The New Morality 



that you are undermining and corrupting that 

 society to the core. Your outlook is merely on 

 the surface, while you are condoning deep-seated 

 ill. 



Of course the New Morality — to look within^ 

 to feel and refer to the needs of others almost 

 as instinctively as to one's own, to refuse to regard 

 any thing as in itself good or bad, and to look upon 

 all beings, oneself included, as ends in them- 

 selves and not as a means of personal self-advance- 

 ment and glorification — while it is the more natural, 

 is also the more difficult in a sense, as providing 

 no set pattern or rule. But surely the time has 

 arrived for its adoption. It is the morality which 

 must underlie the freer, more varied forms of the 

 society of the future ; and it is the only escape 

 from the corruption of the old order. 



To take particular examples. Truth, in word 

 or act, is — we all feel — very important, very 

 fundamental. It is the basis of the common 

 understanding of which I have spoken. It is 

 the basis of the expression of oneself, and of the 

 recognition of others. Any one who is deeply 

 imbued with the consciousness of the common 

 life will necessarily have a deep respect for the 

 Truth ; he will also have a deep respect for the 

 Life, the Property, the good Name, the Affec- 

 tions, and so forth, of others, as well as for his 

 own similar attributes. He will not be able to 

 say, as a formula : I will never deceive another 

 (tell a lie) ; I will never take the life of others, 

 man or animal (kill) ; and so on, because he knows 



261 



