History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2)Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
Philosophy
History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2)
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
Ethics; Europe -- Moral conditions
The remarks I have now made will be sufficient, I hope, to throw some
light upon those great questions concerning the relations of intellectual
and moral progress which have of late years attracted so large an amount
of attention. It has been contended that the historian of human progress
should concentrate his attention exclusively on the intellectual elements;
for there is no such thing as moral history, morals being essentially
stationary, and the rudest barbarians being in this respect as far
advanced as ourselves. In opposition to this view, I have maintained that
while what may be termed the primal elements of morals are unaltered,
there is a perpetual change in the standard which is exacted, and also in
the relative value attached to particular virtues, and that these changes
constitute one of the most important branches of general history. It has
been contended by other writers that, although such changes do take place,
and although they play an extremely great part in the world, they must be
looked upon as the result of intellectual causes, changes in knowledge
producing changes in morals. In this view, as we have seen, there is some
truth, but it can only, I think, be accepted with great qualification. It
is one of the plainest of facts that neither the individuals nor the ages
most distinguished for intellectual achievements have been most
distinguished for moral excellence, and that a high intellectual and
material civilisation has often coexisted with much depravity. In some
respects the conditions of intellectual growth are not favourable to moral
growth. The agglomeration of men in great cities—which are always the
centres of progress and enlightenment—is one of the most important causes
of material and intellectual advance: but great towns are the peculiar
seed-plots of vice, and it is extremely questionable whether they produce
any special and equivalent efflorescence of virtue, for even the social
virtues are probably more cultivated in small populations, where men live
in more intimate relations. Many of the most splendid outbursts of moral
enthusiasm may be traced to an overwhelming force of conviction rarely
found in very cultivated minds, which are keenly sensible to possibilities
of error, conflicting arguments, and qualifying circumstances.
Civilisation has on the whole been more successful in repressing crime
than in repressing vice. It is very favourable to the gentler, charitable,
and social virtues, and, where slavery does not exist, to the industrial
virtues, and it is the especial nurse of the intellectual virtues; but it
is in general not equally favourable to the production of self-sacrifice,
enthusiasm, reverence, or chastity.
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