Now to such a person the imperative mood of the verb to love
may fairly be used. He may properly be told to make an effort, to shake
off the distrust that oppresses him,--not to suffer unproved suspicions,
causeless jealousies, to stifle by the mere force of prejudice and
mistaken opinion the warmth of feeling natural to him.
But we shall have a closer illustration if we suppose the cold-hearted
society itself to be addressed by a preacher who wishes to bring them
to a better mind. He too may fairly use the imperative mood of the verb
to love. For he may say, "Your mutual coldness does not spring from an
original want of the power of sympathy. If it did, admonitions would
indeed be useless. But it springs from a habit of thought which you have
formed, a maxim which has been received among you, that all men are
devoted to self-interest, that kindness is but feebleness and invites
injury. If you will at once and by a common act throw off this false
opinion of human nature, and adopt a new plan of life for yourselves and
new expectations of each other, you will find the old affections natural
to all of you, weakened indeed and chilled, but existing and capable of
being revived by an effort.
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