Equally interested in its
benefits, joint heirs of its promises, all men, of every color, language,
and rank, Gentile or Jew, were here first represented as in one sense (and
that the most important) equal; in the eye of this religion, they were, by
necessity of logic, equal, as equal participators in the ruin and the
restoration. Here first, in any available sense, was communicated to the
standard of human nature a vast and sudden elevation; and reasonable
enough it is to suppose, that some obscure sense of this, some sympathy
with the great changes for man then beginning to operate, would first of
all reach the inquisitive students of philosophy, and chiefly those in
high stations, who cultivated an intercourse with all the men of original
genius throughout the civilized world. The Emperor Hadrian had already
taken a solitary step in the improvement of human nature; and not, we may
believe, without some sub-conscious influence received directly or
indirectly from Christianity. So again, with respect to Marcus, it is
hardly conceivable that he, a prince so indulgent and popular, could have
thwarted, and violently gainsaid, a primary impulse of the Roman populace,
without some adequate motive; and none _could_ be adequate which was
not built upon some new and exalted views of human nature, with which
these gladiatorial sacrifices were altogether at war.
Pages:
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209