"
Such a preacher might go further and say, "If but a small minority are
convinced by my words, yet let that minority for itself abandon the
selfish theory, let it renounce the safety which that theory affords in
dealing with selfish men, let it treat the enemy as if he were indeed
the friend he ought to be, let it dare to forego retaliation and even
self-defence. By this means it will shame many into kindness; by
despising self-interest for itself it will sometimes make it seem
despicable to others; by sincerity and persistency it will gradually
convert the majority to a higher law of intercourse."
The world has been always more or less like this cold-hearted society;
the natural kindness and fellow-feeling of men have always been more or
less repressed by low-minded maxims and cynicism. But in the time of
Christ, and in the last decrepitude of ethnic morality, the selfishness
of human intercourse was much greater than the present age can easily
understand. That system of morality, even in the times when it was
powerful and in many respects beneficial, had made it almost as much a
duty to hate foreigners as to love fellow-citizens.
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