We
have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in consequence of
any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation of man to man,
and the relation of man to God, which relations are not matters of
choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we enter into
with any particular person or number of persons amongst mankind depends
upon those prior obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
are voluntary, in others they are necessary,--but the duties are all
compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, but the duties are
not matter of choice: they are dictated by the nature of the situation.
Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The
instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of Nature are not
of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps
unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to
comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents may not be
consenting to their moral relation; but, consenting or not, they are
bound to a long train of burdensome duties towards those with whom they
have never made a convention of any sort.
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