Natural Christians

Natural Christians names the Second Men as a species whose capacity for unreserved mutual love had become ordinary rather than an ideal attainable only through effort. The phrase captures both an individual disposition and a principle shaping their social policy; it does not describe a separate sect, but the recurring expression of their religion of love.

Meaning of the Expression

The narrator calls the Second Men Natural Christians because they loved one another readily and constantly in a manner compared with that of Jesus, and carried loving-kindness into the organization of society. The comparison marks a transformation in human nature: a form of love that the First Men could treat as an ideal was, among normal Second Men, a realized capacity.

The expression is paired with another defining achievement, wholly dispassionate cognition. Together, these powers distinguish the Second Men from their predecessors: much that the First Men could reach only through prolonged schooling and self-discipline came to the Second Men with fluency and delight. Natural Christianity therefore refers not simply to benevolence, but to a species-wide conjunction of clear judgment and generous feeling.

A Capacity Grounded in the Second Men's Nature

The account presents this ethical difference as part of a broader advance in the Second Men’s abilities. Their vision could distinguish additional primary colours and finer details, while their intelligence continued developing to about forty. An average adult could immediately grasp problems that even the most brilliant of the First Men would have had to solve through extended reasoning. Their flexible wills also enabled them to break habits once those habits no longer seemed justified.

These characteristics help explain the narrator’s emphasis on love as a natural power rather than a moral achievement imposed from outside. The Second Men’s greater insight and flexibility allowed them to avoid many confusions and superstitions that had constrained the First Men; their loving disposition likewise informed not only personal conduct but social policy. The description presents their goodness as a feature of a changed human type, not as an isolated virtue cultivated by exceptional individuals.

Religion of Love and Its Tension with Fate

Early in their history, the Second Men conceived a religion of love. The impulse returned repeatedly in different forms and remained with them until their end, making Natural Christians a recurring characterization rather than a passing label. Their capacity for dispassionate thought also led them quickly toward admiration of fate, however, and the narrator identifies a persistent difficulty in reconciling that allegiance with their love for one another.

That conflict gives the expression its limits as well as its force. The Second Men’s capacity to love was profound, but it did not settle every problem produced by their other defining beliefs. Their story thus presents natural benevolence not as proof that all tensions have disappeared, but as one extraordinary achievement within a species still vulnerable to conflict between love and fate.