d the process of nature; they confided to the
earth rice, barley, and corn, which multiplied to the full measure
of their hope; and having found the means of obtaining within a small
compass and without removal, plentiful subsistence and durable stores,
they established themselves in fixed habitations; they built houses,
villages, and towns; formed societies and nations; and self-love
produced all the developments of genius and of power.

Thus by the aid of his own faculties, man has raised himself to the
astonishing height of his present fortune. Too happy if, observing
scrupulously the law of his being, he had faithfully fulfilled its
only and true object! But, by a fatal imprudence, sometimes mistaking,
sometimes transgressing its limits, he has launched forth into a
labyrinth of errors and misfortunes; and self-love, sometimes unruly,
sometimes blind, became a principle fruitful in calamities.

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.

Yes, ignorance and cupidity! these are the twin sources of all the
torments of man! Biased by these into false ideas of happiness, he