Ethical 241 



she remarked acidulously : " Judge, after what oc- 

 cured last night, I shall for the future call myself 



Mrs. Judge X ." The husband shook his head. 



" Madam," he said, " I regret as much as you do 

 that — er — the unforeseen came to pass last night ; 

 but it has not, I assure you, altered in any sense 

 our relation to each other. I am still judge of the 

 Supreme Court of California, and you, my dear, are 

 only the same old fool you always have been." 



In trying to understand the character of a people, 

 it is necessary to find the master-key. What is 

 it in the West? A worship of the visible? If 

 the answer be in the affirmative, many doors are 

 unlocked. 



In England, the women, the very best of them, 

 profess an ethical standard lower than it ought to 

 be, because they wish to please the men. In the 

 West, the men profess a higher standard (and pro- 

 fess it not the least hypocritically) because they 

 wish to please the women — and children. 



This wish to please — a delightful trait — has, 

 when pushed beyond certain limits, a corroding 

 effect upon character; it leads to the shirking of 

 disagreeable duties, to a morbid fear of giving 

 offence, to a tolerance of evil which soon becomes 

 indifference; it ends by making pleasure — that 

 form of pleasure which exacts continuous change 

 and excitement — the supreme good. 



According to Arnold, education is an atmos- 

 phere. If this be so, it is important that the air 

 should be kept fresh and pure. Fresh it is in the 

 West; is it pure? Let the parents answer that 

 question. More, are they soberly of the opinion 



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