But obedience is the constant will to execute that, which by law is
good, and by the general decree ought to be done.
20. Yet we are accustomed to call that also wrong, which is done against
the sentence of sound reason, and to give the name of obedience to the
constant will to moderate the appetite according to the dictate of
reason: a manner of speech which I should quite approve, did human
liberty consist in the licence of appetite, and slavery in the dominion
of reason. But as human liberty is the greater, the more man can be
guided by reason, and moderate his appetite, we cannot without great
impropriety call a rational life obedience, and give the name of
wrong-doing to that which is, in fact, a weakness of the mind, not a
licence of the mind directed against itself, and for which a man may be
called a slave, rather than free (Secs. 7 and 11).
21. However, as reason teaches one to practise piety, and be of a calm
and gentle spirit, which cannot be done save under dominion; and,
further, as it is impossible for a multitude to be guided, as it were,
by one mind, as under dominion is required, unless it has laws ordained
according to the dictate of reason; men who are accustomed to live under
dominion are not, therefore, using words so improperly, when they call
that wrong-doing which is done against the sentence of reason, because
the laws of the best dominion ought to be framed according to that
dictate (Sec. 18). But, as for my saying (Sec.
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