ETHICS 52 ETHIOPIA cause of antagonism to traditional creeds and ceremonies had drifted away from organized churches and synagogues. His purpose was to promote the moral devel- opment of society and the individual by emphasis upon the humanitarian im- pulses of men and women and by holding up a high moral standard of conduct. Meetings of the society were held on Sundays and an address on some social or economic question was made. The moral aspect of the problem was stressed. The importance which the society placed on education led them to establish the New York Ethical Culture School. This school, providing elementary and second- ary instruction, was among the first to assign to manual training an important role in the elementary education. In 1882 a similar society for ethical culture was formed in Chicago, and three years later an organization was effected in Phila- delphia. By 1915 they numbered in membership 2,500, being confined mostly to the large cities. Societies have also been formed in England and Germany. ETHICS, that branch of moral philos- osophy which is concerned with human character and conduct. It deals with man as a source of action and is closely related to psychology and sociology. It seeks to determine the principles by which conduct is to be regulated, having to do not merely with what is, but with what ought to be. Modern ethics has frequently a distinctly legal or theolo- gical stamp, being presented as a system of duties prescribed by God, or by con- science. Underlying this notion is the conception of certain kinds of conduct, or certain types of character, as better than others or preferable to them. The doctrine that pleasure is the highest good was held by predecessors and con- temporaries of Aristotle, and was after- ward formulated by Epicurus (q. v.) into an ethical theory. Contrasted with this is Universalistic Hedonism or Utili- tarianism, which owes its development to modern, and especially to English writers, and holds that the chief good is the hap- piness or pleasure of the community, or of mankind, or even of sentient crea- tures. The founder of modern utilita- rianism was David Hume (g. v.). The utilitarianism of Paley {q. v.) was founded on the belief that the happiness of mankind was the ethical end pre- scribed by God; that of Bentham {q. v.) resulted from looking at action from the point of view of the community and its interests rather than from that of the interests of the individual. Applied only to the method of utilitarianism in Her- bert Spencer's (q. v.) hands, the evolu- tion theory has been used by other wri- ters to show the inadequacy of the utili- tarian principle. The controversies, especially of Eng- lish ethics, have been largely occupied with the debate on the question between the^ empirical and intuitive schools of ethics. The intuitive school lays stress on the immediateness and universality of the moral judgment passed by each man's conscience. A doctrine of the Moral Sense, as a feeling or perception by which action or motives are morally distinguished apart from their conse- quences, was developed by Shaftesbury (q. V.) and Hutcheson (q. v.); and W. A. Butler formulated the doctrinp that conscience is the supreme authority as to what is right or wrong. The introduction of Christianity brought a new element into ethical spec- ulation; among Christians ethics was intimately associated with theology, and morality was regarded as based on and regulated by a definite code contained in the sacred writings. Most modern ethical systems consider the subject as apart from theology and as based on in- dependent philosophical principles; they fall into one of two great classes, the utilitarian and the rationalistic systems. The first of the modern school in Eng- land was Hobbes (1588-1679). Among subsequent names are those of Cud- worth, Locke, Clarke, Shaftesbury, But- ler, Hutcheson, Hume, Adam Smith, Reid, Paley, Whewell, Bentham, and Johji Stuart Mill. ETHIOPIA, or .ETHIOPIA, in ancient geography is the country lying to the south of Egypt, and comprehending the modern Nubia, Kordofan, Abyssinia, and other adjacent districts; but its limits were not clearly defined. It was vaguely spoken of in Greek and Roman accounts as the land of the Ichthyophagi or fish- eaters, the Macrobii or long-livers, the Troglodytes or dwellers in caves, and of the Pygmies or dwarf races. In ancient times its history was closely connected with that of Egypt, and about the 8th century b. C. it imposed a dynasty on Lower Egypt, and acquired a predomi- nant influence in the valley of the Nile. In sacred history Ethiopia is repeatedly mentioned as a powerful military king- dom (see particularly Isaiah xx: 5). In the 6th century B. C. the Persian Cam- byses invaded Ethiopia; but the country maintained its independence till it be- came tributary to the Romans in the reign of Augustus. Subsequently Ethi- opia came to be the designation of the country now known as Abyssinia, 'and the Abyssinian monarchs still call them- selves rulers of Ethiopia. Language. — The Ethiopian language,
