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Show 32 Man's rights belong to him as a Moral Being, as capable of perceiving moral distinctions, as a subject of moral obligation. As soon as he becomes conscious of Duty, a kindred consciousness springs up, that he has a Right to do what the sense of duty enjoins, and that no foreign will or power can obstruct his moral action without crime. He feels that the sense of duty was given to him as a Law, that it makes him responsible for himself, that to exercise, unfold, and obey it is the end of his being, and that he has a right to exercise and obey it without hindrance or opposition. A consciousness of dignity, however obscure, belongs also to this divine principle; and though he may want words to do justice to his thoughts, he feels that he has that within him which makes him essentially equal to all around him. The sense of duty is the fountain of human rights. In other words, the same inward principle, which teaches the former, bears witness to the latter. Duties and Rights must stand or fall together. It bas been too common to oppose them to one another; hut they are indissolubly . joined together. T hat same inward principle, which teaches a man what he is bound to do to others, teaches equally, and at the same instant, what others are bound to do to him. That same voice, which forbids him to injure a single fellow-creature, forbids every fellow-creature to do 33 him harm. His conscience, in revealing the moral law, does not reveal a law fur himself only, but speaks as an Universal Legislator. He has an intuitive conviction, that the obligations of this dirine code press on others as truly as on himself. That principle, whicl1 teaches him that he sustains the relation of brotherhood to all human beings, teaches hi111 that this relation is reciproca l, that it gives inrlestruclible ch.1ims as well as imposes solemn duties, and that what he owes to the members of this vast f<unily, they owe to him in return. T hus the mor:.d nature involves rights. These enteJ' into its very essence. They are taught uy the very voice which enjoins duty. A ceordingly there is no deeper principle in human nature tln.1 11 the eonseiousness or rights. So profound, so ineradieaUie is this sentiment, that the oppressions of ages ba•·e no where wholly stifled it. H.1ving shown the fou ndation of human rights in humun nature, it rnay be asked what they are. Perhaps they do not ad111it very accurate definition any more than human duties; for the Spiritual cannot he weighed and measured like the Material. Perhaps a 111inute c .,, c 5•11 may find fault with the most guarded exposition of them; but they may easily be slated in language which the u n~ophisticated mind will recognise as tile truth. Volumes could not do justice to them ; and yet 3 |