors as well as "the Chinese sages."  True to the title, there is a morning and an evening "wisdom gem" for each day of the year.  The selection for September 27 is shown above.  

The list of authors for January is comparatively short, with quotations drawn from:

• T. H. Huxley
• Marcus Aurelius
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thomas a Kempis
• Goethe
• (Henri Frederic) Amiel's Journal
• Ecclesiasticus
• Plato
• Epictetus
• Shakespeare 
• The Book of Proverbs

Later months will show the same authors with a sprinkling of quotations from John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, Baruch Spinoza, Seneca, the Chinese Sages, and one entry from Socrates.

Much like daily Bible readings or fortune cookies, these sententiae are presented without commentary. Nor is there any attempt to reconcile the quotations to Ethical Culture.  The reader must find the meaning(s) in his own heart.  Several of the authors had already been the subject of platforms from various leaders (reflected in the content of past volumes in this serial), and, one assumes, members of the various Societies might also be familiar with the authors through their own reading.

"Wisdom Gems" is the first, but not the last, instance of the inclusion of a collection of resource materials in Ethical Addresses.  

Series Eleven - Ethical Addresses

 

Series 11 - Contents

Series 11 of Ethical Addresses has fewer entries than some volumes, gives half of the titles to Felix Adler, adds a new voice (Martin G. Brumbaugh), but features a lengthy section on "wisdom gems" for meditation and inspiration (to be considered in a separate post).  Yet again we see attention to the nature of religion (and Ethical Culture), marriage, youth education, the inspiration and influence to be drawn from literature, and "the Negro Problem."

In this issue, Adler takes up the social issues of race and community.  His inspiration for addressing "the Negro Problem" comes from W. E. B. Du Bois' recently published book:  The Souls of Black Folk.  The address points to Du Bois' repeated assertion that "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line. . . ."  Adler breaks down this problem of the color-line into three areas

• It is a national problem.  
• It is a problem for democracy.  
• It is a spiritual problem.  

In looking for solutions, Adler is nonetheless quick to share the blame for failures and problems, saying that we all (North and South) are responsible for both the causes and the remedies for the challenges of these issues.  His ultimate call is for patience "until the time will come at last, slowly and gradually, but surely, when man in truth will call his fellow 'brother ;' . . ." (p. 143).

As a point of interest, Adler's lecture on "the Negro Problem" seems not to be a response to Salter's lecture as published in Series Ten.  Salter's lecture preceded the publication of Du Bois' book by about three weeks.  Salter seems to have been moved to speak on the issue of racism by the expansion of Jim Crow laws in the South and the actions of labor unions in the North to exclude Black men from their ranks (and benefits).  Adler also asserted that the New South and the rising middle class in that region was increasing economic competition with the Black people who remained in that area, resulting in further oppression and exclusion.  Without specifying the role of labor unions in exacerbating social divisions, he still hinted at economic motivations for neglecting attention to social justice.  

As a point of bibliographic concern, the first page of Adler's address on race is duplicated in this printing, giving the volume two copies of pp. 122 and 125.  Pages 123 and 124 are missing.  Whether there is text from the preceding essay--"The Need and Scope of  Moral Training in the Young" (pp. 110-122)--cannot here (or yet) be determined.

Now that I've learned to copy and post the table of contents for these issues of Ethical Addresses, I should try to go back to previous posts and the information for each volume.  I should, but it is tedious keyboard work, so it might take a while for me to work up enough enthusiasm to do so.  I shall, eventually.

Ethical Addresses - Tenth Series

 

Series Ten:  Contents

The Tenth Series of Ethical Addresses, published in 1903, presents 10 lectures and writings from Felix Adler, William M. Salter, Walter L. Sheldon, David Saville Muzzey, and Percival Chubb.  Their contributions continue to focus on religious concepts and the Ethical and moral reflections in literature,  social issues, and the care and education of children.

My attention was drawn to Adler's first contribution to the volume:  "Ethics and Culture" (pp. 1-16).  The "Culture" in Ethical Culture is a puzzling term in this century.  My interest was caught by this title along with the hope that clarification would be forthcoming, and, to some extent, it was.

The address was originally given at the Harvard Philosophical Club fifteen years prior (January 9, 1888) to this (re)publication.  Adler begins by noting that Ethics, as a concept is well defined in the literature, but Culture is less so.  He offers the common notion of Culture as a baseline:  "The marks of culture as commonly understood are three: literary taste, aesthetic sensibility, and fine manners" (p. 1). Then he dismisses that notion and several others before asserting that the notion of culture is an ethical notion, that is ". . . the laws by which we fashion this human world are called the ethical laws" (p. 8), and, a bit later, ". . . we must be strong enough to judge for ourselves what is right and live according to the leadings of our own reason" (p. 10).  Seeking to be cultured, Adler says we must work on our inner moral life without expecting perfection or indeed that we have all the information needed to guide us.  Instead, we are to act and, in the process, learn what the practical actions we pursue have to teach us--both when we are successful and when we fail.  Without Adler explicitly saying so, the implied meaning of culture does include the work of developing our inner selves with the aim of improving our own moral character, doing so, however, in community and through action.

"Ethics and Culture" was first published April 1888, according to M. G. Singer ("The History of Ethics," Ethics, 98, no. 3 [April 1988]), who determined that the lecture was the first article in the first issue of the Ethical Record, which was the predecessor of the International Journal of Ethics, which was the predecessor of Ethics.  I would need better access to an academic library to be able to retrace that path, but I hope to see relevant archives for the Ethical Record when next I am in New  York.  

Also of interest regarding this address is that it was given at the Harvard Philosophical Club at a time when W. E. B. Du Bois was a student at Harvard and a member of the Club (Du Bois, W. E. B. “A Negro Student at Harvard at the End of the 19th Century.” The Massachusetts Review 1, no. 3 (1960): 439–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25086526).  Whether Du Bois attended this particular address or whether this address provided an initial link between the two men is an open question, but it does suggest potential pathways for their connection.  It also makes a later lecture in this same volume more troublesome even than it first seemed.

I always cringe when I see something written in earlier years that refers to "the Negro Problem."  Whatever I find always seems to imply that the "problem" is more the fault of Black folks for choosing to wear the wrong skin than it is the fault of non-Black folks for constructing a false division among humans because of skin color.  Perhaps I oversimplify, but I did cringe to see Salter's lecture--"The Negro Problem:  Is the Nation Going Backward?" (pp. 163-180) in the table of contents.  The question of the title would lead one to think that there will be less patronizing and, well, racist perspective here than the initial words suggest.  Salter does make an effort to assert the brotherhood of all humans, but he also immediately lapses into hierarchical thinking:  "Yes, there are advanced races, and there are backward races; there are civilized races and there are savage races ; there are white races and yellow races and brown races and black races ; but all alike are men — all alike belong to the greater brotherhood of the human race" (p. 164).  The lecture is in line with Ethical thinking regarding intrinsic human worth and includes some soaring passages expressing our shared commitment to that worth in every human being.  Even so, it is set very firmly in its time of writing and is freely larded with bias and stereotype and diminution of the very people it seeks to uphold as equal.  Again, it is not my purpose here to judge the values of the past by the values (and knowledge) of the present, so I must leave it others to place this lecture in its proper context for Ethical Culture. 

On a more bibliographic note, the promotional pages included in this volume led me to two more volumes of Ethical resources:

• Walter L. Sheldon, The Old Testament Bible Stories, as a Basis for the Ethical Instruction of the Young (1902).  Available online for free download from Archive.org.
• Stanton Coit (ed), The Message of Man:  A Book of Ethical Scriptures (1902).  Also available for free download from Archive. org.  

There were also promotions for Ethical Record and the International Journal of Ethics, both of which deserve more and separate attention.

Ethical Addresses - Ninth Series

A Silence Not Empty

The ninth volume of Ethical Addresses, published in 1902, includes 10 lectures by four leaders.  Felix Adler, Walter L. Sheldon, and William M. Salter each contributed 3 lectures, and a new leader, David Saville Muzzey, provided a single lecture.  

Intending to skim Salter's first lecture ("'Thy Commandment Is Exceeding Broad;' or, The Scope of Morality," pp. 1 -15), I encountered a sentence that made no sense.  It took a few minutes to see that two lines of type had been reversed in the printing of page 5.  This section of the lecture is referring to "'good, moral,' people." As printed, it reads:  

They are satisfied 
never be. They may die as they lived, simply respectable
 — and their satisfaction may be broken up and it may 
members of society.

 A few moments of study revealed the error.  The lines should be written as:  "They are satisfied--and their satisfaction may be broken up and it may never be.  They may die as they lived, simply respectable members of society." 

Having gained the meaning of that sentence, I was curious to continue reading the lecture, to see more of the direction that Salter was marking from his initial exegesis of Psalms 119:96.  His trail, if I may call it that, passed by those "good, moral people" who live blameless lives as respectable members of society but fail to pay attention to improving the virtue of their private selves; moving on to those who focus on their private morality and, in some cases, future hope of reward but fail to apply themselves to making this world a better place; and finally noting that those who focus on social justice and change may fail to address their personal lives in ways to bring themselves in line with the better world that they seek to shape.  In passing by these people, Salter praised them all for the good that they practiced, whether publicly or privately, but he challenged their narrow point of view.  He interpreted the message of the psalmist to suggest that there is no one best way to be moral because our world, our universe, is so broad and endless.  Salter seemed to be suggesting that that vastness is our mandate to take a broader approach to morality and engage in both personal and public spheres to develop excellence and justice in all ways.

The tension which Salter reveals between our public and private selves and between our desire for self-development and community action is still present today in Ethical Culture.  Active discussions in the AEU, 121 years after Salter's lecture was published, include ongoing debates concerning whether our focus should be on social justice or on changing our attitudes and understandings instead.  Salter's everything, everywhere (but maybe not all at once) approach would fit right in.

Other lectures in this series focus on marriage, children, religious teachers and systems of belief.  David Saville Muzzey makes his debut with "The Ethics of the New Testament" (pp. 149-170).  Adler raises two ethical questions in regard to the Philippine War (p.171):

1. Is it treason to condemn a war waged by our country while the war is still in progress?

2. Are civilized nations justified in adopting uncivilized methods of warfare?

One other lecture--Adler's "The Moral Value of Silence" (pp. 77-92) also caught my attention as I was considering what graphic could be used to highlight this volume of lectures.  As I focused on "silence," I read this passage at the conclusion of Adler's talk:

Out of the silence have we come, and into the silence shall we pass. A silence not empty, but, like the star-sown canopy of night, replete with light, and power, and law. Vainly, as I think, do men seek to frame the meaning of the Universe into a word. Let us desist from such useless efforts. Let us deepen in ourselves the sense of the infinitude and the majesty of it all, and revere the radiant mystery in a silence like its own!

It took less than a moment to grasp how refreshing it would be to sit for a while with that "silence not empty." 

Nonetheless, here is a final note for the Ninth Series, which inaugurates the practice of promoting other publications by Ethical Culture leaders and a directory of the existing Ethical Culture Societies.  Happily the listed publications are also available online through various sources and will be added to the Bibliography.

• The Moral Instruction of Children By Felix Adler.
• Creed and Deed By Felix Adler. 
• Ethical Religion By W. M. Salter. 
• Anarchy or Government By William M. Salter. 
• An Ethical Movement By Walter L. Sheldon. 
• An Ethical Sunday -School A Scheme of Moral Instruction for the Young. By Walter L. Sheldon. 

Ethical Addresses - Eighth Series

Thomas and Julian Huxley, 1892

Series Eight of Ethical Addresses has now been added to the Bibliography for Ethical Culture.  Up to now, this blog has been playing "catch up" with the bibliographic entries made more than a year ago.  Now we are making progress again.  

Issued in 1901 (the same year as Series Seven), this issue includes fewer addresses than seems usual and more new platform speakers than usual.  While the implied message is that there was change or turmoil or other issues happening in the background around that time, what is before us in this issue is an intense focus on concepts related to Religion in general (albeit with a comparative perspective) along with some acknowledgement (pro-forma?) of the turn of the century but not-so-much about Ethical Culture per se.

New authors in this issue include:

• Edwin D. Mead - Mead was co-founder and editor of New England Magazine, a literary magazine published from 1884 to 1917.  He served as president of the Free Religion Association, which would have given him a connection to Felix Adler, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others who appear in these volumes.  Mead, along with his wife, Lucia Ames Mead, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913.
• Wu Ting-Fang - Wu was the Chinese Minister to the US, Spain, and Peru (1896 - 1902).  He lectured widely about Chinese culture and history in an effort to counter discrimination against Chinese immigrants.
• Frederic Harrison - Harrison helped found the London Positivist Committee, which was an atheistic philosophical society following the ideas of Auguste Comte.  A lawyer, Harrison was politically active and wrote extensively about positivism and Comte.
• Langdon C. Stewardson - Stewardson was a challenge to track down.  Indeed, his politically and socially active wife was more immediately searchable via Google.  However, Stewardson did eventually emerge in the more obscure sites of academic journals and web archives.  He served (1898) as Chaplain of Lehigh University.  In 1901, he was President of Hobart College (then an institution reserved for young men only) and a contributor to the International Journal of Ethics.  (Adler served on the editorial board of the IJE for many years.)

One lecture in this volume that I found to be of particular interest is Adler's "Huxley's Attitude Toward Religion" (pp. 99-122).  I have to confess that I have read from the works of the brothers, Aldous Huxley and Julian Huxley.  I had not, until reading Adler's platform, known of their grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley (also known as "Darwin's Bulldog").  While Adler strains at (this) Huxley's newly coined term--agnosticism--I found Huxley's reasoning more congenial to my own thinking, being less encumbered by the idealism that was still the center of Adler's conceptualization of the world.  Having been alerted to (this) Huxley, I have found his style of writing, as did Adler, very much to my taste, and his thinking even more so--since Huxley wrote to be accessible to the lay reader.  

Adler refers specifically to Huxley's letters to Kingsley and his Romanes lecture, both available for download from the Internet Archive.