EAKLY MEANING OF EIGHT AND WRONG. 25 



pieces of Agag, as much as in the countless atrocities com 

 mitted from religious motives by other early historic 

 races, we see that the morality and immorality of actions, 

 as we understand them, are at first little recognized ; and 

 that the feelings, chiefly of dread, which serve in place of 

 them, are feelings felt toward the unseen beings supposed 

 to .issue the commands and interdicts. 



Here it will be said that, as just admitted, these are 

 not the moral sentiments properly so called. This is true. 

 They are simply sentiments that precede and make 

 possible those highest sentiments which do not refer either 

 to personal benefits or evils to be expected from men, or 

 to more remote rewards and punishments. Several com 

 ments are, however, called forth by this criticism. One 

 is, that if we glance back at past beliefs and their correla 

 tive feelings, as shown in Dante s poem, in the mystery- 

 plays of the middle ages, in St. Bartholomew massacres, 

 in burnings for heresy, we get proof that in comparatively 

 modern times right and wrong meant little else than sub 

 ordination or insubordination---to a divine ruler primarily 

 and under him to a human ruler. Another is, that down 

 to our own day this conception largely prevails, and is 

 even embodied in elaborate ethical works instance the 

 &quot; Essays on the Principles of Morality,&quot; by Jonathan 

 Dymond, which recognizes no ground of moral obligation, 

 save the will of God as expressed in the current creed. 

 And yet a further is, that while in sermons the torments 

 of the damned and the joys of the blessed are set forth as 

 the dominant deterrents and incentives, and while we 

 have prepared for us printed instructions &quot; how to make 

 the best of both worlds,&quot; it cannot be denied that the 

 feelings which impel and restrain men are still largely 

 composed of elements like those operative on the savage 

 the dread, partly vague, partly specific, associated with 

 2 



