us to distinguish between the presence and absence of society; from the result we may inductively infer the law.
Let us commence with the simplest and least doubtful cases.
The mother, who protects her son at the peril of her life, and sacrifices every thing to his support, is in society with him—she is a good mother. She, on the contrary, who abandons her child, is unfaithful to the social instinct,—maternal love being one of its many features; she is an unnatural mother.
If I plunge into the water to rescue a drowning man, I am his brother, his associate; if, instead of aiding him, I sink him, I am his enemy, his murderer.
Whoever bestows alms treats the poor man as his associate; not thoroughly, it is true, but only in respect to the amount which he shares with him. Whoever takes by force or stratagem that which is not the product of his labor, destroys his social character—he is a brigand.
The Samaritan who relieves the traveller lying by the wayside, dresses his wounds, comforts him, and supplies him with money, thereby declares himself his associate—his neighbor; the priest, who passes by on the other side, remains unassociated, and is his enemy.
In all these cases, man is moved by an internal attraction towards his fellow, by a secret sympathy which causes him to love, congratulate, and condole; so that, to resist this attraction, his will must struggle against his nature.
But in these respects there is no decided difference between man and the animals. With them, as long as the weakness of their young endears them to their mothers,—in a word, associates them with their mothers,—the latter protect the former, at the peril of their lives, with a courage which
