V

That common mind has always thought of sacrifice in a widely different
way, but in one which renders it still more incomprehensible. Self-
sacrifice it regards as a glorious madness. Though the only act which
ever forces us to bow in reverent awe, it is insolubly mysterious,
irrational, crazy perhaps, but superb. For in it we do not deliberate.
We hear a call, we shut our ears to prudence, and with courageous
blindness as regards damage of our own, we hasten headlong to meet the
needs of others. To reckon heroism, to count, up opposing gains and
losses, balancing them one against another in order clear-sightedly to
act, is to render heroism impossible. Into it there enters an element
of insanity. The sacrificer must feel that he cares nothing for what
is rational, but only for what is holy, for his duty. The rational and
the holy,--in the mind of him who has not been disturbed by theoretic
controversy these two stand in harsh antithesis, and the antithesis
has been approved by important ethical writers of our time. The
rational man is, of course, needed in the humdrum work of life. His
assertive and sagacious spirit clears many a tangled pathway. But he
gets no reverence, the characteristic response of self-sacrifice. This
is reserved for him who says, "No prudence for me! I will he admirably
crazy. Let me fling myself away, so only there come salvation to
others."

Such, then, are the four massive objections: self-sacrifice is unreal
psychologically, aesthetically, morally, or rationally: But negative
considerations are not enough. No amount of demonstration of what a
thing is not will ever reveal what it is. Objections are merely of
value for clearing a field and marking the spots on which a structure