STUDY XIII. Ï73 



blifhment of lotteries, of tontines, and of annuities. 

 ** So many perfons," fay they, *' have died this 

 ** year ; the State has gained fo much." Should 

 a peftilence come, and fweep off one half of the 

 people, the State would be wonderfully enriched ! 

 Man is nothing in their eyes ; gold is all in all. 

 Their art conflits in reforming the vices of Society, 

 •by violences offered to Nature : and, what is paf- 

 iing ftrange, they pretend to ad after her example. 

 ** It is her intention, they gravely tell you, that 

 ** every fpecies of being (hould fubfift only by the 

 '** ruin of other fpecies. Particular evil is general 

 *' good." By fuch barbarous and erroneous 

 maxims are Princes mifled. Thefe Laws have no 

 exiftence in Nature, except between fpecies which 

 are oppofite and inimical. They exift not in the 

 fame fpecies of animals, which live together in a 

 ftate of Society. The death of a bee, moft af- 

 furedly, never tended to promote the profperity 

 of the hive. Much lefs ftill can the calamity and 

 death of a man be of advantage to his Nation, 

 and to Mankind, the perfeét happinefs of which 

 muft confift in a perfeâ: harmony between it's 

 members. We have demonflrated in another place,, 

 that it is impoffible the flightefl evil Qiould befal 

 a fimple individual, without communicating the 

 impreffion of it to the whole body politic. 



Our 



