76 THE NECESSITY OF GENERAL RULES. take away his own life, without being known or fufpected to have done fo, he is not chargeable with any mifchief from the example; nor does his punishment feem neceffary, in order to save the authority of any general rule. In the first place, those who reason in this manner do not observe, that they are setting up a general rule, of all others the least to be endured; namely, that fecrecy, whenever fecrecy is practicable, will justify any action. Were fuch a rule admitted, for instance, in the cafe above produced, is there not reason to fear that people would be disappearing perpetually? In the next place, I would wish them to be well fatisfied about the points proposed in the following queries: 1. Whether the scriptures do not teach us to expect that, at the general judgment of the world, the most secret actions will be brought to light*? 2. For what purpose can this be, but to make them the objects of reward and punishment? 3. Whether, being fo brought to light, they will not fall under the operation of those equal * "In the day when God fhall judge the fecrets of men " by Jefus Chrift." Rom. xi. 16-" Judge nothing before "the time until the Lord come, who will bring to light the "hidden things of darkness, and will make manifeft the coun"cils of the heart." 1 Cor. iv. 5. and and impartial rules, by which God will deal with his creatures? They will then become examples, whatever they be now; and require the same treatment from the judge and governor of the moral world, as if they had been detected from the first. CHAP. VIII. THE CONSIDERATION OF GENERAL CONSE QUENCES PURSUED. ΤΗ HE general confequence of any action may be estimated, by afking what would be the consequence, if the same sort of actions were generally permitted. But suppose they were, and a thousand such actions perpetrated under this permiffion; is it just to charge a fingle action with the collected guilt and mifchief of the whole thousand? I anfwer, that the reafon for prohibiting and punishing an action (and this reafon may be called the guilt of the action, if you please) will always be in proportion to the whole mischief that would arise from from the general impunity and toleration of actions of the fame fort. "Whatever is expedient is right." But then it must be expedient upon the whole, at the long run, in all its effects collateral and remote, as well as in those which are immediate and direct; as it is obvious, that, in computing confequences, it makes no difference in what way or at what distance they enfue. To imprefs this doctrine upon the minds of young readers, and to teach them to extend their views beyond the immediate mifchief of a crime, I shall here subjoin a string of inftances, in which the particular confequence is comparatively infignificant; and where the malignity of the crime, and the severity with which human laws purfue it, is alınoft entirely founded upon the general confequence. The particular confequence of coining is, the lofs of a guinea, or of half a guinea, to the perfon who receives the counterfeit money; the general confequence (by which I mean the consequence that would enfue, if the fame practice were generally permitted) is, to abolish the use of money. The particular confequence of forgery is, a damage of twenty or thirty pounds to the man who who accepts the forged bill; the general confe→ quence is, the stoppage of paper currency. The particular confequence of sheep-ftealing, or horfe-ftealing, is a lofs to the owner, to the amount of the value of the sheep or horse stolen ; the general confequence is, that the land could not be occupied, nor the market fupplied with this kind of stock. The particular confequence of breaking into a houfe empty of inhabitants is, the loss of a pair of filver candlesticks, or a few spoons; the general confequence is, that nobody could leave their house empty. The particular confequence of fimuggling may be a deduction from the national fund too minute for computation: the general confequence is, the destruction of one entire branch of public revenue; a proportionable increase of the burthen upon other branches; and the ruin of all fair and open trade in the article fmuggled. The particular confequence of an officer's breaking his parole is, the lofs of a prifoner, who was poffibly not worth keeping; the general confequence is, that this mitigation of сарtivity would be refused to all others. And what proves inconteftably the superior importance of general confequences is, that crimes are are the fame, and treated in the fame manner, though the particular confequence be very different. The crime and fate of the house-breaker is the fame, whether his booty be five pounds or fifty. And the reason is, that the general confequence is the fame. The want of this diftinction between particular and general confequences, or rather the not fufficiently attending to the latter, is the cause of that perplexity which we meet with in ancient moralifts. On the one hand, they were fenfible of the abfurdity of pronouncing actions good or evil, without regard to the good or evil they produced. On the other hand, they were ftartled at the conclufions to which a steady adherence to confequences feemed fometimes to conduct them. To relieve this difficulty, they contrived the to geо, or the boneftum, by which terms they meant to constitute a measure of right, diftinct from utility. Whilft the utile served them, that is, whilft it correfponded with their habitual notions of the rectitude of actions, they went by it. When they fell in with such cases as those mentioned in the fixth chapter, they took leave of their guide, and resorted to the honeftum. The only account they could give of the matter was, that these actions might be useful; but, be caufe |