RATIONAL LIFE 289 



morality, and religion. Through all differences of 

 race and rank, in all scenes near and remote, these 

 companion visitors are helping to make the feeble 

 strong, the strongest noble, lifting even the most 

 mangled form from depths of self-inflicted injury. 



There is nothing easier than to write about the 

 greatness of human life, yet there are few things more 

 difficult. I prefer to have a sketch transferred to this 

 page as it has been touched off by a master hand : 



What a piece 



of work is a man ! How noble in reason ! how infinite 

 in faculty ! in form and moving how express and 

 admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in apprehension 

 how like a god ! the beauty of the world ! the paragon 

 of animals ! 1 



True to Nature ! Yet is this the description of man 

 as he is contemplated, at his best, in the ideal, with 

 regard to his rational power, to his range of thought, 

 and to the potentialities belonging to a rational life. 

 It is such a description as we accept when we regard 

 man in the dignity of his manhood, when in our 

 consciousness we make account of his higher relations 

 as a moral aud spiritual being. Such a description, 

 from the hand of the dramatist, may stand alongside 

 the philosopher s view, as when Kant describes man s 

 insight into moral excellence : 



Every example given to me of virtue must first be compared 

 with the principle and standard of morality, to know if it be 

 worthy of being elevated to the rank of the archetype or pattern, 

 and so of course cannot originate in us the notion. Even the Holy 

 One in the gospel is only recognised to be so, when compared with 

 our ideal of moral excellence. 2 



1 Hamlet, Act n. Sc. 2. 



2 Kant s Ground-work of the Metaphysic of Ethics, chap. ii. 

 Semple s Translation, p. 19. 



T 



