Struggle for Rights a Personal Duty
I suppose that it will be objected to what I have thus far said: what do the people know of the right of property, of contract as a moral condition of the existence of the person? Know? They may know nothing about it, but whether they do not feel it is another question; and I hope that I shall be able to show that such is the case. What do the people know of the kidneys, lungs, liver, as conditions of their physical life? But every one feels the stitch in the lungs, or a pain in the kidneys or liver, and understands the warning which it conveys to him. Physical pain is the signal of a disturbance in the organism, of the presence of an influence inimical to it. It opens our eyes to an impending danger, and compels us, by the pain which it causes, to oppose it in time. The very same is true of the moral pain caused us by intentional injustice, by arbitrariness. Varying in intensity, just like the physical, according to the difference of subjective sensitiveness, of the form and object of the injustice (on which more anon), it manifests
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