nothing except as they are fruits of a state, except
as they indicate what the man is ; that words ai*e no*
thing except as they express a mind or purpose. Nor
need I add that it is a Society — a Human Society— in
which the preacher of that Sermon assumes that this
^^09 is to be exhibited. It might have sounded a com-
monplace of Divinity to tell you at the beginning of
my Lecture that this is what I hold to be the meaning
of Social Morality. We have now seen that no other
is found to be satisfactory by any persons who have
seriously meditated upon it. I might again seem to be
merely following the order of the Scriptures in taking
the Family, the Nation, a Society for all nations and
kindreds, as the divisions of my subject. Since upon
quite independent grounds that method has recom-
mended itself to us, you will not deem it a less sound
or desirable one because it has this sanction.
LECTURE IL

DOMESTIC MORALITY.
(1) PARENTS AND CHILDREN.
Many writers begin with considering mankind as a
multitude of units. They ask, How did any number of
these units form themselves into a Society? I cannot
adopt that method. At my birth I am already in a
Society. I am related, at all events, to a father and
mother. This relation is the primary fact of my exist-
ence. I can contemplate no other facts apart from it.
