Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him in
favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent
barbarous practices by the introduction of laws.
In consequence then of these impulses and feelings, by which the pure
power in our nature is thus made to act as a check upon the evil part of
it, and in consequence of the influence which philosophy and legislative
wisdom have had in their respective provinces, there has been always, in
all times and countries, a counteracting energy, which has opposed
itself, more or less, to the crimes and miseries of mankind. But it
seems to have been reserved for Christianity to increase this energy,
and to give it the widest possible domain. It was reserved for her,
under the same divine influence, to give the best views of the nature
and of the present and future condition of man; to afford the best moral
precepts, to communicate the most benign stimulus to the heart, to
produce the most blameless conduct, and thus to cut off many of the
causes of wretchedness, and to heal it wherever it was found. At her
command, wherever she has been duly acknowledged, many of the evils of
life have already fled. The prisoner of war is no longer led into the
amphitheatre to become a gladiator, and to imbrue his hands in the blood
of his fellow-captive for the sport of a thoughtless multitude.
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