For the first time his method of reasoning did not satisfy him, and he tried to find out the cause.

Was it, he asked to himself, because there lingered in his mind some early tradition of the wickedness of doing murder?
Since there was no soul, there was no absolute right and wrong, and everything must be decided by the standard of expediency.

It was a mistake to allow people to murder each other openly, of course, because people of less intellectual capacity would take upon themselves to judge such cases in their own way.

But provided that public morality, the darling of the real freethinker, were not scandalised, there would be no inherent wrong in doing away with Paolo.

On the contrary, his death would be a benefit to the community at large, and an advantage to Marzio in particular.