2 44 ASSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



be a natural product of society, and therefore not 

 a thing to be apologized for. It may have force 

 before which we must bow or break. But it is 

 neither human nor divine. We cannot love it. 

 And so there is a never-ending opposition between 

 the law and the will. 



So even with the theory of Kant. Nothing can 

 be grander than the passages in which he speaks 

 of the universality of the moral law, and the great- 

 ness of the name of Duty. But when he asks 

 what it is which lies behind duty, which gives it its 

 greatness and its grandeur, in a word, its authority 

 over man, the answer is one which fails to satisfy 

 us. It is personality, he tells us, which gives the 

 moral law its grandeur. Man in obeying the moral 

 law is "subject to his own personality." " He 

 regards with reverence that which is highest in 

 himself, and therefore respects its laws." Yes ! 

 Kant has reached the great truth that only a 

 Person can speak authoritatively to a Person. But 

 man cannot love and reverence a law which is his 

 own, nor can he divide himself in twain, and wor- 

 ship in his lower self that which is the will of his 

 higher and personal being. " The respect-inspiring 

 idea of Personality" looks well enough in an 

 ethical treatise. Will it stand the inrush of tempta- 

 tion when the enemy comes in like a flood ? 



Human love and the memories of home, the 

 thought of mother or sister, or of one dearer, 



