es
most burdensome, spoke in this wise: "Let us unite to shield the weak
from oppression, to restrain the proud, and to assure to each the
possession of what belongs to him; let us set up rules of justice and
peace, to which all shall be obliged to conform, without respect of
persons, and which may repair to some extent the caprices of fortune, by
subjecting the weak and the mighty alike to mutual duties. In a word,
instead of turning our forces against one another, let us collect them
into one supreme power to govern us by sage laws, to protect and defend
all the members of the association, repel their common foes, and
preserve us in never-ending concord." This, and not the right of
conquest, must have been the origin of society and laws, which threw new
chains round the poor and gave new might to the rich; and for the profit
of a few grasping and ambitious men, subjected the whole human race
henceforth and for ever to toil and bondage and wretchedness
without hope.

The social constitution thus propounded and accepted was radically
imperfect from the outset, and in spite of the efforts of the sagest
lawgivers, it has always remained imperfect, because it was the work of
chance, and because, inasmuch as it was ill begun, time, while revealing
defects and suggesting remedies, could never repair its vices; _people
went on incessantly repairing and patching, instead of which it was
indispensable to begin by making a clean surface and by throwing aside
all the old materials, just as Lycurgus did in Sparta_.

Put shortly, the main positions are these. In the state of nature each
man lived in entire isolation, and therefore physical inequality was as
if it did not exist. After many centuries, accident, in the shape of
difference of climate and external natural conditions, enforcing for the
sake of subsistence some degree of joint labour, led to an increase of
communication among men, to a slight development of the reasoning and
reflective faculties, and to a rude and simple sense of mutual
obligation, as a means of greater comfort in the long run. The first
state was good and pure, but the second state was truly perfect. It was
destroyed by a fresh succession of chances, such as the discovery of the
arts of metal-working and tillage, which led first to the institution of
property, and second to the prominence of the natural or physical
inequalities, which now began to tell with deadly effectiveness. These
inequalities grad