Ethics of the Social Question.

Professor Peabody finished his course of lectures on the ethics of the social questions last evening. The last of these social questions of which he spoke was the Indian question. This, said he, had shown the theory of ethics worked out on a large field and with dramatic interest, and the theory had been triumphantly sustained. The white man at first sought only his self-interest and drove the Indian away; then, to quell rebellion, he must pacify him with reservations: now he has come to realize that this is unjust to both sides, - the Indian is kept out of the American life, and the white man is kept out of the Indian's land. The result is that he sees he must do right by the Indian, that he must educate him for a place in our civilization. The century of dishonor, as it has been called, has really been a century of terrible mistakes. Out of those mistakes the country has gradually learnt the only proper and successful way of solving the problem, and that way has been shown to be simply giving the Indian his proper place in our social organization.

Professor Peabody then considered the correlation of the different social questions. Just as all the forces of the physical world are known to be only manifestations of the same force, so the different social perplexities are only different phases of the question. They are closely bound together; one runs into another; one cannot be solved without solving to some extent the others; and one cannot be disregarded without doing some injustice to all the others. For example, the Indian question really touches the questions also of family, of charity, and of temperance. The question of private ownership of land means the emergence of the family from out the tribe, and that is the beginning of home life. The mistaken policy of the government in feeding and housing the Indians only shows again that the best charity consists not of direct help, but of offered opportunity for a man to help himself.

The history of Indian life shows also that we can never hope to secure stable prosperity among them until we have to some extent solved the question of temperance.

When we first see the intimacy of these problems, we are discouraged. The tasks of solving them seems tremendous, and ever increasing. But it is this discouragement that ought to start us upon the right track. We see the greatness of the whole field, and therefore we can have a just appreciation of the importance of any particular endeavor in which we are engaged.

As our last enquiry, we are led to ask what is this underlying force. Science has answered that in physical matters an eternal energy is behind all. Ethics tells us that behind all this social agitation is the moral instinct of men, trying to make itself felt, and yet this moral life in man is only a part of the perfected life in God. The social struggle is really a struggle to spiritualize our material conditions.