The New Morality 



but in the confidence and mutual trust which 

 they either create or destroy. The peculiarly 

 English worship of Duty is open to the same 

 objection. " Lilies that fester smell far worse 

 than weeds," and splendid as is the conception 

 and practice of Duty, as a self-oblivious inspira- 

 tion and enthusiasm, it becomes a truly revolting 

 thing when it takes the all-too-common form 

 " I have done my Duty, I'm all right ! " "I 

 am going to do my Duty, whatever becomes of 

 you." Can anything be imagined more dis- 

 integrating to society, more certain to split it 

 up into a dustheap of self-regarding units, than 

 a formula of this kind ? " It is my painful Duty 

 to condemn you to be hanged by the neck until 

 you are dead," says the Judge to the wretched 

 girl who, in a frenzy of despair, has drowned her 

 baby. What he really means is that while he 

 perfectly recognises the monstrosity of the Law 

 which he has sworn to administer, and the soul- 

 killing effect on the girl which his sentence may 

 have, yet in order to save himself from the risk or 

 the wrong of breaking that Law, he is willing and 

 ready to pronounce that sentence. " It is my 

 duty to burn you," says the Inquisitor to the heretic ; 

 and the implication is really, " I am afraid that if 

 I do not burn you I shall get burnt myself, in the 

 next world." 



The sooner an end can be made of this sort of 

 morality, the better — which under the cloak of 

 public advantage or benefit is only thinking about 

 self-promotion and self-interest, either in this 



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