mmandment against which human ingenuity has brought more
evasions to bear than this. Property itself is theft, says the
communist. "It is no grave sin," says the Roman text-book, "to steal in
moderation"; and this is defined to be, "from a pauper less than a
franc, from a daily labourer less than two or three, from a person in
comfortable circumstances anything under four or five francs, or from a
very rich man ten or twelve francs. And a servant whom force or
necessity compels to accept an unjust payment, may secretly compensate
himself, because the workman is worthy of his hire."[37] A moment's
reflection discovers this to be the most naked rationalism, choosing
some of the commandments of God for honour, and some for contempt as
"not very grave" and wholly ignoring the principle that whoever attacks
the code at any one point "is guilty of all," because he has despised it
as a code, as an organic system.

Nothing is easier than to confuse one's conscience about the ethics of
property. For the arrangements of various nations differ: it is a
geographical line which defines the right of the elder son against his
brothers, of sons against daughters, and of children against a wife; and
the demand is still more capricious which the state asserts against them
all, under the name of succession duty, and which it makes upon other
property in the form of a multitude of imposts and taxes. Can all these
different arrangements be alike binding? Add to this variability the
immense national revenues, which are apparently so little affected by
individual contributions, and it is no wonder if men fail to see that
honesty to the public is a duty as immutable and stern as any other duty
to their neighbour. Unfortunately the evil spreads. The same
considerations which make it seem pardonable to rob the nation apply
also to the millionaire; and they tempt many a poor man to ask whether
he need respect the wealth of a usurer, or may not adjust the scales of
Mine and Thine, which law causes to hang unfairly.

It is forgotten that a nation has at least the same authority as a club
to regulate its own affairs, to fix the relative position and the
subscription of its members. Common honesty teaches me that I must
conform to these rules or leave the club; and this duty is not at all
affected by the fact that other associations have different rules. In
three such societies God Himself has placed us all--the family, the
Church, and the nation; a