112 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



ficing has been done by man, and by man alone. If these 

 words have still any meaning, as undoubtedly they have, 

 they refer exclusively and truly only to the actions of man. 

 and not to those of brutes, angels, or gods. If only man is 

 vile, the converse is equally true only man is noble. The 

 two propositions stand or fall together. Love of our 

 species, then, is possible, and therefore actions may be asked 

 of individuals, so far as it is in their power, in furtherance 

 of the best interests of the species. But let us be clearly 

 understood. Love for man, for the species is possible, 

 though it is not possible for all the individuals composing 

 it ; and love for the species, because its higher specimens 

 have redeemed the rest of it and cause us to forget them, 

 or, if we think of its inferior atoms, to forgive them. The 

 whole becomes lovely and sacred because of the better 

 parts, because there have been and there are sparks of 

 celestial fire mingled in the general mass of dull and heavy 

 human earth. We love mankind because great men 

 have in very truth loved it, and have lived and laboured 

 and died for it; we love it in the persons of these men, 

 and because we can love- these who were the best part of 

 it. These and their nearest living representatives make 

 humanity, in many respects an unlovable thing, lovely in 

 our eyes. 



We can love man for the great and good men of the 

 past, or of the present when we are assured of their 

 existence ; and also, let it be particularly noted, because 

 the dearest and most lovable, as well as most beautiful 

 things that our earth has to show to us, are some of the 

 human spirits that we meet in it on our passage spirits 

 generous, and brave, and true, and loving, though great 

 perhaps only in our eyes, in mind, or soul, or heart. Un- 

 fortunate he whose life experience has not shown him 

 some of these spirits touched to these good or noble issues ; 



