Author's Note 26
Moreover if the duty of keeping his word
were not established in the child's mind by its own utility, the
child's growing consciousness would soon impress it on him as a law
of conscience, as an innate principle, only requiring suitable
experiences for its development. This first outline is not sketched
by man, it is engraved on the heart by the author of all justice.
Take away the primitive law of contract and the obligation imposed
by contract and there is nothing left of human society but vanity
and empty show. He who only keeps his word because it is to his own
profit is hardly more pledged than if he had given no promise at
all. Or at most he is in the position of those tennis players who
don't hesitate to use a bisque at the moment when they can take the
most advantage of it. This principle is of the utmost importance,
and deserves to be thoroughly studied, for man is now beginning to
be at war with himself.