Chap. III. MORAL SENSE. 101 



fieial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the 

 men of all nations and races. If, indeed, such men are 

 separated from him by great differences in appearance 

 or habits, experience unfortunately shews us how long 

 it is before we look at them as our fellow-creatures. 

 Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is humanity 

 to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest 

 moral acquisitions. It is apparently unfelt by savages, 

 except towards their pets. How little the old Romans 

 knew of it is shewn by their abhorrent gladiatorial 

 exhibitions. The very idea of humanity, as far as I 

 could observe, was new to most of the G-auchos of the 

 Pampas. This virtue, one of the noblest with which 

 man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our 

 sympathies becoming more tender and more widely dif- 

 fused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. 

 As soon as this virtue is honoured and practised by some 

 few men, it spreads through instruction and example to 

 the young, and eventually through public opinion. 



The highest stage in moral culture at which we can 

 arrive, is when we recognise that we ought to control 

 our thoughts, and " not even in inmost thought to think 

 " again the sins that made the past so pleasant to us." 34 

 Whatever makes any bad action familiar to the mind, 

 renders its performance by so much the easier. As 

 Marcus Aurelius long ago said, " Such as are thy habi- 

 " tual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy 

 " mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts." 35 



Our great philosopher, Herbert Spencer, has recently 

 explained his views on the moral sense. He says, 36 " I 



34 Tennyson, ■ Idylls of the King,' p. 244. /CW ^ 



35 'The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Anton h^u^Enp S hf ( 

 translat., 2nd edit., 186'.', p. 112. Marcus Aurelius was boynQS). fl£l . 



36 Letter to Mr. Mill in Bain's 'Mental and Moral S/igte^lSD^ 

 P. 722. 'UBR<- 



&\ N4» ■* -i 



