o/y
/VaTI^/XAL LAU
d-OA <>/ 2)iSC
l}o{. (f)fftur.l
//l£^
I30>
...
What experiments
would
be needed in order to come [124] to
know natural
man; and by what means can these experiments be performed
within society?
It is this ignorance ofthe nature ofman that casts such
ni
foTHTiH^
obscurity on the true definition of natural right-
r^rillll
and stm more that of
Hence
manifestly ideas relative to the NTan.re of man.
c^sUtu ion^nd h,"
^^^Ts
not without surprise and scandal that one observes
ow little agreement prevails about this imporunt matter among
the various Authors who have dealt with it. Among the most
serious Writers, scarcely two can be found who are ofthe same
opinion on this point.
onlv for
fn, ,arule
1^^
Modems,tosince
theybeing,
allow that
the isname
of to
Lawa
^ly
prescribed
amoral
to sav
Vftdf • —he
-f-
with^other iinlf
its relations
only
animal endowed with reasSn. that Is to slyinmmm/r^/
wi h other beings, restrict the province of natural Law to the
- COh^^fe/tiMf/y h/tffhc
all oMheiTbliril
of them base it on such metaphysical orlncioles rhar
ii)1; an
cbo<S*e( oh
JolyS.
ev..o
tTernT'
-'r rlet alone capable
peopIe^capaKle
of uSlSlndllg
these principles,
of discovering
them on their
/3L
constantly contradict one another, agree
only in this that it is Impossible to understand the Law of
^ a profound Metaphysician. Which precisely means that in
mment which develops only with much difliculty and among
^r to cfiabliJ swiety men must have employed an enlightvciy few people within society itself.
One begins by looking for the rules on which it would be
appropriate for men to agree among themselves for the sake of
the coi^on utility; and then gives the name natural Law to the
collection of these rules, with no further proof than the good
which, in one's view, would result from universal compliance
^with them. That is certainly a very convenient way of framing
^definitions and of explaining the nature of things by almost
arbitrary appropriatenesses.
|8J But as long as we do not know natural man we shall in
r4// // HA A
^ •
vain try to ^certain either the Law he has received or that
_ /choAjh
-
which best suits his condition. All we can very clearly seeabout
this Law is that not only, for it to be law, the will of him whom
/
;;
i!)
it obligates must be able to submit to it knowingly; but also,
for it to be natural, it must speak immediately with the voice of
Nature.
JIJ
(91 Hence, disregarding all the scientific books that only teach
us to see men as they have made themselves, and meditating on
the first and simplest operations of the human Soul, f believe 1
•" ~SC-(j[^t'tS'€^l'7!^^(^/j^
perceive in it two [126] principles priorto reason, of which one
0
-f'ry
interests us intensely in our well-being and our self-preservation,
and the other inspires in us a natural repugnance at seeing any
sentient Being, and especially any being like outselves, perish
iifi/^atti • 6oc^e^^i t^ 'ly
or suffer. It is from the association and combination which our
mind is capable of making between these two Principles, without
f 33
it being necessary to introduce into it that of ^ociabilhy!/ that
all the rules of natural right seem to me to flow; rules which
Wn is subsequently forced to reestaWlsh on different foun-
tUtlons when, by its successive developments, it has succeeded
ifi'Stnothering Nature.
110) This way one is not obliged to make a Philosopher of
^ before making aman of him; his duties toward others are
C^orH^^//yJ
aCC<yr<>//'Hc 7^ 7^ /^hfS
/m
C^l
Wtedom and^l
?
u
®
by the belated lessons of
impulsion
s^tient being, except in the legitimate case when, his preser
vatlon being involved, he is obliged to give himself preference
6/VS
kSLo //Co
CertxC^^/s
137
y -ccirfy £ACf-c^/i-ts
society hav?ar^
h
examined the foundations of
sta^e of,f Nature,
nZ kbut none ofnecessity
going back
as farhave
as not
the
state
them hasofreached
it. Some
i) aTdTV""of 'he Just
notion "o'
showbeen
that he
had toto himhave
that notion,
or even that it would'ohave
useful
tlers have spoken of everyone's Natural Right to keep what
lii)
^hhout explaining what they understood by
iver'Thhe weaker,
T had Government
grantingarise
to the
stronger authoritj
straightway,
without
giving thought to the time that must have elapsed before the
II/)
government
could
have of
meaning
'on: Finally, all of "f
them,
continually
speaking
need
transferred to the state of
Nature ideas they had taken from society;
they spoke of Savace
Man and depicted Civil man.
1^0
ravage
believe .ha, since God himself drew
of the state of Nature immediately after the creation, they artunequal because he wanted them to be so; but it does not forbid
us to frame conjectures based solely on the nature of man and
of the Beings that .surround him, alwut what Mankind might
have become if it had remained abandoned to itself. That is
what 1 am asked, and what 1 propose to examine in this
Discourse.
111
Iirif
^'"^'pprng the Being, so constituted, of all the supernat
Ccot Id onl> have acquired by prolonged progress- bv consid
- .dcr:;:-',7^7',zz 'z:7rzz::
atlvantagcously organized of all: 1see him sating his hnnZ
ZZ"",,'" S
'•""'ins
7^ ^{toe/-
^ k4yU(//u'j
left by Nature to bare instinct alone, or
rather, compensated for any lack ofinstinct by faculties capable
of making up for it at first, and [14}] of afterwards raising him
U^Ak /acIjcs
^s^iy-A/r'n
JV)
lUl
.
far above nature,
(X)®#ri}i.j
- •
will and not to will.
to desire and to fear, will be the first and almost the only
7
operations of his .soul until new circumstances cause new
developments in it.
Regardless of what the Moralists may say about it human
ja/nirhS-^ yuxx>C> -9 /-ctt/jin^
dm:;:;rtrs'
a7ircommon ;
/ro
c6^3'tCi Art
a) ifi'CeAo
4j
*
in •
Iu^i^ilIj-c
1"
^
or ^>7 t'H' simple
enlightenment, experiences only the Passions of the latter kind
his desires do not exceed his Physical needs fXII- Z oniJ
!i::^:,7evtre;"
'o«,.rfe'"ii:die,'zs
Ieath;
7 for
r an animal will
® never
P^'"- knowhunger;
and the
not
what itI issaytopain
and
ka/-inou/f ^ ffhf^
owe ge of death and of its terrors was one of man's first
acquisitions on moving away from the animal condition.
^
arnw« indifferent
In Iff spectacle
of Nature
becomes
familiarthethat.same
he
gows
to it. Forever
the same
order,soforever
revolutions; he lacks the wit to wonder at the greatest marvelsan It IS not to him that one would turn for the Philo.sophy man
CtonrU^
ITI
.he TcraLrm !?f •;
»"»">• "o
f.imr? I
no Wea of the
nis views, hardly extend to the close of day.
IS-2-
^na*^ h
.1the W
could And
Mankind
in
WoodsI among progress
the Animals?
how make,
much scattered
could men
perfect and enlighten one another who, having neither a fixed
Dwelling nor any need of one another, might meet no more
,
hif/ <S(rCiAy^
than twice in their life, without knowing and speaking with one
another?
^
togcTher^'thrcmZ ^larlZZandZ
establish the bonds of .Sociability.
15-f
state of Nature ^'Zldvited '
to live in society
jv)
, lintu\ In
<ia6cl
U>
"
"ceded to live in the
^'^at he needs
thev
Ho not
n«» I,know
they do
. it is to be""tgood;
Wicked
because
what
for precisely
it is neither
the
growh of enlightenment nor the curb of the Law, but the calm
evi|.d77g''""Z«tA''"
them from
these Z„
than 1
the knowledge
Zvc
r Tr of virtue profits those.
0/ ,./ce profit