80 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



member that during civilization the rehgion of enmity is slowly 

 losing strength, while the religion of amity is slowly gaining 

 strength. " 



This is true because nationalism with its huge aggregations 

 has removed most of us from the enmity engendered by direct 

 participation in foreign quarrels; because travel has rubbed off 

 some of our foolish conceits and prejudices; because commercial- 

 ism is cosmopolitan; and because of clearer and better views of 

 larger relations. 



I am no moral pessimist then. Upon the contrary my read- 

 ing helps me to recognize those things around me which I con- 

 demn, as the mile-stones which mark, possibly at century distances, 

 the laborious passage from savagery to an ever higher and better 

 civilization. The world is more criminal because it is more 

 christian. It will be more christian still. The list of offences 

 against ever-increasing moral sensitiveness will lengthen at the 

 one end, while the grosser and more carnal sins, at the other, will 

 become so abhorent that they will almost entirely cease (a). Al- 

 ready we more clearly recognize the brotherhood of man; the 

 duty imposed upon wealth to share it with the needy; and the 

 obligation to care not only for the health, but the education also, 

 and the moral training of the young (a very recently accepted 

 idea.) Even in our Law Courts we have adopted the high stand- 

 ard of conduct which 



"Enforces the duty of fellow citizens to observe, in varying 

 circumstances, an appropriate measure of prudence to avoid 

 causing harm to one another" (h). 



It is no doubt some distance from that to the adoption of the 

 golden rule as the law of the land. But progress is in that direc- 

 tion. We are already occupying solid stages in the apparently 

 impossible ideals of the past. Those which we now indulge may 

 still be attainable, and when the last is reached it may prove to be 

 none other but that contained in the great command, "Do unto 

 others as you would that they should do unto you. " 



(a) Hall's Crime and Social Progress, 45. 



(b) Pollock on Torts, 5th Ed., p. 22. 



