So cogent is this objection, and so frequently does it appear, not
only in ethical discussion but in the minds of the struggling
multitude, that he who has not faced it, and taken its truth well to
heart, can have little comprehension of self-sacrifice. But it is a
blessed fact that thousands who comprehend self-sacrifice little
practise it largely.



III

A second objection strips off the glory of self-sacrifice and regards
it as a sad necessity. While there is nothing in it to attract or be
approved, the lamentable fact is that we are so crowded together and
disposed to trample on one another that, partially to escape, we must
each agree to abate something of our own in behalf of a neighbor's
gain. We cannot each be all we would. It is a sign of our mean estate
that again and again we need to cut off sections of what we count
valuable in order to save any portion. Only by such compromises are we
able to get along with one another. He who refuses them finds himself
exposed to still greater loss. The hard conditions under which we live
appear in the fact that such restraint is inevitable. I call self-
sacrifice, therefore, a sad necessity.

This theory of sacrifice is urged by Hobbes and by the later moralists
who follow his daring lead. It should be counted among the objections
because, while it admits the fact of self-sacrifice, it denies its
dignity.