Did you think it was easy to be just and kind and truthful?
Did you think the whole duty of aspiring man was as simple as a horn-pipe?
and you could walk through life like a gentleman and a hero, with no more concern than it takes to go to church or to address a circular?
And yet all this time you had the eighth commandment! and, what makes it richer, you would not have broken it for the world! The truth is, that these commandments by themselves are of little use in private judgment.

If compression is what you want, you have their whole spirit compressed into the golden rule; and yet there expressed with more significance, since the law is there spiritually and not materially stated.

And in truth, four out of these ten commands, from the sixth to the ninth, are rather legal than ethical.

The police-court is their proper home.

A magistrate cannot tell whether you love your neighbour as yourself, but he can tell more or less whether you have murdered, or stolen, or committed adultery, or held up your hand and testified to that which was not; and these things, for rough practical tests, are as good as can be found.