ELEMENTS of MORALS:
WITH
SPECIAL APPLICATION OF THE MORAL LAW TO THE
DUTIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND OF
SOCIETY AND THE STATE.
BY
PAUL JANET,
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE, OF THE ACADEMY OF MORAL AND POLITICAL
SCIENCES, AUTHOR OF THEORY OF MORALS, HISTORY OF MORAL
AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, FINAL CAUSES, ETC., ETC.
TRANSLATED BY
Mrs. C. R. CORSON.
A. S. BARNES & CO.,
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
Copyright, 1884, by A. S. Barnes & Co.
PREFACE.
The Eléments de Morale, by M. Paul Janet, which we here present to theeducational world, translated from the latest edition, is, of all theworks of that distinguished moralist, the one best adapted to college andschool purposes. Its scholarly and methodical arrangement, its clear anddirect reasonings, its felicitous examples and illustrations, drawn withrare impartiality from the best ancient and modern writers, make of thisstudy of Ethics, generally so unattractive to young students, onesingularly inviting. It is a system of morals, practical rather thantheoretical, setting forth man’s duties and the application thereto of themoral law. Starting with Preliminary Notions, M. Janet follows these upwith a general division of duties, establishes the general principles ofsocial and individual morality, and chapter by chapter moves from dutiesto duties, developing each in all its ramifications with unerringclearness, decision, and completeness. Never before, perhaps, was thisdifficult subject brought to the comprehension of the student with moreconvincing certainty, and, at the same time, with more vivid andimpressive illustrations.
The position of M. Paul Janet is that of the religious moralist.
“He supplies,” says a writer in the British Quarterly Review,[1] in anotice of his Theory of Morals, “the very element[Pg iv] to which Mr. Sullygives so little place. He cannot conceive morals without religion. Statedshortly, his position is, that moral good is founded upon a natural andessential good, and that the domains of good and of duty are absolutelyequivalent. So far he would seem to follow Kant; but he differs from Kantin denying that there are indefinite duties: every duty, he holds, isdefinite as to its form; but it is either definite or indefinite as toits application. As religion is simply belief in the Divine goodness,morality must by necessity lead to religion, and is like a flowerlessplant if it fail to do so. He holds with Kant that practical faith inthe existence of God is the postulate of the moral law. The two thingsexist or fall together.”
This, as to M. Janet’s position as a moralist; as to his manner oftreating his subject, the writer adds:
“... it is beyond our power to set forth, with approach to success, theadmirable series of reasonings and illustrations by which his positionsare established and maintained.”
M. Janet’s signal merit is the clearness and decision which he gives tothe main points of his subject, keeping them ever distinctly in view, andstrengthening and supplementing them by substantial and conclusive facts,drawn from the best sources, framing, so to say, his idea in time-honoredand irrefutable truths.
The law of duty t