| Title: | Humanity (Ethics) |
| Original Title: | Humanité |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 8 (1765), p. 348 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Nelly S. Hoyt; Thomas Cassirer |
| Subject terms: |
Ethics
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Source: | Encyclopedia. Diderot, d'Alembert and others, translated by Nelly S. Hoyt and Thomas Cassirer, © 1965, Bobbs-Merrill. Used with Permission. |
| Availability: | This text may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact the translator or spo-help@umich.edu for more information. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.172 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Humanity." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Nelly S. Hoyt and Thomas Cassirer. Ann Arbor: Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library, 2003. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.172>. Trans. of "Humanité," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 8. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Humanity." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Nelly S. Hoyt and Thomas Cassirer. Ann Arbor: Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.172 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Humanité," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 8:348 (Paris, 1765). |
Humanity
Is a feeling of good will toward all men. Ordinarily only great and sensitive souls are consumed by it. This noble and sublime enthusiasm is tortured by the sufferings of others and tormented by the need to relieve such suffering; it fills men with the desire to traverse the world in order to do away with slavery, superstition, vice, and misfortune.
Humanity hides the faults of our fellow men from our eyes or prevents us from sensing them; but it makes us judge crimes with severity. It wrests from the hands of the criminal the deadly weapon with which he intended to strike the good man. It does not impel us to break the bonds that tie us to other individuals, but on the contrary turns us into better friends, better citizens, and better spouses; it delights in doing good deeds and thus pours out its benefits over those whom nature has placed next to us. I have discovered this virtue, which is the source of so many others, in many heads but in very few hearts.