all that the earth produces is created for the use of man, so men are created for the sake of men, that they may mutually do good to one another; in this we ought to take nature for our guide, to throw into the public stock the offices of general utility by a reciprocation of duties; sometimes by receiving, sometimes by giving, and sometimes to cement human society by arts, by industry, and by our resources.

Now the foundation of justice is faithfulness, which is a perseverance and truth in all our declarations and in all our promises. Let us therefore (though some people may think it over nice) imitate the Stoics, who curiously examine whence terms are derived, and consider that the word fides, or faithfulness, is no other than a performance of what we have promised.' But there are two kinds of injustice; the first is of those who offer an injury, the second of those who have it in their power to avert an injury from those to whom it is offered, and yet do it not. For if a man, prompted either by anger or any sudden perturbation, unjustly assaults another man, such a one seems as it were to lay violent hands on one's ally; and the man who does not repel or withstand the injury, if he can, is as much to blame as if he deserted the cause of his parents, his friends, or his country.

Those wrongs, however, which are inflicted for the very purpose of doing an injury, often proceed from fear; as for instance, when a man who is contriving to injure another is afraid, unless he executes what he is meditating, that he may himself sustain some disadvantage; but the great incentive to doing wrong is to obtain what one desires, and in this crime avarice is the most pervading motive.

VIII. Now riches are sought after, both for the necessary purposes of life and for the enjoyment of pleasure. But in men of greater minds the coveting of money is with a view to power and to the means of giving gratification. As M. Crassus lately used to declare, that no man who wanted to have a direction in the government had money enough, unless by the interest of it he could maintain an army. Magnificent equipages, likewise, and a style of living made up of elegance and abundance give delight, and hence the desire for money becomes boundless. Nor indeed is the

1 Fides, quia fiat quod dictum est.

mere desire to improve one's private fortune, without injury to another, deserving of blame; but injustice must ever be

avoided.

But the main cause why most men are led to a forgetfulness of justice is their falling into a violent ambition after empire, honors, and glory. For what Ennius observes that

"No social bonds, no public faith remains
Inviolate;"

has a still more extensive application; for where the object of ambition is of such a nature as that several can not obtain preeminence, the contest for it is generally so violent that nothing can be more difficult than to preserve the sacred ties of society. This was shown lately in the presumption of C. Cæsar, who, in order to obtain that direction in the government which the wildness of his imagination had planned out, violated all laws, divine and human. But what is deplorable in this matter is, that the desire after honor, empire, power, and glory, is generally most prevalent in the greatest soul and the most exalted genius; for which reason every crime of that sort is the more carefully to be guarded against. But in ever species of injustice it is a very material question, whether it is committed through some agitation of passion, which commonly is shortlived and temporary, or from deliberate, prepense, malice; for those things which proceed from a short, sudden fit, are of slighter moment than those which are inflicted by forethought and preparation. But enough has been said concerning inflicting injury.

IX. Various are the causes of men omitting the defense of others, or neglecting their duty toward them. They are either unwilling to encounter enmity, toil, or expense; or, perhaps, they do it through negligence, listlessness, or laziness; or they are so embarrassed in certain studies and pursuits, that they suffer those they ought to protect to be neglected. Hence we must take care lest Plato's observation with respect to philosophers should be falsified: "That they

1 Milton thus expresses a similar idea:

"Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)

To scorn delights and live laborious days."-Lycidas.

are men of integrity, because they are solely engaged in the pursuit of truth, and despise and neglect those considerarations which others value, and which mankind are wont to contend for among themselves." For, while they abstain from hurting any by the infliction of injury, they indeed assert one species of honesty or justice, but they fail in another; because, being entangled in the pursuits of learning, they abandon those they ought to protect. Some, therefore, think that they would have no concern with the government unless they were forced to it; but still, it would be more just that it should be done voluntarily; for an action which is intrinsically right is only morally good in so far as it is voluntary.' There are others who, either from a desire to improve their private fortune, or from some personal resentments, pretend that they mind their own affairs only that they may appear not to do wrong to another. Now such persons are free from one kind of injustice, but fall into another; because they abandon the fellowship of life by employing in it none of their zeal, none of their labor, none of their abilities. Having thus stated the two kinds of dishonesty or injustice, and assigned the motives for each kind, and settled previously the considerations by which justice is limited, we shall easily (unless we are extremely selfish) be able to form a judgment of our duty on every occa

sion.

For, to concern ourselves in other people's affairs is a delicate matter. Yet Chremes, a character in Terence, thinks, that there is nothing which has a relation to mankind in which he has not a concern.2 Meanwhile, because we have the quicker perception and sensation of whatever happens favorably or untowardly to ourselves than to others, which we see as it were at a greater distance, the

1 The principle of the spontaneousness and intelligence of all actions being essential to their moral character, seems, if it be admitted, at once fatal to those numerous schemes of ethics, which make the moral character of conduct to depend on its essential utility-inasmuch as on the latter showing a morally good action may not only be performed under compulsion, but even with the deliberate and sole intention of producing the opposite results, namely, those which are in every aspect the most mischievous

2 Heautontimorumenos, Act I., Scene 1: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto, Augustin, who was made bishop of Hippo, A.D. 395, mentions the universal applause with which this admirable sentiment was

judgment we form of them is very different from what we form of ourselves. Those therefore are wise monitors who teach us to do nothing of which we are doubtful, whether it is honest or unjust; for whatever is honest manifests itself by its own luster, but doubt implies the entertainment of injustice.

X. But occasions frequently happen in which those duties which are most worthy of an honest, and of such as we call a worthy man, are altered and changed to their contraries. For example, to return a deposit, to perform a promise, and other matters that are relative to truth and honesty, sometimes alter so that it is just they should not be observed; for it is proper to have recourse to those fundamentals of honesty which I laid down in the commencement: in the first place, that of injuring no person; and, secondly, that of being subservient to the public good. When these conditions are altered by circumstances, the moral obligation, not being invariably identical, is similarly altered.

A promise, as a paction, may happen to be made, the performance of which may be prejudicial either to the party promising, or to the party to whom the promise is made. For (as we see in the play) had not Neptune performed his promise to Theseus, the latter would not have been bereaved of his son Hippolytus; for it is recorded, that of three wishes to be granted him, the third, which he made in a passion, was the death of Hippolytus, which, having been granted, he sunk into the most dreadful distress. Therefore, you are not to perform those promises which may be prejudicial to the party to whom you promise, nor if they may be more hurtful to you than they can be serviceable to him. It is inconsistent with our duty that the greater obligation should be postponed to the less. For instance, suppose you should promise to appear as the advocate of another person while his cause is depending: now, if your son was to be seized violently ill, in the mean time, it would be no breach of duty received in the theater. He himself has left us an expression of the same idea in the following words:

"Omnis homo est omni homini proximus, nec ulla cogitanda est longinquitas generis ubi est natura communis."

66

Every man is most closely connected with his every fellow man, nor should any distance of relationship enter into consideration where there is a common nature."

1

in you not to perform what you promise; the other person would rather depart from his duty if he should complain that he had been abandoned. Who, then, does not see that a man is not bound by those promises which he makes either when coerced by fear, or seduced by deceit? Many such promises are cancelled by the edict of the prætor's court, some by the laws; for very often wrongs arise through a quirk, and through a too artful but fraudulent construction of the law. Hence, "the rigor of law is the rigor of injustice," is a saying that has now passed into a proverb. Many injuries of this kind happen even in state affairs: thus, when a general has concluded a truce with his enemy for thirty days, yet ravaged that enemy's territories every night, because the truce was only for so many days, not for the nights. Nor, indeed, if it is true, is the conduct of our countryman, Quintus Fabius Labeo, to be approved of, or whoever he was (for I have the story only by report), who, being appointed an arbiter by the senate to settle a boundary between the people of Nola and those of Naples, counseled each of those people separately to do nothing covetously, and that each ought rather to draw back than advance. Both of them taking this advice, a space of unoccupied ground was left in the middle. He, therefore, adjudged to each people the boundary to which they had confined themselves, and all that was in the middle to the people of Rome. This was not to give judgment, but to cheat; wherefore we ought to avoid all chicane of that kind in every transaction.* 1 See conclusion of note, pp. 19, 20.

2 With these imperfect, and in some respects most faulty, notions touching the obligations of promises, it will be instructive to compare the principles of modern moralists. The following is a brief digest of these principles as given by Paley ("Moral and Political Philosophy," book 3, chap 5). "They who argue from innate moral principles, suppose a sense of the obligation of promises to be one of them; but without assuming this, or any thing else, without proof, the obligation to perform promises may be deduced from the necessity of such a conduct to the well-being, or the existence, indeed, of human society.

"Men act from expectation. Expectation is, in most cases, determined by the assurances and engagements which are received from others. If no dependence could be placed upon these assurances, it would be impossible to know what judgment to form of many future events, or how to regulate our conduct with respect to them. Confidence, therefore, in promises is essential to the intercourse of human life; because without it the greatest part of our conduct would proceed upon chance. But there could be no confidence in promises, if men were not obliged to