mentality; the self-assertiveness of a normal human being, into the revolting brutality of a beast in human shape. Not by the suppression of any normal attribute or even appetite of human nature can the moral ideal be reached, but only by the progressive organization and mutual cooperation of all the elements that constitute human character. The growth of man's rationality must indicate with increasing distinctness the imperative demands of his own loftiest ideals; the development of the social consciousness, the emphasizing of man's intrinsic solidarity with his fellows, must constantly bring to clearer light the truth that one's own truest self-realization is inextricably bound up with the interests of the rest of mankind. The ethical saint who would recognize the concrete unity of all life, must not look for that unity in an undifferentiated mist of nothingness, but in an immanent system of organized diversities. And the concrete ideal of such a moral hero could by no means be embraced within the narrow confines of any one formula, be it virtue, or happiness, or sympathy, or self-assertion. All enlightened moral heroism must involve, not the ignoring of man's emotional nature, nor the brutal assertion of the will-to-live, nor yet its annihilation, but rather its ideal transfiguration into a motive power for the realization of man's real concrete self, for the transformation of the battle of discordant elements into an ever-growing harmony of mutual cooperation in the achievement of the concrete moral ideal in human society.
| Radeslav A. Tsanoff. |
| Cornell University.. |
