APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 99 



words, let sympathy be your guide ; put yourself 

 in the place of the man towards whom your action 

 is directed ; and do to him what you would like to 

 have done to yourself under the circumstances. 

 However much one may admire the generosity of 

 such a rule of conduct ; however confident one may 

 be that average men may be thoroughly depended 

 upon not to carry it out to its full logical con- 

 sequences ; it is nevertheless desirable to recognise 

 the fact that these consequences are incompatible 

 with the existence of a civil state, under any circum- 

 stances of this world which have obtamed, or, 

 so far as one can see, are likely to come to 

 pass. 



For I imagine there can be no doubt that the 

 great desire of every wrongdoer is to escape from 

 the painful consequences of his actions. If I put 

 myself in the place of the man who has robbed me, 

 I find that I am possessed by an exceeding desire 

 not to be fined or imprisoned ; if in that of the 

 man w^ho has smitten me on one cheek, I contem- 

 plate with satisfaction the absence of any worse 

 result than the turning of the other cheek for like 

 treatment. Strictly observed, the "golden rule" 

 involves the negation of law by the refusal to put it 

 in motion agamst law-breakers ; and, as regards 

 the external relations of a polity, it is the refusal 

 to continue the struggle for existence. It can be 

 obeyed, even partially, only under the protection of 

 a society which repudiates it. Without such 

 shelter the followers of the "golden rule" may 

 indulge in hopes of heaven, but they must reckon 

 with the certainty that other people will be masters 

 of the earth. 



What would become of the garden if the gar- 

 dener treated all the weeds and slugs and birds 

 and trespassers as he would like to be treated if 

 he were in their place ? 



H 2 



