Dancer (verse)
Hanlon, John
576 THE COMMONWEAL March 3 ~ , I927 social obligations. This formulation of the moral standard exhibits the fields of ethics as being three- fold, comprising duties to oneself, to God, and to the...
...This is the final flaw of every theory of morality, regardless of how noble its prescriptions may be, which tries to dispense with a Supreme Will having absolute validity...
...Leighton goes on to declare that no external sanction for good con-duct is needed: "The highest sanction of the good life is reverence and love for the attainment and enjoy- ment of the fullest possible moral and spiritual indi-viduality in others and in oneself...
...Even if one assumes that the "Cosmic Life" and "Cosmic Order" are realities, how can one be reasonably required to attribute to these entities a right to impose genuine moral obliga- tion...
...There is something sacred and eter- nal in human personality...
...This is a caricature, unless the author has in mind the conception of eternal happiness which prevails among Mohammedans...
...This was a magnificent ideal which prob- ably more completely penetrated and controlled western civilization in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than ever since then...
...Nevertheless, we regret to note the paucity of Catholic works in the author's references...
...The cosmological framework of the classical Christian ethic and metaphysic has been shattered...
...More- over, it misrepresents the theistic and the Christian positions even more seriously...
...The primary end of conduct is to give glory to God in the way that God has ordained...
...576 THE COMMONWEAL March 3 ~ , I927 social obligations...
...There is very little to which we could make strong ob- jection...
...The destiny of the individual seems to rise beyond any actual social order...
...jority of present-day works on the subject...
...The saddest thing about Dr...
...But can western culture afford to dis- pense with its spiritual core---the faith that man is, in part, a self-determining, responsible super-physical being...
...how can it be shown that one is acting irrationally ? Moral obligation has no absolute force, unless it proceeds from a will which has the right to command...
...The three chapters on Christian ethics in the his- torical section are all good, particularly the one entitled The Ethics of Scholasticism...
...Dancer Although she had not danced for years, Her plodding feet had not Forgotten steps that had been theirs, But her poor heart forgot To leap, with an exulting song, Beneath excitement's spur...
...Despite these defects in method and in fundamental principles, the author's treatment of general ethics is, in the main, much more sound than are the great ma...
...Leighton's book is that his own substitute for "the classical Christian ethic and metaphysic" is not likely to impress the average man as having any greater authority than the ethics of materialism which the author detests and fears...
...It must not be inferred, however, that, like many other writers who conceive ethics as entirely social, the author subordinates the individual to society...
...This supposition does not seem far fetched when we read the eloquent and sympathetic summary at the end of his chapter on the ethics of scholasticism...
...apparently he is content "to assume as a working faith that in realizing and fur- thering the realization of integrated and intelligent individuality, we are rowing with and in the main stream of the Cosmic Life...
...It makes man only "a little lower than the angels to crown him with glory and worship...
...It is motiviated by a more exalted conception of the dignity and destiny of man than any naturalistic modern humanism...
...There is no Catholic name among the author's references in connection with chapters on socialism and political authority, or in the catalogue of General Works on Ethics at the end of the volume...
...She was not dancing in that throng, But a thin ghost of her ! Joan HANLON...
...He does nothing of the sort as may be clearly inferred in the following sentences: "The ethical personality transcends the social order...
...Suppose one prefers sensual delights taken here and now, and in general an ignoble kind of life...
...His third departure from the Catholic position is in relation to the ultimate sanction of morality...
...The only logical alternative is that man is nothing but a chance and transient assemblage of physical particles and that all virtues, vices, ideals, values, choices and resolves, are but chemical ferments...
...We find excellent chapters on justice, political authority, economic distribution, socialism, and democ- racy...
...If it be an aristocratic ideal, it is such only in the true sense that distinctions of moral and spiritual quality are the only dis- tinctions than have inexpugnable value...
...In the lists after Part IV we find only three names: Montalembert, Rickaby, and Cronin...
...This formulation of the moral standard exhibits the fields of ethics as being three- fold, comprising duties to oneself, to God, and to the neighbor...
...If it be ascetic, monastic, otherworldly, it is with a great end in view...
...Why should one seek good rather than evil...
...personal happiness is only a secondary, and necessarily resulting condition...
...That summary covers four pages and the following is part of the final paragraph: Thus the dominating principle of the Christian thought and practice of the middle-ages was teleological and ethi- cal...
...in the lists covering Part V (Applied Ethics) there is only one...
...In it all interests, activities and things were pressed into the service of the good life...
...Nevertheless, he has some doubt, not merely of the efficacy, but of the objectivity of this sanction...
...When he comes to discuss applied ethics he is very dose, indeed, to the Catholic position in most of his judgments...
...Leighton's ethical theory would have a sounder basis and would exhibit greater coherence, cogency, and certitude...
...Possibly if he were better acquainted with Catholic authors, Dr...
...He represents this sanction as "balancing the pain of foregoing for a short time sensuous delight in order to ensure an infinity of future delight of the same kind...
...Answering this question, he rejects the sanction of future rewards and punishments as "degrading...
Vol. 5 • March 1927 • No. 21
