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Rh and hate, is merely furious self self-love destroying what it thinks its enemy; and if it be done in connection with robbery, it is plainly the result of such intense Selfishness, that every spark of regard for another's good is extinguished, so that with perfect coolness it will trample out his very life, merely perhaps to obtain a little money to satisfy its wants or gratify its vicious inclinations. The same essential principle, self-love, is still at the bottom. And war—that is, war for mere conquest—is but national robbery and murder. What is it but national selfishness, which, in the pursuit of what it calls glory (but which should be called infamy), or in the desire of appropriating the territory of others, and of becoming their masters,—overruns and pillages lands, killing the inhabitants, and seizing upon their property? It is, in truth, only robbery and murder on a large scale, and therefore is traceable to the same root as private murder and robbery, namely, intense selfishness. Again, consider the sin of blasphemy—the utterance of words of contempt and defiance against man's very Maker, the Lord of Glory Himself,—or the denial of His existence altogether. What is this, in its origin, but self-love in the form of pride, intellectual pride, which thinks it knows all things and can account for all things; which scorns the idea of a Superior, and would gladly persuade itself that there is none, and which breaks out in rage and oaths at the very idea of such a Being? Self,—self, is at the bottom of the whole.

We have thus endeavoured, in a brief and rapid manner to trace evil to its root, and to show that that root is self-love. The next question, then, that will arise, is, how came self-love into existence? The