ethos (ethos)

[ Many other social forces, national character, ideas, customs the whole inherited ethos of the people - individual peculiarities, love of power, sense of fair dealing, public opinion, conscience, local ties, family connections, civil legislation - all exercise upon industrial affairs as real an influence as personal interest; and, furthermore, they exercise an influence of precisely the same kind. Rae , Contemp. Socialism, p. 211. From the end of the second to the beginning of the sixteenth century there can be no doubt as to the contents and ethos of that system. Fortnightly Rev. , N. S., XXXIX. 188. Specifically-2. In the Gr. fine arts, etc., the inherent quality of a work which produces, or is fitted to produce, a high moral impre ion, noble, dignified, and universal, as opposed to a work characterized by pathos, or the particular, accidental, pa ionate, realistic quality. By ethos , as applied to the paintings of Polygnotus, we understand a dignified bearing in his figures, and a measured movement throughout his compositions. Encyc. Brit ., II. 359.