NON-ACTING 116
whom it makes itself heard ; secondly, those who hear it feel its truth, they know not why ; and thirdly, and chiefly, it moves men to the realization of what it foretells.
Dumas predicts that, after having tried everything else, men will seriously apply to life the law of brotherly love, and that this change will take place much sooner tlian we expect. One may question the nearness of this change, or even its possibility ; but it is plain that should it take place it will solve all contradictions and all difficulties, and will divert all the evils with which the end of the century sees us tlireatened.
The only objection, or rather the only question, one can put to Dumas is this : ' If the love of one^s neigh- bour is possible, and is inherent in human nature, why have so many thousand years elapsed (for tlie command to love God and one's neighbour did not begin with Clirist, but liad been given already by Moses) without men, who knew this means of liappiness, having prac- tised it ? What prevents the manifestation of a senti- ment so natural and so helpful to humanity? It is evidently not enough to say, * Love one anotlier.' Tliat has been said for tliree thousand years past : it is in- cessantly repeated from all pulpits, religious or even secular ; yet men continue none the less exterminating instead of loving one another as tliey have been bidden to do for so many centuries. In our day no one any longer doubts that if, instead of tearing one another to pieces (each seeking his own welfare, that of his family, or that of his country), men would help one another : if they would replace egotism by love, if they would organize their life on collectivist instead of on indi- vidualist principles (as the Socialists express it in their wretched jargon), if thev loved one another as they love themselves, or if, at least, they did not do to others what they do not wish to have done to themselves, as has been well expressed for two thousand years past — the share of personal happiness gained by each man would be greater, and human life in general would be reasonable and happy instead of being, what it now is, a succession of contradictions and sufferings.
H 2
