Chapter Iii.--on Four Sanctions or Sources of Pain and Pleasure Whereby

men are stimulated to act right; they are termed, physical, political, moral, and religious. These are the Sanctions of Right.

The physical sanction includes the pleasures and pains arising in the ordinary course of nature, unmodified by the will of any human being, or of any supernatural being.

The political sanction is what emanates from the sovereign or supreme ruling power of the state. The punishments of the Law come under this head.

The moral or popular sanction results from the action of the community, or of the individuals that each person comes in contact with, acting without any settled or concerted rule. It corresponds to public opinion, and extends in its operation beyond the sphere of the law.

The religious sanction proceeds from the immediate hand of a superior invisible being, either in the present, or in a future life.

The name Punishment is applicable only to the three last. The suffering that befalls a man in the course of nature is termed a calamity; if it happen through imprudence on his part, it may be styled a punishment issuing from the physical sanction.