a duty to others (or causing harm to others), not the vice that brought about the neglect.

J. S. Mill spends the rest of the chapter responding to objections to his maxim. He notes the objection that he contradicts himself in granting societal interference with youth because they are irrational, but denying societal interference with certain adults, though they act irrationally. Mill first responds by restating the claim that society ought to punish the harmful consequences of the irrational conduct, but not the irrational conduct itself,