127
the sanction of unnumbered generations, the precept that we should do unto others as we would that others should do unto us is handed on to us as the highest principle of morality; nor were they ordinary souls that laid down this wise rule. Self-love is an instinct, a deep-seated natural prompting, in every bosom. Imprinted on every heart and ruling all one's thoughts and actions, this instinct is the source of all offence—of all injustice and inhumanity—in the world. It runs through every human concern; it is the motive-power of all human movements. With their incommensurable wisdom, therefore, our ancestors, who were deep-read in all the secrets of human nature—its prejudices and its predilections—summed up the essence of all morality in that one golden rule which has ever challeged the just admiration of a civilised world.
"Hear virtue's sum expressed in one
Brief maxim—lay it well to heart;
Never do to others what, if done
To thee, wonld cause the inward smart."[1]
- ↑ Muir's Metrical Translation of Sanahrst Texts.
