"The more I go within myself," says a philosopher,[5] "the more I consult myself, the more I read these words written in my soul: _be just and thou shalt be happy_. And yet it is not so, looking at the actual state of things: the wicked prosper, and the just are oppressed. See, also, what indignation arises in us when this expectation is frustrated! The conscience murmurs and rebels against its author; it cries to him, groaning: Thou hast deceived me! I have deceived thee, oh thou rash one? Who has told thee so? Is thy soul annihilated? Hast thou ceased to exist? Oh, Brutus! oh, my son, do not stain thy noble life by putting an end to it; do not leave thy hopes and glory with thy body on the fields of Philippi. Why sayest thou: Virtue is nothing when thou art now about entering into the enjoyment of thine? Thou shalt die, thinkest thou; no, thou shalt live, and it is then I shall keep what I have promised! One would say, hearing the murmurings of impatient mortals, that God owes them a reward before they have shown any merit, and that he is obliged to pay their virtue in advance. Oh! let us first be good; we shall be happy afterwards. Do not let us claim the prize before the victory, nor the salary before the work. 'It is not in the lists,' says Plutarch, 'that the victors in our sacred games are crowned; it is after they have run the course.'" CHAPTER II. DIVISION OF DUTIES--GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL MORALITY. SUMMARY. =Division of duties.=--In theory there is but one duty, which is to do right; but this duty is subdivided according to the various relations of man. Hence three classes of duties: duties towards ourselves, towards others, towards God: _individual_, _social_, _religious_ morality. We will begin with social morality, which requires the most expounding. =General principles of social duties:= to do good; not to do evil. =Different degrees of this double obligation:= 1, not to return evil for good (_ingratitude_); 2, not to do evil to those who have not done us any (_injustice and cruelty_); 3, not to return evil for evil (_revenge_); 4, to return good for good (_gratitude_); 5, to do good to those who have not done us any (_charity_); 6, to return good for evil (_clemency_, _generosity_). =Distinction between the various kinds of social duties:= 1, towards the _lives_ of other men; 2, towards their _property_; 3, towards their _family_; 4, towards their _honor_; 5, towards their _liberty_. =Distinction between the duties of justice and the duties of charity.=--Justice is absolute, without restriction, without exception. Charity, although as obligatory as justice, is more independent in its application. It chooses its time and place; its objects and means; _its beauty is in its liberty_.