It may be stated briefly that its essence is a course of moral,
mental, and physical development, carried on in parallel lines--one
being useless without the other. The physical man must be rendered more
ethereal and sensitive; the mental man more penetrating and profound;
the moral man more self-denying and philosophical. And it may be
mentioned that all sense of restraint--even if self-imposed--is useless.
Not only is all "goodness" that results from the compulsion of physical
force, threats, or bribes (whether of a physical or so-called
"spiritual" nature) absolutely useless to the person who exhibits it,
its hypocrisy tending to poison the moral atmosphere of the world, but
the desire to be "good" or "pure," to be efficacious must be
spontaneous. It must be a self-impulse from within, a real preference
for something higher, not an abstention from vice because of fear of the
law: not a chastity enforced by the dread of Public Opinion; not a
benevolence exercised through love of praise or dread of consequences in
a hypothetical Future Life.
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