288 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



human affection. In another and not less glorious way it has exerted 

 a profound influence for good. It has ta^^ght the golden value of truth 

 and candor. Beliefs, dogmas, have no jDlace in science. More than 

 any religion science has inculcated the love of truth for its own sake. 

 Truth, modesty, candor ! That is its creed, so far as it has any. So 

 rare ; so simple ; so powerful for good ! Science has patiently taught, 

 at first to a few and now to the multitude, that the understanding of 

 the causes of things can only come through patient and unprejudiced 

 study. A mighty force for good has come into the world unknown to 

 it in all its past history. 



Perceiving that virtue springs from affection, it becomes possible 

 intelligently to attack the problem of moral instruction in the schools. 

 It would be a mistake to return to religious instruction as a basis of 

 morality, for, as we have seen, morals do not really depend on religion 

 and there are many tenets of the present faith which are, on the whole, 

 distinctly detrimental or, at least, not an aid to morality. Duty, or 

 responsibility to others, should be the key word of education. While 

 all knowledge is a moral force, knowledge being in its nature essentially 

 moral since it increases happiness, and while any real education is in 

 itself a powerful aid to morality, it would be well indeed if the ideals 

 of science could become the ideals of every one; if the love of truth 

 and candor could permeate every individual; if the interdependence of 

 mankind could be so clearly perceived by all that obscure crimes against 

 the community could be recognized and detested. Above all, the whole 

 plan of education, if it is to be efficient morally, while it stimulates the 

 feelings of sympathy, compassion, duty and affection, must inculcate 

 habits of logical thought, the conception of physical cause and effect, 

 and a knowledge of the work-a-day world. For all morality has in it 

 these three components, reason, knowledge and affection; and affection 

 alone is instinctive and blind. 



We need not worry, therefore, over the decadence of religious beliefs. 

 All that is erroneous in such beliefs it is obviously immoral to uphold 

 and should be got rid of as soon as possible. Unproved hypotheses, 

 such, for example, as that of a continued, conscious existence after 

 death, should not be taught as facts. For that man who builds his 

 moral edifice upon such unproved beliefs is assuredly building on a 

 doubtful foundation. What is good and worth saving in religion will 

 be found to be working in the future side by side with science in 

 increasing in each individual that human affection which makes man 

 better, will he nil he, and is the really valuable thing in the characters 

 of all of us. 



Moral conduct, then, is conduct which increases human happiness. 

 A man must be moral if he would be happy, since he has in him a 

 fundamental instinct, the social instinct, which causes him to love his 



