BOOK III PART I
duce in us an erroneous conclusion, they can
be, in no respect, essential to morality; and I
do not readily perceive, upon this system, how
they can ever come to be regarded by it. If
the tendency to cause error be the origin of im-
morality, that tendency and immorality would
in every case be inseparable.
Add to this, that if I had used the precau-
tion of shutting the windows, while I indulged
myself in those liberties with my neighbour’s
wife, I should have been guilty of no immoral-
ity; and that because my action, being perfectly
concealed, would have had no tendency to pro-
duce any false conclusion.
For the same reason, a thief, who steals In by
a ladder at a window, and takes all imaginable
care to cause no disturbance, is in no respect
criminal. For either he will not be perceived, or