Ihering has drawn attention to this,[48] but he is not as he seems to think, one of the first. On the contrary the doctrine was known of old and is insisted upon by Plato in his _Republic_.[49] Aristotle in his _Ethics_, and with special emphasis in his _Politics_ has affirmed it.[50] The scholastic philosophers also held fast to the doctrine, and in modern times men even of such energetic ethical and political convictions as Bentham[51] have not denied it. If the fanatics of the French Revolution failed to recognize it, still the clear-headed among their fellow-citizens, even in that time, did not fall into such a delusion. Laplace, for example, in his _Essai philosophique sur les probabilités_ occasionally bears witness to the true teaching and raises his voice in warning.[52] Thus it happens that the distinguished investigator who has disclosed to us the spirit of Roman law and to whom, as the author of _Der Zweck im Recht_, we also are bound in many respects to tender our thanks, has yet here, as we see, done nothing else than render the doctrine unclear by confounding it with an essentially different and false doctrine of relativity. According to this doctrine, no proposition in ethics, not even the proposition that the best in the widest sphere ought to be the determining standard of action, would have unexceptional validity. In primitive times and even later, throughout long centuries, such a procedure would, he expressly says, have been as immoral as, in later times, the opposite conduct. We must, he thinks, on looking back into the times of cannibalism sympathize rather with the cannibals, and not with those who perhaps, in advance of their time, preached even then the universal love of neighbour.[53] These are errors which have been crushingly refuted not merely by philosophical reflection upon the fundamental principles of ethics, but also by the successes of Christian missionaries. 41. Thus the road leading to the goal which we set before us has been traversed. For a time it led us through strange and rarely trodden districts, finally, however, the results at which we have arrived smile upon us like old acquaintances. In declaring love of neighbour and self-sacrifice, both for our country and for mankind to be duties, we are only echoing what is proclaimed all around us. We should also find by going further into particulars that lying, treachery, murder, debauchery and much besides that is held to be morally base are, measured by the standard of the principles we have set up, condemned, one as unjust, another as immoral. All this would seem, in a measure, familiar to us as the shores of his native land to the sea-farer when, after a voyage happily consummated, he sees them rise suddenly into view, and the smoke curling from the old familiar chimney.