298 ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN vn 



frequently very hard indeed I might say impos- 

 sible to reconcile with those of the author of the 

 " Discours," which appeared eight years earlier ; and 

 that, if any one should maintain that the older essay 

 was not meant to be taken seriously, or that it lias 

 been, in some respects, more or less set aside by the 

 later, he might find strong grounds for his opinion. 

 It is enough for me that the same a priori method 

 and the same fallacious assumptions pervade both. 

 The thesis of the earlier work is that man, in 

 the " state of nature," was a very excellent creature 

 indeed, strong, healthy, good and contented : and 

 that all the evils which have befallen him, such as 

 feebleness, sickness, wickedness, and misery, result 

 from his having forsaken the " state of nature " 

 for the " state of civilisation." And the first step 

 in this downward progress was the setting up of 

 rights of several property. It might seem to a 

 plain man that the argument here turns on a mat- 

 ter of fact : if it is not historically true that men 

 were once in this " state of nature " what becomes 

 of it all ? However, Rousseau tells us, in the ]>;< - 

 face to the "Discours," not only that tin- " state of 

 nature "is something which no longer exists, bat 

 that " perhaps it never existed, and pr>b:ihly never 

 will exist." Yet it is something " of which it is 

 nevertheless accessary t<> have accurate notions in 

 order to judge our present condition rightly." 

 making this singular statement, Ron- 

 to observe : " II faudrait memo plus de philosophic 



