ETHICAL  ANALYSIS. 
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ETHICAL  ANALYSIS. 
By  Edward  Parrish. 
It  is  by  the  analysis  of  material  things  that  we  are  enabled  to 
classify  them  according  to  their  composition  and  uses,  and  it  is 
only  by  the  proper  application  of  ethical  analysis  to  individuals 
and  to  institutions,  that  their  true  position  in  the  moral  scale 
can  be  determined. 
Applied  to  society  at  large  or  to  its  proximate  constituents — 
its  industrial,  political,  reformatory  or  religious  institutions — 
ethical  analysis  is  the  most  complex  and  difficult  of  studies,  and 
is  only  within  the  reach  of  the  experienced  and  profound,  and 
yet  its  applications  to  the  individual,  and  especially  to  the  single 
incidents  of  his  life,  are  within  the  capacity  of  all  who  are  dis- 
posed to  use  them. 
Nothing  is  more  common  than  criticisms  on  the  public  and 
private  course  of  individuals  ;  this,  indeed,  constitutes  the  staple 
of  conversation  in  what  is  called  society,  though  the  glare  of 
prejudice  and  the  jaundiced  eye  of  envy  obscuring  the  clear 
light  of  reason  and  conscience  too  often  render  this  ordeal  most 
unjust  and  injurious.  All  are  ready  to  pass  opinions  upon 
others,  but  how  few  seek  by  a  close  ethical  analysis  applied  to 
themselves,  to  discover  their  own  secret  springs  of  action,  and 
the  bearing  of  their  daily  pursuits  upon  the  welfare  of  those 
around  them  and  of  society  at  large. 
Ethical  analysis,  like  physical  analysis,  is  a  close  and  accurate 
study,  and  is  especially  occupied  with  details.  No  vague  and 
uncertain  estimates  will  satisfy  its  demands  ;  it  dissects  with  un- 
sparing scrutiny  the  daily  and  hourly  incidents  of  life,  and 
tearing  away  the  crust  of  self-complacency,  exposes  the  naked 
elements  of  character  in  their  actual  proportions  to  each  other. 
As  atoms  constitute  the  aggregate  in  physical  existence,  so  do 
daily  thoughts  and  deeds  make  up  the  sum  of  life  and  character  ; 
and  as  the  forces  inherent  in  material  atoms  group  them  into 
distinctive  compounds,  having  each  its  peculiar  properties  and 
uses,  so  do  a  man's  motives  and  aims  in  life  constitute  him  what 
he  is  with  all  his  capacities  for  good  or  evil.  • 
A  knowledge  of  the  atomic  constitution  of  a  body  derived  from  ( 
its  analysis  opens  to  us  its  chemical  nature,  its  uses  and  the 
