eventing, deterring or bringing to justice the guilty party. Such
persons as the foregoing participate as abettors in crime and share all
the guilt of the actual criminals; sometimes the former are even more
guilty than the latter.

The Tenth Commandment which forbids us to covet our neighbor's goods,
bears the same relation to the Seventh as the Ninth does to the Sixth.
It must, however, be borne in mind that all such coveting supposes
injustice in desire, that is, in the means by which we desire to obtain
what is not ours. To wish for, to long ardently for something that
appeals to one's like and fancy is not sinful; the wrong consists in
the desire to acquire it unjustly, to steal it, and thereby work damage
unto the neighbor. It is a natural weakness in man to be dissatisfied
with what he has and to sigh after what he has not; very few of us are
free from this failing. But so long as our cravings and hankerings are
not tainted with injustice, we are innocent of evil.

CHAPTER LXXXV.
PETTY THEFTS.

A QUESTION may arise as to petty thefts, venial in themselves, but oft
repeated and aggregating in the long run a sum of considerable value:
how are we to deal with such cases? Should peculations of this sort be
taken singly, and their individual malice determined, without reference
to the sum total of injustice caused; or should no severe judgment be
passed until such a time as sufficient matter be accumulated to make
the fault grievous? In other words, is there nothing but venial sin in
thefts of little values, or is there only one big sin at the end? The
difficulty is a practical one.

If petty thefts are committed with a view to amass a notable sum, the
simple fact of such an intention makes the offense a mortal one. For,
as we have already remarked in treating of the human act, our deeds may
be, and frequently are, vitiated by the intention we have in performing
them. If we do something with evil intent and purpose, our action is
evil whether the deed in itself be indifferent or even good. Here the
intention is to cause a grave injustice; the deed is only a petty
theft, but it serves as a means to a more serious offense. The act
therefore takes its malice from the purpose of the agent and becomes
sinful in a high degree.

As to each repeated theft, that depends again on the intention of the
culprit. If in the course of his pilferings he no longer adverts to his
first purpose and has no intention in stealing