I PROLEGOMENA 29 



right, and in spite of one's will, that " fellow- 

 feeling makes us wondrous kind," or the reverse. 

 However complete may be the indifference to 

 public opinion, in a cool, intellectual view, of the 

 traditional sage, it has not yet been my fortune to 

 meet with any actual sage who took its hostile 

 manifestations with entire equanimity. Indeed, I 

 doubt if the philosopher lives, or ever has lived, 

 who could know himself to be heartily despised by 

 a street boy without some irritation. And, though 

 one cannot justify Haman for wishing to hang 

 Mordecai on such a very high gibbet, yet, really, 

 the consciousness of the Vizier of Ahasuerus, as 

 he went in and out of the gate, that this obscure 

 Jew had no respect for him, must have been very 

 annoying.^ 



It is needful only to look around us, to see that 

 the greatest restrainer of the anti-social tendencies 

 of men is fear, not of the law, but of the opinion of 

 their fellows. The conventions of honour bind men 

 who break legal, moral, and religious bonds ; and, 

 while people endure the extremity of physical 

 pain rather than part with life, shame drives the 

 weakest to suicide. 



Every forward step of social progress brings men 



^ Esther V. 9-13. "... but when Hainan saw Mordecai in the 

 king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was 

 full of indignation against Mordecai. . . . And Haman told 

 them of the glory of his riches. . . . and all the things 

 wherein the king had promoted him. . . . Yet all this availeth 

 me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the 

 king's gate." What a shrewd exposure of human weakness it is ! 



