It is for reason to distinguish between real wants and wants that are factitious or conventional . The law of God is the same for all, but evil resides especially in the desire for its commission. Circumstances modify the relative intensity of good and of evil. A man often commits faults that are none the less reprehensible for being the consequence of the social position in which he is placed, but his responsibility is proportioned to the means he possesses of distinguishing between right and wrong. Thus the enlightened man who commits a mere injustice is more culpable in the sight of God than the ignorant savage who abandons himself to his instincts of cannibalism.
Evil seems, sometimes, to be a consequence of the force of things.
Such is, for instance, in some cases, the necessity of destruction, even to the extent of taking the life of a fellowcreature. With those who have been the cause of the wrongdoing. He would, perhaps, have shrunk from committing the evil deed, but if, the deed being done, he takes advantage of it, it is equivalent to doing it, and proves that he would have done it himself, if he could, or if he dared. That is as the case may be. Voluntarily to resist the desire to do wrong, especially when there is a possibility of gratifying that desire is virtuous, but he, who has only not done the wrong thing because the opportunity was wanting, is as guilty as though be had done it.