ON HUMAN NATURE AND ITS CAPACITIES FOR VIRTUE. 97 



example, the sentiment received an extension and a 

 deepening in the consciousness of humanity that it never 

 had before. And in very truth, could this sentiment only 

 have taken possession of all men's hearts, the kingdom 

 of heaven had been at hand, and the salvation of man on 

 earth assured. Unfortunately, though the feeling of love 

 and brotherhood did spread amongst the early Christians, 

 it was yet too noble a sentiment to fill men generally ; it 

 spent its strength in converting the barbarous nations, 

 and the old selfishness in man's heart returned, or it 

 had never been rooted out of the hearts of these rude 

 races who found life a struggle for existence in the 

 extremest sense. Christianity and the love of others 

 which it teaches, however, kept the struggle from being 

 more fell and deadly ; and a few good spirits ever were 

 found who made the religion of Christ what he intended 

 it to be one of love and good deeds to others. At the 

 end of the long struggle of the strongest in the dark and 

 Middle Ages, the principle of love to others again emerged 

 in Europe ; it was proclaimed as the principle of morality 

 by the amiable eighteenth-century moralists, Hutcheson, 

 Hartley, Priestley, and in great measure by Butler and 

 Hume ; it even battled fiercely for wider existence under 

 the form of " fraternity " of the French revolutionists ; 

 while in our own days, it is once more pressed upon our 

 regard and attention under the formula of the " love of 

 humanity" of the Comtist, and of "the greatest happiness 

 of the greatest number " of the Benthamite, while it is an 

 indispensable postulate in all socialist programmes. But 

 whether this old revived principle of love for others may 

 be expected to regenerate society and abolish or abate 

 the struggle for existence, we shall be in a better position 

 to see presently, when we have glanced briefly at the 

 scientific account of its origin and development. 



H 



