How then shall we determine quality Of actions, when their sources are the same, And their effects possess no quality? Two dead men lie in blood beside the way, The one shot by a friend, an accident; The other murdered for his gold. ’Tis plain No wrong lies in th’ effects, for both are ’like; And of the agents, he of accident Had no intent, and therefore did no wrong. The other killed to satisfy the self, A motive founding all the Christian work, And right if that is right. The wrong Then lies between the motive and effect, And must exist in the effecting means. Yet how within the means is wrong proved wrong? Jouffroy would say, because a disregard Of others’ rights; for here he places good, When classifying Nature’s moral facts. He makes the child first serve flesh self, Then moral self, and last to others’ good Ascend, and general order. What a myth! As if man thought of others, save effect From them upon himself. But order gives A greater good to self; therefore he joins His strength to others, creates laws that bind Himself and them, and produce harmony. He thus surrenders minor good of self, To gain a greater. This is all the need He has of order, though Jouffroy asserts That order universal is the Good. Yet still he says that private good of each Is but a fragment of the absolute, And that regard for every being’s rights Is binding as the universal law! Regard for others’ rights indeed, when men Unharmed agree to hang a man for crime! Not for the crime--that’s past; but to prevent A second crime, which crime alone exists In apprehensive fancy. Thus for wrong That’s but forethought, they do a real wrong. To save their rights from harm they fear may come. They strip a fellow-man of actual right, And highest, right of life; then dare to call Their action pure, divinely just, and good, And all the farce of empty names. They make Of gross injustice individual, A flimsy justice, for mankind at large, And cry, Let it be done, though Heaven fall! As if a whole could differ from its parts, Or right be made from wrong. Yet some may say That one is sacrificed for many’s good, Or hung that many may avoid his fate; And that his crime deserved what he received.