Page:The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885).djvu/198

Rh conflicting wills before thee, act out the resulting universal will as it then arises in thee. Two classes of human duties are thus defined, one formal and provisional, the other permanent. We must explain in some measure each of them, in order that we may show the practical applications of our moral principle.

The first class of duties comprises those that have most especially to do with the moral education of our race. We are, and must long remain, exceedingly imperfect and blind creatures. If there is possible any state of humanity in which all shall be ready to act in accordance with the moral insight, that state must be, morally speaking, better than any other. Therefore the first demand that the moral insight makes of us so soon as we get it is: So act as to increase the number of those who possess the insight. Here, of course, is a precept of a very formal character, and plainly provisional in its nature. It is as if one were to be among blind men, himself blind, and were by some magical act, say by accidentally washing in a miraculous fountain, to get at one stroke and for the first time the power of sight, in all its maturity and perfection. Such an one would perhaps say: “How noble is this new sense! But to what end shall I use it? For the first I must use it to bring these other men to the fountain, to wash their eyes, that they may miraculously learn in one instant to see this glorious world.” But some one might object: “In this way, if the only use to be