ividuals
on other individuals is so much force taken away from the body of the
state; equality, because without it liberty cannot exist.

But these general objects of every good institution should be regulated
in every country in accord with its situation and the character of its
inhabitants. Nations with rich territories, for example, should be led
to devote themselves to agriculture; manufacturing industry should be
left to sterile lands. That which renders the constitution of the state
genuinely solid and endurable is the judicious adaptation of laws to
natural conditions. A conflict between the two tends to destruction; but
when the laws are in sympathy with the natural conditions, when they
keep in touch with them, and improve them, the state should prosper.

_The Government_

Every free action has two causes which concur to produce it: one of them
the will that determines upon the act, the other the power that performs
it. In the political body, one must distinguish between these two--the
legislative power and the executive power. The executive power cannot
belong to the sovereign, inasmuch as executive acts are particular acts,
aimed at individuals, and therefore, as already explained, outside the
sovereign's sphere. Public force, then, requires an agent to apply it,
according to the direction of the general will. This is the government,
erroneously confounded with the sovereign, of which it is only the
minister. It is an intermediary body, established between subject and
sovereign for their mutual correspondence, charged with the execution of
the laws and the maintenance of civil and political liberty.

The magistrates who form the government may be numerous, or may be few;
and, generally speaking, the fewer the magistrates the stronger the
government. A magistrate has three wills: his personal will, his will as
one of the governors, and his will as a member of the sovereign. The
last named is the weakest, the first named the most powerful. If there
is only one governor, the two stronger wills are concentrated in one
man; with a few governors, they are concentrated in few men; when the
government is in the hands of all the citizens, the second will is
obliterated, and the first widely distributed, and the government is
consequently weak. On the other hand, where there are many governors,
the government will be more readily kept in correspondence with the
general will. The duty of the legislator is to hit th