The next question is, whether this vague
test is all that the law has to say upon the matter, and the same
question in another form, by whom this test is to be applied.
Notwithstanding the fact that the grounds of legal liability are
moral to the extent above explained, it must be borne in mind
that law only works within the sphere of the senses. If the
external phenomena, the manifest acts and omissions, are such as
it requires, it is wholly indifferent to the internal phenomena
of conscience. A man may have as bad a heart as he chooses, if
his conduct is within the rules. In other words, the standards of
the law are external standards, and, however much it may take
moral considerations into account, it does so only for the
purpose of drawing a line between such bodily motions and rests
as it permits, and such as it does not. What the law really
forbids, and the only thing it forbids, is the act on the wrong
side of the line, be that act blameworthy or otherwise.
Again, any legal standard must, in theory, be one which would
apply to all men, not specially excepted, under the same
circumstances. It is not intended that the public force should
fall upon an individual accidentally, or at the whim of any body
of men.
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