except on the admission for the [44] moment that he is as wise as
you, although you may by no means believe it. In the same way,
you cannot deal with him, where both are free to choose, except
on the footing of equal treatment, and the same rules for both.
The ever-growing value set upon peace and the social relations
tends to give the law of social being the appearance of the law
of all being. But it seems to me clear that the ultima ratio, not
only regum, but of private persons, is force, and that at the
bottom of all private relations, however tempered by sympathy and
all the social feelings, is a justifiable self-preference. If a
man is on a plank in the deep sea which will only float one, and
a stranger lays hold of it, he will thrust him off if he can.
When the state finds itself in a similar position, it does the
same thing.

The considerations which answer the argument of equal rights also
answer the objections to treating man as a thing, and the like.
If a man lives in society, he is liable to find himself so
treated. The degree of civilization which a people has reached,
no doubt, is marked by their anxiety to do as they would be done
by. It may be the destiny of man that the social instincts shall
grow to control his actions absolutely, even in anti-social
situations. But they have not yet done so, and as the rules of
law are or should be based upon a morality which is generally
accepted, no rule founded on a theory of absolute unselfishness
can be laid down without a breach between law and working
beliefs.

If it be true, as I shall presently try to show, that the general
principles of criminal and civil liability are the same, it will