e the first law of our
nature, would not every one in a state of nature be morally justified in
taking to himself that which is indispensable to such preservation,
where, by so doing, he would not rob another of that which might be
equally indispensable to _his_ preservation? And if the value of life
be regarded in a right point of view, may it not be questioned whether
this right of preserving life, at any expense short of endangering the
life of another, does not survive man's entering into the social state;
whether this right can be surrendered or forfeited, except when it
opposes the divine law, upon any supposition of a social compact, or of
any convention for the protection of mere rights of property?

But, if it be not safe to touch the abstract question of man's right in
a social state to help himself even in the last extremity, may we not
still contend for the duty of a Christian government, standing _in loco
parentis_ towards all its subjects, to make such effectual provision,
that no one shall be in danger of perishing either through the neglect
or harshness of its legislation? Or, waiving this, is it not
indisputable that the claim of the State to the allegiance, involves the
protection of the subject? And, as all rights in one party impose a
correlative duty upon another, it follows that the right of the State to
require the services of its members, even to the jeoparding of their
lives in the common defence, establishes a right in the people (not to
be gainsaid by utilitarians and economists) to public support when, from
any cause, they may be unable to support themselves.

Let us now consider the salutary and benign operation of this principle.
Here we must have recourse to elementary feelings of human nature, and
to truths which from their very obviousness are apt to be slighted, till
they are forced upon our notice by our own sufferings or those of
others. In the Paradise Lost, Milton represents Adam, after the Fall, as
exclaiming, in the anguish of his soul--

Did I request Thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man; did I solicit Thee
From darkness to promote me?
...My will
Concurred not to my being.

Under how many various pressures of misery have men been driven thus, in
a strain touching upon impiety, to expostulate with the Creator! and
under few so afflictive as when the source and origin of earthly
existence have been brought back to the mind by its impending close i