ORDINARY MEETING.* 
Sir G. G. Stokes, Bart., F.R.S., PRESIDENT, 
IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following paper was read :— 
ETHICS AND RELIGION. By the Rev. Prebendary 
Wack, D.D. 
HE purpose of this paper is to offer a few materials for 
consideration in reference to what was correctly 
described by your Secretary, in a preliminary announcement 
of my subject, as “An aspect of modern thought.” That 
aspect is the view which is taken by a considerable body of 
earnest men of the possibility and the desirableness of 
treating ethics apart from religion. A number of “ Ethical 
Societies,” as they designate themselves, have of late years 
come into existence, which are based upon this conception. 
An account of them has been given in an interesting 
volume published this year, entitled Ethics and Religion, 
which is said on the title-page to be “ edited by the Society 
of Ethical Propagandists.”. The volume consists of Essays 
by several persons of distinction in the sphere of moral 
philosophy and literature, such as Sir John Seeley, Professor 
Sidgwick, and Mr. Leshe Stephen, and it may therefore be 
regarded as a trustworthy, and even authoritative, exposi- 
tion of the views in question. In this volume (on p. 72) a 
statement is put forward as “intended to define the attitude 
of the ethical movement towards Religion.” It has, we are 
told, never been “ passed upon by the Societies, and should 
not be understood as in the nature of a formal declaration ; 
but it expresses the views of the present lecturers of the 
* Monday, May 21st., 1900. 
