can not always be wisdom, for circumstances may 

 be found in which the rigid exercise of any given 

 principle may be wrong, and merely the lesser of 

 two evils. This being the case, it is clear the wise 

 course is not always the " right " course, and here 

 we are face to face with the important question: 

 What is right and what is wrong? which I do not 

 propose to attempt to answer, at all events for the 

 present. 



There can be no doubt, at least, that ethics and 

 morality are matters of convenience, and that the 

 entire codes of manners, morals, and laws have 

 been evolved on a utilitarian basis. The manners, 

 morals, and laws of human communities often 

 differ very widely from one another, thus adding 

 proof to their local conventional origin and 

 growth. Laws are of course merely the crystalli- 

 zation of convenient and conventional methods 

 which have by gradual progress been arrived at 

 for the mutual protection of individuals and com- 

 munities. If the rights of person and property 

 were violable with impunity neither the one nor 

 the other would be safe from destruction or free 

 to work its own advancement. And if the mar- 

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