l ideals of the past that they became largely new
creations. The old moral currency was still kept in circulation, but it
was gradually minted anew.[13] Fortitude is still the cool and steady
behaviour of a man in the presence of danger; but its range is widened by
the inclusion of perils of the soul as well as the body. Temperance is
still the control of the physical passions; but it is also the right
placing of new affections, and the consecration of our impulses to nobler
ends. Justice is still the suppression of conflict with the rights of
others; but the source of it lies in giving to God the love which is His
due, and finding in the objects of His thought the subjects also of our
care. Wisdom is still the practical sense which chooses the proper
course of action; but it is no longer a selfish calculation of advantage,
but the wisdom of men who are seeking for themselves and others not
merely temporal good, but a kingdom which is not of this world.

The real reason, then, why Christianity seems by contrast to accentuate
the gentler graces is not simply as a protest against the spirit of
militarism and the worship of physical power, so prevalent in the ancient
world--not merely that they were neglected--but because they and they
alone, rightly considered, are of the very essence of that perfection of
character which God has revealed to man in Christ. What Christianity has
done is not to give pre-eminence to one class over another, but _to make
human character complete_. Ancient civilisation was one-sided in its
moral {194} development. The pagan conceptions of virtue were merely
materialistic, temporal, and self-regarding. Christ showed that without
the spirit of love even such excellences as courage, temperance, and
justice did not attain to their true meaning or yield their full
implication. Paul, as we have seen, did not disparage heroism, but he
thought that it was exhibited as much, if not more, in patience and
forgiveness as in self-assertion and retaliation. What Christianity
really revealed was a new type of manliness, a fresh application of
temperance, a fuller development of justice. It showed the might of
meekness, the power of gentleness, the heroism of sacrifice.

3. It is thus misleading to say that Christian Ethics differs from
ancient morality in the prominence it gives to what have been called 'the
passive virtues.' Poverty of spirit, humility, meekness, mercifulness,
and peaceableness