Dr. Coit's Lecture.

Dr. Stanton Coit lectured last night, in Sanders' Theatre, on "The Advancement of Ethics."

The crying need of our time, he said, is scientific study of ethics. Morality is today challenged on every hand. Nothing stands free from the assault of criticism. To maintain our civilization, we must have a science of right conduct and good character. We might have a science of morality which would trace the facts of our moral life, and yet not touch on morality, or Heaven, or God. It is the consideration of this moral life, which will advance ethics. More than discovering the character of good and evil, we must discover our own life character, and the secrets in the development of our moral life. For the sake of clearer knowledge, one is called upon to build up a physchology of the soul, a counterpart of metaphysics and theology. The two must be kept apart; it is the mixing that prevents progress. The question still entertained, is still one without an answer, is there a science of ethics?

The need of a science in ethics has been felt for 2,000 years. It haunted Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, but they could give no solution. Even the stoics gave us no ethics in the light of science. The Christian revelation came in finally, with the doctrines of divine truth, and raised mankind. The idea of a science of ethics came to Francis Bacon. Today, the deplorable element in the advance of science, is that the physical sciences have exalted themselves, and imagine that they replace the heart. They draw all the attention. But in the study of a labor movement, there is no interest. What we get from physics, chemistry and geology, constitute but the wall of facts, ethics must draw the roof. Physical science fails utterly to meet the needs of our moral life. The spirit of ethics gives the spirit of the ideal, and here is the home of the heart. It is only by the knowledge of right, that we can hope to give men the stability which they had in heroic times.

Morality is to be considered in two aspects: the study of what is right, custom, according to rule, and the study of what is good, that which serves some great end. In prehistoric times there must have been a creative period to character, when the rule of duty was reflected from the love of the end that was served. There was moral liberty, and a duty dictated from the heart. Now the service in the science of ethics is to bring again a creative spirit and a creative effort in character. In matters of character it is after we have separated it from speculation in philosophy that we can apply them to the need of life. The preacher for the future must know how to fix the will in the lines of right.

Long monotony of work hurts the character. We can shorten the hours of work of laborers and give rational amusement to them in their leisure. We need moral teachers for the hungry among the people. to teach them the object of life.

After all there is as yet no science of ethics. Few teachers will not admit that rules of right serve for a perfect end, but there is a contention among them as to what is the moral end. There is no science of right conduct and good character but in the discovery of a self concentration. There is such a thing as faith, and ethical faith. We must recognize the unproved hope that the dream of a science of ethics will be realized, and that moral science will demonstrate that man will some day become king over himself.