egate of the powers of all her
individual components, it follows that every individual has sovereign
right to do all that he can, in other words, the rights of an individual
extend to the utmost limits of his power as it has been conditioned.

Now it is the sovereign law and right of Nature that each individual
should endeavor to preserve itself as it is, without regard to anything
but itself; therefore this sovereign law and right belongs to every
individual, namely, to exist and act according to its natural
conditions. We do not here acknowledge any difference between mankind
and other individual natural entities, nor between men endowed with
reason and those to whom reason is unknown; nor between fools, madmen,
and sane men. Whatsoever an individual does by the laws of its nature it
has a sovereign right to do, inasmuch as it acts as it was conditioned
by Nature, and cannot act otherwise. Wherefore among men, so long as
they are considered as living under the sway of Nature, he who does not
yet know reason, or who has not yet acquired the habit of virtue, acts
solely according to the laws of his desire with as sovereign a right as
he who orders his life entirely by the laws of reason.

That is, as the wise man has sovereign right to do all that reason
dictates, or to live according to the laws of reason, so also the
ignorant and foolish man has sovereign right to do all that desire
dictates, or to live according to the laws of desire. This is identical
with the teaching of Paul, who acknowledges that previous to the
law--that is, so long as men are considered of as living under the sway
of Nature, there is no sin.

The natural right of the individual man is thus determined, not by sound
reason, but by desire and power. All are not naturally conditioned so as
to act according to the laws and rules of reason; nay, on the contrary,
all men are born ignorant, and before they can learn the right way of
life and acquire the habit of virtue, the greater part of their life,
even if they have been well brought up, has passed away. Nevertheless,
they are in the meanwhile bound to live and preserve themselves as far
as they can by the unaided impulses of desire. Nature has given them no
other guide, and has denied them the present power of living according
to sound reason; so that they are no more bound to live by the dictates
of an enlightened mind than a cat is bound to live by the laws of the
nature of a lion.

Whatsoeve