to establish and to preserve a republican, democratic State? Does a Parliament, with its racial and party divisions, suffice for the purpose ? In Austria-Hungary, the Monarch embodied the old theocratic tradition, and was hallowed by belief in Divine Right. The Church cited St. Paul’s injunction in support of Monarchical and of State authority; and the bureaucracy, the nobility and the army were trained in the spirit of loyalty. What is the fount of authority in our young Republic, and on what grounds can it claim recognition from its own citizens and from foreign States and nations? Our citizens, at home and abroad, acknowledged the authority of the revolution in the first moment of general enthusiasm over the conquest of independence. How will it be in a workaday world?
Unlike Chelčický, I do not belittle the outward authority of the State, but I cannot deify it and its power. When I took upon myself the obligations of the Presidential office, well knowing what my daily administrative tasks would be, it was clear to me that no State or policy can prosper unless the groundwork be moral. As St. Paul wrote at the beginning of the 4th chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Therefore, seeing we have this Ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully ; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” That is the programme of the Republic and of Democracy sub specie aeternitatis.
The ethical basis of all politics is humanity, and humanity is an international programme. It is a new word for the old love of our fellow-men. The word “love” has to-day come so largely to mean the relations of the sexes that modern men are chary of using it in a religious sense. Hence, under the influence of Humanism and its ideal of humanity, words like humanity, sympathy and, eventually, altruism, gained currency in philosophical writings. But there is a difference between Humanism and humanity ; for humanity is, in reality, nothing but love of our fellows, though new social and political conditions have caused it to be formulated afresh.
Humanity is not mere sentiment. Even Jesus said “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” Man is naturally selfish. The question is whether he is solely selfish or whether he feels love or sympathy for his neighbour immediately, directly, not for selfish reasons. Psychological analysis has persuaded me that
