he force and desire of individuals, but by the power and
will of the whole body. This end they will be unable to attain if desire
be their only guide, for by the laws of desire each man is drawn in a
different direction; they must, therefore, most firmly decree and
establish that they will be guided in everything by reason, which nobody
will dare openly to repudiate lest he should be taken for a madman, and
will restrain any desire which is injurious to a man's fellows, that
they will do to all as they would be done by, and that they will defend
their neighbor's rights as their own.

How such a compact as this should be entered into, how ratified and
established, we will now inquire.

Now it is a universal law of human nature that no one ever neglects
anything which he judges to be good, except with the hope of gaining a
greater good, or from the fear of a greater evil; nor does any one
endure an evil except for the sake of avoiding a greater evil, or
gaining a greater good. That is, every one will, of two goods, choose
that which he thinks the greatest; and, of two evils that which he
thinks the least. I say advisedly that which he thinks the greatest or
the least, for it does not necessarily follow that he judges right. This
law is so deeply implanted in the human mind that it ought to be counted
among eternal truths and axioms.

As a necessary consequence of the principle just enunciated, no one can
honestly promise to forego the right which he has over all things,[33]
and in general no one will abide by his promises, unless under the fear
of a greater evil, or the hope of a greater good. An example will make
the matter clearer. Suppose that a robber forces me to promise that I
will give him my goods at his will and pleasure. It is plain (inasmuch
as my natural right is, as I have shown, co-extensive with my power)
that if I can free myself from this robber by stratagem, by assenting
to his demands, I have the natural right to do so, and to pretend to
accept his conditions. Or, again, suppose I have genuinely promised some
one that for the space of twenty days I will not taste food or any
nourishment; and suppose I afterwards find that my promise was foolish,
and cannot be kept without very great injury to myself; as I am bound by
natural law and right to choose the least of two evils, I have complete
right to break any compact, and act as if my promise had never been
uttered. I say that I should have perfect natur