[31]
10. But occasions often arise, when those duties1
which seem most becoming to the just man and to
the “good man,” as we call him, undergo a change
and take on a contrary aspect. It may, for example,
not be a duty to restore a trust or to fulfil a promise,
and it may become right and proper sometimes to
evade and not to observe what truth and honour
[p. 33]
would usually demand. For we may well be guided
by those fundamental principles of justice which I
laid down at the outset: first, that no harm be done
to anyone; second, that the common interests be
conserved. When these are modified under changed
circumstances, moral duty also undergoes a change,
and it does not always remain the same.
1 Change of duty in change of circumstances.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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