And law was hardly less absurd to him than religion.

It consisted of a perplexed entanglement of rules got together so that the few might live in comfort at the expense of the many.
Robbery, if you could get to the bottom of it, was bad, as was all violence; but taxation was robbery, rent was robbery, prices fixed according to the desire of the seller and not in obedience to justice, were robbery.

"Then you are the greatest of robbers," his friends would say to him.

He would admit it, allowing that in such a state of society he was not prepared to go out and live naked in the streets if he could help it.

But he delighted to get the better of the law, and triumphed in his own iniquity, as has been seen by his conduct in reference to his sons.
In this way he lived, and was kind to many people, having a generous and an open hand.