comprehends the whole duty of man, so self-love and social
comprehend all the duties we owe to mankind; and the first branch is
self-love, which is not only our indisputable right, but our
clearest duty. By the laws of nature, this is interwoven in the
heart of every individual. God Almighty, whose law we cannot alter,
has implanted it there, and we can annihilate ourselves as easily as
root out this affection for ourselves. It is the first and strongest
principle in our nature. Justice Blackstone calls it "The primary
canon in the law of nature." That precept of our holy religion which
commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves does not command us to
love our neighbor better than ourselves, or so well. No Christian
divine has given this interpretation. The precept enjoins that our
benevolence to our fellow-men should be as real and sincere as our
affection to ourselves, not that it should be as great in degree. A
man is authorized, therefore, by common sense and the laws of
England, as well as those of nature, to love himself better than his
fellow-subject. If two persons are cast away at sea, and get on a
plank (a case put by Sir Francis Bacon), and the plank is
insufficient to hold them both, the one has a right to push the
other off to save himself. The rules of the common law, therefore
which authorize a man to preserve his own life at the expense of
another's, are not contradicted by any divine or moral law. We talk
of liberty and property, but if we cut up the law of self-defense,
we cut up the foundations of both; and if we give up this, the rest
is of very little value, and therefore this principle must be
strictly attended to; for whatsoever the law pronounces in the case
of these eight soldiers will be the law to other persons and after
ages. All the persons that have slain mankind in this country from
the beginning to this day had better have been acquitted than that a
wrong rule and precedent should be established.