The social contract & discoursesRousseau, Jean-Jacques
Philosophy
The social contract & discourses
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Economics; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Social contract
But it must be remarked that the society thus formed, and the relations
thus established among men, required of them qualities different from
those which they possessed from their primitive constitution. Morality
began to appear in human actions, and every one, before the institution
of law, was the only judge and avenger of the injuries done him, so
that the goodness which was suitable in the pure state of nature was
no longer proper in the new-born state of society. Punishments had
to be made more severe, as opportunities of offending became more
frequent, and the dread of vengeance had to take the place of the
rigour of the law. Thus, though men had become less patient, and their
natural compassion had already suffered some diminution, this period
of expansion of the human faculties, keeping a just mean between the
indolence of the primitive state and the petulant activity of our
egoism, must have been the happiest and most stable of epochs. The
more we reflect on it, the more we shall find that this state was the
least subject to revolutions, and altogether the very best man could
experience; so that he can have departed from it only through some
fatal accident, which, for the public good, should never have happened.
The example of savages, most of whom have been found in this state,
seems to prove that men were meant to remain in it, that it is the
real youth of the world, and that all subsequent advances have been
apparently so many steps towards the perfection of the individual, but
in reality towards the decrepitude of the species.
So long as men remained content with their rustic huts, so long as
they were satisfied with clothes made of the skins of animals and sewn
together with thorns and fish-bones, adorned themselves only with
feathers and shells, and continued to paint their bodies different
colours, to improve and beautify their bows and arrows and to make
with sharp-edged stones fishing boats or clumsy musical instruments;
in a word, so long as they undertook only what a single person could
accomplish, and confined themselves to such arts as did not require the
joint labour of several hands, they lived free, healthy, honest and
happy lives, so long as their nature allowed, and as they continued to
enjoy the pleasures of mutual and independent intercourse. But from
the moment one man began to stand in need of the help of another; from
the moment it appeared advantageous to any one man to have enough
provisions for two, equality disappeared, property was introduced, work
became indispensable, and vast forests became smiling fields, which man
had to water with the sweat of his brow, and where slavery and misery
were soon seen to germinate and grow up with the crops.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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