In the main we love because we cannot help it. There is no merit in it: how should there be any love? But neither is it selfish. There are many who confound righteousness with merit, and think there is nothing righteous where there is nothing meritorious. “If it makes you happy to love,” they say, “where is your merit? It is only selfishness.” There is no merit, I reply, yet the love that is born in us is our salvation from selfishness. It is of the very essence of righteousness.