When communities are small in size, and extend over a small area, few rules of life are necessary; but when a nation increases in size, and especially when it consiste of many tribes or class which have voluntarily united together, legislation is far more complicated, inasmuch as the ideas of right and wrong in each section may, from long custom, vary from each other. For example, in most of the United States of America bigamy, or the possession of two wives at a time, is a crime; whereas, in Salt Lake city, its rulers have twenty, and its men a dozen, if they like, and yet are esteemed saints, and really conduct themselves as if they had a clear claim to the title.
The greatest complication is when the laws of a community have been framed, partly by soldiers, partly by ecclesiastics, and partly by mercantile men, for each party has a different creed. The first makes no scruple to fight at the command of the second, whilst the third endeavours to prevent all war whatever. The second set intrigue to have the supreme power; the first and third often endeavour to suppress the second, knowing its aggressiveness and lust of supremacy.
When a nation is under what is grandiloquently called a Theocracy, every offence against a command given ex cathedra is regarded as a sin; not simply a disregard of the law, but a defiance of the God who is said to have ordained it. Thus, according to what is known as the Mosaic law, it was a crime punishable by a lingering death to gather sticks on a Sabbath day (Num. xv. 32-36); but it was no crime to kill all the males and women of a whole nation, and retain the maidens for private prostitution and for the use of the priest (Num. xxxi. 17, 18, 40, 41). In such a nation it was no crime to commit forgery—and of all the bearers of false witness, none exceeded in ancient times the Jewish writers in the Bible—but in mercantile England, the former has been at one time punished with death, and the latter by ignominious penalties.
In modern Theocracies, such as once existed in Austria, Spain, Italy, England, and elsewhere, it was considered criminal to think differently, upon any religious point, from the authorized standard. In those kingdoms many a person was doomed to die a painful death, and thereafter sent—as it was supposed, to Hell—whom we now regard as a virtuous, brave, and noble individual.
The common sense of mankind induces all citizens to buy what they have need of, at the smallest possible price; but a mercantile government says to its people—"You shall not buy anything from anybody who has not first paid us for the privilege of trading, and something more for every ware which he offers for sale, and every one contravening this order shall be seriously punished." Here, again, an artificial offence is manufactured that has no origin in nature.
When a people has succeeded in throwing off publicly the trammels of Ecclesiastical legislation, as England, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Belgium, and other nations have done, they by no means shake off their private shackles. The only difference between Spain, Austria, and other places, now and formerly, is, that the priesthood are seeking to attain by subtlety what they could previously command by their state power. At one period in the history of modern Rome, it was a crime not to kneel on the bare ground when certain priests passed with a bit of wafer surrounded by gorgeous trappings. This is a crime no longer against the state, but for all who believe the Papal hierarchy it is yet a sin.
At one time in England, it was a crime not to go to church on Sunday; it was equally punishable to carry on any business. The laws respecting these matters have not yet been repealed, and they have been put recently into operation, although the good sense of the majority has made them practically obsolete. Yet, though this is the case, and the law no longer punishes Sabbath-breaking, the priestly body continue to launch their thunders against all who regard every day alike. It is, indeed, doubtful if, in the eyes of our parsons, there is any sin so great as enjoying one's self on a Sunday. The law of our country does not make it a crime for a woman to prostitute her body, or for a man to have a concubine of greater or less permanency, but the hierarchs denounce the arrangement as criminal in the sight of God.
We need not multiply our illustrations farther. Sufficient has been advanced to show that there are two distinct classes of sins—one, those made by Ecclesiastics, or by those legislators passing under the name "Society;" the other, those which are against the laws of nature—e.g., an enforced celibacy, such as that to which Romish priests are doomed. In saying this, we readily allow that what is right, according to the laws of God, as set forth in the universe, is wrong according to the code made by the legally constituted authorities of the state in which an individual lives. We grant, moreover, that, if a government is strong enough, the laws of man should be enforced by human means. But we do not believe that mortals should be compelled to carry out that which priests tell them is the justice of the Immortal, of which they know absolutely nothing. I hold that no state can fairly claim to take cognizance of, or to punish, thoughts, or any private indulgence which creates no public scandal.
If we endeavour to reduce our views to a still clearer issue, the difference between divine and human laws will be the more readily understood. Let us assume that Miss Kallistee is the most perfect woman in a district. For her contend with their natural weapons Messrs. Dunamis, Kratos, Kalos, Sophos, and Mathesis; and the conqueror, having killed his adversaries, takes the lady to wife. The law of man or of society now steps in and kills off the survivor; or, if it should know beforehand of the coming contest, will prevent it. As a consequence, the lady must be contended for peaceably, and may become the bride of impotent old age or wealthy disease. As a result, the healthy offspring, which nature would have reared, are either absent, sickly, diseased, or idiotic. Here, then, I affirm that a law of society is a sin against God.
I would wish my readers to ponder over this matter, which gives much food for thought. I do not think that such contests as I have described can be tolerated in any society of civilized beings, for, in proportion to our emergence from barbarism, we do not seek mere strength and beauty of form in our population. We desire to cultivate the intellectual rather than the animal in man. But experience has shown that, as a rule, the further man departs from the latter, and the nearer he approaches to the former, the more does his progeny deteriorate physically.