e principles and spirit of Christianity, and that
should the world ever be thoroughly Christianized, the ages when war was
possible, will be looked back upon with the same horror with which we now
regard cannibalism.

Associated with the right to life, and essential to its full enjoyment, is
the *right to liberty*. This includes the right to direct one's own
employments and recreations, to divide and use his time as may seem to him
good, to go where he pleases, to bestow his vote or his influence in
public affairs as he thinks best, and to express his own opinions orally,
in writing, or through the press, without hindrance or molestation. These
several rights belong equally to all; but as they cannot be exercised in
full without mutual interference and annoyance, the common sense of
mankind, uttering itself through law, permits each individual to enjoy
them only so far as he can consistently with the freedom, comfort, and
well-being of his fellow-citizens.

*Slavery* is so nearly extirpated from Christendom, that it is superfluous
to enter into the controversy, which a few years ago no treatise on Moral
Philosophy could have evaded. It was defended only by patent sophistry,
and its advocates argued from the fact to the right, inventing the latter
to sustain the former.

*Personal liberty is legally and rightfully restricted* in the case of
minors, on the ground of their *immature* judgment and discretion, of
their natural state of dependence on parents, and of their usual abode
under the parental roof. The age of mature discretion varies very widely,
not only in different races, but among different individuals of the same
race, as does also the period of emancipation from the controlling
influence of parents, and of an independent and self-sustaining condition
in life. But, as it is impossible for government to institute special
inquiries in the case of each individual, and as, were this possible,
there would be indefinite room for favoritism and invidious distinctions,
there is an intrinsic fitness in fixing an average age at which parental
or _quasi_-parental tutelage shall cease, and after which the man shall
have full and sole responsibility for his own acts. It is perfectly
obvious that the liberty of the insane and feeble-minded ought to be
restricted so far as is necessary for their own safety and for that of
others. There is, also, in most communities, a provision by which
notorious spendthrifts may be put und