CHAPTER VIII.

SOURCES OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY.


In truth, scarcely were the faculties of men developed, when, inveigled
by objects which gratify the senses, they gave themselves up to
unbridled desires. The sweet sensations which nature had attached to
their real wants, to endear to them their existence, no longer satisfied
them. Not content with the abundance offered by the earth or produced
by industry, they wished to accumulate enjoyments and coveted those
possessed by their fellow men. The strong man rose up against the
feeble, to take from him the fruit of his labor; the feeble invoked
another feeble one to repel the violence. Two strong ones then said:

"Why fatigue ourselves to produce enjoyments which we may find in the
hands of the weak? Let us join and despoil them; they shall labor for
us, and we will enjoy without labor."

And the strong associating for oppression and the weak for resistance,
men mutually afflicted each other; and a general and fatal discord
spread over the earth, in which the passions, assuming a thousand new
forms, have generated a continued chain of misfortunes.

Thus the same self-love which, moderate and prudent, was a principle of
happiness and perfection, becoming blind and disordered, was transformed
into a corrupting poison; and cupidity, offspring and companion of
ignorance, became the cause of all the evils that have desolated the
earth.