hilst contrary to
nature.--2. The sanctity, the dignity, and the humility of a Christian
soul.--3. The miracles of Holy Scripture.--4. Jesus Christ in
particular.--5. The apostles in particular.--6. Moses and the prophets
in particular.--7. The Jewish people.--8. The prophecies.--9.
Perpetuity; no religion has perpetuity.--10. The doctrine which gives a
reason for everything.--11. The sanctity of this law.--12. By the course
of the world.

Surely, after considering what is life and what is religion, we should
not refuse to obey the inclination to follow it, if it comes into our
heart; and it is certain that there is no ground for laughing at those
who follow it.

290

_Proofs of religion._--Morality, Doctrine, Miracles, Prophecies, Types.

SECTION V

JUSTICE AND THE REASON OF EFFECTS

291

In the letter _On Injustice_ can come the ridiculousness of the law that
the elder gets all. "My friend, you were born on this side of the
mountain, it is therefore just that your elder brother gets everything."

"Why do you kill me?"

292

He lives on the other side of the water.

293

"Why do you kill me? What! do you not live on the other side of the
water? If you lived on this side, my friend, I should be an assassin,
and it would be unjust to slay you in this manner. But since you live on
the other side, I am a hero, and it is just."

294

On what shall man found the order of the world which he would
govern?[109] Shall it be on the caprice of each individual? What
confusion! Shall it be on justice? Man is ignorant of it.

Certainly had he known it, he would not have established this maxim, the
most general of all that obtain among men, that each should follow the
custom of his own country. The glory of true equity would have brought
all nations under subjection, and legislators would not have taken as
their model the fancies and caprice of Persians and Germans instead of
this unchanging justice. We should have seen it set up in all the States
on earth and in all times; whereas we see neither justice nor injustice
which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees
of latitude reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth.
Fundamental laws change after a few years of possession; right has its
epochs; the entry of Saturn into the Lion marks to us the origin of
such and such a crime. A strange justice that is bounded by a river!
Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, er