366 MORALS OF THE DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS. [Part V.

still reasonable limits may be assigned, which, with an honestpurpose in view, will be a safe guide to the conscience. (1.) Inregard to some things, their use and tendency are naturally good,and will always be so in fact , unless they are grossly pervertedand abused. This is true of almost all the professions andemployments of life, — they are almost all useful in their wayand degree. (2.) The tendencies and consequences of otherthings, and of certain transactions, are doubtful. A gunsmithmay, in the way of his business, rightfully dispose of a braceof pistols to a stranger as well as to an acquaintance, althoughhe does not know but the stranger may use them in duelling, orto extort the purses of travellers on the highway. An apoth-ecary may rightfully sell arsenic with suitable precautions ; be-cause arsenic is used in medicine, and for some other usefulpurposes, as well as to commit suicide. In such transactions asthese, a good man may, as a general rule, be safely engaged. Theexceptions consist of those cases, where the doubt is, by somemeans, converted into certainty or reasonable probability, thatevil will be the consequence. (3.) Cases in which the effectmust, in the natural course of things, be evil, and only or chieflyevil. For instance, the sale of spirituous liquors, except as amedicine, and the circulation of immoral books whether by saleor otherwise. In neither of these things ought a good man, underany circumstances, to be engaged. I shall dwell for a momenton the latter case, to confirm and illustrate the principle inquestion.

I stand in a bookseller’s shop, and observe his customers suc-cessively coming in. One orders a Bible, another a lexicon, athird a work of scurrilous infidelity, and a fourth a new licentiousromance. If the bookseller takes and executes these severalorders with the same willingness, is there no inconsistency, noviolation of moral principle ? Perhaps this bookseller is so con-scious of the mischievous effects of some of his books, that hewould not put them into the hands of his children, nor sufferthem to be seen in his parlour. But, if he thus knows the evilswhich they are fitted to inflict on society, can it be right for himto be the agent in diffusing them ? Step into the shop of thisbookseller’s neighbour, a druggist; and there, if a person asks for