ror on the other side.

Men admit that justice does not consist in these customs, but that it
resides in natural laws, common to every country. They would certainly
maintain it obstinately, if reckless chance which has distributed human
laws had encountered even one which was universal; but the farce is that
the caprice of men has so many vagaries that there is no such law.

Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among
virtuous actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should
have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the
water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none
with him?

Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted has
corrupted all. _Nihil amplius nostrum est;[110] quod nostrum dicimus,
artis est. Ex senatus--consultis et plebiscitis crimina exercentur.[111]
Ut olim vitiis, sic nunc legibus laboramus._[112]

The result of this confusion is that one affirms the essence of justice
to be the authority of the legislator; another, the interest of the
sovereign;[113] another, present custom,[114] and this is the most sure.
Nothing, according to reason alone, is just in itself; all changes with
time. Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it
is accepted. It is the mystical foundation of its authority;[115]
whoever carries it back to first principles destroys it. Nothing is so
faulty as those laws which correct faults. He who obeys them because
they are just, obeys a justice which is imaginary, and not the essence
of law; it is quite self-contained, it is law and nothing more. He who
will examine its motive will find it so feeble and so trifling that if
he be not accustomed to contemplate the wonders of human imagination, he
will marvel that one century has gained for it so much pomp and
reverence. The art of opposition and of revolution is to unsettle
established customs, sounding them even to their source, to point out
their want of authority and justice. We must, it is said, get back to
the natural and fundamental laws of the State, which an unjust custom
has abolished. It is a game certain to result in the loss of all;
nothing will be just on the balance. Yet people readily lend their ear
to such arguments. They shake off the yoke as soon as they recognise it;
and the great profit by their ruin, and by that of these curious
investigators of accepted customs. But from a contrary mistake m