We meet with individuals in society who affirm that man is essentially selfish—that he can not conceive a wish which does not originate in a desire for self-gain. I have no doubt that the individuals making that affirmation are very honest in it, and speak from their own conscious experience. There are many such to be found in society, who know no higher love than self-love, and their highest benevolence is based upon selfishness. I doubt not that there are those who entertain such sentiments, but I utterly protest when such men attempt to speak for the Race. I will allow every person to speak for himself upon this point, and to ascertain if there are not some actions which have not this lustful basis; and when we find that there are such actions arising within ourselves which are not contaminated with this selfish thought, and which go forth to seek expression out of ourselves, we may know that they do not belong to the first, but to the second sphere of action, I mean the sphere of relation, as separate from the indiivdual considered in his individual love or individual selfish impulse. I will gve a few illustrations of this kind.
Every individual coming under the divine impulses of the sphere of relation—I mean relation in its divine order—and living in forgetfulness of separate self, will experience some of the impulses which belong to that sphere. When the mother comes into the maternal relation and experiences the love of a mother for her child, she is ready to sacrifice the comforts and interests of self for the welfare of that object that sustains that near and dear relation to her. I speak of the maternal love as a representative of that love for another
