132 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



this point by citing the new and difficult social problems created by 

 the abolition of slavery, and by the removal of governmental restric- 

 tions on the freedom of industry. 



Dr. Baker said that in estimating progress in the domain of 

 morals we should be careful to consider the average state through- 

 out a sufficiently wide area. Comparing the present state of the 

 civilized world with that of ancient Greece and Rome, we do not 

 at first see such a marked advance, but it should be remembered 

 that at the time of Socrates and Seneca the greater part of Europe 

 was living in a state of low barbarism, comparable to that of no- 

 madic savage tribes, preying on each other like hawks and falcons, 

 and it was not until after the Norman Conquest that life and prop- 

 erty in the northern part of Europe were safe from ruthless marau- 

 ders and sea-robbers. Respect for abstract right and justice were 

 matters of late growth, clearly recognized, it is true, by the Greeks 

 and Romans, especially by the latter. 



We may be in error in estimating the state of morals in any 

 ancient nation, for we know that it is extremely difficult to correctly 

 estimate our contemporaries. Thousands of Englishmen suppose 

 to day that our late civil war was a mere struggle for supremacy, a 

 conflict for territory, and it seems hopeless for an American to un- 

 derstand French politics or French morality. According to the 

 average French novel, infidelity to marital relations is the rule, yet 

 all who have had access to French households agree that in no 

 country are the family habits more sweet, affectionate, and fixed. I 

 am sure that we would err grievously to take our view of French 

 morals from Zola, Balzac, or Sue. In reading Plato I have been 

 startled ac the mention of certain habits and practices in such a 

 connection as to show that they were not regarded by the author as 

 at all objectionable, practices which would to-day be considered in- 

 famous. The collection at the Museo Borbonico at Naples, contains 

 many articles of personal adornment and public exhibition from 

 Pompeii which are so shocking to our ideas that they are not shown 

 to the general public, and Terence, Plautus, Juvenal, and Rabelais 

 abound in passages which show that they addressed an audience to 

 whom gross and lascivious ideas gave a pleasure which to-day is 

 usually replaced by disgust. Indeed this attitude of mind was so 

 common that even the purest Greek and Roman authors are now 

 read in our schools with expurgated editions. 



It seems to me clear that a certain unwritten code of morals not 



