by making a will, another reason presents itself for the non-omission of such a duty. As land is not divisible like money, some difference might fairly be made in the law of descent; but there ought to be no difference, unless founded on reason. The Roman law made none, [because there was not the same motive as in modern times, to keep up the pride of family descent.] RELATIVE DUTIES, WHICH ARE CHAP. I. CHARITY. By charity is here intended, not bounty to the poor, nor, as St. Paul means, benevolence in general, but the promotion of the happiness of inferiors. Charity, in this sense, is the result of virtuous habits; for while worldly interests regulate our behavior to superiors and equals, humanity alone can influence our conduct to those beneath us. The happiness of inferiors may be promoted by, 1. the treatment of dependents; 2. professional assistance; 3. pecuniary bounty. CHAP. II. ON TREATMENT OF DEPENDENTS. A party pursuing a journey together find it for their interest that one should wait on the rest, a second seek out lodging, a third take charge of the horses and luggage, and a fourth bear the purse and regulate the route; not forgetting that they were equals at the commencement, and will be so at the end of the journey. In this case, he whose lot it is to direct the rest finds himself bound to study the feelings of his fellowtravellers, by giving his commands mildly, and using their service discreetly. [So in the journey of life, they whom the Creator has made dependents ought to be treated with the consideration due to equals in the eye of God.] Some, indeed, think that the obligation is rather from the inferior to the superior than contrariwise; but this is a mistake. The rich do not maintain the poor, but the poor the rich, whose food, house, dress, and luxuries, are all obtained from the industry of the poor. It is not the estate, but the labor employed on it, that pays the rent. The proprietor merely distributes what others produce. Others, in extenuation of unkind conduct to inferiors, say, that kind usage is thrown away on persons of low estate but all men, high or low, have and must have the same perception of the manner in which they are treated, though all may not exhibit such perceptions of gratitude, the same in kind or degree. As we are bound not to diminish the sum of human happiness, we have no right to increase the labor of domestics and dependents by unnecessary occupations or ill treatment in deed or word, or by the refusal of harmless amusements. CHAP. III. SLAVERY. Servitude differs from slavery in this, that the servant contracts to work for his master, while the slave, is, without such contract, compelled to labor; but in both there is the same obligation, on the part of the master, not to diminish, beyond absolute necessity, the sum of human happiness. Hence, as slavery may arise from, 1. crimes; 2. war; 3. debt; it must cease as soon as the crime is expiated, or the quarrel settled between the nations at war, or the creditor legally satisfied. But as the slave-trade is not advocated on any of these principles, it is morally wrong. Yet even if the purchase were defensible, the trade is still chargeable, 1. with the crime of exciting the native slave-sellers to war and rapine for the purposes of trade; and, 2. with the cruel treatment shown to the slaves in their passage from Africa to America. But although necessity, the name under which iniquity is ever attempted to be justified, has been pleaded for the continuance of the traffic, it has not been shown that the land could not be cultivated in the West Indies, as elsewhere, by free labor alone. It could not, perhaps, be cultivated so cheaply as regards either the grower or consumer of the produce; but this difference of cost is a question of convenience; not such necessity, as can alone justify an act otherwise immoral. But it is said, that, although slavery existed in the very countries where Christianity was first promulgated, the Christian Scriptures do not prohibit it. This is true; but it is unjust to infer from this silence, that Christ deemed all the then existing institutions right, or that he forbade the worse to be bettered. Besides, Christianity purposely refrained from intermeddling with civil institutions, through the fear of impeding its progress, and perhaps endangering its existence, by giving a handle to the reproach of its exciting a servile war by preaching the doctrine of universal emancipation. With regard to the West Indian slaves, their emancipation must be gradual, and accompanied with the diffusion of Christianity, under whose mild influence all parties will be prepared to see and correct the wickedness and folly of their present institutions; and then West Indian slavery will, like that of the Greeks and Romans, and subsequently of the feudal times, disappear, as knowlege and religion are gradually extended. CHAP. IV. PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE. This kind of charity can be exercised best by members of the legislature, and magistrates, or persons of the medical, legal, and clerical professions. Paley Phil. F 1. By members of the legislature, charity, in its most meritorious sense, (because its beneficial effects will be most widely diffused through the most extensive and least happy part of the community) may be exerted through their efforts to remedy the abuses and imperfections connected with the administration of law generally, and especially of such as relate to the poor, whom every government is bound to protect the more, as the rich can take care of themselves. 2. As magistrates, men of moderate means and education may place out the single talent entrusted to them with advantage, by interposing official authority and personal influence in behalf of the poor, who claim relief at the hands of those, who, from interested motives, are led to dole it out too sparingly, or even to deny it altogether. 3. By medical men, much good may be done at a little cost. Health, precious to all, is to the poor invaluable, and may be recovered by the timely application of drugs, which cost little, and of advice, which costs less, where the patient is unable to pay for them. 4. Much of the loss of money, time, and temper, produced by a law-suit, may be prevented amongst the poorer sort of litigants by men, who to a knowlege of law add the wish to reconcile differences impartially. Counsel also given seasonably will often keep or extricate the uninformed out of great difficulties. Lastly, as clergymen, the greatest good may be effected by a judicious use of the means they possess of regulating the moral conduct of the poor, whose confidence they have it in their power to gain by the ready admission given to persons, whose disinterested motives even poverty cannot suspect. CHAP. V. PECUNIARY BOUNTY. Whether pity, or that feeling which prompts us to relieve misery, be an instinct or habit, is not material. It exists in fact; and was doubtless intended by the Creator to remedy those inequalities of condition, which, as God foresaw, must follow every general rule for the distribution of property. But independent of this presumed intention of the Creator, the poor have a claim for relief, founded on the law of nature; for as all things were originally common, none could have a greater right than another to a particular possession. Hence, when a partition did take place for the public good, it must have taken place on the condition, that every one should have a sufficiency, as intended by the Creator. But as no fixed laws can anticipate every case of distress that may arise, these cases were supposed to be left to the bounty of those, who had benefited by such previous partition; and, consequently, to deny the claims of such distress is to act morally wrong, by opposing the will of the Creator, who has filled the world with plenteousness for the support and comfort of his creatures. On this duty the Christian Scriptures are more explicit than on almost any other. The forcible language of Christ, as applied to the good at the day of judgment, I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me,' are too direet to leave us to doubt of the principles which will direct God's decisions, or of the value which he sets on such acts of bounty. The apostles also inculcate the same doctrine, the diffusion of which has probably given rise to the numerous public charities founded in Christian countries, but not mentioned as existing elsewhere; and to which may be added the spirit of private liberality, and even the legal provision for the poor, the last not so much as thought of amongst the most humane nations of antiquity. So great indeed was the effect produced by the promulgation of Christianity on this very point, that many, believing in the doctrine of a community of 1 Matth. xxv. 31. |