588 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



1867 a free religious association was formed, and in 

 1875 there arose several societies for ethical culture. 

 These are all professedly anti-religious. Their object is 

 to make ethics and morality independent of religion, or 

 rather to construct a purely ethical, non-spiritual, and 

 non-theistic religion. Although these societies have 

 their branches also in England they seem to meet with 

 more appreciation in Germany and Austria, where im- 

 portant thinkers are counted among their representatives. 

 Among them the late Professor Georg von Gizycki held 

 a prominent place, and did much through translations to 

 popularise this branch of American literature. It can- 

 not be said, however, that either in this country or in 

 Germany this line of thought has acquired any great 

 popular influence. 



In this country morality as taught in the schools is 

 still essentially religious and theistic. In Germany the 

 necessity has not yet been felt of elaborating, for pur- 

 poses of education, a purely secular code of morality, a 

 moral catechism. And thus, if we leave out the United 

 States of America, where every school of religious and 

 moral teaching thrives alongside of others, France is the 

 only country in Europe where a pronounced secularisa- 

 tion of morals and ethics has taken place. It is accord- 

 ingly there that the most strenuous efforts have been 

 made to place the theory and teaching of morality upon 

 a purely philosophical basis. A periodical with the title 

 ' Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale ' was there started 

 in the year 1893 by Xavier Leon, and testifies to the 

 increasing interest which the subject of ethics in con- 

 nection with metaphysics commands in that country. 



