Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/164

 as himself; and so long as this noble rule is not practised and honoured in active life, human nature is doomed to be narrow and degraded.

But, after all, this love of one's neighbour as oneself does not appear to be the highest law. The acme of true morality is loftier than a just recognition of the world's equality to one's own self. In fact, with the growth and refinement of man's moral nature, the love of self sinks and ultimately disappears. The patriot that bleeds in the country's cause; the philanthropist that, by his dumb eloquence and silent self-sacrifice, pleads the cause of his very murderers; the doctor that throws himself into pestilence and even sucks up poison to snatch a precious life from the sharp scythe of the "grim old king;" the mother that embraces death to ensure the safety of her innocent babe; the lover that risks and lays down his own life in defence or pursuit of the beloved; the martyr that smiles on the scaffold and seals the truth of his