startled approval when it has reached the
heights whence those kindly feelings long had beheld what itself was
unable to see? Is justice dependent on intellect, or rather on
character? Questions, these, that are perhaps not idle if we indeed
would know what steps we must take to invest with all its radiance and
all its power the love of justice that is the central jewel of the
human soul. All men love justice, but not with the same ardent,
fierce, and exclusive love; nor have they all the same scruples, the
same sensitiveness, or the same deep conviction. We meet people of
highly developed intellect in whom the sense of what is just and unjust
is yet infinitely less delicate, less clearly marked, than in others
whose intellect would seem to be mediocre; for here a great part is
played by that little-known, ill-defined side of ourselves that we term
the character. And yet it is difficult to tell how much more or less
unconscious intellect must of necessity go with the character that is
unaffectedly honest. The point before us, however, is to learn how
best to illumine, and increase within us, our desire for justice; and
it is certain that, at the start, our character is less directly
influenced by the desire for justice than is our intellect, the
development of which this desire in a large measure controls; and the
co-operation of the intellect, which recognises and encourages our good
intention, is necessary for this intention to penetrate into, and
mould, our character. That portion of our love of justice, therefore,
which depends on our character, will benefit by its passage through the
intellect; for in proportion as the intellect rises, and acquires
enlightenment, will it succeed in mastering, enlightening, and
transforming our instincts and our feelings.

But let us no longer believe that this love must be sought in a kind of
superhuman, and often inhuman, infinite. None of the grandeur and
beauty that this infinite may possess would fall to its portion; it
would only be incoherent, inactive, and vague. Whereas by seeking it
in ourselves, where it truly is; by observing it there, listening to
it, marking how it profits by every acquirement of our mind, every joy
and sorrow of our heart, we soon shall learn what we best had do to
purify and increase it.

24

Our task within these limits will be sufficiently long and mysterious.
To increase and purify within us the desire for justice: how shall this
th