the judge, the venality of the witness,
the improbity of the husband, the prostitution of the wife, the obduracy
of parents, the ingratitude of children, the avarice of the master, the
dishonesty of the servant, the dilapidation of the administrator, the
perversity of the legislator, lying, perfidy, perjury, assassination,
and all the disorders of the social state; so that it was with a
profound sense of truth, that ancient moralists have laid the basis of
the social virtues on simplicity of manners, restriction of wants, and
contentment with a little; and a sure way of knowing the extent of
a man's virtues and vices is, to find out if his expenses are
proportionate to his fortune, and calculate, from his want of money, his
probity, his integrity in fulfilling his engagements, his devotion to
the public weal, and his sincere or pretended love of his country.

Q. What do you mean by the word country?

A. I mean the community of citizens who, united by fraternal sentiments,
and reciprocal wants, make of their respective strength one common
force, the reaction of which on each of them assumes the noble and
beneficent character of paternity. In society, citizens form a bank of
interest; in our country we form a family of endearing attachments; it
is charity, the love of one's neighbor extended to a whole nation. Now
as charity cannot be separated from justice, no member of the family can
pretend to the enjoyment of its advantages, except in proportion to his
labor; if he consumes more than it produces, he necessarily encroaches
on his fellow-citizens; and it is only by consuming less than what
he produces or possesses, that he can acquire the means of making
sacrifices and being generous.

Q. What do you conclude from all this?

A. I conclude from it that all the social virtues are only the habitude
of actions useful to society and to the individual who practices them;
That they refer to the physical object of man's preservation; That
nature having implanted in us the want of that preservation, has made
a law to us of all its consequences, and a crime of everything that
deviates from it; That we carry in us the seed of every virtue, and of
every perfection; That it only requires to be developed; That we are
only happy inasmuch as we observe the rules established by nature for
the end of our preservation; And that all wisdom, all perfection, all
law, all virtue, all philosophy, consist in the practice of these axioms
fou