e of nature, and which every man is intitled
to enjoy whether out of society or in it. But with regard to the
absolute _duties_, which man is bound to perform considered as a mere
individual, it is not to be expected that any human municipal laws
should at all explain or enforce them. For the end and intent of such
laws being only to regulate the behaviour of mankind, as they are
members of society, and stand in various relations to each other, they
have consequently no business or concern with any but social or
relative duties. Let a man therefore be ever so abandoned in his
principles, or vitious in his practice, provided he keeps his
wickedness to himself, and does not offend against the rules of public
decency, he is out of the reach of human laws. But if he makes his
vices public, though they be such as seem principally to affect
himself, (as drunkenness, or the like) they then become, by the bad
example they set, of pernicious effects to society; and therefore it
is then the business of human laws to correct them. Here the
circumstance of publication is what alters the nature of the case.
_Public_ sobriety is a relative duty, and therefore enjoined by our
laws: _private_ sobriety is an absolute duty, which, whether it be
performed or not, human tribunals can never know; and therefore they
can never enforce it by any civil sanction. But, with respect to
_rights_, the case is different. Human laws define and enforce as well
those rights which belong to a man considered as an individual, as
those which belong to him considered as related to others.

FOR the principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the
enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the
immutable laws of nature; but which could not be preserved in peace
without that mutual assistance and intercourse, which is gained by the
institution of friendly and social communities. Hence it follows, that
the first and primary end of human laws is to maintain and regulate
these _absolute_ rights of individuals. Such rights as are social and
_relative_ result from, and are posterior to, the formation of states
and societies: so that to maintain and regulate these, is clearly a
subsequent consideration. And therefore the principal view of human
laws is, or ought always to be, to explain, protect, and enforce such
rights as are absolute, which in themselves are few and simple; and,
then, such rights as are relative, which arising from a