ABSTRACT
The strength which one obligation derives from all the others is rather to be compared to the breath of life drawn, complete and indivisible, by each of the cells from the depths of the organism of which it is an element. Society, present within each of its members, has claims which, whether great or small, each express the sumtotal of its vitality. A human being feels an obligation only if he is free, and each obligation, considered separately, implies liberty. From the circumference to the centre, as the circles grow smaller, obligations are added to obligations, arid the individual ends by finding himself confronted with all of them together. Thus obligation increases as it advances; but, if it is more complicated, it is less abstract, and the more easily accepted. In the ordinary way we conform to our obligations rather than think of them.
