Theism Doctrinal and Practical, or, Didactic Religious Utterances. By Francis W. Newman |
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Brotherhood of Men.
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Brotherhood of Men.
Fellow countrymen are not loved barely because born on the same land:
Sometimes even the same land rears bitter enemies.
As when two hostile races dwell side by side, or intermixed,
As Philistines with Hebrews, Pelasgians with Hellenes,
Saxons and Normans on the soil of Britain,
Or even as might have been French and English in Canada.
When neighbourhood invites wrong, with border-war and ravage,
Between those who are not coupled in equal and approved law,
A common soil is to rude men but a bond of enmity.
It is never the Material, but only the Moral, that unites men,
Though the Moral can only act through the form of the Material.
Sometimes even the same land rears bitter enemies.
As when two hostile races dwell side by side, or intermixed,
As Philistines with Hebrews, Pelasgians with Hellenes,
Saxons and Normans on the soil of Britain,
Or even as might have been French and English in Canada.
When neighbourhood invites wrong, with border-war and ravage,
Between those who are not coupled in equal and approved law,
A common soil is to rude men but a bond of enmity.
It is never the Material, but only the Moral, that unites men,
Though the Moral can only act through the form of the Material.
Even with the same nation, the same language, same laws and religion,
And where common patriotism has joined men against the foreigner,
Primitive social inequalities unduly sundering ranks
Put enmity between High and Low and cause implacable strife;
As in the cities of ancient Greece, or of Italy in the middle age,
Where bitter feuds made civil war ordinary and deadly.
Deem not then that true brotherhood in any spiritual sense
Can come to mankind from a mere material connection.
And where common patriotism has joined men against the foreigner,
Primitive social inequalities unduly sundering ranks
Put enmity between High and Low and cause implacable strife;
As in the cities of ancient Greece, or of Italy in the middle age,
Where bitter feuds made civil war ordinary and deadly.
Deem not then that true brotherhood in any spiritual sense
Can come to mankind from a mere material connection.
Why are brotherhood and sisterhood proverbial of attachment?
Not solely from the naked fact of common parentage,
But because the fact is blended with plentiful moral meaning.
If the same mother watched over their helpless infancy;
If the same parents loved them all, and taught them mutual love;
If the same father provided for them and trained them and counselled them,
With equal anxiety seeking the welfare of all;
If in infancy and childhood and in rising youth they were companions,
Giving and receiving sweet pleasure and tender comfort
By mutual self-denial and mutual aid
Through kindness of the elder and compliance of the younger;
These, and other such things, are the true bond of affection,
Making brother and sister dear names, hard to parallel on earth.
Not solely from the naked fact of common parentage,
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If the same mother watched over their helpless infancy;
If the same parents loved them all, and taught them mutual love;
If the same father provided for them and trained them and counselled them,
With equal anxiety seeking the welfare of all;
If in infancy and childhood and in rising youth they were companions,
Giving and receiving sweet pleasure and tender comfort
By mutual self-denial and mutual aid
Through kindness of the elder and compliance of the younger;
These, and other such things, are the true bond of affection,
Making brother and sister dear names, hard to parallel on earth.
But if Plato's Commonwealth could be made a reality,
And no mother reared her own child, and family life were destroyed,
And children were sorted by ages and brought up in troops,
And no tender remembrances united brothers and sisters,
Neither of common parental love nor of old companionship;
Surely the bare fact of being progeny from the same womb
Would never avail to cause love or mutual care.
And no mother reared her own child, and family life were destroyed,
And children were sorted by ages and brought up in troops,
And no tender remembrances united brothers and sisters,
Neither of common parental love nor of old companionship;
Surely the bare fact of being progeny from the same womb
Would never avail to cause love or mutual care.
So neither has the belief of a descent from Adam and Eve
Hindered the dire atrocities of human race against race.
Nor will it ever hinder: but those who want an excuse,
When resolved to treat fellow-men as cattle, but more cruelly,
Persuade themselves that these are born from some Cain or some Amalek,
Or from Canaan, cursed by God to unending slavery.
Not the belief about Adam and Eve, but union in a common faith
Has hitherto had chief force to bridle avarice and insolence.
Moslem acknowledges the brotherhood of Moslem, and Christian of Christian,
And the priests of each feel enslavement of their brethren scandalous.
Hindered the dire atrocities of human race against race.
Nor will it ever hinder: but those who want an excuse,
When resolved to treat fellow-men as cattle, but more cruelly,
Persuade themselves that these are born from some Cain or some Amalek,
Or from Canaan, cursed by God to unending slavery.
Not the belief about Adam and Eve, but union in a common faith
Has hitherto had chief force to bridle avarice and insolence.
Moslem acknowledges the brotherhood of Moslem, and Christian of Christian,
And the priests of each feel enslavement of their brethren scandalous.
Herein is wrapped up the true meaning of Human Brotherhood.
Men are men and are not brutes,—not because sons of one Adam,
But because sons of one God who dwells in all consciences.
In the childhood of Paganism, in the manhood of Monotheism,
One Parent watches over their childhood or supports their manhood,
And commadns their virtue. and rears them to sympathy,
And puts them under common law, with like reward or punishment,
As brethren of one family, citizens of one country.
Two things complete the definition of Man:
“A Body which may be parent to a race mixed with ours,
A Mind capable of Free Will, and thereby of Morality and Religion.”
Men are men and are not brutes,—not because sons of one Adam,
But because sons of one God who dwells in all consciences.
In the childhood of Paganism, in the manhood of Monotheism,
One Parent watches over their childhood or supports their manhood,
And commadns their virtue. and rears them to sympathy,
And puts them under common law, with like reward or punishment,
As brethren of one family, citizens of one country.
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“A Body which may be parent to a race mixed with ours,
A Mind capable of Free Will, and thereby of Morality and Religion.”
But the moral rights of mankind spring from their moral side only,
And are not concerned in questions of the body at all.
If Black and White races could have no common progeny,
If their forms were as unlike as the horse and the deer,
Yet both were subjected to the same law of Conscience,
With the same loves and hatreds, the same pains and joys;
The same law of right and wrong would rule over both,
Virtue be their common requirement, and Freedom be essential to Virtue,
Nor ever could it be endurable that the one be chattels of the other.
By the unchangeable law of the Highest, let man struggle as he may,
Curse comes upon the nation which tramples its brethren down.
And let none dream, that, by measuring men's bones and studying old pictures,
And arguing for many origins of our various-tinted tribes,
He can turn those into cattle who have the minds and hearts of men,
Or deny brotherhood to those in whom God is a moral energy,
Speaking to them by conscience, if haply they may seek him.
Surely he is their Father, and they our true brothers and sisters,
Though Abraham, Noah, Adam alike disown the progeny.
And are not concerned in questions of the body at all.
If Black and White races could have no common progeny,
If their forms were as unlike as the horse and the deer,
Yet both were subjected to the same law of Conscience,
With the same loves and hatreds, the same pains and joys;
The same law of right and wrong would rule over both,
Virtue be their common requirement, and Freedom be essential to Virtue,
Nor ever could it be endurable that the one be chattels of the other.
By the unchangeable law of the Highest, let man struggle as he may,
Curse comes upon the nation which tramples its brethren down.
And let none dream, that, by measuring men's bones and studying old pictures,
And arguing for many origins of our various-tinted tribes,
He can turn those into cattle who have the minds and hearts of men,
Or deny brotherhood to those in whom God is a moral energy,
Speaking to them by conscience, if haply they may seek him.
Surely he is their Father, and they our true brothers and sisters,
Though Abraham, Noah, Adam alike disown the progeny.
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