SOCIETY.

Quid est homo ? imbecillum corpus, et fragile, nudum, suapte naturâ inerme, alienæ opis indigens, ad omnem fortunæ contumeliam projectum quum bene lacertos exercuit cujuslibet feræ pabulum, cujuslibet victima, ex infirmis fluidisque contextum, et linéamentis exterioribus nitidum; frigoris, æstus, laboris impatiens: ipso rursus situ, et otio iterum in tabem, alimenta metuens sua, quorum modo inopia, modo copia rumpitur; anxiæ solicitæque tutela, precarii spiritus, et male hærentis, quem pavor repentinus, adjectusque ex improviso sonus auribus gravis excutit: soli semper sibi nutrimentum vitiosum et inutile.-Seneca de Consolatione ad Marciam. c. 9.

It was inexpedient for man to live without law, on account of his excessive weakness. A few days will set a brute creature in a condition to provide for himself, nor is he in any great need of the company of others for his assistance and support; but man, from his first coming into the world, undergoes a long and tedious course of helpless infirmity. What a length of

years is required, and what diligence of information, to enable him by his own strength to accommodate himself with food and clothing. Let us suppose a man bred up by another just so far as to be able to walk, and, without hearing a word spoken, insomuch that he shall be destitute of all instruction and discipline but such as springs naturally from the soil of his mind. without the benefit of cultivation; let us suppose the same man to be left in a wilderness or desert, and entirely deprived of the company and of the assistance of others. What a wretched creature should we at last behold! a mute and ignoble animal, master of no powers or capacities any further than to pluck up the herbs and roots that grow about him; to gather the fruits which he did not plant; to quench his thirst at the first river or fountain or ditch that he finds in his way; to creep into a cave for shelter from the injuries of weather, or to cover over his body with moss and grass and leaves. Thus would he pass his time, a most heavy life, in tedious idleness; would tremble at every noise, and be scared at the approach of any of his fellow-creatures, till at last his miserable days were concluded by the extremity of hunger or of thirst, or by the fury of a ravenous beast.Puffend. book ii. c. 1. sec. 8.

Quo alio tuti sumus, quám quòd mutuis

juvamur officiis? Hoc uno instructior vita contraque incursiones subitas munitior est, beneficiorum commercio. Fac nos singulos, quid sumus? Præda animalium et victimæ, ac bellissimus et facillimus sanguis. Quoniam cæteris animalibus in tutelam sui satis virium est: quæcunque vaga nascuntur, et actura vitam segregem, armata sunt. Hominem imbecillitas cingit; non unguium vis, non dentium terribilem cæteris fecit nudum et infirmum societas munit. Duas res natura dedit, quæ illum, obnoxium cæteris, validissimum facerent, rationem et societatem. Itaque, qui par esse nulli poterat si seduceretur, rerum potitur. Societas illi dominium omnium animalium dedit. Societas terris genitum, in alienæ naturæ transmittit imperium, et dominari etiam in Mari jussit. Hæc morborum impetus arcuit, senectuti adminicula prospexit, solatia contra dolores dedit. Hæc fortes nos facit, quod hanc licet contra fortunam advocare. Hanc societatem tolle, et unitatem generis humani, quâ vita sustinetur, scindes.-Seneca de Beneficiis, lib. iv. c. 18.

Out of society we are defended only by our single strength; in society, by the strength of all. Out of society, no man is sure to keep possession of what his industry has gained; in society, every body is secure from that danger. To conclude; out of society we have the tyranny

of the passions, war, fear, poverty, filthiness, barbarity, ignorance, and wildness; in society we have the sway of reason, peace, security, riches, decency of ornament, company, elegancy, knowledge, and benevolence.-Hobbes de Cive. ch. 10. sec. 1.

Yet we must not imagine that the civil state properly subverts all natural society, or that it destroys the essential relations, which men have among themselves, or those between God and man.-1 Burlemac. 194.

Sed quoniam (ut præclare scriptum est a Platone) non nobis solum nati sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici atque (ut placet stoicis) quæ in terris gignuntur, ad usum hominum omnia creari, hominés autem hominum causa esse generatos, ut ipsi inter se alii prodesse possent: in hoc naturam debemus ducem sequi, et communes utilitates in medium afferre, mutatione officiorum, dando, accipiendo: tum artibus, tum opera, tum facultatibus devincire hominum inter homines societatem.Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. c. 7.

Societies are considered as bodies, and receive the appellation of moral persons, and acquire a kind of personal properties. Their establishment introduces a kind of society similar to what exists between men. There must, therefore, be some law to regulate their intercourse,

which can be the law of nature alone, then distinguished by the name of the Law of Nations. "Natural law," says Hobbes, "is divided into the natural law of man, and the natural law of states, which we call the law of nations." There is certainly an universal, necessary, and selfobligatory law of nations, which differs in nothing from the law of nature, and is consequently immutable. There is besides a secondary law of nations, which may be called arbitrary and free, as founded only on an express or tacit convention.-1 Burlemac. 199. See also Vattel. S. P. and Cic. sup.

Ανηρ γαρ ανδρα, &c. Men are the defence of men, cities of cities: as the hand rubs the hand, and the fingers wash the fingers, all safety is confederacy.-Plin. Nat. His. lib. ix. c. 44.

Add Marc Anton. lib. iv. sec. 4 and, lib. v. sec. 16 and 29, where he calls society the good or happiness of a rational creature, as it is frequent with him to term man a creature sociable by nature. So, also, Liban. Declam. xix. p. 499.