The general concept of mercy is that it is the power (usually exercised arbitrarily) of withholding punishment for a known wrong done, e.g., a magistrate, governor or king may remit (within limits) the sentence imposed on a convict. Webster Dictionary defines it as "clemency, leniency, disposition to forgive; pity, compassion."

Justice, long considered a prerogative or function of kings and their delegates, has traditionally been represented by equipoised scales; injustice, by the unbalanced scales. Is the latter state mercy? The dictionary says justice is "conformity to law; impartiality, fairness, honesty in dealings."

Those who know they have done wrong and who fear the just consequences, generally seek mercy, or the remission, or postponement, or delay, or mitigation of due punishment, by prayers to God or gods, or by petitions to a court of law, etc.

What underlies the whole concept of justice is an innate recognition of the operation of Law in the Universe—in Nature and in Man; of the fact that moral law prevails as inexorably on the ethical plane as it does on the physical. Innately, we know that Law is implacable: "Utter-true its measures mete...tomorrow it will judge, or after many days."

Modern science demonstrates the reign of Law throughout the departments of physical Nature that it has investigated and analysed. To an increasing degree, it expresses the relationships and interactions in Nature in mathematical terms.

Orthodox religions have traditionally considered themselves arbiters of the moral nature of man, and the priests of all religions have generally arrogated to themselves the role of intermediaries between man and God, or gods. Innately, many feel the falseness of this position, but most have neither the knowledge to eradicate the fear of the unknown, nor the enthusiasm and energy to search for Truth by themselves.

Why and how does Theosophy explain and reconcile the apparently opposing concepts of justice and mercy? Simply because the Theosophical philosophy takes into account all factors. Let us see what these are.

In regard to God, Theosophy says that It is a Universal and Eternal PRINCIPLE, all-pervasive and immanent in the essential nature of all men and all beings in the entire universe. The goal of life is the ultimate perfectibility of all beings—the conscious awareness of the wisdom inherent in one's omniscient spiritual nature, which is but a ray of the One Spirit, the One God. Priests and orthodoxies are eliminated at one stroke, for each man is in contact with the ray of the Deity within himself, and can know it for himself and by himself.

If this be so, then the many laws that science records are the uniform, impersonal and punctual workings of the Universal Mind throughout Nature. This binds every aspect of Nature, every faculty, every being to every other; there can be no "escape," no propitiation. If Nature's laws are so relentless, so just, how, then, are they merciful? The mercy aspect is to be found in the implacable, unchanging nature of Law; because it is merciful, it puts wrongs right; without emotion it demands that right shall prevail, that harmony shall be established, and so it gives us the opportunity to learn the lesson that life has to teach.

The Third Fundamental Proposition of the Theosophical philosophy posits the harmonious evolution of all beings in the universe and the ultimate merging of self-consciousness into Universal Consciousness; the mind faculty of personal perception broadens into universal perception. To gain this perception, we have to see that all beings of whatever nature or degree interact on one another, on all planes—physical, emotional, mental, moral, spiritual. This is the basis of Brotherhood, the basis of mercy, of charity, but we do not yet see it; or, if occasionally glimpsed, we do not retain awareness of the wisdom and do not use it practically to motivate our every thought and deed.

Why, then, do we do wrong? It is because our desires and wants, united with the mind faculty, create in us a sense of "I-ness," of separateness, of selfishness. The vision of Unity is temporarily obliterated by personal sensation.

What, then, can we do? The solution lies in the study and understanding of the three universal Fundamentals outlined above, in working out their implications in daily life, and in proving their validity for ourselves. Then comes self-improvement, the building of virtue into our character because we realize that "rigid Justice rules the World." We thus become Law-abiding.

Karma is the name given to the universal Law of cause-effect-cause. The justice of the Law resides in its exact balancing of the effect with the force generated to create the cause. Its mercy resides in the fact that it gives us another chance to learn and to improve and to work on ourselves. No one is damned eternally or punished for ever. This is not the Law of Nature.

True mercy is not personal favour shown to an individual. If we could see that in their highest aspects mercy and justice are synonymous, then we would set aside emotional considerations and accept the situations we are placed in by Karma as opportunities for which we ought to be grateful, opportunities to work out effects and to surmount undesirable characteristics in ourselves. True forgiveness would then imply ceasing to brood over past wrongs—the application of the teaching: "Look not behind or thou art lost."

Mixed people, mixed institutions: therefore time, tolerance, and patience, suffering wheat and tares to ripen side by side as they sprang up in the field. That reform itself needs reforming which plucks up the man in rooting out his sins. Heaven's Kingdom comes not by violence but by persuasion. Love is the soft but mighty curb. Pure power sleeps in reserves, and is benign and beautiful. "Yet half his strength he put not forth." Reserves are God instinctive, and checks from within.

—Bronson Alcott