The Natural Right of Men united in Society under a Sovereign Authority

Societies are governed by an authority, in its form either monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, etc. But it is not the different forms of authority which determine the essence of the natural rights of men united in society, for the laws vary a good deal in each of these forms.

The laws of government which decide the rights of subjects, reduce themselves, almost always, to positive laws, or laws of human institution: but these laws pre not the essential and immutable foundation of natural right-and they vary so much that it would be impossible to examine the state of the natural rights of men under them: it is even useless to enter on this examination : for where the laws and tutelary power do not secure liberty and property, neither the government nor society can be of spy, advantage :

there is only domination and anarchy under the appearance of government : positive laws and this domination but protect and secure the usurpation of the strong, and destroy’ the liberty and property of the weak A state of pure nature is then more advantageous than this violent state of society, which passes through every’ vicissitude of disorder, of form, of authority, and of sovereigns.

This appears so inevitable, that men who abandon themselves to the contemplation of all these changes, persuade themselves that it is in the irreversible order of destiny, that governments should have their commencements, their progress, their highest elevation of power, their decline, and their extinction. But they are constrained at the same time to admit, that this order is very irregular, that the, passages through it are more or less rapid, more or less uniform, more or less unequal; more or less complicated by unforeseen, events, favourable or-disastrous, more or less directed or fortuitous, more or less attributable to prudence or folly, to knowledge or ignorance, to wisdom or to the licentious passions of those who govern: they must likewise conclude, at least, that the fatality of bad governments is not inherent in the natural and immutable order, the archetype of all governments.

To understand the order of seasons, and of places, to regulate navigation, and secure commerce, it has been found necessary to observe and calculate with precision the laws of motion of the heavenly bodies. We must also, to know the extent of the natural rights of men united in society, ascertain the natural laws constitutive of the best possible government. That government to which men ought to be subjected consists in a natural and a positive order the most advantageous to men united in society.

Men united in society, then, ought to be subject to natural and to positive laws.

Natural laws are either physical or moral. By physical law, we here mean, the regular course of every physical event of the natural order evidently most advantageous to mankind.

By moral law we mean, the tide of every human action of the moral order conformable to the physical order, evidently most advantageous to mankind.

These laws form together what we call natural law: all men and all human powers ought to be controlled by these sovereign rules, instituted by the supreme being. They are immutable, irrefragable, and the best laws possible. [15] Of consequence they are the foundation of the most perfect government, and the fundamental rule of every, positive law; for positive laws are but laws of preservation relative to the natural order evidently most advantageous to mankind.

Positive laws are authentic rules established by a sovereign authority to determine the order of administering the government, to secure the defence of society, to enforce the regular observance of natural laws, to reform or maintain customs and usages introduced into the nation, to regulate the particular rights of subjects relative to their different states, to determine the positive order in doubtful cases reduced all probability of opinion or convenience, to settle the decisions of distributive justice. But the first positive law, the fundamental law of all the other positive ones, is, the institution of publick and private instruction in the laws of the natural order, which is the sovereign rule of all human legislation, and of all, civil, political, economical and social conduct. Without this fundamental institution, government and the conduct of men can be nothing else, than darkness, error, confusion, and disorder; for without the know-I ledge of natural, laws, which ought to serve as the basis of human legislation, and as sovereign rules for the conduct of men,, we could have no evidence of justice or injustice, of natural right, of physical and moral order: no .evidence of the essential distinction between general and particular, interests, of the real causes of the prosperity and of the decline of nations ; no evidence of the-essence of moral good and evil, of the sacred rights of those who govern, or of the duty of those to whom the social order prescribes obedience.

Positive legislation, then, consists in the declaration of natural laws, constitutive of the order evidently the most advantageous possible to men united in society. We might say more simply, the most advantageous possible to the sovereign, for what is really most advantageous to the sovereign is most advantageous also to the subject. Nothing but the knowledge of these laws can constantly secure the tranquillity and the prosperity of an empire : and the more a nation shall apply itself to this science, the more will the natural order predominate in it, and the more regular will the positive order be: no one in such a nation would propose any unreasonable law, for both the government and its citizens would perceive its absurdity.

The foundation of society is the subsistence of men, and the funds necessary to the support of the power which must defend them: thus it could be nothing but ignorance, for example, which would favour the introduction of positive laws, contrary to the order of reproduction, and of the regular annual distribution of the wealth of the territory. If the torch of reason enlighten government, all positive laws injurious, to the society and the sovereign will disappear.

We speak here of reason strengthened, enlarged and perfected, by the study of natural laws. For simple reason does not raise men above .the brutes: it is in its principle only a faculty, or aptitude, by which one may acquire, the knowledge which is necessary to him, and by which he can procure the physical and moral good essential to the nature of his being. Reason is to the soul what eyes are to the body; without eyes one could not enjoy light, and without light he could see nothing.

Reason alone, then, is not sufficient to guide the conduct of man; he must by his reason acquire the knowledge necessary to him; and by his reason he must avail himself of this knowledge to conduct himself worthily and to procure the good things of which he has need. Ignorance is the primitive attribute of savage an solitary man; in society it is the most fatal infirmity of man, it is there, even criminal, because men being endowed with intelligence should raise themselves to an higher order than the brutes: it is there a crime enormous in its guilt, for ignorance is the most general cause of the misfortunes of the human race, and of its unworthiness toward the author of nature, toward the eternal light, the supreme reason, and the first cause of all good. But enlightened reason having attained the point of knowing with certainty the march of natural laws, becomes the necessary rule of the best possible government, where the observance of those sovereign laws would multiply abundantly the riches, necessary to the subsistence of man, and to maintain the tutelary power, the protection of which guarantees to men united in society, the property in their possessions, and security in their persons.

It is then manifest, that the natural right of each individual is extended, because each binds himself to the observance of the hest laws Possible, which Constitute the order most advantageous to men united in society.

These laws do not restrain the liberty of man which forms a part of his natural right; for the advantages of These laws are manifestly the object of the best choice which his liberty can make. Man cannot refuse the obedience which he owes to these laws, otherwise his liberty would become injurious to himself and to others: this would be the liberty of a madman, which in a good government should be restrained and corrected by authority of the positive laws of society.

THE END.

Footnotes [1] There have been many discussions on natural right, as philosophers have disputed about liberty, justice, and injustice. They have wished to consider as absolute essences, those relative attributes, of which we can have no adequate and just idea, but by uniting them to the correlatives on which they depend, without which, they would be but ideal and empty abstractions. [2] See for example the end of this chapter. [3] This is the definition of Justinian - it, like the others has its aspects in which it is true. [4] See for example page 187 [Chapter 3], and the note on page 199 [No note on p199. Perhaps note [15] ?]. [5] See for example the note on page 186 [No note on p186. Perhaps note [12] ?]. [6] See pages 193 and 194 [Chapter 4]. With a little more extent this proposition will agree with ours. [7] This is the system of the sophist Crasimachus in Plato - renewed by Hobbes -and, since Hobbes, by the author of a book entitled “Principles of Natural and Political Right.” See it stated and refuted on pages 183, 184, and 185 [Chapter 2]. [8] See pages 193, 194, and 195 [Chapter 4]. [9] This is the case of a single individual on a desert island, in which the natural right to the provisions of the island, admit neither justice nor injustice, because; justice and injustice are relative attributes which cannot exist apart from persons, towards whom they may be exercised. See the commencement of Chapter. 4. [10] See in contradiction page 181 [Chapter 1]. [11] Mark the expression “without any other resource,” for if there be human, beings within his reach, he has a right to their assistance, because he suffers what they have suffered - and they could not have lived had they not been assisted in their infancy. [12] This is the case in the proverb which addresses itself to all -in a state of nature, “if you want, go and seek, no one hinders you.” This rule extends to beasts; those of the same kind which are in the same situation, do not contend with one another reciprocally to prevent their obtaining nourishment by their exertions. [13]What do the words " more free" mean? Do they signify more arbitrary, that is, more independent of the motives which act on the will? No. For if this independence were entire, it would reduce the will to a state, of indifference; and in that state liberty would be nothing: it is not in ibis sense, then, that we say " wore fits." These words can still less relate to a state of the will controlled by irresistible motives. These two extremes limit the extent of the natural use of liberty.

Liberty, is a faculty relative to exciting but controllable motives, which counterbalance and weaken one another, which present opposite interests and attractions; which reason, more or less enlightened, and more or less prejudiced, examines and appreciates. This state of deliberation consists in many acts of the exercise of liberty, more-or less sustained by the attention of the mind. But to have a still more precise idea of liberty, we must not confound its state of deliberation, with the decisive act of the will, which is a simple, definite act, more or less precipitate, which determines the exercise of liberty, which is not an act of liberty, but simply an absolute determination of the will, more or less prepared for the choice by the exercise of liberty.

After these observations, familiar to every one the least attentive to the exercise of his mind, we may ask those who deny the existence of liberty, if they are well assured of having never deliberated? If they acknowledge they have deliberated; let us ask them why they have done so? and if’ they admit it ‘was to choose, they will be conscious of the exercise of an intellectual faculty between motive and decision. Then we agree to the reality of this faculty; and it will be idle to dispute as to its name.

But under this name let us not unite contradictory conditions; such, as the condition of being able equally to acquiesce in none; conditions which exclude every reason of preference, choice, or decision. For then, every exercise, every use, in a word, every essential property of liberty would cease to exist, and the word would signify only au inconceivable abstraction, like that of a stick without two - ends. To deprive the will of man of all power of determination to render it free, is to destroy the will itself, for every act of the will is to wish a particular thing, which thing determines the will to a preference. To destroy the motive is to destroy the liberty itself, or the intellectual - facility which examines and appreciates objects relative to the affections of the will.

Let us not stop longer on this absurdity, but conclude, that he only is wise, who employs himself in perfecting his liberty. Others always think themselves sufficiently free, when they can satisfy their desires; therefore they are only desirous of procuring the means of multiplying the choices which may extend, not their liberty, bet the imprudent use of it: He who has only one dish for his repast, has only the choice to eat or leave it, and, to eat more or less of it; but he who has twenty dishes, may extend the exercise of his liberty over all the dishes, may choose what he finds best, and eat more or less of what he shall have chosen. It is in this sense, that unenlightened man is ever busy to extend the enjoyment of his liberty, and to satisfy his passions with as little discernment as moderation, which has obliged men who live in society to establish among them penal laws to express the abuse of liberty.

Then they extend their liberty from motives of interest which counterbalance one another, and excite the attention, which is, so to speak, “the active organ of liberty or of deliberation.” Thus liberty or deliberation may be extended by the very motives which restrain the rash and imprudent use of liberty.

[14] There are many kinds and degrees of folly, but every one who is a fool from the effect of a badly-organised brains is hurried away by a physical law which does not permit him to make the best choice, or to conduct himself with wisdom. To be a fool is not to be free. Liberty presupposes examination and reason. [15] The natural order the most advantageous to man, is not perhaps most advantageous to other animals. But man has an unlimited right to make his part the best possible. The superiority he has belongs to his intelligence; it is a natural right, since he holds it from the author of nature, who has decreed it so by the laws which he has ordained in the formation of the universe.