68 PROLEGOMENA 



you would be done by." In other words, let sympathy 

 be your guide; put yourself in the place of the man 

 towards whom your action is directed; and do to him 

 what you would like to have done to yourself under the 

 circumstances. However much one may admire the gen- 

 erosity of such a rule of conduct; however confident one 

 may be that average man may be thoroughly depended 

 upon not to carry it out to its full logical consequences; 

 it is nevertheless desirable to recognise the fact that 

 these consequences are incompatible with the existence 

 of a civil state, under any circumstances of this world 

 which have obtained, or, so far as one can see, are 

 likely to come to pass. 



For I imagine there can be no doubt that the great 

 desire of every wrongdoer is to escape from the painful 

 consequences of his actions. If I put myself in the 

 place of the man who has robbed me, I find that I am 

 possessed by an exceeding desire not to be fined or im- 

 prisoned; if in that of the man who has smitten me on 

 one cheek, I contemplate with satisfaction the absence 

 of any worse result than the turning of the other cheek 

 for like treatment. Strictly observed, the "golden rule" 

 involves the negation of law by the refusal to put it in 

 motion against law-breakers; and, as regards the ex- 

 ternal relations of a polity, it is the refusal to continue 

 the struggle for existence. It can be obeyed, even par- 

 tially, only under the protection of a society which re- 

 pudiates it. Without such shelter, the followers of the 

 "golden rule" may indulge in hopes of heaven, but they 

 must reckon with the certainty that other people will 

 be masters of the earth. 



What would become of the garden if the gardener 

 treated all the weeds and slugs and birds and trespassers 

 as he would like to be treated, if he were in their place? 



