these. Yet in whatever way he may be led to act under the influence of such conflicting motives, there has been all along one, and but one, right course which he ought to have taken, which alone would have been for the best;' that is, as we interpret it, most for the welfare of mankind.'
Paley makes abstract or natural right to depend on the will of God, directly revealed, or deduced from His general intentions, as they are evidently displayed in His works. And for those who believe with Paley, as we most firmly do, that God wills the greatest attainable happiness of his sentient creatures, and especially of mankind, the will of God becomes an additional and most powerful sanction of the right' in the sense here assigned to it. But whether it can be proved or not to the satisfaction of every one, by the evidence of natural or revealed religion, that the Creator does will the greatest attainable happiness of mankind in this world, it must remain selfevident to every reasonable mind, and will probably be disputed by none, that whatever course of conduct makes most for the happiness of mankind is, abstractedly, for the best,' or right in man. Abstract right, therefore, or, in other words, natural justice, may be defined as that disposition of the circumstances within his power by man, which is most for the welfare of mankind.'
Throughout all ages and nations there has been more or less of direct reference to the good of mankind, the happiness of society, the public welfare, and similar phrases, as the standard of right and justice. And both the moral rules which have been suggested at various periods by the best and