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INTRODUCTION.
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eign, he may, nevertheless, without injustice refuse to do." A man is at liberty to disobey the command of the sovereign, though justly condemned, "to kill, wound, or maim himself"; or, when he is commanded, "not to resist those that assault him; or to abstain from the use of food, air, medicine, or any other thing, without which he cannot live."[1] He is not under obligation, when guilty of crime, to confess it when interrogated by the sovereign, unless assured of pardon. Neither is he under obligation to yield obedience to the sovereign's command, to "execute any dangerous or dishonorable office," if disobedience does not frustrate the end for which sovereign power was established. And, finally, when the sovereign power is no longer able to protect the subject, then the subject's obligation to the sovereign ceases. In short, man's chief end is self-preservation. For the better realization of this end he forsakes a state of nature and becomes a member of the commonwealth according to the manner already described. When the State, whether justly or unjustly, seeks to destroy or injure him, then man has the right to resist the State. He has entered into no covenant which obliges him to submit to death or injury of the character described above; but, rather, into a covenant whereby security of life and person may better be attained than in a state of nature. In his "act of submission" he has not surrendered all rights, but only a right to all things. He has given up only those rights which, if retained, would make against "the peace of mankind" which the laws of nature dictate to be essential for the security of his person; but has retained the right to defend himself against death, wounds, imprisonment, etc., even in defiance of the command of the sovereign. And if sovereignty fails in its power to protect the subject – to procure his safety – then the subject is no longer under obligation to the sovereign, for no man can relinquish the

  1. ↑ Leviathan, Pt. II., chap. XXI.
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