one of the ecclesiastical) representatives of this
doctrine, Hooker, declared, that "it was in the nature of things not
absolutely impossible that men could live without any public form of
government." Elsewhere he says that for men it is foolish to let
themselves be guided, by authority, like animals; it would be a kind
of fettering of the judgment, though there were reasons to the
contrary, not to pay heed to them, but, like sheep, to follow the
leader of the flock, without knowing or caring whither. On the other
hand, it is no part of our belief that the authority of man over men
shall be recognised against or beyond reason. Assemblies of learned
men, however great or honourable they may be, must be subject to
reason. This refers, of course, only to spiritual and ecclesiastical
authority; but Locke, who followed Hooker most closely, discovered
only too clearly what the immediate consequences of such assumptions
would be, and tried to avoid them by affirming that the power of the
sovereign, being merely a power entrusted to him, could be taken away
as soon as it became forfeited by misuse, but that the break-up of a
government was not a break-up of society. In France, on the other
hand, Etienne de la Boetie had already written, when oppressed by the
tyranny of Henry II., a _Discours de la Servitude Volontaire, ou
Contr'un_ (in 1546), containing a glowing defence of Freedom, which
goes so far that the sense of the necessity of authority disappears
entirely. The opinion of La Boetie is that mankind does not need
government; it is only necessary that it should really wish it, and
it would find itself happy and free again, as if by magic.

[8] "Cette liberte commun est une consequence de la nature
de l'homme. Sa premiere loi est de veiller a sa propre
conservation, ses premiers soins sont ceux qu'il se doit a
lui-meme: et sitot qu'il est en age de raison, lui seul etant
juge des moyens propres a le conserver, devient par la son
propre maitre."--_Rousseau._

So we see how the upholders of the social contract are separated into
a Right, Central, and Left party. At the extreme right stands Hobbes,
whom the defenders of Absolutism follow; in the centre is Locke, with
the Republican Liberals; and on the extreme left stand the pioneers of
Anarchism, with Hooker the ecclesiastic at their head. But of all the
theoretical defenders of the "social contract," only one has really
worked out its ultimate cons