THE

REFORMED QUARTERLY REVIEW

NO. 1.-JANUARY 1890.

I.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ETHICS.

HUMANITY, AS GENERAL AND INDIVIDUAL.

BY PROF. THOS. G. APPLE, D.D., LL.D.

IN entering upon the science of Ethics, which we may define in most general terms the science of the Good, we propose as an Introduction a consideration of humanity, viewed as general and individual. As man is the subject concerned in this science, particularly in reference to his ethical nature, it is highly important, as throwing light upon the whole theme, to have a right conception of what he is in his relation both to the world of nature below him and to the spiritual world above him, to both which he is organically joined, both in his generic and individual life.

Viewing him in his generic character as man, the genus homo, he stands at the head of the natural creation. In order to understand clearly what this headship comprehends, it is necessary, first of all, to have a proper conception of the orgauic character of the natural world below man. The natural world, taken as a whole, is an organism. In all its parts and processes

it is animated by one common principle, and from its lowest to its highest forms looks to a particular end. The parts are not brought together in an outward, mechanical way, but as the result of inward laws which bind them into an organic whole. This may be seen in the law, or method, of organization according to which the form and contents are related from the lowest to the highest forms of material existence. This relation is such that the degree in which the natural creation rises or advances the form gradually gains the mastery over the contents. In the inorganic kingdom we see matter in an almost formless state. Air, earth, water have indeed form, for they occupy dimensions in space, but their form is scarcely defined. In the crystal we see a definite mathematical outline, and here already there is a prophecy of the vegetable kingdom. In the vegetable kingdom inorganic substance is taken up by the principle of life and transformed into a new substance, as woody fibre, and the plant, in a more free way than in the case of the crystal, assumes still more definite forms. There is here apparent the principle of individuation, towards which nature seems to struggle from the beginning of its processes. In the animal kingdom this process of transformation goes forward through the plastic power of animal soul; inorganic substance and vegetable substance are transformed into animal flesh; the individuality of the animal is more marked than in the vegetable, and thus the form obtains a more complete mastery over the contents.

man.

But creation does not stop here. Throughout all its orders it is governed by a primordial archetype, and that archetype is He is the end toward which the whole process tends, and according to the nature of all organisms he existed as the ideal in the beginning. In all existence whose creation involves a process of development, there is a profound sense according to which the end is in the beginning. Throughout all nature there are types and prophecies of man, growing clearer as it approaches its culmination. The relation between man and nature below him is inward and intimate. He is the

epitome of the world, its crowning summit. He is the interpreter of nature and its full meaning can be found only in him. The analogy has been expressed by regarding the human body as repeating in itself, yet in a higher form, all the processes and functions and operations of the natural world. Its skeleton represents the outward form of the earth in its mountain ranges, the respiratory apparatus, the action of the winds, the circulation of the blood, the water-courses above and beneath the surface of the earth, the nervous system, the action of electrical currents. This is not mere imagination or fancied resemblance. The earth is the womb of man's natural existence. His body was formed out of the dust of the earth, whether by an immediate transition, or, as many understand the account in Genesis, by just going through all the intermediate processes, i. e., by being formed from the animal world. The deep sympathetic relation of man to nature has been felt and expressed by the poets of mankind. Science is more and more discovering the inner meaning of this relationship. It lies at the foundation of the capacity for caricature in representing types of men by certain animals. In the animal world are scattered fragments of humanity, so that man may study himself in that kingdom, as in the study of comparative anatomy. Man is related to the world of nature not as the actor to the stage, nor even as the householder to the house in which he dwells, but in a way far more internal and intimate than any of these, and similar comparisons, indicate. Man requires nature for his environment, and nature requires man as well, for without him it would be an abortion. As the harp is silent without the harpist, so nature would be dumb without man. Without the ear, there would be no sound, without the eye, no beauty of sunlight and color. All this accords with man's lordship over nature as taught in Genesis, and in other portions of Scripture, as in the viiith Psalm, and in the Messianic interpretation as given in Hebrews, and it is confirmed by all the investigations of science.

But man is not only the culmination of nature. He is also

related to a higher world. Humanity, as it came forth from the hand of the Creator, is a spiritual unity, including in itself all the various forms of life that have appeared in the unfolding of the race. It is not an abstraction, nor is it an abstract unit, but it is a living unity, in which all the parts are bound together by a common life. It is a spiritual unity, because although it takes outward form from nature, and therefore has a material side of its existenee, yet its substance is a form of life from God. It is concrete because it becomes actual in the existence of the individuals who compose the human family. The union of the ideal and the actual gives us the real. In humanity from the beginning are included all the types that have appeared, as exhibited in the family, the nation, the different races, etc., as an original potentiality.

Humanity in this view is an objective entity, and not a mere abstract generalization of the mind. But it has no real existence apart from the existence of the individual. There is no such existence as the genus homo, before and apart from the individual vir, but the general holds its existence only in and through the individual, whilst yet they are not identical, just as in nature the species is a reality as it appears in the individual of the species.

These two, the general and the individual act, the one upon the other, as the leaves of a tree receive the life of the tree and then act reciprocally in producing the growth of the tree. The individual takes up into himself the race life in the bosom of which he stands, by intercommunion with his fellow-men. Such intercommunion is absolutely necessary for the development both of his mental and moral culture. It is by mind coming in contact with mind that his intellect is developed, and it is by mutual reciprocal life-intercourse that he integrates his moral nature. It is through mutual giving and receiving that his moral nature grows. Imparting to others the debt of love strengthens love, and returning gratitude increases the feeling of gratitude. Without such moral reciprocity the moral nature would remain undeveloped. This growth marks the degree in

which the individual takes up into himself the generic, or race, life. Men who receive into themselves this general life in the highest degree are the geniuses of mankind, from genus, race, or kind. True, the genius reciprocates, or imparts, according to his higher individual endowment, but this natural endowment consists already just in this, that the generic life, the race-life, is in him in a large degree.

The genius is a universal man more than others. We may illustrate this by the generality called nationality. Nationality is not an abstraction of the mind formed by generalizing the qualities common to a certain class of people living in a certain country. A nation is something more than a mere outward union of such a class of persons; but, as testified by the word, which comes from the Latin nascor, natus, it signifies a birth. There is a general life which works reciprocally upon the citizens, so that while the citizens form the nation, it is equally true that the nation forms the citizens. This national life is imbibed from early childhood,-nay, it forms a given type of citizens from birth, endowing them, so to speak, by birth with certain marked characteristics. Culture depends on this humanizing influence; a cultured man is a humane man. We speak of a study of the humanities, which means the taking in on the part of the individual, as for instance through the study of classic languages and literatures, those qualities and properties that pertain to cultured forms of life. To humanize is much the same as to render moral, because the moral nature is developed by this reciprocal action and inter-action in communion with our fellow-men. From all which it must appear how much the general or race life has to do with the development of morality; how much nature has to do with the determinations of personality. It is true that morality is attained through personality, through the determination of free will; but back of will is the human nature we inherit, and this universal human nature has its subordinate types in family and national life.

To complete our consideration of humanity we turn now, in