The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature. Samuel Pufendorf
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to promote the Safety and common Good of Men, must regularly be supposed to have had before their Eyes the Condition of Human Nature, and to have considered how impossible it is for a Man not to shun and keep off all Things that tend to his own Destruction. Hence those Laws especially, called Positive, and all Human Institutions are judged to except Cases of Necessity; or, not to oblige, when the Observation of them must be accompanied with some Evil which is destructive to Human Nature, or not tolerable to the ordinary Constancy of Men; unless it be expressly so ordered, or the Nature of the Thing requires, that even that also must be undergone. Not that Necessity justifies the Breach of a Law and Commission of Sin; but it is presumed, from the favourable Intention of the Legislators, and the Consideration of Man’s Nature, that Cases of Necessity are not included in the general Words of a Law. This will be plain by an Instance or two.
XXVI. Cutting off Members. L. N. N. l. 2. c. 6. §3.
I. THOUGH otherwise Man have no such Power over his own Members, as that he may lose or maim any of them at his pleasure; yet he is justifiable in cutting off a gangren’d Limb, in order to save the whole Body; or to preserve those Parts which are sound; or lest the other Members be rendred useless by a dead and cumbersome Piece of Flesh.
XXVII. One lost to save many.
II. IF in a Shipwrack more Men leap into the Boat than it is capable of carrying, and no one has more Right than another to it; they may draw Lots who shall be cast overboard; and if any Man shall refuse to take his chance, he may be thrown over without any more ado, as one that seeks the Destruction of all.
XXVIII. One hastens the Death of another to save himself. L. N. N. l. 2. c. 6. §4.
III. IF two happen into imminent Danger of their Lives, where both must perish; one may, as he sees good, hasten the Death of the other, that he may save himself. For instance, If I, who am a skilful Swimmer, should fall into some deep Water with another who could not swim at all, and he clings about me; I not being strong enough to carry him off and my self too, I may put him off with force, that I may not be drowned together with him; tho’ I might for a little while be able to keep him up. So in a Shipwrack, if I have got a Plank which will not hold two, and another shall endeavour to get upon it, which if he does, we are both like to be drowned, I may keep him off with what violence I please. And so if two be pursued by an Enemy meaning to kill them, one may, by shutting a Gate or drawing a Bridge after him, secure himself, and leave the other in great Probability of losing his Life, supposing it not to be possible to save both.
XXIX. Another destroyed or hurt to the same end.
IV. CASES also of Necessity may happen, where one may indirectly put another in Danger of Death, or some great Mischief, when at the same time he means no harm to the Person; but only, for his own Preservation, he is forced upon some Action which probably may do the other a Damage; always supposing that he had rather have chosen any other Way, if he could have found it, and that he make that Damage as little as he can. Thus, if a stronger Man than I pursues me to take away my Life, and one meets me in a narrow Way thro’ which I must flee, if, upon my Request, he will not stand out of the Way, or he has not time or room so to do, I may throw him down and go over him, tho’ it be very likely that by the Fall he will be very much hurt; except he should be one who has such peculiar Relation to me, [suppose my Parent, King, &c.] that I ought for his Sake rather to surrender my self to the Danger. And if he who is in the Way cannot, upon my speaking to him, get out of the Way, suppose being lame or a Child, I shall be excused who try to leap over him, rather than to expose my self to my Enemy by delaying. But if any one shall, out of Wantonness or cross Humour, hinder me or deny to give me the Liberty of escaping, I may immediately by any Violence throw him down, or put him out of my Way. And those who in these Cases get any Harm, are to look upon it not as a Fault in the Person that did it, but as an unavoidable Misfortune.
XXX. Case of extreme Want. L. N. N. l. 2. c. 6. §5.
V. IF a Man, not through his own Fault, happen to be in extreme Want of Victuals and Cloaths necessary to preserve him from the Cold, and cannot procure them from those who are wealthy and have great Store, either by Intreaties, or by offering their Value, or by proposing to do Work equivalent; he may, without being chargeable with Theft or Rapine, furnish his Necessities out of their Abundance, either by force or secretly, especially if he do so with a Design to pay the Price, as soon as he shall have an Opportunity. For it is the Duty of the opulent Person to succour another who is in such a needy Condition. And tho’ regularly what depends upon Courtesie ought by no means to be extorted by Force, yet the Extreme Necessity alters the Case, and makes these Things as claimable, as if they were absolutely due by a formal Obligation. But it is first incumbent upon the Necessitous Person to try all Ways to supply his Wants with the Consent of the Owner, and he is to take care that the Owner be not thereby reduced to the same Extremity, nor in a little time like to be so; and that Restitution be made; *especially if the Estate of the other be such as that he cannot well bear the Loss.
XXXI. Destroying other Men’s Goods to save our own. L. N. N. l. 2. c. 6. §8.
VI. LASTLY, the Necessity of our own Affairs seems sometimes to justifie our destroying the Goods of other Men; 1. Provided still, that we do not bring such Necessity upon our selves by our own Miscarriage: 2. That there cannot be any better Way found: 3. That we cast not away that of our Neighbours which is of greater Value, in order to save our own which is of less: 4. That we be ready to pay the Price, if the Goods would not otherwise have been destroyed, or to bear our share in the Damage done, if the Case were so that his must have perished together with ours, but now by the Loss of them ours are preserved. And this sort of Equity is generally found in the Law-Merchant.31 Thus in case of Fire, I may pull down or blow up my Neighbour’s House, but then those whose Houses are by this means saved, ought to make good the Damage proportionably.
Of the Duty of one Man to another, and first of doing no Injury to any Man
I. Reciprocal Duties of two Sorts.
We come now to those Duties which are to be practis’d by one Man towards another. Some of these proceed from that common Obligation which it hath pleas’d the Creator to lay upon all Men in general; others take their Original from some certain Human Institutions, or some peculiar,*adventitious or accidental State of Men. The first of these are always to be practis’d by every Man towards all Men; the latter obtain only among those who are in such peculiar Condition or State.32 Hence those may be called Absolute, and these Conditional Duties.
II. No wrong to be done. L. N. N. l. 3. c. 1.
Among those Duties we account Absolute, or those of every Man towards every Man, this has the first Place, *that one do no Wrong to the other; and this is the amplest Duty of all, comprehending all Men as such; and it is at the same time the most easy, as consisting only in an Omission of acting, unless now and then when unreasonable Desires and Lusts are to be curb’d. It is also the most necessary, because without it Human Society cannot be preserv’d. For I can live quietly with him that does me no Good, or with whom I have no manner of Correspondence, provided he doth me no Harm. Nay this is all we desire from the greatest Part of Mankind; the doing mutually good Offices lying but among a few. But I can by no means live peaceably with him that wrongs me; Nature having instilled into every Man such a tender Love of himself and what is his own, that he cannot but by all possible means repel those Men who shall make any Attempt upon one or t’other.
III. So to do a Crime.
By this Duty are fenced not only what we have by the Bounty of Nature; such as our Laws, Bodies, Limbs, Chastity, Liberty; but whatsoever by any Human Institution or Compact becomes our Property; so as by this it is forbidden to take away, spoil, damage,