and does the
deed. If I send a bullet into a man's head doubting whether or not he
be dead, I commit murder by that act, and it matters not at all in
point of fact whether said person were really dead or not before I made
sure. In the matter, therefore, which concerns us here, doubt will not
make killing justifiable. The law is: when in doubt, do not act.

Then, again, as far as guilt is concerned, it makes not a particle of
difference whether results follow or not. Sin, you know, is an act of
the will; the exterior deed completes, but does not make, the crime. If
I do all in my power to effect a wrong and fail in the attempt through
no fault of my own, I am just as guilty before God as if I perpetrated
the crime in deed. It is more than a desire to commit sin, which is
sinful; it is a specific sin in itself, and in this matter, it is
murder pure and simple.

This applies with equal force to the agent who does the deed, to the
principal who has it done or consents to its being done, to those who
advise, encourage, urge or co-operate in any way therein, as well as to
those who having authority to prevent, neglect to use it. The stain of
blood is on the soul of every person to whom any degree of
responsibility or complicity can be attached.

If every murderer in this enlightened Christian land of ours received
the rope which is his or her due, according to the letter of the law,
business would be brisk for quite a spell. It is a small town that has
not its professional babe-slaughterer, who succeeds in evading the law
even when he contrives to kill two at one time. He does not like to do
it, but there is money in it, you know; and he pockets his unholy blood
money without a squirm. Don't prosecute him; if you do, he will make
revelations that will startle the town.

As for the unnatural mother, it is best to leave her to listen in the
dead of night to the appealing voice of her murdered babes before the
tribunal of God's infinite justice. Their blood calls for vengeance.

CHAPTER LXXIV.
ENMITY.

KILLING is not the only thing forbidden by the Fifth Commandment:
thereby are prescribed all forms of enmity, of which killing is one,
that attack either directly or indirectly, in thought or desire, as
well as in deed, the life, limbs or health of the neighbor. The fifth
precept protects the physical man; everything therefore that partakes
of the nature of a design on the body of another is an offense against
this com