REV. PREBENDARY WACE, D.D., ON ETHICS AND RELIGION. 121 
American Ethical Societies.” This statement explains that 
there are two senses in which the word “Religion” is commonly 
used. “In the one sense it describes a passionate devotion to 
a supreme cause. In the other sense it is applied to affirma- 
tions concerning the connection between man’s being and 
the Universal Being.” The ethical movement, then, is said 
to be a religious Howenent in the former sense, but not in 
the latter. ‘In regard to the connection between man’s 
being and the Universal Being, dissent among members and 
lecturers of ethical societies is admissible; hence the ethical 
movement as such is not a religious movement in the latter 
sense.” Lecturers and members of the Societies “are free 
to hold and to express on the Sunday platform theistic, 
agnostic, or other philosophical beliefs. But they shall 
clearly indicate that these beliefs do not characterize the 
movement.’ Lecturers are expected to possess a stire con- 
viction of the cardinal truth of the supremacy of the moral 
end, but they are not even required to express a belief that 
the moral end is the supreme end of human existence. “ For 
though the supremacy of the moral end is implied in the 
very nature of morality, it is not to be expected that this 
implication shall be clear to all whose interest is serious and 
capable of further development.” Accordingly several of 
the Essays urge this general ethical purpose as supplying the 
basis of a new fellowship. One is on the “Freedom of 
Hthical Fellowship,” another on “The Ethical bond of 
Union.” It is the aim of the Ethical Societies, says one 
lecturer (p. 82) . . . to unite “men of diverse opinions 
and beliefs in the common endeavour to explore the field of 
duty; to gain clearer perceptions of right and wrong; to 
study with thorough-going zeal the practical problems of 
social, political, and individual ethics, and to embody the 
new insight i in individual institutions.” 
Now such efforts, with which much sympathy must be felt, 
are necessarily based upon the supposition, which is 
elsewhere explicitly stated, that ethical questions can be 
adequately treated without reference to any religious belief. 
The concluding lecture commences, for instance, with the 
following three propositions, which the lecturer says are 
made or implied “in the reports or manifestoes of all 
Societies for Ethical Culture, so far as I know.” They are as 
follows :— 
“1. Character and conduct are the most important factors 
in life. 
