A VIEW IN PERSPECTIVE. 155 



nature, has had at all times the important effect of 

 cementing the tribes into a rigid unity. Union for 

 mutual protection is impossible without it. Among 

 the Jews we early find the command to love one's 

 neighbor as one's self. Their interpretation of the 

 word neighbor was to be sure very narrow, but the 

 presence of such a law shows that love was recog- 

 nized as one of the noblest attributes of man. 



The tribal relation was thus originally assumed for 

 protection, but a mutual love cemented the tribes 

 into units. By further application of the same feel- 

 ings, the size of the tribes increased, and they were 

 finally submerged into nations. Now it is the feel- 

 ing of love which alone makes great nations possible. 

 The increase in the size of tribes and nations has 

 undoubtedly been brought about by conquest rather 

 than by love. But it is the feeling of love alone 

 which enables a large tribe to hold together. The 

 tribe whose sympathies were confined within narrow 

 limits would always disappear before the tribe whose 

 broader love made possible the union of larger 

 bodies. Those tribes in which this feeling of mutual 

 love and sympathy was the broadest obtained the 

 mastery over the others and increased at the ex- 

 pense of the others. Now since all tribes and 

 nations have recognized a demand on man to love 

 other members of his own nation, the scope of man's 

 obligation to love his fellow men has constantly ex- 

 panded with the increase in the size of nations. 

 Finally, with Christ there was announced the com- 

 plete law for man, the law of universal love. By 

 Christ was man's obligation to love extended to his 



