Hunting the Snark in the NYSEC Archives, Part I

The Birth of Carnegie Hall

I am honored to have received the 2024 Mossler Grant from the New York Society for Ethical Culture to work on a project related to a corpus of lectures to NYSEC delivered between 1893 and 1910 at Carnegie Hall.  It is called, appropriately, The Carnegie Hall Project (and abbreviated as CH in much of my notes).  I started the project when the late Lawn'ence Miller granted me access to the digital scans of some of the CH lectures and wanted to know (and find) more.  As work progresses on converting those scanned lectures into more readable--and editable--formats, I have been searching for the hard copies of those lectures as well as the others that I am hoping also exist in the archives.

I sincerely hope that I am not hunting for a snark, or worse, a boojum.  In the meantime, I've found a fair number of clues to where we should be hunting and some fascinating information about what we are looking for.  

The most concrete resource is the digital file folder of CH lectures that L (as we called him) gave me.  I have already referred to that corpus is earlier posts, so I will try not to repeat myself, but there has been some progress in at least defining the scope of the project.

• Two typewritten lists of lectures to NYSEC have been discovered in the archives and the Adler Study.  I have compared the archive "record" to the AS "ledger" for the period between 1893 (when NYSEC began meeting at CH) and 1910 (when the Meeting House was completed).  
• The "record," with corrections and additions from the "ledger," has now been entered into a spreadsheet, recording date of delivery, title, speaker, and any other information available at this time about the venue, the text, or the speaker.  There is, of course, very little additional information at the moment, but I hope that will change in the coming days as I review other online sources.
• There were seventeen seasons of lectures given at Carnegie Hall.  All of the seasons began around the third Sunday in October (except the 1894-95 season, which began on the first Sunday of November).  Most of the seasons ended around the second Sunday in May with an anniversary address, almost always given by Felix Adler.
• The number of addresses given during a season ranged from 28 to 31, with most having 30 addresses.  Occasionally a late steamer or illness would cause a change in plans for addresses, and a substitution would be listed, but one or two lectures may have been cancelled--or records lost.  The total number of addresses appears to be either 505 or 507.  Until further records--or the lectures themselves--are recovered, the actual total is inexact.
• Adler himself delivered about 60 percent of the lectures (296).  A significant portion of the remainder were given by other leaders of the Movement, including John Lovejoy Elliott (33), Alfred W. Martin (21), Stanton Coit (17), William M. Salter (8), Walter L. Sheldon (10), David S. Muzzey (4), M. M. Mangasarian (30), Leslie Willis Sprague (16), Percival Chubb (9)--and Anna Garlin Spencer (9).  (These numbers do not reflect 5 meetings with untitled presentations from one or more of these leaders speaking with a group of presenters.)
• About 10 percent of the addresses at CH were delivered by guest speakers, including several notables (e.g., Gifford Pinchot) and academics (Nathaniel Schmidt, Edward Howard Griggs, and Charles Zueblin).  Only four women took the platform alone:  Enid Stacy Widdrington, Ethel M. Arnold, Caroline Bartlett-Crane, and Anna Garlin Spencer.  Several platforms were devoted to race-related issues.  Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois spoke as individual lecturers, but there were more than one panel of presenters on this recurring topic.
• As for topics, the CH lectures ran the gamut from Ethics to politics and elections (and the ethics thereof), from contemporary literature to the sacred texts of ancient days, from the travails of poverty to the discomfort of the wealthy.  Given the times, race relations, women's issues, and labor reforms were frequent topics.  

Now that we know more about the corpus of this "collection," we have to find the collection.  There are some hints.  In the process of tracking down those hints, I am also finding out more about Carnegie Hall, cf. the video link above.

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record: Final Series

I CAN'T FIND A PICTURE OF

FLORENCE KIPER

BUT

I WANTED TO

The final series--the twenty-first--of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record was published in 1914.  The American Ethical Union immediately launched a new serial publication--The Standard.  The AEU also announced that it would no longer publish the International Journal of Ethics, a more scholarly publication that began as the Ethical Record and continues today as Ethics.

The addresses included in this final issue represent a wide range of focus.  The first is "Must We Believe in Immortality?" by Henry Neumann (pp. 1 -19), summed up in the sentence:  "While life remains, live nobly."  In a similar philosophic vein, David Saville Muzzey questions "Have We Religious Duties?" (pp. 67-79).  Shifting to current events and practical issues, Felix Adler talked about "False Ethics in Social Reform Movements" (pp. 45-56).  In this he focused on good intentions that have a bad outcome, e.g., when violence is used to gain justice. Horace J. Bridges focused on "The Victorious Death of Captain Scott," (pp. 91-106) referring to the death of Robert Falcon Scott on (or about) March 29, 1912 as he returned from the South Pole.  Bridges' message speaks to us today:

May we so live that at the last — in utter desolation, if so it must be — both we and those who look to us for example and strength, shall be able to find nothing for regret in our journey through the wilderness of this world. (p.106)

John Lovejoy Elliot and Florence Kiper focus on what I believe we can call "equity," or, just as easily, "women's rights."  Elliott speaks of working women and their (inadequate) wages.  Florence Kiper's essay was reprinted from The Forum.  While the title is "The Jewish Problem in America," her argument for an end to discrimination against Jews is presented with careful parallels with discrimination against women.  NOTE:  Florence Kiper [Frank], poet and playwright, does not have a Wikipedia page, but her husband, Jerome Frank, does.  (Just saying.)

There are still some "loose ends" to tie up regarding this serial; later posts will do that, I hope.  Then comes the question of "What next for the Bibliography?"  An obvious step would be to begin documenting the two serials that bracket EA&ER, that is, the short-lived Ethical Record or the somewhat longer-lived The Standard.  However, there is some urgency in documenting our living thinkers and writers while we can still discuss their work with them.  As well, there is the matter of hundreds of archive boxes waiting for documentation at NYSEC and AEU.  

The current focus on EA&ER had a beginning and an end in the space of 21 volumes.  A similarly finite project relates to the so-called "Carnegie Lectures."  These are the addresses delivered at Carnegie Hall during the 1895 and 1896 seasons at NYSEC.  A handful of them have already been published in EA&ER and possibly elsewhere.  How to make the others both readable and accessible to more readers in a significant part of that project.  

The next few weeks will tell us more about "more hands and more eyes" as well as funding/institutional support for the ongoing work.  

For now:  Happy New Year (almost)!

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record - Twentieth Series (1913)

 

Sheldon Memorial Hall, dedicated in 1912

The Twentieth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record was published in 1913.  The issue provides extended focus on the dedication of the Sheldon Memorial in St. Louis and for the Moral Education Conference held in The Hague.  In addition, the volume shows the transition to a new generation of leaders for the Movement.

Felix Adler's "Ethical Development Extending Through Life" (pp. 1-19), two posthumous addresses from Walter L. Sheldon ("Hawthorne's 'Scarlet Letter'" (pp. 51-74) and "The Spirit of Human Fellowship" (pp. 191-199), and a brief note from Stanton Coit ("The Ethical Movement Explained" [pp. 233-235]) represent the first group of leaders.  In the second "wave" of leaders we see:

• Horace J. Bridges - Chicago (1913-1945)
• "From Custom to Conscience:  The Trend of Twentieth Century Religion" (pp. 90-106);
• "Mary Antin's 'Promised Land'" (pp. 127-147);
• Percival Chubb - New York, Associate (1897-1910) and St. Louis (1911-1932);
• "Religion and Social Reform" (pp. 201-218);
• Alfred W. Martin - New  York, Associate (1907-1932)
• "The Ethical Message of Robert Browning" (pp. 75-89);
• "Distinctive Characteristics of the Ethical Movement" (pp. 149-175);
• David Saville Muzzey - New  York, Associate (     );
• "Discipleship" (pp. 219-232);
• Henry Neumann - Brooklyn (1911-1961)
• "Our Ultimate Obligation, or What Gives the Moral Law Its Authority" (pp. 177-190).

Algernon D. Crapsey, a former Episcopal minister who became a frequent visitor and lecturer for Ethical Culture, spoke to the Philadelphia Society about "Commercialized Vice in Cities" (pp, 107-126).  

The copy of this volume archived online by the Internet Library includes some lists of publications by the AEU or by Society leaders.  I have confirmed that all of the items listed are in documented in the Bibliography except for two books by Walter L. Sheldon.  These books are:  Class Readings in the Bible and The Life of Jesus for the Young.  The St. Louis Society may have more information for us.  In the meantime, the search for these books online was productive in other ways.  Class Readings was reviewed in The American Journal of Philology.  Continued searching showed Sheldon also published two editions of The Story of the Bible, From the Standpoint of Modern Scholarship.  Originally published in 1899, his wife called on Morris Jastrow, Jr., and James A. Montgomery to assist with revisions and updates, which Nathaniel Schmidt discussed in his review of the second edition in the International Journal of Ethics.  As time permits, I hope to seek out more reviews of the works of Ethical writers for the perspective they provide on the context in which these writings were being considered.

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record - Sixteenth Series

 

Alfred R. Wolff was an early proponent of wind energy

The Sixteenth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record was published in 1909.  It is marked by the republication of a couple of important addresses, a memorial service, summaries more and less brief of national and international meetings, statements from four major Societies about their aims and ideals (St. Louis, Chicago, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia), as well as a number recent platforms presented at various Ethical Culture Societies in the 1908-1909 season.

The image above is a tribute to Alfred R. Wolff, heating and cooling engineer, who was an advocate of wind energy (The Windmill as Prime Mover) and a friend of Ethical Culture.  His death in 1909 was commemorated with Memorial Addresses from Percival Chubb and John Lovejoy Elliott, both published in this volume along (pp. 178 - 187) with a telegraphed message from Felix Adler, then out of the country.

Anna Garlin Spencer provides a fulsome description of the first Summer School of Ethics, held in June and July, 1908, at and in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin in Madison (pp. 52 - 60).  Her description is supplemented with a complete program listing (pp. 255 -259).  There are online references to another Summer School held in 1910, but more searching is needed to see how this program fared over time.  A longer but anonymous report on the first International Congress on Moral Education (held September 25-29, 1909) is also provided (pp. 77-92).  Six such congresses were held in Europe between 1908 and 1934.  

An unsigned statement asserts that "The Right of Political Asylum [is] Threatened" (pp. 113-114) to explain the need to reprint two older platform addresses which referred to the US treaty with Russia (1893).  Felix Adler (pp. 115 - 135) and William M. Salter (pp. 136 - 159) had at that time protested the treaty, indicating that it would eventually place the US in the position of denying sanctuary to individuals fleeing unjust prosecution.  The statement applauds the "prophetic protests" of Adler and Salter, justifying the need to make them available again to contemporary readers.

More contemporary platforms by current and past clergy leaders provide the bulk of the volume:  Adler spoke on gambling and spiritual progress (not in the same lecture), Chubb on faith and then on Easter.  Despite his retirement from Chicago, a second address from Salter, discussed "Ethics in the Light of Darwin's Theory."  A posthumous list of things to believe, authored by Walter L. Sheldon, provides inspiring quotes from his pen.  (I rather like this one:  "Believe in the value of other men's experience and thereby save half your life from being a failure by endeavoring to show that you know more than everybody else." [p. 279])  Leslie Willis Sprague talked about moral inspiration, what an Ethical Society is, and, as part of a series on Social Ideals, the Ethical reorganization thereof.  David Saville Muzzey combined two lectures into one--"The New Paganism and the New Piety" (pp. 189-218)--and presented a paean to Milton as an apostle of Liberty (pp. 93-112).  The latter, a combination of history and poetry--the historian waxing poetic about the poet and his crucial role in the history of democracy--inspires me to set aside my disregard for Puritanism to see the deeper (nonreligious) issues that inspired Milton.

One additional note of interest (to me!) comes from Sprague's pen as he attempts to correct some "misapprehensions" about Ethical Culture (pp. 48 - 51).  His defense covers these mistakes:

1.  "[T]he Ethical Culture movement is merely a development of the Jewish religion";
2.  "Ethical Culture is irreligious, is opposed to the development of the religious life and to the expression of the religious aspirations of mankind";
3. "Ethical Culture is only an emasculation of older religious systems, especially Judasim (sic) and Christianity, the appropriation of their ethical principles without accepting the theological and sacerdotal elements which have accompanied these principles in the past";
4. "Ethical Culture is very readily and very naturally misunderstood by those who are concerned with the letter rather than with the spirit of the moral law"; and
5. "Ethical Culture is another sect."

It's worth a read, I think, even if one disagrees with Sprague.

Finally, this issue provides another change in the publisher.  Same address in Philadelphia, but now formally acknowledged as "American Ethical Union."

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record - Series 15

Volume 15 of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record (1908) is a rich resource, not only for the material published in it, but for the large number of pages devoted to listing other publications of the Ethical Culture Movement.  Oddly enough, I seem to have stumbled across two different scans of this volume.  One, downloaded more than a year ago and safely on my hard drive is a bit of a mess with several blurred pages; it was scanned at the New York Public Library.  The second, resides online in the Internet Library and seems to have only clear and error-free scans; it was scanned at the University of Toronto Robarts Library.  What is missing in the second are all the pages, presumably from the covers of the separate issues, which list available publications.  Despite the frustration of the blurred pages, I am finding the promotional pages for more pamphlets, books, and journals a useful extra resource for identifying the literature of Ethical Culture.  What luck to have found both copies!

Walter L. Sheldon, founder and Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of St. Louis, died on June 5, 1907.  Memorial services were held at several Societies and locations.  Memorial Addresses included in this volume of EA&ER were provided by Felix Adler, M. Anesaki (from the Tokyo Ethical Society), Fanny M. Bacon, W. A. Brandenburger, George R. Dodson, John Lovejoy Elliott, Robert Moore, Samuel Sale, William M. Salter, William Taussig, and S. Burns Weston.  At Sheldon's request, the St. Louis memorial service did not include eulogies and speeches; instead, previous memorial services conducted by Sheldon for others provided appropriate passages in Sheldon's own words.  Those passages and selections from his favorite readings are included in this volume.  

Altogether, Sheldon's memorial presents a thorny set of bibliographic problems--whether to list every single tribute and address as a separate item (serving also as an index to contributors) or whether to group the speeches together as printed in EA&ER.  The list of Contents suggests the former, but the order and manner of printing suggests the latter.  I have opted for the latter, attempting to be true to the events of the time, but recognize that future research seeking the works of specific authors may not be served by this approach.  

The inclusion of selected addresses from the 1907 AEU Assembly provides a window into the continued focus on defining the religious nature of Ethical Culture:

"The Character of the Ethical Movement," Edwin R. A. Seligman (NYSEC and AEU President);

"The Need of a Religion of Morality," William M. Salter;

"The Inspiration of the Ethical Movement," Nathaniel Schmidt;

"The Value of Ethical Organization," Charles Zueblin.

William M. Salter contributed a number of lectures, including his last at the Ethical Society of Chicago (December 22, 1907).  "The Good Fight--With a Closing Word" (pp. 115-134) is filled with martial imagery which likened his service to the Chicago Society as fighting the good fight.  Salter vowed that he had few regrets and left his audience with a final call for courage in continuing the fight in his absence.  Salter continued his own career for the next few years as a special lecturer in philosophy at the University of Chicago. 

Charles Zueblin's "Religion and the Church" is one of a series of six lectures that he gave at the Philadelphia Ethical Society.  While only one was published in this volume of  EA&ER, all six were collected and published as The Religion of a Democrat (New York:  B. W. Heubsch, 1908).  Additional contributions are provided from Anna Garlin Spencer, David Saville Muzzey, and Henry Moskowitz.  The volume is rounded out with a collection of songs (lyrics only) and responsive readings.

Given the earlier kerfuffle with the two scans, I have paid closer attention to the title pages (and library stamps) of this volume.  I missed the shift in publisher between the Eleventh and Twelfth Series!  S. Burns Weston served as the publisher for the first eleven volumes of the series.  With the twelfth volume, the name of the publisher is changed to "Ethical Addresses," albeit with the same location in Philadelphia as before.  I will correct the Bibliography ASAP and do apologize for the error.

Series Fourteen - Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record

Ed Porter Explaining the Importance of Archives

I've now had a chance to see the originals of some of the items to be included in the Bibliography, and it was quite interesting, especially when the originals had not yet been bound together into a large volume.  These small sections devoted to inspirational readings or music were originally separate books that could be tucked into a pocket or purse.  Seeing the originals in the archives of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (thank you, Ed Porter and Team for allowing me to join you for a couple of hours) and in the Adler Study and general archives at the New York Society for Ethical Culture also gave me a better sense of the magnitude of the task.  "We're gonna need a bigger boat" doesn't begin to touch it!  Still it was wonderful to meet all the folks who are involved in preserving the archives of Ethical Culture.  I know there are others that I have yet to meet--and I look forward to doing so.  I will write more about the project and potential plans for the work as they develop.  In the meantime, this part of the project continues.

Series Fourteen of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record (EA&ER) continues the transformation of that AEU publication into an omnibus for development of thought about Ethical Culture, practical discussions of moral education for children and youth, and documentation of the progress and development of the Movement.  As well, this volume includes an independent section of inspirational verse, widespread focus on international strife and hopes for peace, and the full constitutions of the International Union of Ethical Societies and the American Ethical Union (with a bonus listing of the officers of the AEU on p. 314).  Promotional listings of additional printed material are included on pages 142 and 286.

The AEU held a conference, entitled "The Moral Education of the Child," May, 1907.  Three presentations from that conference were included in the final issue of EA&ER for that year.  James H. Leuba contributed a discussion of the moral nature of the child; Alice L. Seligsberg reported on moral instruction in the public schools; Robert A. Woods commented on ethical construction as part of Ethical instruction.

Another set of entries focused on "The Russian Situation," with two speeches by Alexis Aladin and Nicholas Tchaykovsky with that title.  The speeches are prefaced thusly:

[The following addresses by Alexis Aladin, leader of
the peasants, and member of the Group of Toil in the first
Duma, and Nicholas Tchaykovsky, were given before the
Philadelphia Ethical Society, Sunday, March 17th, just
after a lecture by Mr. William M. Salter, of Chicago, on
"The Russian Revolution." Mr. Salter's lecture will be
printed in the April number of the International Journal
of Ethics.]

Salter's lecture, in IJE 17/3 (1907), is available through JSTOR.  In that lecture, he explained why he felt that a revolution--like those in France and colonial America--was needed in Russia, leading to a democratic government and new hope for those then oppressed by the Czar.

One additional point of interest in this volume:  David Saville Muzzey was at this point in his career on the verge of becoming a major influence in the US by virtue of the high school history textbooks that he would publish.  These books would eventually dominate the entire nation as means of educating youth in the the history of their country.  That these books were racist in their orientation toward Native Americans and former enslaved persons should not take away from the Muzzey's contributions to the thought and practice of Ethical Culture.  Except they do.  It is hard to read his lecture ("Three Hundred Years of English Settlement in America") without sensing the taint of what is unspoken in his praise of "the glorious freedom of such a faith" (as Ethical Culture) and cringing.

And, finally, there are the Constitutions.  That of the AEU mirrors that of the IUES in several ways, most notably as to "Objects":

AEU Constitution, 1907

The AEU General Aim says "any," the IUES General Aim says "all" when referring to "theological and metaphysical considerations."  In Special Aims, the two organizations refer to their specific geographical areas (the US vs. the world), and IUES takes on the additional task for its (g):  "To maintain an International Ethical Library."  Otherwise the two organizations share the same General and Special Aims on different scales.

Series Thirteen - Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record

Series 13 - Partial Contents

The Thirteenth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record, published in 1906, begins with eight addresses from the Tenth Convention of Ethical Societies, held in Philadelphia in May, 1905 (pp. 1-57).  The opening address was given by S. Burns Weston, followed by speeches from Walter L. Sheldon, William M. Salter, David Saville Muzzey, Leslie Willis Sprague, and John Lovejoy Elliott.  Felix Adler gave a convention address on "The Independence of Morality and What It Implies" as well as the closing address.  Anna Garlin Spencer also stood on the platform to deliver a brief address ("The Ethical Movement as an Experiment Station in Education"), her first appearance in these volumes.

Gustav Spiller, Secretary of the International Ethical Union, provided historical notes on the progress of Ethical Culture as well as an extensive list of recent publications by leaders and members of the Movement.  He also provided a lengthy statement of "Suggestions for the Coming International Ethical Congress" (pp. 151-160).  

Nathaniel Schmidt, Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures at Cornell University, gave two addresses to the Philadelphia Society:  "The Persecution of the Jews" (pp. 131 - 150) and, reflecting on the long ago presence of Nones, "The Religion of the Unchurched" (pp. 263 - 284).  Adler's treatise on "The Punishment of Children" (pp. 65-100) is reprinted in full.  Muzzey provided three separate perspectives on Ethics, including an early twentieth century look at the effect of labels in "The Ethics of Epithets" (pp. 115 - 130).

A couple of printing errors show up in this volume.  Incorrect page numbers are given on the list of Contents for Sheldon's convention address:  pp. 6 -15, not p. 67.  Spiller's IEU Report is inserted between two addresses by Adler ("Moral Conditions in American Life in the Light of Recent Revelations" [pp. 189 - 202] and "Self-Help in Affliction" [pp. 203 - 216]) and given duplicate page numbers (pp. 203 - 216).  

Two promotional pages include a (repeat of a) list of Salter's Ethical Lectures which seem to have been reprinted as individual pamphlets (p. 64) and an interesting list of the contents of the Twelfth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record.  Since I am working from online versions of bound serials, I found it helpful to see the publishing patterns (monthly issues, published September to June, three to four addresses or articles per issue).  Salter's "Moral Aspiration and Song" was published as Volume XII, Numbers 8, 9, 10--presumably in one volume.  [NOTE:  I did find a copy of the volume at the Brooklyn Ethical Society this past week.  It's in fragile condition, but appeared to be--in its day--a handy adjunct to Sunday meetings.] 

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.