388 THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND MORALS. 



was meant to urge to and to point to its proper actions. 

 He may or he may not know that the true final aim of 

 justice is the well-being of mankind as Darwin and 

 Spencer say, or the greatest happiness of the greatest 

 number as Mill and Bentham teach ; he may or he may 

 not know that the natural external origin of justice was 

 the exigencies of society, and the internal origin the 

 first appearance of a strange sentiment which is now 

 strong in him; in any case, what he feels is that the 

 sense of justice and right exists in him, and demands 

 appropriate action. 



Doubtless the just man, the righteous, loved of 

 Heaven, should act under the guidance of reason as 

 well as under the impulse of his sense of justice ; and 

 therefore, though bound to do justly in all the relations 

 of life, he is not bound, unless he occupies a very ex- 

 ceptional position of influence, to aim at a comprehensive 

 realization of justice in his society or in the world. For 

 even the statesman, the legislator, the moral or practical 

 reformer, who might hope to make the claims of justice 

 more fully felt or more widely extended, must first 

 carefully consider the facts and conditions of his society, 

 before he can hope to effect any change either in its 

 sentiments or institutions which might give justice a 

 broader and deeper foundation. With respect to this, 

 the most important of the social virtues, all that can be 

 considered as incumbent on the generality of us, as 

 distinguished from statesmen and reformers, is that in 

 so far as the conditions and exigencies of our social 

 surroundings admit, so far as our circumstances, our 

 talents, our opportunities allow, and consistently with 

 the discharge of other necessary and possibly con- 

 flicting duties, we should, by seconding the aims of 

 those who have the claims of justice at heart, endeavour 





