Excerpt from Between Caesar and Jesus
"And can there be any greater evil than discord and distraction and plurality where unity ought to reign? or any greater good than the bond of unity?"
"There cannot."
"And there is unity where there is community of pleasures and pains - where all the citizens are glad or sorry on the same occasions?"
"No doubt."
"Yes; and where there is no common but only private feeling, that disorganizes a state - when you have one-half of the world triumphing and the other sorrowing at the same events happening to the city and the citizens?"
"Certainly."
"Such differences commonly originate in a disagreement about the terms 'mine' and 'his'?"
"Exactly."
"And is not that the best ordered state in which the greatest number of persons apply the terms 'mine' and not 'mine' in the same way to the same thing?"
"True, very true."
"Or that again which most nearly approaches the condition of the individual - as in the body, when but the finger is hurt, the whole frame, drawn toward the soul and forming one realm under the ruling power therein, feels the hurt and sympathizes all together with the part afflicted, and then we say that the man has a pain in his finger; or again, in any other part, when there is a sensation of pain or pleasure at suffering, or alleviation of suffering, the same expression is used?"
"Yes," he replied, "that is as you say; and I agree with you that in the best ordered state there is the nearest approach to this common feeling which you describe."
"Then when any one of the citizens experiences any good or evil, the whole state will make his case their own, and either rejoice or sorrow with him?"
"Yes," he said, "that will be true in a well ordered state."
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