heart the calamities of others more than their own, so that they make
sacrifices, which, it may be, entail on themselves a greater amount
of suffering than that removed from those they benefit. Nay, in cases
where several, or, perhaps, a large number of persons, at one time,
can be helped in this way, such men do not, if need be, flinch from
absolute self-effacement. Arnold von Winkelried was one of these. So
was Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in the fifth century, when the Vandals
crossed over from Africa and invaded Italy. Of him we read in Johann
von Müller's _Weltgeschichte_ (Bk. X., chap. 10) that "in order to
ransom some of the prisoners, he had already disposed of all the church
plate, his own and his friends' private property. Then, on seeing the
anguish of a widow, whose only son was being carried off, he offered
himself for servitude in the other's stead. For whoever was of suitable
age, and had not fallen by the sword, was taken captive to Carthage."
There is, then, an enormous difference between character and character.
Being original and innate, it measures the responsiveness of the
individual to this or that motive, and those alone, to which he is
specially sensitive, will appeal to him with anything like compelling
force. As in chemistry, with unchangeable certainty, one substance
reacts only upon acids, another only upon alkalies, so, with equal
invariableness, different natures respond to different stimuli. The
motives suggesting loving-kindness, which stir so deeply a good
disposition, can, of themselves, effect nothing in a heart that listens
only to the promptings of Egoism. If it be wished to induce the egoist
to act with beneficence and humanity, this can be done but in one way:
he must be made to believe that the assuaging of others' suffering
will, somehow or other, surely turn out to his =own advantage=.
What, indeed, are most moral systems but attempts of different kinds in
this direction? But such procedure only misleads, does not better, the
will. To make a real improvement, it would be necessary to transform
the entire nature of the individual's susceptibility for motives. Thus,
from one we should have to remove his indifference to the suffering
of others as such; from another, the delight which he feels in causing
pain; from a third, the natural tendency which makes him regard the
smallest increase of his own well-being as so far outweighing all other
motives, that the latter become as dust in the balance. Only it is far
easier to change lead into gold than to accomplish such a task. For
it means the turning round, so to say, of a man's heart in his body,
the remoulding of his very being. In point of fact, all that can be
done is to clear the =intellect=, correct the =judgment=,
and so bring him to a better comprehension of the objective realities
and actual relations of life. This effected, the only result gained is
that his will reveals itself more logically, distinctly, and decidedly,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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