quibble about it as we will, we only love others so far as we can recognize them as ours, as belonging to or connected with us in some way. Thus it follows that our love for others is only an extension or overflow of our laudable self-love. Who then is the selfish man? He whose self-love is perverted and feeble, and does not overflow, reach out, extend itself, and draw all things into itself; whose first thought thenceforth is to sacrifice others to himself, and who corrects it only as an afterthought. Who is the unselfish man? He who does not, as the other, view himself falsely as an isolated unit, but sees how all others pertain to him, are his in some sense, are fellow members of greater or less import, and who therefore finds his own happiness in the happiness of others; whose first thought is to sacrifice himself, and who corrects it, if necessary, only on an afterthought. He whose self-love is true and strong, and rises up high and overflows and diffuses itself to whatever in any way pertains to him; who, like God, loves all things both great and small, just because all things belong to Him, and because He loves Himself with an infinite and everlasting love.
"True altruism or charity circles out from self, first, to our God, and then to His creatures, who, through Him, are variously bound to us, in due order. And the greater we are in ourselves, the more godlike, the intenser our rightful self-love, so much the farther shall we stretch out beyond ourselves with an all-enfolding charity. For
