recept. The precept
had its use; it could make men feel it right to be humane and desire to
be so, but it could never inspire them with an enthusiasm of humanity.
From what source was this inspiration to be derived?

Humanity, we have already observed, is neither a love for the whole
human race, nor a love for each individual of it, but a love for the
race, or for the ideal of man, in each individual. In other and less
pedantic words, he who is truly humane considers every human being as
such interesting and important, and without waiting to criticise each
individual specimen, pays in advance to all alike the tribute of good
wishes and sympathy. Now this favourable presumption with regard to
human beings is not a causeless prepossession, it is no idle
superstition of the mind, nor is it a natural instinct. It is a feeling
founded on the actual observation and discovery of interesting and noble
qualities in particular human beings, and it is strong or weak in
proportion as the person who has the feeling has known many or few noble
and amiable human beings. There are men who have, been so unfortunate as
to live in the perpetual society of the mean and the base; they have
never, except in a few faint glimpses, seen anything glorious or good in
human nature. With these the feeling of humanity has a perpetual
struggle for existence, their minds tend by a fatal gravitation to the
belief that the happiness or misery of such a paltry race is wholly
unimportant; they may arrive finally at a fixed condition, in which it
may be said of them without qualification, that "man delights not them,
nor woman neither." In this final stage they are men who, beyond the
routine of life, should not be trusted, being "fit for treasons,
stratagems, and spoils." On the other hand, there are those whose lot it
has been from earliest childhood to see the fair side of humanity, who
have been surrounded with clear and candid countenances, in the changes
of which might be traced the working of passions strong and simple, the
impress of a firm and tender nature, wearing when it looked abroad the
glow of sympathy, and when it looked within the bloom of modesty. They
have seen, and not once or twice, a man forget himself; they have
witnessed devotion, unselfish sorrow, unaffected delicacy, spontaneous
charity, ingenuous self-reproach; and it may be that on seeing a human
being surrender for another's good not something but his uttermost all,
they have d