ABSTRACT
Facts The South Place Ethical Society had as its objects: (1) ‘the study and dissemination of ethical principles’; and (2) ‘the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment’. In pursuit of both these objects, the Society had as its aim to rely on the methods of reason, rather than on instruction by supernatural revelation and, in the second of its objects, the word ‘religious’ was used in a sense devoid of supernatural content. By an originating summons, the Society asked the court to declare whether or not its objects were charitable. The court considered whether the objects fell under the charitable heads of the advancement of religion, the advancement of education, or whether they were for purposes beneficial to the community.
