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The Nature of Goodness by George Herbert Palmer
page 115 of 153 (75%)

Perhaps the most admirable case of self-sacrifice is that in which no
single person appears who is profited by our loss. The scholar, the
artist, the scientific man dedicate themselves to the interests of
undifferentiated humanity. They serve their undecipherable race, not
knowing who will obtain gains through their toils. In their sublime
benefactions they study the wants of no individual person, not even of
themselves. Yet, turn to a man of this type and try to call his
attention to the privations he endures, and what will be his answer?
"I have no coat? I have no dinner? I have little money? People do not
honor me as they honor others? Yes, I believe I lack these trifles.
But think what I possess! This great subject; or rather, it possesses
me. And it shall have of me whatever it requires."

In such service of the absolute is found the highest expression of
self-sacrifice, of social service, of self-realization. The doctrine
that though union with a reason and righteousness not exclusively our
own each of us may hourly be renewed is the very heart of ethics.



XIII

I have attempted to cut out a clear path through an ethical jungle
overgrown with the exuberance of human life. I have not succeeded, and
it is probably impossible to succeed. In the subject itself there is
paradox. Conflicting elements enter into the very constitution of a
person. To trace them even imperfectly one must be patient of
refinements, accessible to qualifications, and ever ready to admit the
opposite of what has been laboriously established. We all desire
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