be, the Bible, surely, is not "a bundle of absurd and loathed forms." It is the wisdom of God, in the presence of which the wisdom of man is foolishness.
3. The great truth contained in these laws is, that it is the will of God, the dictate of his infinite and benevolent wisdom that the affections which belong to the relation in which kin- dred (whether by consanguinity or affinity) stand to each other, should not be disturbed, perverted, or corrupted by that essen- tially different kind of love which is appropriate and holy in the conjugal relation; and that a protecting halo should be shed around the family circle.
§ 12. The Eighth Commandment.
This commandment forbids all violations of the rights of prop- erty. The right of property in an object is the right to its ex- clusive possession and use.
The foundation of the right of property is the will of God. By this is meant, (1.) That God has so constituted man that he desires and needs this right of the exclusive possession and use of certain things. (2.) Having made man a social being, He has made the right of property essential to the healthful development of human society. (3.) He has implanted a sense of justice in the nature of man, which condemns as morally wrong everything inconsistent with the right in question. (4.) He has declared in his Word that any and every violation of this right is sinful.
This doctrine of the divine right of property is the only secur- ity for the individual or for society. If it be made to rest on any other foundation, it is insecure and unstable. It is only by making property sacred, guarded by the fiery sword of divine jus- tice, that it can be safe from the dangers to which it is everywhere and always exposed.
Numerous theories have been advanced on this subject. These theories have had a twofold object : the one to explain the nature and ground of the right ; the other to explain how the right was originally acquired. These objects are distinct and should not be confound ad.
1. The modern philosophical theory that might is right, that the strongest is always the best, includes indeed both these ob- jects. If being is the only good, and if it is true the more of being the more of good, then he who has the most of being, he in whom the infinite is most fully revealed, has the right to have and to hold whatever he chooses to possess.
422 PART HI. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
2. If a regard to our individual well-being be the only ground of moral obligation, then a man has the right to whatever will make him happy. He may, and he certainly would, make a great mistake, if he supposed that taking what does not belong to him would promote his happiness ; but he is restrained from such in- justice only by a sense of prudence. He is entitled to have what- ever in fact would make him happy, and for that reason.
3. If regard to the general good, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or expediency, as Paley makes it, be the rule and ground of duty, then it will always be a matter of opinion, a mat- ter on which men will ever differ, what is, and what is not expedi- ent. One might think that a community of goods would promote the greatest good, and then he would, at least in his own con- science, be entitled to act on that principle. Others might think that agrarianism, or the periodic distribution of all the land of the country in equal portions among the people, would promote the general good, and then that would be to them the rule of action. There would be no end to the devices to promote the greatest good, if the rights of men rested on no other foundation than that of expediency.
Some of the most distinguished legal and philosophical writers of the present age teach that " property is founded on utility." With some, however, utility is not the ground, but rather the test of human rights and duties. The fact that an institution or a course of conduct is conducive to the public good, is not so much the reason why it is right, as a proof that it is right and in ac- cordance with the will of God. " God designs the happiness of all his sentient creatures. Some human actions forward that be- nevolent purpose, or their tendencies are beneficent and useful. Other human actions are adverse to that purpose, or their ten- dencies are mischievous or pernicious. The former, as promoting his purpose, God has enjoined. The latter, as opposed to his pur- pose, God has forbidden. He has given us the faculty of observ- ing ; of remembering ; and of reasoning ; and by duly applying those faculties, we may collect the tendencies of our actions. Knowing the tendencies of our actions, and knowing his benevo- lent purpose, we know his tacit commands." * It is no doubt true that it is a fair and conclusive argument that a thing is right or wrong in itself and conformed or opposed to the will of God, that its tendency is of necessity and always to produce, on the one
1 Lectures on Jurisprudence, or the Philosophy of Positive Law, by the late John Austin. ed edit, revised and edited by Robert Campbell, London, 1869, vol. i. p. 109.