required, or avail yourselves of the best counsel that can reasonably be
obtained.

5. A second principle of Ethics in medical practice, gentlemen, is this,
that many human acts may be highly criminal of which, however, human
laws and courts take no notice whatsoever. In this matter I am not
finding fault with human legislation. The laws of the land, considering
the end and the nature of civil government, need take no cognizance of
any but overt acts; a man's heart may be a very cesspool of vice, envy,
malice, impurity, pride, hatred, etc., yet human law does not and ought
not to punish him for this, as long as his actions do not disturb the
public peace nor trench upon the happiness of his neighbor. Even his
open outward acts which injure only himself, such as gluttony,
blasphemy, impiety, private drunkenness, self-abuse, even seduction and
fornication, are not usually legislated against or punished in our
courts. Does it follow that they are innocent acts and lawful before
God? No man in his right senses will say so.

The goodness and the evil of human acts is not dependent on human
legislation alone; in many cases the moral good or evil is so intrinsic
to the very nature of the acts that God Himself could not change the
radical difference between them. Thus justice, obedience to lawful
authority, gratitude to benefactors, are essentially good; while
injustice, disobedience, and ingratitude are essentially evil. Our
reason informs us of this difference; and our reason is nothing else
than our very nature as intelligent beings capable of knowing truth. The
voice of our reason or conscience is the voice of God Himself, who
speaks through the rational nature that He has made. Through our reason
God not only tells us of the difference between good and evil acts, but
He also commands us to do good and avoid evil;--to do certain acts