Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/97

 even when both reason and feeling in us brand them as unworthy. There are Germans to-day who know that Germany did wrong to hack its way through Belgium, and feel a righteous indignation with her for doing it; and yet their patriotism and loyalty to their fatherland is as strong as ever. Sentiments, once formed, are profoundly conservative forces.

Sentiments vary very much from one man to another. They differ much more than emotions do. In the same community the most diverse sentiments may be found. In one man the sentiment of the family may be the strongest thing in the world, in another the sentiment of patriotism, or loyalty to some institution, or enthusiasm for the kingdom of God, while others may be dominated by the selfish sentiment, the sentiment of self-love. Now sentiments are almost wholly acquired during the lifetime of the man in whom they appear. The hereditary element in them is very slight. Sentiments are developed under the influence of the social environment.

Hence the importance of the moral education of the sentiments. The sentiments are essentially educable, and their formed nature depends wholly on how the child has been trained. Whether the child will become a patriotic citizen or a neutral cipher, a loyal member of a family or a self-centred misanthrope, an enthusiast for social righteousness or a morbid egoist, will depend very largely on the influence of parents and teachers.

What practical steps can the teacher take in attempting to educate the sentiments? It is not advisable simply to describe such a sentiment as