[Footnote 3336: Does it not read like a declaration of intent for forming a Kibbutz? (SR.)] [Footnote 3337: "The high society (La societé) is as natural to the human species as decrepitude to the individual. The people require arts, laws, and governments, as old men require crutches." See the letter M. Philopolis, p. 248.] [Footnote 3338: See the discourse on the "Origine de l'Inégalite," passim.] [Footnote 3339: "Emile," book IV. Rousseau's narrative. P. 13.] [Footnote 3340: "Discours sur l'économie politique," 326.] [Footnote 3341: "Discours sur l'Origine de l'Inégalité," 178, "Contrat Social," I. ch. IV.] [Footnote 3342: Condorcet, "Tableau des progrès de l'esprit humain," the tenth epoch.] CHAPTER IV. ORGANIZING THE FUTURE SOCIETY. I. Liberty, Equality And Sovereignty Of The People. The mathematical method.--Definition of man in the abstract.--The social contract.--Independence and equality of the contractors.--All equal before the law and each sharing in the sovereignty. Consider future society as it appears at this moment to our legislators in their study, and bear in mind that it will soon appear under the same aspect to the legislators of the Assembly.--In their eyes the decisive moment has come. Henceforth two histories are to exist;[3401] one, that of the past, the other, that of the future, formerly a history of Man still deprived of his reason, and at present the history of the rational human being. The rule of right is at last to begin. Of all that the past generations have founded and transmitted nothing is legitimate. Overlaying the natural Man they created an artificial Man, either ecclesiastic or laic, noble or commoner, sovereign or subject, proprietor or proletary, ignorant or cultivated, peasant or citizen, slave or master, all being phony qualities which we are not to heed, as their origin is tainted with violence and robbery. Strip off these superfluous garments; let us take Man in himself, the same under all conditions, in all situations, in all countries, in all ages, and strive to ascertain what sort of association is the best adapted to him. The problem thus stated, the rest follows.--In accordance with the customs of the classic mentality, and with the precepts of the prevailing ideology, a political system is now constructed after a mathematical model.[3402] A simple statement is selected, and set apart, very general, familiar, readily apparent, and easily understood by the most ignorant and inattentive schoolboy. Reject every difference, which separates one man from other men; retain of him only the portion common to him and to others. The remainder constitutes Man in general, or in other words, "a sensitive and rational being who, thus endowed, avoids pain and seeks pleasure," and therefore aspiring to happiness, namely, a stable condition in which one enjoys greater pleasure than pain,"[3403] or, again, "a sensitive being capable of forming rational opinions and