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 CONTENTS
............. ~ ............ .

Preface xv
New to the Fourth Edition xvi
••
Instructor's Manual and Companion Website XVll

A Note on the Companion Volume xvii

Acknowledgments xviii

INTRODUCTION 1
The Lay of the Land 1
Skepticism about Ethics 3
Ethical Starting Points 5
What Is Morality? 7
Moral Reasoning 9
The Role of Moral Theory 16
Looking Ahead 17

PART ONE

eGoodLife
CHAPTER 1 Hedonism: Its Powerful Appeal 23
Happiness and Intrinsic Value 23
The Attractions of Hedonism 25
There Are Many Models of a Good Life 26
Personal Authority and Well-Being 27
Misery Clearly Hampers a Good Life; Happiness Clearly
Improves It 27

••
VII
 •••
Vlll CONTENTS

Ihe Limits of Explanation 28

Rules of the Good Life and Their Exceptions 28
Happiness Is What We Want for Our Loved Ones 29

CHAPTER 2 Is Happiness All that Matters? 32

The Paradox of Hedonism 32
Evil Pleasures 34
The Two Worlds 35
False Happiness 36
The Importance of Autonomy 37
Life's Trajectory 40
Unhappiness as a Symptom of Harm 41
Conclusion 42

CHAPTER 3 Getting What You Want 44

A Variety of Good Lives 45
Personal Authority 45
Avoiding Objective Values 46
Motivation 4 7
Justifying the Pursuit of Self-Interest 48
Knowledge of the Good 49

CHAPTER 4 Problems for the Desire eory s1

Getting What You Want May Not Be Necessary for
Promoting Your Good 51
Getting What You Want May Not Be Sufficient for
Promoting Your Good 52
Desires Based on False Beliefs 52
Disinterested and Other-Regarding Desires 53
Disappointment 54
Ignorance of Desire Satisfaction 55
Impoverished Desires 55
Ihe Paradox of Self-Harm and Self-Sacrifice 56
Ihe Fallibility of Our Deepest Desires 57
Conclusion 58
 Contents ix

PART TWO
•
tng
CHAPTER 5 Morality and Religion 63
Three Assumptions about Morality and Religion 63
First Assumption: Religious Belief Is Needed for Moral
Motivation 64
Second Assumption: God Is the Creator of Morality 66
Third Assumption: Religion Is an Essential Source of
Moral Guidance 71
Conclusion 74

CHAPTER 6 Natural Law 76

The Theory and Its Attractions 76
Three Conceptions of Human Nature 80
Human Nature as Animal Nature 80
Human Nature Is What Is Innate 81
Human Nature Is What All Humans Have in Common 82
Natural Purposes 83
The Argument from Humanity 87
Conclusion 89

CHAPTER 7 Psychological Egoism 91

Egoism and Altruism 91
Does It Matter Whether Psychological Egoism Is True? 95
The Argument from Our Strongest Desires 95
The Argument from Expected Benefit 98
Two Egoistic Strategies 100
Appealing to the Guilty Conscience 100
Expanding the Realm of Self-Interest 100
Letting the Evidence Decide 101
Conclusion 105

CHAPTERs Ethical Egoism 107

Why Be Moral? 107
Two Popular Arguments for Ethical Egoism 110
The Self-Reliance Argument 111
The Libertarian Argument 112
The Best Argument for Ethical Egoism 113
X CONTENTS

Three Problems for Ethical Egoism 115

Egoism Violates Core Moral Beliefs 115
Egoism Cannot Allow for the Existence of
Moral Rights 115
Egoism Arbitrarily Makes My Interests All-Important 117
Conclusion 118

CHAPTER 9 Consequentialism: Its Nature

and Attractions 120
The Nature of Consequentialism 122
Structure 122
Maximizing Goodness 123
Moral Knowledge 124
Actual Versus Expected Results 125
Assessing Actions and Intentions 126
The Attractions of Utilitarianism 127
Impartiality 127
The Ability to Justify Conventional Moral Wisdom 128
Conflict Resolution 129
Moral Flexibility 130
The Scope of the Moral Community 131
Slippery Slope Arguments 135

CHAPTER 10 Consequentialism: Its Difficulties 139

Measuring Well-Being 139
Utilitarianism Is Very Demanding 143
Deliberation 143
Motivation 144
Action 145
Impartiality 147
No Intrinsic Wrongness (or Rightness) 149
The Problem of Injustice 151
Potential Solutions to the Problem of Injustice 152
Justice Is Also Intrinsically Valuable 153
Injustice Is Never Optimific 154
Justice Must Sometimes Be Sacrificed 154
Rule Consequentialism 155
Conclusion 158
 Contents xi

CHAPTER 11 e Kantian Perspective:

Fairness and ustice 160
Consistency and Fairness 161
The Principle ofUniversalizability 163
Morality and Rationality 166
Assessing the Principle of Universalizability 170
Integrity 171
Kant on Absolute Moral Duties 172

CHAPTER 12 e Kantian Perspective:

Autonomy and Respect 175
The Principle of Humanity 176
The Importance of Rationality and Autonomy 178
The Good Will and Moral Worth 180
Five Problems with the Principle of Humanity 183
Vagueness 183
Determining Just Deserts 184
Are We Autonomous? 186
Moral Luck 188
The Scope of the Moral Community 189
Conclusion 191

CHAPTER13 e Social Contract Tradition: e eory

and Its Attractions 194
The Lure of Proceduralism 194
The Background of the Social Contract Theory 195
The Prisoner's Dilemma 196
Cooperation and the State of Nature 199
The Advantages of Contractarianism 200
Morality Is Essentially a Social Phenomenon 200
Contractarianism Explains and Justifies the Content of
the Basic Moral Rules 201
Contractarianism Offers a Method for Justifying
Every Moral Rule 202
Contractarianism Explains the Objectivity of Morality 202
Contractarianism Explains Why It Is Sometimes Acceptable
to Break the Moral Rules 203
xii CoNTENTS

More Advantages: Morality and the Law 204

Contractarianism Justifies a Basic Moral Duty to Obey the Law 204
The Contractarian Justification of Legal Punishment 204
Contractarianism Justifies the State's Role in Criminal Law 205
Contractarianism and Civil Disobedience 205

CHAPTER 14 e Social Contract Tradition:

Problems and Prospects 2os
Why Be Moral? 208
The Role of Consent 212
Disagreement among the Contractors 215
The Scope of the Moral Community 216
Conclusion 219

CHAPTER 15 Ethical Pluralism and Absolute Moral Rules 221

The Structure of Moral Theories 221
Is Torture Always Immoral? 222
Preventing Catastrophes 224
The Doctrine of Double Effect 225
A Reply to the Argument from Disaster Prevention 227
How the DDE Threatens Act Consequentialism 227
Distinguishing Intention from Foresight 228
Moral Conflict and Contradiction 230
Is Moral Absolutism Irrational? 231
The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing 233
Conclusion 237

CHAPTER 16 Ethical Pluralism: Prima Facie Duties

and Ethical Particularism 239
Ross's Ethic of Prima Facie Duties 239
The Advantages of Ross's View 241
Pluralism 241
We Are Sometimes Permitted to Break the Moral Rules 241
Moral Conflict 241
Moral Regret 242
Addressing the Anti-absolutist Arguments 243
A Problem for Ross's View 244
Knowing the Fundamental Moral Rules 245
Self-Evidence and the Testing of Moral Theories 246
Knowing the Right Thing to Do 247
Ethical Particularism 249
 Contents xiii

Three Problems for Ethical Particularism 251

Its Lack of Unity 251
Accounting for Moral Knowledge 252
Some Things Possess Permanent Moral Importance 252
Conclusion 254

CHAPTER 17 Virtue Ethics 256

The Standard of Right Action 257
Moral Complexity 258
Moral Understanding 259
Moral Education 261
The Nature of Virtue 262
Virtue and the Good Life 264
Objections 266
Tragic Dilemmas 266
Does Virtue Ethics Offer Adequate Moral Guidance? 267
Is Virtue Ethics Too Demanding? 269
Who Are the Moral Role Models? 270
Conflict and Contradiction 271
The Priority Problem 272
Conclusion 274

CHAPTER 18 Fetninist Ethics 276

The Elements of Feminist Ethics 276
Moral Development 278
Women's Experience 279
The Ethics of Care 282
The Importance of Emotions 283
Against Unification 284
Against Impartiality and Abstraction 285
Against Competition 285
Downplaying Rights 286
Challenges for Feminist Ethics 287
Conclusion 289

PART THREE

Metaethics: e Status of Morality

CHAPTER 19 Ethical Relativistn 293
Moral Skepticism 293
Two Kinds of Ethical Relativism 295
xiv CoNTENTS

Some Implications of Ethical Subjectivism

and Cultural Relativism 296
Moral Infallibility 296
Moral Equivalence 298
Questioning Our Own Commitments 299
Moral Progress 299
Ethical Subjectivism and the Problem of Contradiction 300
Cultural Relativism and the Problem of Contradiction 302
Ideal Observers 305
Conclusion 309

CHAPTER 20 Moral Nihilistn 310

Error Theory 311
Expressivism 316
How Is It Possible to Argue Logically about Morality? 318
Expressivism and Amoralists 319
Ihe Nature of Moral Judgment 320
Conclusion 321

CHAPTER 21 Eleven Arguments Against Moral

Objectivity 323
1. Objectivity Requires Absolutism 324
2. All Truth Is Subjective 325
3. Equal Rights Imply Equal Plausibility 326
4. Moral Objectivity Supports Dogmatism 327
5. Moral Objectivity Supports Intolerance 328
6. Moral Objectivity Cannot Allow for Legitimate Cultural
Variation 330
7. Moral Disagreement Undermines Moral Objectivity 331
8. Atheism Undermines Moral Objectivity 333
9. The Absence of Categorical Reasons Undermines Moral
Objectivity 334
10. Moral Motivation Undermines Moral Objectivity 336
11. Values Have No Place in a Scientific World 338
Conclusion 341

References R. .l
Suggestions for Further Reading FR-1
<Jlossary CJ . . l
Index J. . l
 PREFACE
............. ~ ............ .

his book is divided into three parts one on the Good Life,
another on Doing the Right Thing, and the last on the Status of
Morality. You can read these parts in any order. Many will want
to begin at the end, for instance, with a discussion of whether morality
is a human invention, or is in some way objective. Some will prefer to
start in the middle, asking about the supreme principle of morality (and
whether there is any such thing). And others may want to begin at the
beginning, by thinking about human well-being and the quality of life.
Each part can be understood independently of the others, though there
are of course many points of connection across the three main branches of
moral philosophy. No matter where you begin, there are footnotes in most
chapters that provide cross-references to relevant discussions elsewhere in
the book.
When beginning a new area of study, you're bound to encounter some
unfamiliar jargon. I've tried to keep this to a minimum, and I suppose that
you can be thankful that we're doing ethics here, rather than physics or
anatomy. I define each technical term when I first use it, and have also put
together a glossary, which appears at the end of the book. Each specialized
term that appears in boldface has an entry there.
You may be interested enough in what you read here that you'll want
to continue your studies in moral philosophy. There is a natural place to
begin the companion volume to this book, The Ethical Life, described
later in this preface. I have also compiled a list of Suggestions for Further
Reading for each chapter or pair of chapters. This list appears at the end of

XV
xvi PREFACE

the book, just before the Glossary. I have selected the readings with an eye
to what might be accessible and interesting to those just beginning their
study of moral philosophy.
There is so much that is fascinating about ethics. This tempts a text-
book author to go on and on. And yet page limits must be respected.
Deciding what to keep and what to leave on the editing floor has been a
real challenge. Perhaps you think that the balance hasn't always been well
struck. Perhaps you find certain discussions unclear or boring. Io like to
know about this. The best way to get in touch is by email: RussShafer
Landau@gmail.com.

New to the Fourth Edition

I'm very pleased that students and instructors have found this book useful
enough to warrant a new edition. In the interests of maintaining conti-
nuity with the previous edition, I have tried to introduce only relatively
modest changes. While I have made many dozens of small changes in the
hopes of improving clarity and accuracy, I have also introduced several
larger revisions. Here is a brief list:
• Chapters 3 and 4 now include discussions that reflect clearer dis-
tinctions between the intrinsic and instrumental values of desire
satisfaction.
• Chapter 7 includes a new discussion of the empirical literature on
altruism.
• Chapter 19 includes a new discussion of the attractions of ethical
subjectivism and relativism.
• Substantive improvements have also been made to many sections,
including:
• Happiness and Intrinsic Value in chapter 1
• The Paradox of Hedonism in chapter 2
• Two Popular Arguments for Ethical Egoism in chapter 8
• The Structure of Consequentialism in chapter 9
• Slippery Slope Arguments in chapter 9
• Measuring Well-Being in chapter 10
• Ideal Observers in chapter 19
• The comprehensive companion website associated with this book
has been updated, as has its Instructor's Manual. These resources
 Preface xvii

contain loads of helpful material so much so that they deserve a

brief summary all their own.

Instructor's Manual and Companion Website

The website designed to support this book offers about 250 multiple-choice
questions for students to test their comprehension of the materials here. It
also contains a glossary and links to other websites of further interest. You
can visit the companion website at www.oup.com/us/shafer-landau.
In addition, the Instructor's Manual can be accessed on the Oxford
University Press Ancillary Resource Center (ARC) at https://arc2.oup-arc
.com/access/shafer-landau-fundamentals-of-ethics-4e-instructor-resources.
The manual itself has summaries for all twenty-one chapters, more than
100 essay questions, over 200 multiple-choice questions (in addition to
those available elsewhere on the website), about 200 PowerPoint slides to
help organize lectures, and a variety of links that point students to websites
with content that supplements the material in this book. The ARC is a con-
venient, instructor-focused, single destination for resources to accompany
this text. Accessed online through individual user accounts, the ARC pro-
vides instructors with up-to-date ancillaries at any time while guarantee-
ing the security of grade-significant resources. In addition, it allows Oxford
University Press to keep instructors informed when new content becomes
available.
The work for these ancillary materials was undertaken by my stel-
lar research assistants: Justin Horn, who provided all of the Web materi-
als associated with the first two editions, and Ben Schwan, who provided
updates associated with the third and this latest edition. I am very grateful
for their dedicated efforts in making these first-rate resources.

A Note on the Companion Volume

There are two kinds of introductory books. One is the sort that you have
in your hands right now. It's one person's take on the subject, and your
fate, dear reader, depends on how reliable and engaging that author hap-
pens to be. I have tried to be both, but you will be the judge of that. There
are benefits to a single-authored book. At its best, you'll get a coherent
narrative that draws connections between various discussions. You'll be
handed the important highlights, be introduced to the really big ideas,
and get an accurate map of the relevant terrain.
 •••
XVlll PREFACE

But there is another approach, equally valid. And that is to hear what
the major figures in the area have to say, to familiarize yourself with the
original voices in the field. For those with an interest in going this route,
I have put together a companion volume, The Ethical Life: Fundamental
Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems, which allows you to do just that.
The Ethical Life gathers together readings from more than forty
authors on the main subjects that are covered here. There are many
entries on the good life, on the central ethical theories, and on the status
of morality. There are also twenty additional readings on pressing moral
problems, such as the death penalty, abortion, animal rights, and other
urgent matters. There are many resources that can help readers through
that book introductions to each reading, study questions, suggestions
for further reading, and a website with sample quizzes, essay questions,
and lots of extra materials.
The fullest introduction to ethics would include both of these
approaches. The Ethical Life will give you lots of primary sources, and Fun-
damentals can help you to place them in context, clearly setting out their
ideas and providing some critical evaluation of their strengths and weak-
nesses. For those who are content to take my word for it, Fundamentals
will be enough. For those who want to see what other philosophers have
to say about these important matters, The Ethical Life might be a good
place to start. And for those of you attracted by both approaches, working
through each in tandem with the other can provide a well-rounded pic-
ture of what moral philosophy is all about.

Acknowledgments
I wrote this book because my editor, Robert Miller, asked me to. Well, not
really. He asked, and I refused. He did it again, and I refused. Obviously,
I did finally give in. I want to thank Robert for his persistence, but much
more importantly for his unflagging enthusiasm and his uncommon good
sense. His assistant Alyssa Palazzo has been a dream to work with.
One of Robert's many kindnesses was to solicit feedback from so
many talented philosophers. I hope that the following folks will accept my
gratitude for having provided very helpful comments on drafts and previ-
ous editions of this book: Paul Abela, Luke Amentas, Martin Andersson,
Kristopher Area, Thomas Avery, Ralph Baergen, Stacy Bautista, Jeffrey
Brand-Ballard, Don Carrell, Tom Carson, Michael Cholbi, David Detmer,
Josh DiPaolo, Howard M. Ducharme, Matthew Eshleman, Daan Evers,
 Preface xix

Bud Fairlamb, Robert M. Farley, Steve Finlay, Robert Fischer, Deke Gould,
Christopher Grau, Clifton F. Guthrie, Craig Hanks, Dan Hausman, Rich-
ard Haynes, Kelly Heuer, Darren Hibbs, Ryan Hickerson, Richard Hine,
John Huss, Clark Hutton, Scott James, Julian Katz, Jacquelyn Ann Kegley,
Dan Kofman, Avery Kolers, Keith Allen Karcz, Jacob Krch, Robert Lane,
Patrick Linden, Jessica Logue, Andres Luco, Eugene Marshall, Michael
McKenna, William Darryl Mehring, Brian Merrill, John G. Messerly,
Richard Mohline, Nathan Nobis, Kristian Olsen, Aleksandr Pjevalica,
Philip Robbins, Barbara R. Russo, Jesse Steinberg, Glenn Tiller, James
Woolever, and Ruigand Xu. A superstar trio Tyler Doggett, Christian
Miller, and David Sobel deserve special mention for having devoted an
extraordinary amount of serious attention to the initial draft of this book.

R.S.L.
Madison, Wisconsin
Autumn 2017
 INTRODUCTION
............. ~ ............ .

The Lay of the Land

There is so much to know about our world. And for those who are the
least bit curious, we have more resources than ever to give us the insights
we seek. We can turn to a variety of scientists, doctors, economists, histo-
rians, and journalists to help us better understand ourselves, our world,
and our place within it.
But there is a set of vital questions that such experts will never answer.
These are questions about how we ought to live. Sure, financial advisors
can tell us how we ought to invest our money. Personal trainers can advise
us on getting in shape. Career counselors can steer us in one direction
or another. But if we are interested instead in what our guiding ideals
should be, in what sort of life is worth living, in how we should treat one
another, then we must turn to philosophy. Ethics also known as moral
philosophy is the branch of knowledge concerned with answering such
questions.
The field of ethics is vast, and bad news first there is no chance of
covering all of its interesting and important issues within these pages. In
selecting the topics for treatment, I have chosen those that seem to me
most central. These can be grouped under three headings, each represent-
ing a core area of moral philosophy:

1
2 INTRODUCTION

1
1. Value theory What is the good life? What is worth pursuing for its
:

own sake? How do we improve our lot in life?

2. Normative ethics: What are our fundamental moral duties? Which
character traits count as virtues, which as vices, and why? Who
should our role models be? Do the ends always justify the means, or
are there certain types of action that should never be done under
any circumstances?
3. Metaethics: What is the status of moral claims and advice? Can
ethical theories, moral principles, or specific moral verdicts be
true? If so, what makes them true? Can we gain moral wisdom? If
so, how? Do we always have good reason to do our moral duty?
The structure of this book mirrors this threefold division. The first
part is focused on the good life, with an emphasis on explaining the nature
and sources of well-being. We ask, for instance, about whether happiness
is the he-all and end-all of a good life, the only thing desirable for its own
sake. And, naturally, we'll consider views that deny this, including, most
importantly, the theory that tells us that getting what we want whatever
we want is the key to the good life.
Then it's off to normative ethics, which is devoted to examining our
moral relations with one another. Who counts are animals, ecosystems,
or fetuses morally important in their own right? Is there a fundamen-
tal moral rule, such as the golden rule, that can justify all of our spe-
cific moral duties? What role do virtue, self-interest, and justice play in
morality? Are we ever allowed to break the moral rules? If so, when and
why? These are among the most important questions taken up in norma-
tive ethics.
Finally, to metaethics. This part of moral philosophy asks questions
about the other two. Specifically, it asks about the status of ethical claims,
rather than about their content. We all have views about what is right and
good. Are these just matters of taste? Is moral authority based on per-
sonal approval? Social customs? God's commands? Or none of the above?
Is morality in more or less good working order, or is it just a convenient
fiction that keeps us in our place? These are the questions that we will take
up in the last section of the book.

1. All technical terms and phrases that appear in boldface are defined in the Glossary at
the end of the book.
 Introduction 3

There is no shortage of folks offering advice about these questions.

The self-help industry has its gurus, motivational speakers, and best
sellers, each aimed at guiding us on the path to a good life. Political
pundits, religious leaders, and editorial writers are more than happy to
offer us their blueprints for righteous living. They don't always agree,
of course. It would be nice to have a way to sort out the decent advice
from the rest.
Those of you turning to philosophical ethics for the first time are likely
to be hoping for something that I can't provide, namely, a simple recipe for
doing the sorting. It is perfectly natural to want a clear method for distin-
guishing correct from incorrect answers about the good life and our moral
duty. Indeed, when I first went to college, I enrolled in a philosophy course
hoping for just such a thing. My failure to find it left me deeply disap-
pointed. I abandoned philosophy for a few years, and even dropped out of
college for a while. After I returned, I went looking for it again. I've finally
realized that in this area of life, while there is plenty of good advice, it can't
be summed up in one snappy formula, captured in a neat slogan that can
be inscribed in a fortune cookie or on a bumper sticker.
Ethics is hard. It needn't be weakness or fuzzy thinking that stands in
the way of knowing the right thing to do, or the proper goals to strive for.
We are right to be puzzled by the moral complexity we find in our lives.
While we might yearn for clarity and simplicity, this wish for easy answers
is bound to be repeatedly frustrated.

Skepticism about Ethics

When people learn of the difficulties that face each important attempt to
solve ethical puzzles, they often give in to skepticism. The major tempta-
tion is to regard the entire enterprise as bankrupt, or to think that all ethical
views are equally plausible.
Doubts about morality are plentiful, and it would be silly to ignore
them in a book that is so focused on trying to improve our moral under-
standing. Chapters 19, 20, and 21 are entirely devoted to such doubts;
those who feel them acutely might do best to start with those chapters,
and then work their way to the other parts of the book that are focused on
the good life and normative ethics.
For now, let me say just a few things to the doubters. Perhaps the most
important is this: among those who have thought longest and hardest
about ethics, the view that morality is all make-believe, or that all moral
4 INTRODUCTION

standards are correct only relative to individuals or societies, is deeply

controversial. There are lots of problems with such views. Some of these
problems may be devastating.
As a result, it would be a serious mistake just to assume that morality
is a fiction, or that personal or cultural opinion is the ultimate measure of
what is right and wrong. We must follow the arguments where they lead.
They may indeed lead us ultimately to embrace such positions. But they
might not. And we can't know one way or the other until we've actually
done the hard work.
Since I really love this part of ethics the metaethical part I can't
resist saying just a bit more here. In my experience, most of those who
harbor serious doubts about morality base their skepticism on one or
more of the following considerations:
(A) Individuals constantly disagree about what's right and wrong, and
societies do, too. If there were some objective truth in ethics, then
we should expect all really smart people to agree on it. They don't.
So there is no objective truth in ethics.
(B) There are universally correct moral standards only if God exists.
But God doesn't exist, so ethics is just a ((human construct:'
(C) Science tells us the truth about the world, and science says nothing
about what's right and wrong. And that's because nothing really is
right or wrong.
(D) If there were a universal ethic, then that would make it okay for
some people to impose their own views on others. But that's not
okay at all. Therefore there is no universal ethic.
(E) If there were objective moral rules, then it would always be wrong
to break them. But every rule admits of exceptions; no moral
rule is absolute. That shows that we do make up the moral rules
after all.
This is going to sound like cheating, but here goes: every single one of
these arguments is problematic. I'm not going to defend that claim right
now that's what the last three chapters of this book are for. So I don't
expect you to believe me (yet). Still, there is a lesson here: until these (or
other) arguments are laid out with care and successfully defended, we are
in no position to assume that the skeptics about morality are right.
I think you'll soon see that we can make a lot of progress in our moral
thinking. And even if morality is in some way a human invention, there
is still lots to learn, and there are many ways to make mistakes when
 Introduction 5

thinking about what is good and right. It's important to avoid these errors.
Doing moral philosophy can help with this.
Look at it this way. Lots of people believe that when it comes to art,
beauty is in the eye of the beholder there are no objective, universal
standards of good taste. Suppose that's true. And suppose that morality is
just like art in this respect. Still, our tastes can be educated and improved.
Many people are much wiser than I am about music and painting, for
instance. Even if there are no universal standards of good taste, it would
be silly of me to pass up a chance to talk with people who have thought
long and hard about artistic matters. Why should I dismiss their opinions
and refuse to hear them out? I'm no genius. Maybe I could learn a thing
or two.
That's exactly the right attitude to take about ethics. Especially when
so much is at stake the very quality of our life and our relations with
others it would be terrible to close our minds to new and challenging
ideas. Those who have thought so hard about the central questions of exis-
tence may well have something to teach us.
I encourage you to resist the diagnosis that in ethics, anything goes.
As you'll see, good moral thinking is disciplined thinking. There are many
ways that we can go wrong in our moral reflections, and failure here can
have the most disastrous results. Though it is sometimes hard to know
when we have got it right in ethics, it is often very easy to know when we
(or others) have made a mistake. There are clear cases of people ruining
their lives, or doing morally horrific things. We should keep that in mind
before siding too quickly with a skepticism that says that every moral view
is as good as every other.

Ethical Starting Points

One of the puzzles about moral thinking is knowing where to begin. Some
skeptics about morality deny that there are any proper starting points for
ethical reflection. They believe that moral reasoning is simply a way of
rationalizing our biases and gut feelings. This outlook encourages us to
be lax in moral argument and, worse, supports an attitude that no moral
views are any better than others. While this sort of skepticism might be
true, we shouldn't regard it as the default view of ethics. We should accept
it only as a last resort.
In the meantime, let's consider some fairly plausible ethical assump-
tions, claims that can get us started in our moral thinking. The point of the
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
essay being indicated.

ROBERT BURNS
It is pleasant to be able to let Dr. Holmes, who was present at the
Burns Festival, speak for himself and Lowell and Judge Hoar of Mr.
Emerson’s speech on that day. I have heard the Judge tell the story
of his friend’s success with the same delight.
“On the 25th of January, 1859, Emerson attended the Burns
Festival, held at the Parker House in Boston, on the Centennial
Anniversary of the poet’s birth. He spoke, after the dinner, to the
great audience with such beauty and eloquence that all who listened
to him have remembered it as one of the most delightful addresses
they ever heard. Among his hearers was Mr. Lowell, who says of it
that ‘every word seemed to have just dropped down to him from the
clouds.’ Judge Hoar, who was another of his hearers, says that,
though he has heard many of the chief orators of his time, he never
witnessed such an effect of speech upon men. I was myself present
on that occasion, and underwent the same fascination that these
gentlemen and the varied audience before the speaker experienced.
His words had a passion in them not usual in the calm, pure flow
most natural to his uttered thoughts; white-hot iron we are familiar
with, but white-hot silver is what we do not often look upon, and his
inspiring address glowed like silver fresh from the cupel.”
The strange part of all the accounts given by the hearers is that
Mr. Emerson seemed to speak extempore, which can hardly have
been so.
No account of the Festival, or Mr. Emerson’s part therein, appears
in the journals, except a short page of praise of the felicitous
anecdotes introduced by other after-dinner speakers.
Page 440, note 1. Here comes out that respect for labor which
affected all Mr. Emerson’s relations to the humblest people he met.
In the Appendix to the Poems it appears in the verses beginning,—
Said Saadi, When I stood before
Hassan the camel-driver’s door.

Page 441, note 1. Thomas Carlyle.

Page 441, note 2. Mr. Emerson here recalls his childhood and that
of his brothers, as in the passage in “Domestic Life,” in Society and
Solitude, that has been often referred to in these notes.
Page 443, note 1. Among some stray lecture-sheets was the
following on the scholar or poet:—
“Given the insight, and he will find as many beauties and heroes
and strokes of genius close by him as Dante or Shakspeare beheld.
It was in a cold moor farm, in a dingy country inn, that Burns found
his fancy so sprightly. You find the times and places mean. Stretch a
few threads over an Æolian harp, and put it in the window and listen
to what it says of the times and of the heart of Nature. You shall not
believe the miracle of Nature is less, the chemical power worn out.
Watch the breaking morning, or the enchantments of the sunset.”

SHAKSPEARE
The following notes on Shakspeare were written by Mr. Emerson
for the celebration in Boston by the Saturday Club of the Three
Hundredth Anniversary of the poet’s birth.
In Mr. Cabot’s Memoir of Emerson, vol. ii., page 621, apropos of
Mr. Emerson’s avoidance of impromptu speech on public occasions,
is this statement:—
“I remember his getting up at a dinner of the Saturday Club on the
Shakspeare anniversary in 1864, to which some guests had been
invited, looking about him tranquilly for a minute or two, and then
sitting down; serene and unabashed, but unable to say a word upon
a subject so familiar to his thoughts from boyhood.”
Yet on the manuscript of this address Mr. Emerson noted that it
was read at the Club’s celebration on that occasion, and at the
Revere House. (“Parker’s” was the usual gathering-place of the
Club.) The handwriting of this note shows that Mr. Emerson wrote it
in his later years, so it is very possible that Mr. Cabot was right. Mr.
Emerson perhaps forgot to bring his notes with him to the dinner,
and so did not venture to speak. And the dinner may have been at
“Parker’s.”

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT

The Boston Society of Natural History celebrated the One
Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Humboldt. Dr. Robert C.
Waterston presided at the Music Hall, where Agassiz made the
address. In the evening there was a reception in Horticultural Hall.
The occasion was made memorable by the Society by the founding
of a Humboldt and Agassiz scholarship in the Museum of
Comparative Zoölogy in Cambridge.
Poems by Dr. Holmes and Mrs. Howe were read. Professor E. J.
Young and Dr. Charles T. Jackson gave reminiscences of Humboldt;
Colonel Higginson, the Rev. Dr. Hedge and others spoke. Mr.
Emerson’s remarks are taken from an abstract given in the account
of the celebration published by the Society.

WALTER SCOTT
Although Mr. Emerson, in the period between 1838 and 1848
especially, when considering the higher powers of poetry, spoke
slightingly of Scott,—in the Dial papers as “objective” and “the poet
of society, of patrician and conventional Europe,” or in English Traits
as a writer of “a rhymed travellers’ guide to Scotland,”—he had
always honor for the noble man, and affectionate remembrance for
the poems as well as the novels. In the poem “The Harp,” when
enumerating poets, he calls Scott “the delight of generous boys,” but
the generosus puer was his own delight; the hope of the generation
lay in him, and his own best audience was made up of such. In the
essay “Illusions,” he says that the boy “has no better friend than
Scott, Shakspeare, Plutarch and Homer. The man lives to other
objects, but who dare affirm that they are more real?” In the essay
“Aristocracy,” he names among the claims of a superior class,
“Genius, the power to affect the Imagination,” and presently speaks
of “those who think and paint and laugh and weep in their eloquent
closets, and then convert the world into a huge whispering-gallery, to
report the tale to all men and win smiles and tears from many
generations,” and gives Scott and Burns among the high company
whom he instances.
Mr. Emerson’s children can testify how with regard to Scott he
always was ready to become a boy again. As we walked in the
woods, he would show us the cellar-holes of the Irish colony that
came to Concord to build the railroad, and he named these deserted
villages Derncleugh and Ellangowan. The sight recalled Meg
Merrilies’ pathetic lament to the laird at the eviction of the gypsies,
which he would then recite. “Alice Brand,” the “Sair Field o’ Harlaw,”
which old Elspeth sings to the children in The Antiquary, and
“Helvellyn” were again and again repeated to us with pleasure on
both sides. With special affection in later years when we walked in
Walden woods he would croon the lines from “The Dying Bard,”—

“Dinas Emlinn, lament, for the moment is nigh,

When mute in the woodlands thine echoes shall die.”

Perhaps he had foreboding for his loved woods, beginning to be

desecrated with rude city picnics, and since burned over repeatedly
by the fires from the railroad,—

“When half of their charms with Cadwallon shall die.”

Of this poem he wrote in the journal of 1845:—

“‘Dinas Emlinn’ of Scott, like his ‘Helvellyn,’ shows how near to a
poet he was. All the Birmingham part he had, and what taste and
sense! Yet never rose into the creative region. As a practitioner or
professional poet he is unrivalled in modern times.” Yet he
immediately adds, “In lectures on Poetry almost all Scott would be to
be produced.”
Page 463, note 1. Mr. Emerson took especial pleasure in the
passage in the Lord of the Isles where the old abbot, rising to
denounce excommunicated Bruce to his foes, is inspired against his
will to bless him and prophesy his triumph as Scotland’s deliverer.
Mr. Emerson, writing in his journal in 1842 of his impatience of
superficial city life, during a visit to New York, alludes to the renewed
comfort he had in the Lord of the Isles:
“Life goes headlong. Each of us is always to be found hurrying
headlong in the chase of some fact, hunted by some fear or
command behind us. Suddenly we meet a friend. We pause. Our
hurry and empressement look ridiculous.... When I read the Lord of
the Isles last week at Staten Island, and when I meet my friend, I
have the same feeling of shame at having allowed myself to be a
mere huntsman and follower.”
His boyish love for the Lay of the Last Minstrel remained through
life. As we walked on Sunday afternoons he recited to his children
the stanzas about “the custom of Branksome Hall,” and the passage
where the Ladye of Branksome defies the spirits of the flood and fell;
and the bleak mile of road between Walden woods and home would
often call out from him

“The way was long, the wind was cold,

The Minstrel was infirm and old,” etc.

Page 465, note 1. The Bride of Lammermoor was the only dreary
tale that Mr. Emerson could abide, except Griselda.
Journal, 1856. “Eugène Sue, Dumas, etc., when they begin a
story, do not know how it will end, but Walter Scott, when he began
the Bride of Lammermoor, had no choice; nor Shakspeare, nor
Macbeth.”
Page 467, note 1. Journal. “We talked of Scott. There is some
greatness in defying posterity and writing for the hour.”
 SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN HONOR OF THE
CHINESE EMBASSY
When the Chinese Embassy visited Boston in the summer of 1868
a banquet was given them at the St. James Hotel, on August 21. The
young Emerson, sounding an early note of independence of the
past, had written in 1824:—

I laugh at those who, while they gape and gaze,

The bald antiquity of China praise;—

but later he learned to revere the wisdom of Asia. About the time
when the Dial appeared, many sentences of Chinese wisdom are
found in his journal, and also in the magazine among the “Ethnical
Scriptures.”

REMARKS AT THE ORGANIZATION OF THE

FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION
In the spring of 1867, a call for a public meeting was issued by
Octavius B. Frothingham, William J. Potter and Rowland Connor “to
consider the conditions, wants and progress of Free Religion in
America.” The response was so large as to surprise the committee,
and Horticultural Hall was completely filled on May 30. Rev. Octavius
B. Frothingham presided. The committee had invited as speakers
the Rev. H. Blanchard of Brooklyn from the Universalists, Lucretia
Mott from the Society of Friends, Robert Dale Owen from the
Spiritualists, the Rev. John Weiss from the Left Wing of the
Unitarians, Oliver Johnson from the Progressive Friends, Francis E.
Abbot, editor of the Index; and also David A. Wasson, Colonel T. W.
Higginson and Mr. Emerson. The meeting was very successful and
the Free Religious Association was founded.
Mr. Emerson’s genial and affirmative attitude at this meeting was
helpful and important. He wished the new movement to be neither
aggressive towards the beliefs of others, nor merely a religion of
works, purely beneficently utilitarian. Doubtless there were many
young and active radicals strong for destructive criticism. Mr.
Emerson wished to see that in their zeal to destroy the dry husk of
religion they should not bruise the white flower within. His counsel to
young men was, “Omit all negative propositions. It will save ninety-
nine one hundredths of your labor, and increase the value of your
work in the same measure.”
Page 479, note 1. In the journal of 1837 he said, “Why rake up old
manuscripts to find therein a man’s soul? You do not look for
conversation in a corpse.” And elsewhere, “In religion the sentiment
is all, the ritual or ceremony indifferent.”

SPEECH AT THE SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF

THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION
Page 486, note 1. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe writes of Mr. Emerson,—
“He knew from the first the victory of good over evil; and when he
told me, to my childish amazement, that the angel must always be
stronger than the demon, he gave utterance to a thought most
familiar to him, though at the time new to me.”[L]
Page 488, note 1. In the essay on Character (Lectures and
Biographical Sketches), he says, “The establishment of Christianity
in the world does not rest on any miracle but the miracle of being the
broadest and most humane doctrine.”
“The word Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a
false impression; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing clover
and the falling rain.”—“Address in Divinity College,” Nature,
Addresses and Lectures.
Page 490, note 1. Mr. Emerson’s doctrine was not to attack
beliefs, but give better: “True genius will not impoverish, but will
liberate.” In a letter to one of his best friends who had joined the
Church of Rome he said, perhaps in 1858: “To old eyes how
supremely unimportant the form under which we celebrate the
justice, love and truth, the attributes of the deity and the soul!”
Page 491, note 1. Dr. Holmes, in his tribute to his friend, after his
death, read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, said:—
“What could we do with this unexpected, unprovided for,
unclassified, half unwelcome newcomer, who had been for a while
potted, as it were, in our Unitarian cold greenhouse, but had taken to
growing so fast that he was lifting off its glass roof and letting in the
hail-storms? Here was a protest that outflanked the extreme left of
liberalism, yet so calm and serene that its radicalism had the accents
of the gospel of peace. Here was an iconoclast without a hammer,
who took down our idols from their pedestals so tenderly that it
seemed like an act of worship.”

ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF THE CONCORD

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Town of Concord, in the year 1782, chose a committee of ten
leading citizens to give instructions to its selectmen. The third of the
seventeen articles proposed by them read thus: “That care be taken
of the Books of Marters and other bookes, and that they be kept from
abusive usage, and not lent to persons more than one month at one
time.” This indicates the root of a town library. A constitution of a
Library Company, dated 1784, is extant. In 1806 a Social Library was
incorporated, which was merged in the Town Library in 1851. The
books were kept in a room in the Town House which was open for
borrowers on Saturdays.
William Munroe, son of a Concord tradesman who vied with the
Thoreaus in the manufacture of lead pencils, after leaving the
Concord schools went into business, and later into the manufacture
of silk. His intelligence and force of character secured prosperity. He
loved Concord, and, to use his own words, “desired to testify my
regard to my native town by doing something to promote the
education and intelligence, and thus the welfare and prosperity of its
people.” He gave to Concord a lot of land in the heart of the town
and a building for a Free Public Library, which, with great care and
thoroughness, he had built thereon and duly furnished; and made
handsome provision for care of the land and the extension of the
building later. He added a generous gift for books of reference and
standard works. The town thankfully accepted the gift, placed their
books in it, and chose their library committee. On a fine autumn day
in 1873, the library was opened with public ceremonies. Mr. Munroe
in a short and modest speech explained his purpose; Mr. H. F. Smith,
on behalf of the new library committee, reported its action and the
gifts which had poured in; Judge Hoar received the property on
behalf of the Board of Corporation, and Mr. Emerson, but lately
returned with improved health from his journey to the Nile, made the
short address. Writing was now very difficult for him, but the
occasion pleased and moved him, and his notes on books and on
Concord, and the remembrance of his friends the Concord authors
but lately gone, served him, and the day passed off well.
Page 498, note 1. The Gospel Covenant, printed in London in
1646, and quoted by Mr. Emerson in the “Historical Discourse.”
Page 499, note 1. Major Simon Willard, a Kentish merchant was
Peter Bulkeley’s strong coadjutor in the founding of Concord. He
also is alluded to in the “Historical Discourse.”
Page 500, note 1. These extracts are from the diary of Miss Mary
Moody Emerson.
Page 500, note 2. This letter was written not long after the death of
John Thoreau, Henry’s dearly loved brother, and also of little Waldo
Emerson, to whom he became greatly attached while he was a
member of Mr. Emerson’s household.
Page 501, note 1. Mr. Emerson here speaks for others. He could
not read Hawthorne because of the gloom of his magic mirror, but
the man interested and attracted him, though even as neighbors they
seldom met.
Page 506, note 1. Mr. Emerson notes that this is an allusion to the
“Harmonies of Ptolemy.”
 THE FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC
In 1863, during the dark days of the Civil War, before the tide had
fully turned in the field, while disaffection showed itself in the North,
and England and France threatened intervention, Mr. Emerson gave
a hopeful lecture, the basis of the present discourse, on the Fortune
of the Republic. After the war it was adapted to the new and happier
conditions. On the 30th of March, 1878, six years after Mr. Emerson
had withdrawn from literary work, and but four years before his
death, he was induced to read the lecture in the Old South Church,
in a course planned by the committee, to save the venerable
building. The church was filled, Mr. Emerson’s delivery was good,
and he seemed to enjoy the occasion. It was probably his last
speech in public, and so fitly closes the volume.
Page 513, note 1. This passage occurred in the early lecture:—
“It is the distinction of man to think, and all the few men who, since
the beginning of the world, have done anything for us were men who
did not follow the river, or ship the cotton, or pack the pork, but who
thought for themselves. What the country wants is personalities,—
grand persons,—to counteract its materialities, for it is the rule of the
universe that corn shall serve man, and not man, corn.”
Page 519, note 1. Here followed: “What we call ‘Kentucky,’ or
‘Vallandigham,’ or ‘Fernando Wood’ is really the ignorance and
nonsense in us, stolid stupidity which gives the strength to those
names.... It is our own vice which takes form, or gives terror with
which these persons affect us.”
Page 520, note 1. This refers to a young Massachusetts scholar,
of promise and beauty, whom Mr. Emerson had been pleased with,
as a fellow voyager. He soon was corrupted by politics. Coming up,
at a reception, to shake hands with Mr. Emerson he was thus
greeted: “If what I hear of your recent action be true, I must shake
hands with you under protest.” Soon after, this aspirant for power
attended the dinner given to Brooks after his cowardly assault on
Sumner; but the moment the Emancipation Proclamation had been
approved by the people, he became an ornamental figurehead at
Republican and reform gatherings.
Page 520, note 2. From the last scene of Cynthia’s Revels, by Ben
Jonson.
Page 521, note 1. “The one serious and formidable thing in Nature
is a will.”—“Fate,” Conduct of Life, p. 30.
See also “Aristocracy,” in Lectures and Biographical Sketches, p.
50.
Page 524, note 1. Ben Jonson, The Golden Age Restored.
Page 526, note 1.

She spawneth men as mallows fresh.

“Nature,” II., Poems.

See also the “Song of Nature,” in the Poems.

Page 526, note 2. In the earlier lecture was this passage:—
“The roots of our success are in our poverty, our Calvinism, our
thrifty habitual industry,—in our snow and east wind, and farm-life
and sea-life....
“There is in this country this immense difference from Europe, that,
whereas all their systems of government and society are historical,
our politics are almost ideal. We wish to treat man as man, without
regard to rank, wealth, race, color, or caste,—simply as human
souls. We lie near to Nature, we are pensioners on Nature, draw on
inexhaustible resources, and we interfere the least possible with
individual freedom.”
Page 527, note 1. In the “Historical Discourse” in this volume, Mr.
Emerson tells of the evolution of the town-meeting of New England
and its working excellence, and of the latter also in “Social Aims” and
“Eloquence,” in Letters and Social Aims.
Page 540, note 1.
For you can teach the lightning speech,
And round the globe your voices reach.

“Boston,” Poems.

Page 541, note 1.

I will divide my goods;

Call in the wretch and slave:
None shall rule but the humble,
And none but Toil shall have.

“Boston Hymn,” Poems.

Page 544, note 1. The following passages came from the earlier
lecture:—
“I must be permitted to read a quotation from De Tocqueville,
whose censure is more valuable, as it comes from one obviously
very partial to the American character and institutions:—
“‘I know no country in which there is so little true independence of
opinion and freedom of discussion as in America’ (vol. i., p. 259).”
“I am far from thinking it late. I don’t despond at all whilst I hear the
verdicts of European juries against us—Renan says this; Arnold
says that. That does not touch us.
“’Tis doubtful whether London, whether Paris can answer the
questions which now rise in the human mind. But the humanity of all
nations is now in the American Union. Europe, England is historical
still. Our politics, our social frame are almost ideal. We have got
suppled into a state of melioration. When I see the emigrants landing
at New York, I say, There they go—to school.
“In estimating nations, potentiality must be considered as well as
power; not what to-day’s actual performance is, but what promise is
in the mind which a crisis will bring out.”
“The war has established a chronic hope, for a chronic despair. It
is not a question whether we shall be a nation, or only a multitude of
people. No, that has been conspicuously decided already; but
whether we shall be the new nation, guide and lawgiver of all
nations, as having clearly chosen and firmly held the simplest and
best rule of political society.
“Culture, be sure, is in some sort the very enemy of nationality and
makes us citizens of the world; and yet it is essential that it should
have the flavor of the soil in which it grew, and combine this with
universal sympathies. Thus in this country are new traits and
distinctions not known to former history. Colonies of an old country,
but in new and commanding conditions. Colonies of a small and
crowded island, but planted on a continent and therefore working it in
small settlements, where each man must count for ten, and is put to
his mettle to come up to the need....
“Pray leave these English to form their opinions. ’Tis a matter of
absolute insignificance what those opinions are. They will fast
enough run to change and retract them on their knees when they
know who you are....
“I turn with pleasure to the good omen in the distinguished
reception given in London to Mr. Beecher. It was already prepared by
the advocacy of Cobden, Bright and Forster, Mill, Newman, Cairnes
and Hughes, and by the intelligent Americans already sent to
England by our Government to communicate with intelligent men in
the English Government and out of it. But Mr. Beecher owed his
welcome to himself. He fought his way to his reward. It is one of the
memorable exhibitions of the force of eloquence,—his evening at
Exeter Hall. The consciousness of power shown in his broad good
sense, in his jocular humor and entire presence of mind, the
surrender of the English audience on recognizing the true master. He
steers the Behemoth, sits astride him, strokes his fur, tickles his ear,
and rides where he will. And I like the well-timed compliment there
paid to our fellow citizen when the stormy audience reminds him to
tell England that Wendell Phillips is the first orator of the world. One
orator had a right to speak of the other,—Byron’s thunderstorm,
where

“‘Jura answers from his misty shroud

Back to the joyous Alps who call to him aloud.’

“The young men in America to-day take little thought of what men
in England are thinking or doing. That is the point which decides the
welfare of a people,—which way does it look? If to any other people,
it is not well with them. If occupied in its own affairs, and thoughts,
and men, with a heat which excludes almost the notice of any other
people,—as the Jews, as the Greeks, as the Persians, as the
Romans, the Arabians, the French, the English, at their best times
have done,—they are sublime; and we know that in this abstraction
they are executing excellent work. Amidst the calamities that war has
brought on our Country, this one benefit has accrued,—that our eyes
are withdrawn from England, withdrawn from France, and look
homeward. We have come to feel that

“‘By ourselves our safety must be bought;’

to know the vast resources of the continent; the good will that is in
the people; their conviction of the great moral advantages of
freedom, social equality, education and religious culture, and their
determination to hold these fast, and by these hold fast the Country,
and penetrate every square inch of it with this American civilization....
“Americans—not girded by the iron belt of condition, not taught by
society and institutions to magnify trifles, not victims of technical
logic, but docile to the logic of events; not, like English, worshippers
of fate; with no hereditary upper house, but with legal, popular
assemblies, which constitute a perpetual insurrection, and by making
it perpetual save us from revolutions.”
 FOOTNOTES
[A] Mr. Emerson believed the “not” had been accidentally
omitted, and it can hardly be questioned that he was right in his
supposition.
[B] Vol. ii., pp. 424-433.
[C] The Genius and Character of Emerson; Lectures at the
Concord School of Philosophy, edited by F. B. Sanborn. Boston:
James R. Osgood & Co., 1885.
[D] Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, vol. i., pp. 260,
261.
[E] Epistle of Paul to Philemon, i. 16, 17.
[F] See the report of this speech in Redpath’s Life of Captain
John Brown. Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860.
[G] “Review of Holmes’s Life of Emerson,” North American
Review, February, 1885.
[H] Richard Henry Dana; a Biography. By Charles Francis
Adams. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890. In chapter viii. of this book
is a very remarkable account of John Brown and his family at their
home at North Elba in 1849, when Mr. Dana and a friend, lost in
the Adirondac woods, chanced to come out upon the Brown
clearing and were kindly received and aided.
[I] While waiting for the services to begin, Mr. Sears wrote some
verses. The following lines, which Mrs. Emerson saw him write,
were a prophecy literally fulfilled within three years by the Union
armies singing the John Brown song:—

“But not a pit six feet by two

Can hold a man like thee;
John Brown shall tramp the shaking earth
From Blue Ridge to the sea.”

[J] In the very interesting work The Influence of Emerson,

published in Boston in 1903, by the American Unitarian
Association.
 [K] See note 3 to page 63 of the “Historical Discourse.”
[L] “Emerson’s Relation to Society,” in The Genius and
Character of Emerson, Lectures at the Concord School of
Philosophy, edited by F. B. Sanborn. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co.,
1885.
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