THE GOLDEN RULE 971will want to cooperate with you. If you have mastered the eighth
lesson, on Self-Control, you now understand how to induce others-
through your own attitude toward them-to act toward you as you
wish them to act.
The law of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is based
on the same law as that on which the Golden Rule operates. This
is nothing more than the law of retaliation. Even the most selfish
person will respond to this law. They cannot help it. If I speak ill of
you, even though I tell the truth, you will not think kindly of me.
Furthermore, you will most likely retaliate in kind. But if I speak
of your virtues you will think kindly of me and, in the majority of
instances, when there is an opportunity you will reciprocate in kind.
Through the operation of this law of attraction, the uninformed
are constantly attracting trouble and grief and hatred and opposition
from others by their unguarded words and destructive acts.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you-bearing in
mind that human nature has a tendency to retaliate in kind.
Confucius must have been thinking of the law of retaliation when
he stated the Golden Rule philosophy in somewhat this way: Do not
unto others that which you would not have them do unto you.
And he might well have added an explanation to the effect that
the reason for his injunction was based on that very tendency of man
to retaliate in kind.
Those who do not understand the law upon which the Golden
Rule is based will argue that it will not work when people are inclined
toward the law of retaliation. If they would go a step further in their
reasoning they would understand that they are looking at the negative
effects of this law, and that the selfsame law is capable of producing
positive effects as well.
In other words, if you would not have your own eye plucked out,
then ensure against this misfortune by refraining from plucking out
the other fellow's eye. Furthermore, render the other fellow an act of