lex of
social rights and duties toward a single great group, which we may
call _civilized humanity_, the relative limits of which can only be
traced by repeated trials and by practical experience. The instincts
of the wild beast are still so deeply rooted, even in civilized men,
that they can only be adapted gradually and even painfully to a
natural right thus understood and limited. We must honestly admit that
such a right only merits very relatively the denomination of _natural
rights_. In fact, social rights are necessarily artificial in man. A
few elementary rights and duties only are quite natural, especially in
the sexual domain. We are concerned here with adaptations in the form
of instincts which serve for the support and development of the
family, as well as for the protection of the individual. Among these
we may mention the right to life, the duty of labor and the right to
labor, the right of the infant to be nourished by its mother and to be
cared for and protected by its parents, the duty of parents to nourish
their children, the duty of the husband to protect his wife, the right
to obtain nourishment from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the
right to satisfy the sexual appetite, etc.

There exists, however, a series of other rights and duties, which are
so necessary that they may be termed natural. Such are the right to
possess a dwelling place; to defend one's life against attack; to
think and believe what one wishes so long as one does not impose one's
ideas and faith on others; the duty to respect the life and property
of one's neighbor; the duty to give a healthy and sufficient education
to youth, both in body and mind, etc.

If we regard the matter without prejudice, certain rights and duties
which have been hitherto considered as natural and self-evident,
become very doubtful. Such are ecclesiastical and religious rights and
duties, patriotic and national duties, the rights and duties of war,
the rights of privileged classes, the rights of property, etc. It is
clear, from an unprejudiced examination of the development of
humanity, that these so-called rights and duties are only the historic
legacies of mysticism or of limited human groupings, and in great part
artificial. The rights and duties of members of the groups in question
consisted in mutually protecting their opinions and their national and
religious interests, etc., and in subjecting or even trampling under
foot those of other human gro