onger than one. Nothing could be so good for men as that
all should so agree in everything as to form as it were a single body
and mind, all seeking the good of all. Hence, men acting in accord with
the dictates of reason desire nothing for themselves but what they
desire for all. This renders them just, faithful, and honourable.

The knowledge of God is the supreme mental good, and to know God is the
supreme mental virtue. For God is the supreme subject of the
understanding, and therefore to know or understand God is the supreme
virtue of the mind. But to us nothing can be either good or evil unless
it has something in common with us. An object whose nature is absolutely
foreign to our own cannot be either good or evil to us, for this
reason, that we only call a thing good or evil when it is the cause of
joy or sorrow, this is to say, when it increases or diminishes our power
to act.

Nothing can be reckoned good except that which is in harmony with our
nature, and nothing can be reckoned evil expect what is contrary to our
nature, but men cannot be said to agree in nature when they are subject
to passion. We only act in harmony with the dictates of reason when we
agree in nature with others. Men are most useful to each other who are
mutually ruled by the laws of reason. But rarely do men live thus in
harmony with reason, and thus it comes to pass that they are commonly
envious of each other.

Yet men are seldom disposed to solitude, but answer generally to the
familiar description of man as a social animal, for they know that the
advantages preponderate over the advantages of social life. They find by
experience that by mutual aid and co-operation they can, on the one hand
the more easily secure what they need, and on the other hand the better
defend themselves from danger.

A man who seeks after virtue will desire others to do so, and this
desire will increase in proportion to this increase of his knowledge of
God. The good that a man seeks by the quest of virtue he will wish
others to obtain also. This is in accordance with reason, which is the
operation of the mind according to the essence of the mind, that essence
of the mind being knowledge, which involves the knowledge of God. The
greater the knowledge of God involved in the essence of the mind, the
greater will be the desire that others may seek after the same virtue
which the man seeks for himself.

_Economics_

EDWARD BELLAMY

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