If conscripts are necessary for its army, it
seizes them, and marches them, with bayonets in their rear, to
death. It runs highways and railroads through old family places
in spite of the owner's protest, paying in this instance the
market value, to be sure, because no civilized government
sacrifices the citizen more than it can help, but still
sacrificing his will and his welfare to that of the rest. /3/
If it were necessary to trench further upon the field of morals,
it might be suggested that the dogma of equality applied even to
individuals only within the limits of ordinary dealings in the
common run of affairs. You cannot argue with your neighbor,
except on the admission for the [44] moment that he is as wise as
you, although you may by no means believe it. In the same way,
you cannot deal with him, where both are free to choose, except
on the footing of equal treatment, and the same rules for both.
The ever-growing value set upon peace and the social relations
tends to give the law of social being the appearance of the law
of all being. But it seems to me clear that the ultima ratio, not
only regum, but of private persons, is force, and that at the
bottom of all private relations, however tempered by sympathy and
all the social feelings, is a justifiable self-preference.
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