Thirdly.  It is in the cases where Legislative punishment would be unprofitable, that we have the great field of Private Ethics.  Punishment is unprofitable in two ways.  First, when the danger of detection is so small, that nothing but enormous severity, on detection, would be of avail, as in the illicit commerce of the sexes, which has generally gone unpunished by law.  Secondly, when there is danger of involving the innocent with the guilty, from inability to define the crime in precise language.  Hence it is that rude behaviour, treachery, and ingratitude are not punished by law; and that in countries where the voice of the people controls the hand of the legislature, there is a great dread of making defamation, especially of the government, an offence at law.

Private Ethics is not liable to the same difficulties as Legislation in dealing with such offences.

Of the three departments of Moral Duty—­Prudence, Probity, and Beneficence—­the one that least requires and admits of being enforced by legislative punishment is the first—­Prudence.  It can only be through some defect of the understanding, if people are wanting in duty to themselves.  Now, although a man may know little of himself, is it certain the legislator knows more?  Would it be possible to extirpate drunkenness or fornication by legal punishment?  All that can be done in this field is to subject the offences, in cases of notoriety, to a slight censure, so as to cover them with a slight shade of artificial disrepute, and thus give strength and influence to the moral sanction.

Legislators have, in general, carried their interference too far in this class of duties; and the mischief has been most conspicuous in religion.  Men, it is supposed, are liable to errors of judgment; and for these it is the determination of a Being of infinite benevolence to punish them with an infinity of torments.  The legislator, having by his side men perfectly enlightened, unfettered, and unbiassed, presumes that he has attained by their means the exact truth; and so, when he sees his people ready to plunge headlong into an abyss of fire, shall he not stretch forth his hand to save them?

The second class of duties—­the rules of Probity, stand most in need of the assistance of the legislator.  There are few cases where it would be expedient to punish a man for hurting himself, and few where it would not be expedient to punish a man for hurting his neighbour.  As regards offences against property, private ethics presupposes legislation, which alone can determine what things are to be regarded as each man’s property.  If private ethics takes a different view from the legislature, it must of course act on its own views.