Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 7 – Moral Generalities

The problems of life, in a word, become so complex that it is no longer enough to fall to dutifully repeating the tables of the Law.   ‘Thou shalt not kill “:  good!  but there are many things in life, not usually called killing, which yet seem to kill.   The stinging word, the pitiless act, the betrayed trust, the broken pledge – these shorten men’s days.   And what of the prison, the scaffold, or the carnage of the battlefield?   They all kill.   And when we say ‘Do not kill’ which do we mean;  all or some or which?

Similarly, with ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.’   It includes clearly enough the libellous perjury and the downright lie.   But what of all the degrees of distortion or suppression of the truth, down to the significant look, the meaning shrug, the smiling insinuation that takes away our neighbour’s good name?   So throughout. It is vain to hope that the most pious reiteration of the generalities of a code can solve these difficulties of detail.   When in the thick of actual life, time short, action urgent, issues momentous, men find themselves face to face with concrete problems, the rehearsal of moral generalities, however sound, however venerable, will not avail much more than a repetition of the multiplication table. Impotent are the counsellors who in the hour of our need can contribute nothing but a recital, however earnest, of moral generalities.

(Professor MacCunn – The Making of Character)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW