Equality before the law is necessary and just; liberty is the birthright of every man and woman; free individual development will elevate and glorify the race.

But little worth these priceless jewels, little worth liberty and equality with all their promise for mankind, little worth even wider happiness, if that happiness be selfish, if true fraternity, true brotherhood, do not knit man to man, and heart to heart, in loyal service to the common need, and generous self-sacrifice to the common good."[15] To the forwarding of this moral growth of man, two things seemed to me necessary--an Ideal which should stir the emotions and impel to action, and a clear understanding of the sources of evil and of the methods by which they might be drained.

Into the drawing of the first I threw all the passion of my nature, striving to paint the Ideal in colours which should enthral and fascinate, so that love and desire to realise might stir man to effort.

If "morality touched by emotion" be religion, then truly was I the most religious of Atheists, finding in this dwelling on and glorifying of the Ideal full satisfaction for the loftiest emotions.

To meet the fascination exercised over men's hearts by the Man of Sorrows, I raised the image of man triumphant, man perfected.