873. Is the sentiment of justice natural, or the result of acquired ideas?

"It is so natural that your feeling spontaneously revolts at the idea of an injustice. Moral progress undoubtedly develops this sentiment, but it does not create it. God has placed it in the heart of man, and for this reason you often find, among simple and primitive people, notions of justice more exact than those of others who are possessed of a larger amount of knowledge."

874. If justice be a law of nature, how is it that men understand it so differently, and that the same thing appears just to one, and unjust to another?

"It is because your passions often mingle with this sentiment and debase it, as they do with the greater part of the natural sentiments, causing you to see things from a false point of view.

875. How should justice be defined?

"Justice consists in respect for the rights of others."

- What determines those rights?

"Two things: human law and natural law. Men having made laws in harmony with their character and habits, those laws have established rights that have varied with the progress of enlightenment. Your laws, at this day, though still far from perfect, no longer consecrate what were considered as rights in the Middle Ages; those rights, which appear to you monstrous, appeared just and natural at that epoch. The rights established by men are not, therefore, always conformable with justice; moreover, they only regulate certain social relations, while in private life there are an immense number of acts that are submitted only to the tribunal of conscience."

876. Independently of the right established by human law, what is the basis of justice

according to natural law?

"Christ has told you: 'Do unto others whatsoever you would that others should do unto you.' God has placed in the heart of man, as the true rule of all justice, the desire which each of you feels to see his own rights respected. When uncertain as to what he should do in regard to his fellow-creature in any given conjuncture, let each man ask himself what he would wish to have done to himself under the same circumstances; God could not give him a safer guide than his own conscience."

The true criterion of justice is, in fact, to desire for others what one would desire for one's self; not merely to desire for one's self what one would desire for others, which is not precisely the same thing. As it is not natural to desire harm for one's self, we are sure, in taking our personal desires as the type of our conduct towards our neighbours, never to desire anything but good for them. In all ages and in all beliefs, man has always sought to enforce his personal rights; the sublime peculiarity of the Christian religion is its taking of personal right as the basis of the right of the neighbour.

877. Does the necessity of living in society impose any special obligations on mankind?

"Yes, and the first of these is to respect the rights of others; he who respects those rights will always be just. In your world, where so many neglect to practise the law of justice, you have recourse to reprisals, and this causes trouble and confusion in human society. Social life gives rights and imposes corresponding duties."

878. It is possible for a man to be under an illusion as to the extent of his rights; what is there that can show him their true limit?

"The limit of the right which he would recognise on the part of his neighbour towards himself under similar circumstances, and vice-versa."

- But if each attributes to himself the rights of his fellow-creatures, what becomes of subordination to superiors? Would not such a principle be anarchical and destructive of all power?

"Natural rights are the same for all men, from the smallest to the greatest; God has not fashioned some men from a finer clay than others, and all are equals in His sight. Natural rights are eternal; the rights which man has established perish with his institutions. But each man feels distinctly his strength or his weakness, and will always be conscious of a sort of deference towards him whose wisdom or virtue entitles him to respect. It is important to mention this, in order that those who think themselves superior may know what are the duties that will give them a right to deference. There will be no insubordination when authority shall be attributed only to superior wisdom."

879. What would be the character of the man who should practise justice in all its purity?

"He would be truly righteous, after the example of Jesus; for he would practise the love of the neighbour and charity, without which there can be no real justice."