_August, 1888._
_FRATERNITY_.
So far as we can see it appears plain that the wish for brotherhood was
on the whole reasonable, and its fulfilment easier than the wild desire
for liberty and equality. No doubt Omar and Cromwell and Hoche and
Dumouriez have chosen in their respective times an odd mode of spreading
the blessings of fraternity. It is a little harsh to say to a man, "Be
my brother or I will cut your head off;" but we fear that men of the
stamp of Mahomet, Cromwell, and the French Jacobins were given to
offering a choice of the alternatives named. Perhaps we may be safe if
we take the roughness of the mere proselytizers as an evidence of
defective education; they had a dim perception of a beautiful principle,
but they knew of no instrument with which they could carry conviction
save the sword. We, with our better light, can well understand that
brotherhood should be fostered among men; we are all children of one
Father, and it is fitting that we should reverently acknowledge the
universal family tie. The Founder of our religion was the earliest
preacher of the divine gospel of pity, and it is to Him that we owe the
loveliest and purest conception of brotherhood.
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