at
theatres has somewhat modified the nature of the performance; even the
"refined vaudeville" now begins to show the influence of women. It would
be no great advantage to have this department of human life feminized;
the improvement desired is to have it less masculized; to reduce the
excessive influence of one, and to bring out those broad human interests
and pleasures which men and women can equally participate in and enjoy.

VII. ETHICS AND RELIGION.

The laws of physics were at work before we were on earth, and continued
to work on us long before we had intelligence enough to perceive,
much less understand, them. Our proven knowledge of these processes
constitutes "the science of physics"; but the laws were there before the
science.

Physics is the science of material relation, how things and natural
forces work with and on one another. Ethics is the science of social
relation, how persons and social forces work with and on one another.

Ethics is to the human world what physics is to the material world;
ignorance of ethics leaves us in the same helpless position in regard to
one another that ignorance of physics left us in regard to earth, air,
fire and water.

To be sure, people lived and died and gradually improved, while yet
ignorant of the physical sciences; they developed a rough "rule
of thumb" method, as animals do, and used great forces without
understanding them. But their lives were safer and their improvement
more rapid as they learned more, and began to make servants of the
forces which had been their masters.

We have progressed, lamely enough, with terrible loss and suffering,
from stark savagery to our present degree of civilization; we shall go
on more safely and swiftly when we learn more of the science of ethics.

Let us note first that while the underlying laws of ethics remain steady
and reliable, human notions of them have varied widely and still do
so. In different races, ages, classes, sexes, different views of ethics
obtain; the conduct of the people is modified by their views, and their
prosperity is modified by their conduct.

Primitive man became very soon aware that conduct was of importance. As
consciousness increased, with the power to modify action from within,
instead of helplessly reacting to stimuli from without, there arose the
crude first codes of ethics, the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of
the blundering savage. It was mostly "Thou shalt not." Inhibition,