Chapter the fourth.
Of Offences against God and Religion.
In the preſent chapter we are to enter upon the detail of the ſeveral ſpecies of crimes and miſdemeſnors, with the puniſhment annexed to each by the laws of England. It was obſerved, in the beginning of this book[1] that crimes and miſdemeſnors are a breach and violation of the public rights and duties, owing to the whole community, conſidered as a community, in it's ſocial aggregate capacity. And in the very entrance of theſe commentaries[2] it was ſhewn, that human laws can have no concern with any but ſocial and relative duties; being intended only to regulate the conduct of man, conſidered under various relations, as a member of civil ſociety. All crimes ought therefore to be eſtimated merely according to the miſchiefs which they produce in civil ſociety[3]: and, of conſequence, private vices, or the breach of mere abſolute duties, which man is bound to perform conſidered only as an individual, are not, cannot be, the object of any municipal law; any farther than as by their evil example, or other pernicious effects, they may prejudice the community, and thereby become a ſpecies of public crimes. Thus the vice of drunkenneſs, if committed privately and alone, is beyond the knowlege and of courſe beyond the reach of human tribunals: but if committed publicly, in the face of the world, it's evil example makes it liable
