A sensible pagan would say that there were some people one could forgive, and some one couldn't: a slave who stole wine could be laughed at; a slave who betrayed his benefactor could be killed, and cursed even after he was killed.

In so far as the act was pardonable, the man was pardonable.

That again is rational, and even refreshing; but it is a dilution.

It leaves no place for a pure horror of injustice, such as that which is a great beauty in the innocent.

And it leaves no place for a mere tenderness for men as men, such as is the whole fascination of the charitable.