Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    logical point of view, rules expressing the purposes of a conscious Being, and accidents will be occur- rences not conforming to such purposes. The theologian who adopts the theory that con- tingency in the natural world is an illusion due to our ignorance of general causes, must hold that there is no event not in conformity with Divine design ; the very illusion of contingency must itself be the result of purpose. The difficulties that attend this subject are the same as surround the problem of Evil (wh. see). Practically, the belief that there are real influences in the world thwart- ing the Divine design is an incitement towards activity ; the opposite doctrine—that accidents are, after all, part of the Divine purpose, gives consola- tion in failure. On the whole, Christian theology tends to maintain that the solution of such difficul- ties falls outside the province of reason, and does not attempt such a synthesis of contradictory opinions as constitutes the Hegelian treatment of the contingent. G. R. T. Ross. ACCIDENTS (Injurious).—Accidents, in the general sense of the term as popularly employed, may be defined as unforeseen occurrences in human experience. Obviously the accidental character of events will thus be relative to the knowledge and reasoning power of different individuals. In order to mitigate the consequences of injurious accidents, the method of insurance (wh. see) is the most efiective. By this means the consequences of an injurious accident, in so far as they can be ex- pressed in terms of money, may be entirely de- prived of their momentary and future effect by a previous economy, much less in most cases than would be necessary to equalize, as a sum of pay- ments, the damage sustained. Not only so, but the diffusion of the evil results of contingency over a lengthened period, and their transference to a corporation, prevent them from having that cumulative effect which may lead to further disaster of new and increasing nature. Injurious accidents may lead to legal action, wherever the occurrences so styled are the result of the agency of at least one individual other than the sufferer, and that other agency can be dis- tinguished from society in general. (a) In the first class of such suits—actions for damages at common law—the first plea to be estab- lished by the prosecutor is substantially the pro- position that the occurrence, which relatively to him was accidental, was not so to the defender, but fell within the scope of the latter’s knowledge and foresight. But there are numerous circumstances which might neutralize the effect even of the estab- lishment of such a contention. (h) Claims for compensation may be brought in cases where the injurious accident occurs in an enterprise concerning which there was a previous contract or agreement between the litigating parties. In numerous classes of such joint enter- prise the extent to which the risk of accident is borne by either party is laid down by law. For each species of relation a different rule may obtain. Thus in British law the liability for damage to goods entrusted to their care differs in the cases of warehousemen and of common carriers. The relation involving joint enterprise to which Par- liamentary enactment has most recently extended delimitation of the risk of the contracting parties, is that of employer and employed. In consequence of the Workmen’s Compensation Acts of 1897,1900, and 1906, in a great number of industries, and not merely in those involving an unusual amount of danger to workers, the employer now bears the risk of injury to his workmen. Every workman may claim compensation from his employer for injury through accident, unless the accident be VOL. I.—5 caused by his own serious and wilful misconduct. The result of these enactments is practically to make the employer bear the cost of the insurance of his employees against accident. It is only to be expected, however, that, though the immediate consequence will be a diminution of the revenue of employers, in time the expense of this system will fall partly upon the worlmen, in the shape of a diminution or absence of increase in wages. Litebatvre.- 1900, 8th ed. p] Emery, HandbooK w rroricmen s ijomp. lyua. G. R. T. Ross. ACCIDIE.—The obsolete ‘accidie,’ from d/ojSi'a, incuria, (Hippocr.), through med. Lat. accidia (as if from acciderc), was once current as the name of a quality related on one side to sloth, which has superseded it in some lists of the principal vices. Chaucer in the Parson’s Talc, dilating upon the ‘ Seven Mortal Sins,’ Supcrbia, Invidia, Ira, Accidia, Avaritia, Gula, Luxuria, vTites of the fourth : ‘ Agayns this roten-herted sinne of Acciffie and Slouthe snolde men exercise hem-self to doon gode werkes, and manly and vertuously cacchen corage well to ddon’ (Skeat, Student’s Chaucer, p. 700). In Dante see accidia and adj. accidioso (Purg. xviii. 132; Inf. vii. 123). The Patristic uses of &KT]Sla rest upon the Old Testament. The earliest of them is not noticed by the authori- ties mentioned below. The correct Latin form is acedia. Bp. Hall is quoted for ‘acedy’ (1623). ’AKijSi'a, aKTiSiav are found as below in the LXX; the render- ings in brackets are from the Vulgate. (1) Ps 11828 ivvtrraffv ri il/vxv 9-ov arrb aKriSCos (prcB tcedio). (2) Is 613 TrrevfiaTos aKr/Stas (mosroris). (3) Sir 29® amSioaei Ativout a/oiSmt (Uedif). (4) Ps 603 t<3 iKTiSidaat -riir xapSCa„ pov (dum anxiaretuA (61 Ps 1011 Upoaevxv T<pirnox<f orav i.KriSia(rp {cumanximfuerit). (6) Ps 1424 Kai TiKTidiaa-ev ctt epe to Trveipd pov (anxiatUS est). (7) Dn 716 LXX, aKTiSicto-a; eya> Aari^A, Theod. e^pi^n (horruif). (8) Bar 31 ^vx^ tv o-Terois xal m/evpa oio)3iu)k (anxius) [Schleusner, s.v. dKTjSia, anxietatum], (,9)SiT&^p^TrpotTox9i<rni(neacedieTia). (10) Sir 2213 xaX oil pri aKijSido-ps (non acediaheris). The phrase ‘ spirit of acedy ’ is from (2) above ; Antioch. Horn. 26 alludes also to (1), (4), (6), (8); and (9), (10) in the Latin are cited by Alardus Gazseus on Cassian. In Vis. iii. of Hermce Pastor it is explained that the Church appeared first as old, ‘because your spirit was aged and already faded and powerless from your ailings and doubts. For as the aged, having no hope any more to renew their youth, expect nothing but their last sleep; so ye, being weakened by worldly affairs, yielded yourselves up to acedies {rds asriSlas), and cast not your cares upon the Lord, but your spirit was broken, and ye were worn out with your griefs (Xtnrais).’ Thus acedy is associated with sadness (biim)), one of the four plus eight principal vices in Sim. ix. 16; which is more wicked than all the spirits, and destroys the power of prayer (Hand, v., x.). 'The parable of the Unclean Spirit which takes to it seven other spirits more wicked than itself (Mt 12-‘6, Lk 1136) serves as a proof-text for the number eight (afterwards seven) of the principalia vitia. Nilus of Sinai calls them the ‘Eight Spirits of Wickedness’ (Zockler, op. cit. inf. p. 65). In Cassian’s Collat. v. ‘De octo principalibus Vitiis,’ which embodies the teaching of Serapion, the eight vices are said to be Gastrimargia, Forni- catio, Philargyria, Ira, Tristitia, Acedia sive tsedium cordis, Cenodoxia, Superbia. They are referred to in Lk lU^i-, and they correspond to the like number of nations hostile to Israel. Why eight vices, when Moses enumerates only seven such nations? (Dt 7^). Egypt, corresponding to the first vice (Nu IP), makes up the number : the land of Egypt was to be forsaken, and the lands of the seven taken. Acedy, the besetting sin of the monk, was of two kinds: it sent him to sleep in his cell, or drove him out of it. The same vices