PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

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;Jose, the com~un~calion of. hum~n. happiness: .ac.
cording to whIch Idea of their ongln and constitution,
(and without :my repugnancy to the words of
St. Paul) they are by St. Peter denominated the ordinance
of 111an.
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CHAPTER v.
OF CIVIL LIBERT"Y s
CIVIL liberty i; the WJt being restrained by any
Law, but wbat cond~es in a gr£oter degree to the public
welfare.
To do what ,~c \\,ill is natural liberty; to do what
we will, con~stently with the interest of the commun~ty
to which we belong, is ch-illiberty; that is to say,
the only liberty to be de~.ired in a state of civil society.
I ~hould'wish, no doubt, to be ~~l)owed to act in every
instance as I pleased; but I re8ect that the rest al.
so of mankind would then do the same; in which
state of universal independence and self-direction, I
should meet with so many checks and obstacles to
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my own will, from the interference and opposition
of other men's, that not only my happincs!\, hut my
liberty, would be less, th"D \vhilst the whole community
were s:Jbject to the dominion of equal laws"
Tht, boasted Ijb{:'~ty of a state of nature exists only
in a state of solitude. In every kind and degree of
nTlion and iJlterCQUrse with his species, it is possible
that the liberty of the individual may be augmented
by the very laws which re~train it: because he mav
gain more -frem the limitation of other men's frei.
llon1 than he suffers by the diminution of his o\\yn ..
Natural liberty is the right elf common upon a waste;
civil liberty is the safe, exclusive, unmolested enjoy.
ment of a cuiti\?ared inclo~ure. ~
The ddlllition of civil liberty above laid down, im.
p0ris that the laws of a free people impose no restran.:
upon the private will of the subject, which do not
,:onJuce in a greater dl'gre: to the public happiness :
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