chool of political philosophy of {204} which Paine was
the most rigorous exponent. The contentions of Paine were met as
vigorously by the negations of Bentham and Burke. And if it be
supposed that the individual is born into the world with certain
ready-made possessions, fixed and unalterable, the claim is untenable.
Such an artificial account of man ignores entirely the evolution of
moral nature, and denies the possibility of development in man's
conception of law and duty. 'It is,' as Wundt says, 'to derive all the
moral postulates that have been produced in our minds by previous moral
development from moral life as it actually exists.'[9]

(2) But while the 'natural rights of man' cannot be theoretically
vindicated, they may still be regarded as ends or ideals to be striven
after. 'Justifiable or unjustifiable in theory, they may still remain
a convenient form in which to couch the ultimatum of determined
men.'[10] They give expression, at least, to a conviction which has
grown more clear and articulate with the advance of thought--the
conviction of the _dignity and worth of the individual_. This thought
was the keynote of the Reformation. The Enlightenment, with its appeal
to reason, as alike in all men, gave support to the idea of equality.
Descartes claimed it as the philosophical basis of man's nature.
Rousseau and Montesquieu were among its most valiant champions. Kant
made it the point of departure for the enforcement of human right and
duty. Fichte but elaborated Kant's view when he contended for 'the
equality of everything which bears the human visage.'[11] And Hegel
has summed up the conception in what he calls 'the mandate of
right'--'Be a person, and respect others as persons.'[12] Poets
sometimes see what others miss. And in our country, at least, it is to
Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning, and still more, perhaps, to Burns,
that we are indebted for the insistence upon the native worth of man.

But if this claim has only gradually attained to articulate {205}
expression, and is only now being made the basis of social
reconstruction, it must not be forgotten that it is essentially a
Christian truth. In Harnack's language, 'Jesus Christ was the first to
bring the value of every human soul to light, and what He did no one
can any more undo.'[13]

When, however, the attempt is made to analyse this ultimate principle
of manhood, opinions differ as to its constituents, and a long list of
'right