82 DISCOUESES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



subject to civil society. Tlieir relations arc subject to 

 the higher law of morality and the unwritten constitu- 

 tion of the law of nations. Consequently, they form 

 among themselves a real though invisible common- 

 wealth, which I will call the universal commonwealth 

 of international justice. 



I have been telling you, lately, that there is such a 

 thing as justice for public life as well as for private 

 life — for society as well as for the individual. To-day I 

 complete the glorious survey ; I reach the highest point, 

 and declare that above that social justice which regu- 

 lates the relations between government and people, there 

 is an international justice presiding over the relations 

 between nation and nation. 



God (as I was but just now saying) has treated the 

 nations with great honor, in that he has left them free : 

 he has treated them Avitli higher honor still, in that he 

 has subjected them to law. It was not exclusively for 

 the individual conscience, it was not only for the peo- 

 ple of Israel, that God dictated the Ten Commandments 

 to Moses ; it was for all mankind. man, look upon 

 thy Lawgiver. Not now toward Israel, but toward 

 thee, he descends from the smoking top of Iloreb, the 

 two rays upon his brow, the two tables in his hand. It 

 is to every kindred and tongue that he proclaims the 

 everlasting law. It is to nations and sovereigns that 

 he says, " Ye shall not kill." Ye shall not make men's 

 lives the tools of your revenge and your ambition. Ye 

 shall not pour out their blood like water on the barren 

 furrows of your battle-fields. Ye sludl make no unjust 

 wars; and if war conies persistently knocking at the 

 door of your cabinets, ye shall ponder it long and 

 scrupulously in the scales of conscience. Ye shall 

 not kill. 



