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Reclass 10-9-28 N.T.T

PREFACE.

IN

N the General Part of this work (page 463) I gave my views on the relation existing between that and the more mor strictly practical part, which latter is now presented in two divisions, namely Individual and Social Ethics, the first of which has regard chiefly to the individual, the other to society. So, then, the whole essay is closed herewith, and experts will be able to prove what value may belong to the method here applied to the treatment of Ethics.

But if the Special Part was to be connected with the General as a side-piece, there was needed a certain amplitude of statement and a form corresponding to the subjects handled. And from the whole design of this work, it will scarcely require an apology that parts occur in it of an edifying character, or at least bordering thereon. On the whole, it is to be remarked, however, that in the progress of a more ample statement, it is not always easy to hit the boundary between what the author has to express and what he can fitly leave to the reader to say to himself, a difficulty which makes itself felt more especially where so much is treated of that in a certain sense is known to all, although all do not therefore by any means rightly understand or have fully acknowledged it.

When I published the General Part, I expressed the hope that it would also find acceptance with educated nontheologians. In now thanking non-theological as well as theological readers, who have bestowed on the General Part so benevolent an attention, I can only wish that the Special Part may find a similar interest. No doubt the nature of the contents involves that even if the reader agrees with the fundamental views, some difference of opinion may emerge when the general has to be connected with and applied to the special relations of actual life. This may well hold good especially

V

of those relations handled in the second division of the present book, the social and political, where the changeable side of the moral idea especially appears, where the solution of the problems presented can only be sought and found under conditions which are given by a historical development or complication, and where at the same time even the ethical judgment, as well as the ethical requirement, must be conditioned by the comprehension of actual, often complicated circumstances and relations. Here, as regards many points, a difference of individual views and judgments will scarcely be avoidable. And yet one must either abstain from writing a special Ethic, extending also over social conditions, or one must which it is true many disapprove who in these questions are not willingly embarrassed by the Ethical-enter upon the moveable, changeable side of the moral world, must discuss questions of the day, which though of a composite and mixed nature, yet in every case have an ethical side that must get justice, and for the fundamental examination of which no other place can be pointed out but just Ethics. But the last problem of special Ethics must surely be this: by means of the contemplation of the alterable and changeable to lead to a more fundamental knowledge, a deeper founding of the unchangeable, to promote the consciousness of that which remains the same in every sphere of life, alike yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow, the same with its blessings, but also with its requirements, not only of individuals but also of peoples. That the present writing may quietly co-operate to the establishment of this one imperishable thing in sentiment and mode of thought, is what I wish most of all.

There are added an Index of things and names to the whole work, as well as a list of the passages of Scripture occasionally discussed. This addition will, as I suppose, be

not unwelcome to our readers.

COPENHAGEN.

H. MARTENSEN.

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