Some of our ancestors wore tails! Is it strange that some of our descendants should have what Winwood Reade called "tailed minds"? The ghosts of old tragedies haunt the gloomy vestibules of many human minds. The Bottom Dog may often be possessed of ancestral devils. He that is without inherited taint among us, let him cast the first stone. CHAPTER FOUR--THE BEGINNINGS OF MORALS WHAT do we mean by the words "sin" and "vice," and "crime"? Sin is disobedience of the laws of God. Crime is disobedience of the laws of men. Vice is disobedience of the laws of nature. I say that there is no such thing as a known law of God: that the so-called laws of God were made by men in God's name, and that therefore the word "sin" need trouble us no more. There is no such thing as sin. I say that since there are bad laws as well as good laws, a crime may be a good instead of a bad act. For though it is wrong to disobey a good law, it may be right to disobey a bad law. And now what do we mean by the words "good" and "bad," "moral" and "immoral"? We call an act good when it "makes good"; when its effects are beneficial. We call an act bad when it "makes bad"; when its effects are injurious. What are "morals"? My dictionary says, "the doctrine of man's moral duties _and social relations_"; and in Crabbe's _Synonyms_ I find: "By an observance of good morals we _become good members of society_." The italics are mine. Morals are the standard of social conduct. All immoral conduct is anti-social, and all anti-social conduct is immoral. If there were only one man in the world he could not act immorally, for there would be no other person whom his acts could injure or offend. Where two persons live together either may act immorally, for he may so act as to injure or offend his companion. Any act is immoral and wrong which needlessly injures a fellow creature. But no act is immoral or wrong which does not directly or indirectly inflict needless injury upon any fellow creature. I say, "needless injury"; for it may sometimes be right and necessary to injure a fellow creature. If it is wrong to inflict needless injury upon our fellows, it is right to defend our fellows and ourselves from the attacks of those who would needlessly injure us. Any act which inflicts "needless" injury upon a fellow creature is immoral; but no act which does not inflict needless injury upon a fellow creature is immoral. That is the root of my moral code. It may at first seem insufficient, but I think it will be found to reach high enough, wide enough, and deep enough to cover all true morality. For there is hardly any act a man can perform which does not affect a fellow creature.