CONSCIENCE AND MORALITY 165 



conscience on prudential motives, that is to say, in order 

 to add riches either to the state generally or to any par 

 ticular class of its citizens, is conduct which no morality 

 will approve of, and which is itself a serious offence against 

 the public safety. 



Closely connected with the right of the state to coerce 

 the individual conscience is its duty to provide for the 

 administration of civil and retributory justice among its 

 citizens. Here too the moral principle of the safety of 

 the community comes into play ; no state could long 

 survive the refusal of its government to undertake these 

 functions ; but the leading part both in creating and in 

 defining the duty is taken by other distinct ethical prin 

 ciples. The first of these is justice, in its two main aspects, 

 equal distribution and the ius suum cuique tribuendi. 

 What is called the sacredness of property imposes the duty 

 of civil justice. The protection of acknowledged rights 

 of ownership against the cupidity of a powerful neighbour, 

 and the settlement of bona fide differences when each of 

 the conflicting claims is coloured by personal interest, are 

 demanded both for the security and peaceful progress of 

 the state, and by that moral feeling of the public which 

 is offended by unjust aggression ; and can be provided 

 only by the concerted action of the community, wielding 

 a power which is superior to that of any private citizen. 



The duty of a state to repress crime involves, besides 

 the protection of life and property, the other principle of 

 justice, that is equal distribution, which becomes retri 

 bution when allied with the principle of revenge. When 

 a man is injured, the morality of all nations is offended 

 if he fails to obtain vengeance on his injurer. In many 

 countries, indeed, the duty of vendetta is imposed on private 

 persons ; to acquiesce in an injury is not allowed ; and even 

 in our own the man who submits to injury or insult 

 without active resentment is not respected. This principle 

 has no necessary relation to justice. It springs from an 

 independent source, the instinct to return a blow, which 

 is found in the lowest organisms ; and it is because its 



