296 THE REV. H. J. CLARKE ON 
life.” But in reference to the point of view in which Mr. Clarke has 
brought the subject before us, it is to be observed that the word for 
duty, which he has given as the heading of his Paper, and which 
he stated to be the Greek equivalent for the Latin debitwm, or due, 
is ééov. I was struck with his explanation of this word as meaning 
wanting, implying a deficiency which requires to be made up. 
Now, no doubt, debts are very often bad ones and in that way they 
are deficiencies which sometimes are not made up; but I would 
suggest to him whether this word é¢ov, in connection with duty, has 
not another meaning besides mere want. It seems to me that it is 
just as much connected with binding, which is also a sense of the 
Greek word 6éw and in that respect it corresponds not with the 
Latin debitum but with the Latin opus and obligatio; and 
I think Mr. Clarke himself has recognised this in the latter 
part of his paper, where he speaks of the sense of duty on the part 
of animals as a feeling that they were drawn or pulled by a higher 
will. Itis rather remarkable that this view, which I have suggested, 
appears to be borne out by the etymology of the Greek word for 
debt, which is used, for instance, in the Lord’s Prayer—I allude to 
the word ode’ Ayua. That word is connected with 6f¢é\\w, which 
has two meanings, viz., that of requirement, and also that of growth 
or increase or prosperity. So that in the Greek the idea of duty 
is connected with utility ; and in Philosophy, as we know, and, as 
we have been reminded in the course of the Paper this evening, 
duty is sometimes placed on the ground of utility. I quite agree 
with Mr. Clarke that this is not the highest ground on which to 
place it, nor a safe rock on which to build it; but I have no doubt 
that the two things are connected in ianguage as well as in thought. 
There is another word of a less solemn meaning connected with 
duty, and that is the word zpezov or decorum. That also enters 
into the idea of it, but I cannot help thinkiug that obligation is the 
real meaning, as, for instance, when our Saviour said ¢€y tots rod 
Tlatpos pov ée2 ervai pe, ‘* 1 must be about my Father’s business,” or 
‘tin my Father’s house.” That is not a sense of debt, but of obli- 
gation, and that sense of obligation is shown in St. Paul’s Epistles, 
and is put even higher in 1 Cor. ix, 16. “For though I preach 
the Gospel I have nothing to glory of : for necessity is laid upon 
me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.” The Apostle 
there looks upon duty as being an absolutely binding force from 
which he cannot possibly become free, 
