i 9 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ally bring him the amounts and kinds of advantage naturally achieved by them ; 

 and this implies, firstly, that he shall suffer no direct aggressions on his person 

 or property, and, secondly, that he shall suffer no indirect aggressions by breach 

 of contract. Observance of these negative conditions to voluntary co-operation 

 having facilitated life to the greatest extent by exchange of services under agree- 

 ment, life is to be further facilitated by exchange of services beyond agreement ; 

 the highest life being reached only when, besides helping to complete one 

 another's lives by specified reciprocities of aid, men otherwise help to complete 

 one another's lives " (p. 149). 



This passage, indeed, raises in a convenient form the essential ques- 

 tion. It will be observed that in it are specified two sets of conditions, 

 by conforming to which men living together may achieve the greatest 

 happiness. The first set of conditions is that which we comprehend 

 under the general name justice / the second set of conditions is that 

 which we comprehend under the general name generosity. The posi- 

 tion of M. de Laveleye, and of the multitudes who think with him, is 

 that the community, through its government, may rightly undertake 

 both to administer justice and to practise generosity. On the other 

 hand, I, and the few who think with me, contend that justice alone is 

 to be administered by the community in its corporate capacity ; and 

 that the practice of generosity is to be left to private individuals, and 

 voluntarily-formed combinations of individuals. Insuring each citi- 

 zen's safety in person and property, as well as insuring him such re- 

 turns for his services as his fellow-citizens agree to give, is a public 

 affair ; while affording him help, and giving him benefits beyond those 

 he has earned, is a private affair. The reason for maintaining this dis- 

 tinction is that the last duty can not be undertaken by the State with- 

 out breach of the first. The vital requirement to social life must be 

 broken that a non-vital requirement may be fulfilled. Under a reign 

 of absolute justice unqualified by generosity, a social life may be car- 

 ried on, though not the highest social life ; but a reign of generosity 

 without any justice a system under which those who work are not 

 paid, so that those who have been idle or drunken may be saved from 

 misery is fatal ; and any approach to it is injurious. That only can 

 be a wholesome state in which conduct brings its natural results, good 

 or evil, as the case may be ; and it is the business of Government, act- 

 ing on behalf of all, to see that each citizen shall not be defrauded of 

 the good results, and that he shall not shoulder off the evil results on 

 to others. If others, in their private capacities, are prompted by affec- 

 tion or pity to mitigate the evil results, by all means let them do so : 

 no power can equitably prevent them from making efforts, or giving 

 money, to diminish the sufferings of the unfortunate and the inferior ; 

 at the same time that no power can equitably coerce them into doing 

 this. 



If M. de Laveleye holds, as he appears to do, that enforcing the 

 normal relations between conduct and consequences, right as it may 



