Moral Responsibility. 39 



Neither is it proved that the action of gravity is universal. 

 Still the practical universality of the force of gravity is so 

 certain as to be accepted as a safe assumption ; nay, a valid 

 principle ; and a historical comparison of the two cases will 

 show no material difference in the probable reliability in 

 each. The validity of the principle that every event is the 

 necessary result of its antecedents, physical and moral, and 

 must also cause as necessarily its consequences (which must 

 also be its appropriate moral consequences), is substantially 

 enunciated in such notorious maxims as " Everything must 

 have a cause ;" " Honesty is the best policy," &c„ This 

 principle is the basis of all experience and knowledge, and 

 its truth is proved by their mere existence. Curiously 

 enough, it is only beginning to be appreciated, Mr. Buckle 

 being, I think, its first consistent expounder. It was prac- 

 tically admitted in conduct (the only true test of opinion) 

 long before it was distinctly affirmed, but it has always been 

 theoretically contested on the ground of apparent exceptions. 

 But gravity was known as a principle long before Newton 

 showed that it was apparently of universal application. The 

 supposed exceptions exhibited in the perturbations of the 

 planets were subsequently recognised, but did not make 

 wise men despair of the principle. They had confidence in it, 

 and worked it out, until they demonstrated that the appa- 

 rent exceptions were really exemplifications and proofs of 

 the immutable law. 



I will now attempt to view historically the origin and pro- 

 gress of both the genuine and the fictitious ideas of moral 

 responsibility and obligation. 



In a primitive state of existence, man's wants are so few 

 that it is generally long before he arrives at the conception 

 of the exclusive right to property. But it naturally arises 

 when what he acquires costs him labour, and as he becomes 

 civilised, and his wants and possessions increase, so does the 

 notion of the right to property acquire strength with exer- 

 cise.* But it is long before he learns to add to it what it 



* Since writing the text I have been fortunate enough to meet with strong 

 corroboration of my theory, in a work by an author classed by Buckle, as, 

 " by far the ablest traveller who has published observations on European 

 " Society." Hist, of Civil, vol. i. p. 239. " In this nation of small pro- 

 " prietors the sense of honour is more developed, and more generally diffused, 

 " than in the countries feudally constituted. Loss of honour has been from 

 " the earliest times, a specific effective punishment in the criminal law of 

 " Norway, standing next in degree to loss of life. The possession of 



