are negative, and its disciple is deemed most nearly perfect, when
in body, mind, and soul he has made himself utterly quiescent and inert.
Christianity, on the other hand, enjoins the unresting activity of all the
powers and faculties in pursuit of the highest ends.

Chapter VI.

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS.

Of the things that are fitting and right, there are some which, though
they may be described in general terms, cannot be defined and limited with
entire accuracy; there are others which are *so obvious and manifest, or
so easily ascertained*, that, in precise form and measure, *they may be
claimed* by those to whom they are due, *and required* of those from whom
they are due. These last are rights, and the duties which result from them
are *obligations*. Thus it is right that a poor man should be relieved;
and it is my duty, so far as I can, to relieve the poor. But this or that
individual poor man cannot claim that it is my duty rather than that of my
neighbor to minister to his needs, or that I am bound to give him what I
might otherwise give to his equally needy neighbor. He has no specific
right to any portion of my money or goods; I have no specific obligation
to give him anything. But if a man has lent me money, he has a right to as
much of my money or goods as will repay him with interest; and I am under
an obligation thus to repay him. Again, it is right that in the public
highway there should be, among those who make it their thoroughfare,
mutual accommodation, courtesy, and kindness; but no one man can prescribe
the precise distance within which he shall not be approached, or the
precise amount of pressure which may be allowable to his abutters in a
crowd. Nor yet can the individual citizen occupy the street in such a way
as to obstruct those who make use of it. He has no exclusive rights in the
street; nor are others under obligation to yield to him any peculiar
privileges. But he has a right to exclude whom he will from his own
garden, and to occupy it in whatever way may please him best; and his
fellow-citizens are under obligation to keep their feet from his alleys
and flower-beds, their hands from his fruit, and to abstain from all acts
that may annoy or injure him in the use and enjoyment of his garden.

*Rights*--with the corresponding obligations--might be divided into
*natural* and *legal*. But the division is nominal rather than real; for,
in the first p