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 powell] SOCIOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF INSTITUTIONS 745

and more than all, the establishment of an official priesthood as one of the functions of government and one of the aristocratic estates has been the cause of abuses and horrors in the name of religion for which the student of ecclesiastical history must for- ever blush.

As astronomy was developed from astrology, as chemistry was developed from alchemy, as medicine was developed from necromancy, so ethics is the lineal descendant of animism. Purified from animism, religion will remain forever to bless mankind.

Having set forth the nature of ethics, it now remains to classify its subject matter in compliance with the pentalogic qualities.

It is believed that the classification will occur to every at- tentive reader and that its fundamental nature is evident. It is necessary, therefore, to state the classification without further elaboration. The subject is grouped into (1) the ethics of pleas- ure and pain ; (2) the ethics of welfare and want ; (3) the ethics of justice and injustice ; (4) the ethics of truth and falsehood ; (5) the ethics of wisdom and folly.

It is the province of ethics to teach perfect character by pro- moting conduct governed by principles instinctively entertained as conscience, so that all acts are spontaneously good. The con- duct of such a man is purely ethical.

In the science of economics we find that self-interest is sub- served by promoting the interest of others. In the science of institutions it is discovered that justice for self can be obtained only by doing justice to others. Rights may be obtained by performing duties. In the science of ethics we learn that all conduct, egoistic and altruistic alike, must become spontaneous and habitual. Habitual conduct thus spontaneously controlled has its sanctions in conscience. Ethics, therefore, is the science of conduct controlled by conscience.

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