INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
subject only to the sanction of war. This individual freedom will have to be curtailed in regard to external relations if wars are ever to cease.
But when we pass outside the sphere of material possessions, we find that the arguments in favor of public control almost entirely disappear.
Religion, to begin with, is recognized as a matter in which the state ought not to interfere. Whether a man is Christian, Mahometan, or Jew is a question of no public concern, so long as he obeys the laws; and the laws ought to be such as men of all religions can obey. Yet even here there are limits. No civilized state would tolerate a religion demanding human sacrifice. The English in India put an end to suttee, in spite of a fixed principle of non-interference with native religious customs. Perhaps they were wrong to prevent suttee, yet almost
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