Some base the State on force, others on divine right, others on contract.[52] But "the hypothesis of force appears to proceed upon the total negation of abstract and immutable justice, affirming every government to be right, that is possessed of power sufficient to enforce its decrees. It puts a violent termination upon all political science, and is calculated for nothing farther than to persuade men, to sit down quietly under their present disadvantages, whatever they may be, and not exert themselves to discover a remedy for the evils they suffer. The second hypothesis is of an equivocal nature. It either coincides with the first, and affirms all existing power to be alike of divine derivation; or it must remain totally useless, till a criterion can be found, to distinguish those governments which are approved by God, from those which cannot lay claim to that sanction."[53] The third hypothesis would mean that one "should make over to another the control of his conscience and the judging of his duties."[54] "But we cannot renounce our moral independence; it is a property that we can neither sell nor give away; and consequently no government can derive its authority from an original contract."[55] "All government corresponds in a certain degree to what the Greeks denominated a tyranny. The difference is, that in despotic countries mind is depressed by a uniform usurpation; while in republics it preserves a greater portion of its activity, and the usurpation more easily conforms itself to the fluctuations of opinion."[56] "By its very nature positive institution has a tendency to suspend the elasticity and progress of mind."[57] "We should not forget that government is, abstractedly taken, an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind."[58] II. _The general welfare demands that a social human life based solely on its precepts should take the place of the State._ 1. Men are to live together in society even after the abolition of the State. "A fundamental distinction exists between society and government. Men associated at first for the sake of mutual assistance."[59] It was not till later that restraint appeared in these associations, in consequence of the errors and perverseness of a few. "Society and government are different in themselves, and have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. Society is in every state a blessing; government even in its best state but a necessary evil."[60]