0/5 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
so on. A second class of abstract sentiments are those which have as their objects broad general principles of truth, or of conduct, or qualities of character. The well developed man has sentiments with respect to fair play, justice, cour age, liberty, veracity, etc., and with respect to their oppo- sites. A person without such sentiments is a moral inverte brate, i.e., he is on a low plane of moral development.
Now if we analyse the sentiments which seem to be or ganized around concrete objects, it will appear that many of them are really much more complex than they at first appear. For instance, one s sentiment for a particular house is quite likely to grow largely out of the human asso ciations that cluster about it. One s feeling for an animal may be due to the fact that it has long been a pet in the household and recalls more or less distinct memories con nected therewith. One s sentiment for a person may be organized not so much about his concrete individuality, per se, as around the principles he has stood for, the causes with which he has identified himself, his achievements that is, about the social meaning of his personality. George Wash ington was and is " first in the hearts of his countrymen," not because they have had immediate personal contact with him and love him for his simple individuality, and not alto gether because they have come to know and love his indi viduality through historical acquaintance with him, but be cause he fought and suffered for his country s liberty and was the chief founder of the nation. A sentiment may be, and often is, thus compounded of several elements. Even a son s emotional attitude towards his own father may have its origin partly in the direct and immediate relations be tween the two and partly in the son s conceptions of the father s broader experience with and relations to the world ; or the son may have developed the abstract sentiment for fatherhood, and this will modify his emotional attitude to wards his own father. The sentiment for Jesus entertained by a Christian is organized around an individual person and has in it the feelings induced by his own personal experi-
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