in war, within the conditions authorized by international law, is considered a case of legitimate self-defense.[10] If murder is the most criminal of actions, and the most revolting to our sensibilities, the action, on the contrary, which consists in _saving the life_ of others is the most beautiful of all. "The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep." With the fundamental duty not to attempt the life of other men, is connected, as corollary, the duty not to injure them bodily by blows or wounds, or by dangerous violence done to their health, and, conversely, to assist them in illness. 2. _Duties relating to property._--It is evident[11] that man cannot preserve his life and render it happy and comfortable without a certain number of material objects which are his. The legitimate possession of these goods is what is called _property_.[12] The right of property rests in one respect on social utility, and in the other on human labor. On the one hand, society cannot subsist without a certain order that settles for each what is _his own_; on the other, it is but right that each should be the proprietor of what he has earned by his work; the right of possession carries with it the right of economizing, and, consequently, the right of forming a _capital_, and, moreover, the right of using this capital in making it bear _interest_. Again, the right of preserving implies also the right of _transmission_; hence the legitimacy of _inheritance_. Property once founded upon law, it becomes our duty not to transgress the law. The act of taking what belongs to another is called _theft_. Theft is absolutely forbidden by the moral law, whatever name it may assume, or under whatever prestige it may present itself. "Thou shalt not steal." Theft does not consist merely in putting one's hand into a neighbor's pocket; it includes all possible ways whereby the property of others may be appropriated. For example, to _defraud_ in regard to the quality of the thing sold; to practice illegal _stock-jobbing_; to convert to one's own use a _deposit_ entrusted to one's care; to borrow without knowing whether one can pay, and after having borrowed, to disown the debt, or refuse to pay it; there are as many forms of theft as there are ways of appropriating the property of others. Regarding the property of others, the negative duty then consists in not taking what belongs to others. The positive duty consists in assisting others with one's own property, in relieving their misery. This is called _benevolence_, which benevolence may be exercised in various ways, either by _gift_, or by _loan_. It may also be exercised in _kind,_ that is in giving to others the objects necessary to their maintenance or support, or in money, that is, in furnishing them the means of procuring them; or in _work_, which is the best of all gifts; for in thus relieving others we procure them the means of helping themselves.