360 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEKSE. 



fact that the formulation of this supreme command 

 is not an original merit of Christ, as the majority of 

 Christian theologians affirm and their uncritical 

 supporters blindly accept. The Golden Rule is 500 

 years older than Christ; it was laid down as the 

 highest moral principle by many Greek and Oriental 

 sages. Pittacus of Mytilene, one of the seven wise 

 men of Greece, said 620 years before Christ : "Do 

 not that to thy neighbour that thou would'st not 

 suffer from him." Confucius, the great Chinese 

 philosopher and religious founder (who rejected the 

 idea of a personal God and of the immortality of the 

 soul), said 500 years b.c. : " Do to every man as thou 

 would'st have him do to thee ; and do not to another 

 what thou would'st not have him do to thee. This 

 precept only dost thou need ; it is the foundation of 

 all other commandments." Aristotle taught, about 

 the middle of the fourth century b.c: "We must 

 act towards others as we wish others to act towards 

 us." In the same sense, and partly in the same 

 words, the Golden Rule was given by Thales, Isocrates, 

 Aristippus, Sextus the Pythagorean, and other philo- 

 sophers of classic antiquity — several centuries before 

 Christ. From this collection it is clear that the 

 Golden Rule had a polyphyletic origin — that is, it was 

 formulated by a number of philosophers at different 

 times and in different places, quite independently of 

 each other. Otherwise it must be assumed that Jesus 

 derived it from some other oriental source, from 

 ancient Semitic, Indian, Chinese, or especially Budd- 

 histic traditions, as has been proved in the case of 

 most of the other Christian doctrines. 



As the great ethical principle is thus 2,500 years 

 old, and as Christianity itself has put it at the head 



