st, by
analogy, be comprised in an enunciated forbidden action all others of a
similar nature, character, and tendency, as being understood in the
former.

LXXXV. The positive precepts concerning a man's conduct towards his
fellow-men, are naturally enunciated in directions of a tendency
precisely opposite to those expressed negatively; that is to say, it is
_enjoined_ to practise the reverse of what has been forbidden. Now, to
begin with the more general prescriptions; it is enjoined, in the first
place, to love one's fellow-men as one's own-self, all mankind, without
any exception, being comprised in this expression, as we meet again the
same injunction with regard to the _stranger_, whom we are commanded to
love as ourselves; and Scripture explained already what is to be
understood by the word _stranger_, when it said: "Thou also hast been a
stranger in the land of Egypt"; from which it is evident that the love
inculcated extends even to adversaries and enemies. It is next commanded
to respect in every individual the dignity of man, created in the image
of God, which establishes the inviolability of person, and the equality
of all before the law, so that there should be no privileged caste, no
hereditary preeminence; desiring, on the contrary, that "under the
protection of the same law and same right should dwell the native and
the foreigner." The personal liberty of every member of the human family
is also proclaimed, as it is with that intention that the Decalogue has
put prominently forward the circumstance of Israel having been delivered
from servitude; and if, on the one hand, the condition of the times,
which had rendered the use of slavery natural and universal, did not
then admit of its sudden and immediate extirpation; on the other,
Scripture designed to mitigate its acerbity by provident and humane
laws, so as to make obvious the tendency to its future total, though
gradual, extinction. To prevent pauperism, as well as to cure its evils,
the rich were enjoined to lend money to those who needed it; and the
law, starting from the presumption that the poor man would not, or at
least should not, desire to borrow and incur a debt, unless being
deprived of the necessaries of life, ordered that such a loan to the
destitute brother be gratuitous, whilst in commercial transactions with
foreign people it permitted the charge of some reasonable interest on
loans of money, as an equivalent for the service rendered.