The type of its own kind was perfect. All the
virtues and all the majesty that accompany human pride, when developed
to the highest point, and directed to the noblest ends, were here
displayed. All those which accompany humility and self-abasement were
absent.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 74: From Chapter II, Vol. I, of "History of European Morals,"
1869. The author's foot-notes have been omitted.]
THE ENTHUSIASM OF HUMANITY[75]
JOHN ROBERT SEELEY
The first method of training this passion which Christ employed was the
direct one of making it a point of duty to feel it. To love one's
neighbour as oneself was, he said, the first and greatest _law_. And in
the Sermon on the Mount he requires the passion to be felt in such
strength as to include those whom we have most reason to hate--our
enemies and those who maliciously injure us--and delivers an imperative
precept, "Love your enemies."
It has been shown that to do this is not, as might at first appear, in
the nature of things impossible, but the further question suggests
itself, Can it be done to order? Has the verb to love really an
imperative mood? Certainly, to say that we can love at pleasure, and by
a mere effort of will summon up a passion which does not arise of
itself, is to take up a paradoxical and novel position.
Pages:
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617