faculties, equal security for their persons and property. If, on the
contrary, an empire goes to ruin, or dissolves, it is because its laws
have been vicious, or imperfect, or trodden under foot by a corrupt
government. If the laws and government, at first wise and just, become
afterwards depraved, it is because the alternation of good and evil is
inherent to the heart of man, to a change in his propensities, to his
progress in knowledge, to a combination of circumstances and events; as
is proved by the history of the species.

In the infancy of nations, when men yet lived in the forest, subject to
the same wants, endowed with the same faculties, all were nearly equal
in strength; and that equality was a circumstance highly advantageous
in the composition of society: as every individual, thus feeling himself
sufficiently independent of every other, no one was the slave, none
thought of being the master of another. Man, then a novice, knew neither
servitude nor tyranny; furnished with resources sufficient for his
existence, he thought not of borrowing from others; owning nothing,
requiring nothing, he judged the rights of others by his own, and formed
ideas of justice sufficiently exact. Ignorant, moreover, in the art
of enjoyments, unable to produce more than his necessaries, possessing
nothing superfluous, cupidity remained dormant; or if excited, man,
attacked in his real wants, resisted it with energy, and the foresight
of such resistance ensured a happy balance.

Thus original equality, in default of compact, maintained freedom of
person, security of property, good manners, and order. Every one
labored by himself and for himself; and the mind of man, being occupied,
wandered not to culpable desires. He had few enjoyments, but his wants
were satisfied; and as indulgent nature had made them less than his
resources, the labor of his hands soon produced abundance--abundance,