Excerpt from Psychological and Ethical, Aspects of Mormon Group Life It is the purpose of this work to interpret the life-history of the Mormon group in the scientific spirit, and, in so far as the present methods of social and psychological investigation are adequate, to get at fundamental psychological and ethical principles. I realize, however, that the Mormon group life is extremely complex, as is every social unit, and cannot be stated in simple terms. I realize also my own limitations in dealing with the problem. One who has been associated all his life with the Mormon people, as I have been, is sure to have formed prejudices and conceptions which render an objective and impartial study of them extremely difficult. But on the other hand, the inner life of the group, its sentiments, and ideas, can be comprehended only by one who has actually experienced them. I therefore regard myself as justified in attempting to describe and interpret the sentiments which I have to a certain extent experienced in common with the group. In this work I do not pretend to give a detailed account of Mormon history. The accounts of historical events have been purposely reduced to very brief statements in order to give greater prominence to the psychological aspects of the different situations in which the Mormon group was placed. It is the group sentiments with which we are here concerned, and particularly the genetic development of Mormon group consciousness. In so far as I have succeeded in making this work scientific it has been through the influence of the instructors in the departments of philosophy political economy in the University of Chicago. I am especially indebted to Professor James H. Tufts, George H. Mead, and Edward S. Ames, for the ethical and psychological point of view. For methods of investigation and organization of material I must acknowledge the help which I have received from the late Professor Robert Hoxie and from Professor James Laurence Laugblin, of the Department of Political Economy. In the collecting of the material as well as its interpretation I am deeply indebted to my wife, who collected much valuable source material which I otherwise would not have received. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.