which she has loaded him, and in the slender means, which she affords
to the relieving these necessities. In other creatures these two
particulars generally compensate each other. If we consider the lion as
a voracious and carnivorous animal, we shall easily discover him to be
very necessitous; but if we turn our eye to his make and temper, his
agility, his courage, his arms, and his force, we shall find, that his
advantages hold proportion with his wants. The sheep and ox are deprived
of all these advantages; but their appetites are moderate, and their
food is of easy purchase. In man alone, this unnatural conjunction of
infirmity, and of necessity, may be observed in its greatest perfection.
Not only the food, which is required for his sustenance, flies his
search and approach, or at least requires his labour to be produced, but
he must be possessed of cloaths and lodging, to defend him against the
injuries of the weather; though to consider him only in himself, he
is provided neither with arms, nor force, nor other natural abilities,
which are in any degree answerable to so many necessities.

It is by society alone he is able to supply his defects, and raise
himself up to an equality with his fellow-creatures, and even acquire a
superiority above them. By society all his infirmities are compensated;
and though in that situation his wants multiply every moment upon him,
yet his abilities are still more augmented, and leave him in every
respect more satisfied and happy, than it is possible for him, in his
savage and solitary condition, ever to become. When every individual
person labours a-part, and only for himself, his force is too small to
execute any considerable work; his labour being employed in supplying
all his different necessities, he never attains a perfection in any
particular art; and as his force and success are not at all times equal,
the least failure in either of these particulars must be attended with
inevitable ruin and misery. Society provides a remedy for these three
inconveniences. By the conjunction of forces, our power is augmented:
By the partition of employments, our ability encreases: And by mutual
succour we are less exposed to fortune and accidents. It is by
this additional force, ability, and security, that society becomes
advantageous.

But in order to form society, it is requisite not only that it be
advantageous, but also that men be sensible of these advantages; and
it is impossible,