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MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

воок IV.

DUTIES TO OURSELVES.

THI

HIS divifion of the fubject is retained merely for the fake of method, by which the writer and the reader are equally affifted. To the fubject itself it imports nothing; for the obligation of all duties being fundamentally the fame, it matters little under what class or title any of them are confidered. In ftrictness, there are few duties or crimes, which terminate in a man's felf; and, fo far as others are affected by their operation, they have been treated of in fome article of the preceding book. We have reserved however to this head the rights of

VOL. II.

B

felf

felf-defence; alfo the confideration of drunkenness and fuicide, as offences against that care of our faculties, and preservation of our person, which we account duties, and call duties to ourfelves.

CHAP.

CHAP I.

THE RIGHTS OF SELF-DEFENCE.

T has been afferted, that in a state of nature

IT

we might lawfully defend the most infignificant right, provided it were a perfect determinate right, by any extremities which the obftinacy of the aggreffor made neceffary. Of this I doubt; because I doubt whether the general rule be worth fuftaining at fuch an expence, and because, apart from the general confequence of yielding to the attempt, it cannot be contended to be for the augmentation of human happiness, that one man should lose his life or a limb, rather than another a pennyworth of his property. Nevertheless, perfect rights can only be distinguished by their value; and it is impoffible to ascertain the value, at which the liberty of using extreme violence begins. The person attacked muft balance, as well as he can, between the general confequence of yielding, and the particular effect of refiftance.

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However, this right, if it exist in a state of nature, is fufpended by the establishment of civil fociety; because thereby other remedies are provided against attacks upon our property, and because it is neceffary to the peace and safety of the community, that the prevention, punishment, and redrefs of injuries be adjusted by public laws. Moreover, as the individual is affifted in the recovery of his right, or of a compenfation for it, by the public ftrength, it is no lefs equitable than expedient, that he should fubmit to public arbitration, the kind as well as the measure of the fatisfaction which he is to obtain.

There is one cafe in which all extremities are justifiable, namely, when our life is affaulted, and it becomes neceffary for our preservation to kill the affailant. This is evident in a state of nature; unless it can be shown, that we are bound to prefer the aggreffor's life to our own, that is to say, to love our enemy better than ourselves, which can never be a debt of justice, nor any where appears to be a duty of charity. Nor is the cafe altered by our living in civil society; because, by the fuppofition, the laws of fociety cannot interpofe to protect us, nor by the nature of the cafe compel reftitution. This liberty is

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restrained to cases, in which no other probable means of preserving our life remain, as flight, calling for affiftance, difarming the adversary, &c. The rule holds, whether the danger proceed from a voluntary attack, as by an enemy, robber, or affaffin; or from an involuntary one, as by a madman, or perfon finking in the water, and dragging us after him; or where two perfons are reduced to a fituation, in which one or both of them muft perish; as in a shipwreck, where two feize upon a plank, which will fupport only one: although, to say the truth, these extreme cafes, which happen feldom, and hardly, when they do happen, admit of moral agency, are fcarcely worth mentioning, much lefs debating.

The inftance, which approaches the nearest to the preservation of life, and which seems to juftify the fame extremities, is the defence of chastity.

In all other cafes, it appears to me the safest to confider the taking away of life as authorized by the law of the land; and the person who takes it away, as in the fituation of a minister or executioner of the law.

In which view, homicide, in England, is justifiable:

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