CHAPTER VI.

THE LAW OF KINDNESS.

IN considering the full meaning of justice we have said that it might be so defined at last as to make it include kindness, and we came to the Golden Rule as its best expression. But still it will probably seem to many that, so far, we have been making morality stern and forbidding, since we have had so much to say about law and obedience, joyless words, most often! We have taken this course deliberately, however, in order to think and reason clearly about this most important matter, our conduct. But we should be omitting the view of conduct which changes its whole aspect, if we left out kindness. Justice we commonly regard as based upon deliberate thought, and we often say that one must not let his "feelings bias his judgment on a question of right and wrong. Yet a very great portion of our life is the life of feeling. While we should not try to distinguish feeling and thought too closely, each has its large place.

In all our conduct feeling has a great part to play. We only need to be sure that the feeling is rightly directed and not immoderate in its degree. This being so, the more strongly we feel in matters of conduct the better, for feeling is the powerful force that makes action easy. If we "think clear and feel deep" we shall be most likely to "bear fruit well," and this is what every "friend of man desires." Now kindness is the word that stands preeminently for good feeling. In many of its uses it means as much or nearly as much

as Love, and Love is the word that marks the strongest possible feeling of personal attachment. We shall use the word Kindness in preference to Love in speaking of acts and feelings which concern many persons, because Love is, strictly, an intensely attractive feeling in persons very near each other, such as members of one family, intimate friends, or men and women who are "in love" with each other, as we say. The deep sympathy we call "love" continues strong while it is confined to a few as its object; but if we try to extend it to many persons it necessarily loses its intensity. As we are now considering feelings which are to be entertained toward the many, not toward the few, it is well to say "kindness," and reserve "love" for the highest degree of affection. We will speak then of "the law of kindness," rather than of "the law of love," for the present.

We all know that persons may, not rarely, deserve to be called just, and not deserve to be called kind. We often say that we respect a certain man because he does right habitually, but that we are not "attracted" to him. His conduct seems to us reasonable and just; but it lacks that element of grace and charm which we imply when we say that another person is thoroughly kind"kind-hearted" we generally phrase it, making an implied distinction between the "heart" and the "head." We must be very careful not to press this distinction too far, and make too much of it, for head and heart, not only literally but in this figurative use as well, are necessary parts of the same person; they are not always or often to be set in sharp opposition. But there is a difference, plain to see, between good conduct that is simply just and good conduct that has "heart in it," i. e., is also "kind." Real kindness is not opposed to justice, but is above it as a superior degree in right conduct. There is in kindness a notion of wholeness, immediateness and inspiration, which are more pleas

ing and winning than the most careful, well calculated and deliberate justice can be by itself.

Kindness, in fact, is the ideal of conduct toward the great body of our fellow-creatures. We have said in the last chapter that mankind has a natural instinct to be just, as well as an innate disposition to be selfish. It is also true, and a very important thing it is to bear in mind, that human nature has another instinct, to be kind. Sympathy (i. e., feeling with another, especially in his troubles) is precisely as natural to man as selfishness; sympathy is but another name for kindness. Selfhood and sympathy-feeling for one's self and feeling with and for others - are the two poles on which the world of personal conduct revolves. Each feeling is good and right in itself. The practical matter always is to keep each in its proper place and confine it to its right degree.

It may help us a little, at this critical point, to be just to self and to others if we consider closely the several meanings of the words "kind" and "kindness." 1 "Kind" as a noun means (this is the original use of the word) the species, or class, to which a being belongs, as in the phrase "cattle after their kind." There are kinds of plants and kinds of animals. Among animal beings, we belong to mankind. Each species or class has its peculiar nature, by reason of which we are led to call it a separate kind. This nature is, to all belonging to this kind, a necessary law of their action; they simply must act according to their kind. "They follow the law of their kind," we say of all living animals. In connection with this nature we also use the words native propensity, disposition, character; these are all 66 natural," ," if they are involved in the "kind." It is the disposition of the tigress, for instance, to be cruel

1 The teacher will observe that elsewhere I have preferred to discuss in the notes the matter of etymologies so interesting and im portant in ethical reasoning or to leave it untouched.

to all animals but her own young: to them she is affectionate. Equally it is the character of the dog to be fond of his master, and faithful to him.' So men and women have a certain general disposition or character because they all belong to mankind. For instance, you are "led by kind to admire your fellow-creature," says Dryden.

sense.

The first use of "kind" as an adjective follows directly from these meanings which we have been mentioning. Whatever is "characteristic," i. e., is a mark, of a species, whatever belongs to its nature, is natural or native to it, is therefore "kind" to it, in this primitive ("Kind" and "kin," we have to remember, are etymologically the same word; "kin" or "akin,” and "kind," in this present sense, mean just the same.) "The kind taste" of an apple is the taste natural to an apple. The hay "kindest for sheep" is the hay that suits best their taste. "Kindly" is another form of "kind." "The kindly fruits of the earth" are the fruits which the earth naturally produces, i. e., after its kind. Next "kind" comes to mean especially, in the case of human beings, having the feelings that are common and natural to the kind, the feelings which indicate, as well as stature or complexion, a community of descent. "A kindless villain," such as Hamlet calls the King, is one who acts contrary to the usual disposition of men, as the King did in murdering his own brother, Hamlet's father. "A little more than kin and less than kind," says Hamlet again, of the king, playing on the related words. The chorus in " Henry V.," addressing England, exclaims:

"What mightst thou do

Were all thy children kind and natural;'

that is, were they all true to their nature as Englishmen, with no traitors among them.

1 "The bee," says Richard Rolle de Hampole, the old English writer, "has three kyndes; ane es that sche is neuer ydell."

"Kind" as an adjective easily passes on to imply not only the feelings which show a common nature in human beings, but in particular the feelings which show it most, the tender emotions. These prove the existence, in a person, of a high degree of sympathy or compassion (these two words are etymologically the same). "A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind." "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," i. e., it makes men feel alike, and with each other. When we are thoughtful about the fortunes of others, and dwell upon their lot so as to feel with them, "we become kindly with our kind," as Tennyson writes. In this way "kind," the adjective, reaches its present and usual meaning of tender and thoughtful for the welfare of others, in little things as well as in great.

The history of "kindness," the noun, has followed the same course. In "Much Ado About Nothing" the uncle of Claudio is reported by the messenger to have burst into tears when he heard how his nephew had distinguished himself in battle. "A kind overflow of kindness," says Leonato there, meaning, as he played upon the words, a natural overflow of tender feeling in one related, "akin," to Claudio. "Thy nature," says Lady Macbeth to her more humane spouse, "is too full o' the milk of human kindness," i. e., to kill the king. 'Kindness," then, points to the great fact on which the moral law rests, that we are living with our kind. In this life together we are to think very carefully about the things which tend to make it profitable and pleasant to all. We must obey the laws of human nature which not only bring men together but are also continually operating to make the life together richer, fairer, and sweeter. This is the action of the law of kindness, the highest law of human society, of life with our kind. We are wont to say human society and human kind. Notice how this word "human" and the word "humane are related. A human being, an individual of

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