very community, that are sons of riot and
plunder, and for the sake of these the satirical and censorious throw a
general slur and aspersion upon the whole species.

When we look at human society with kind and complacent survey, we are
more than half tempted to imagine that men might subsist very well in
clusters and congregated bodies without the coercion of law; and in
truth criminal laws were only made to prevent the ill-disposed few
from interrupting the regular and inoffensive proceedings of the vast
majority.

From what disposition in human nature is it that all this accommodation
and concurrence proceed?

It is not primarily love. We feel in a very slight degree excited to
good will towards the stranger whom we accidentally light upon in our
path.

Neither is it fear.

It is principally forecast and prudence. We have a sensitiveness, that
forbids us for a slight cause to expose ourselves to we know not what.
We are unwilling to be disturbed.

We have a mental vis inertiae, analogous to that quality in material
substances, by means of which, being at rest, they resist being put into
a state of motion. We love our security; we love our respectability;
and both of these may be put to hazard by our rashly and unadvisedly
thrusting ourselves upon the course of another. We like to act for
ourselves. We like to act with others, when we think we can foresee the
way in which the proposed transaction will proceed, and that it will
proceed to our wish.

Let us put the case, that I am passing along the highway, destitute and
pennyless, and without foresight of any means by which I am to procure
the next meal that my nature requires.

The vagrant, who revolves in his mind the thought of extorting from
another the supply of which he is urgently in need, surveys the person
upon whom he meditates this violence with a scrutinising eye. He
considers, Will this man submit to my summons without resistance, or in
what manner will he repel my trespass? He watches his eye, he measures
his limbs, his strength, and his agility. Though they have met in the
deserts of Africa, where there is no law to punish the violator, he
knows that he exposes himself to a fearful hazard; and he enters upon
his purpose with desperate resolve. All this and more must occur to the
man of violence, within the pale of a civilised community.

Begging is the mildest form in which a man can obtain from the stranger
he meets, the means of supplying hi