302 ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN vn 



nature, the others remained longer in their original state : and 

 such was the first source of inequality among men, which is 

 more easy to prove thus, in a general way, than to 

 exactly to its true causes. (" Discours," Preface.) 



In accordance with this conception of the 

 origin of inequality among men, Rousseau dis- 

 tinguishes, at the outset of the "Discours," two 

 kinds of inequality: 



the one which I term natural, or physical, because it is estab- 

 lished by Nature, and which consists in the differences of age, 

 health, bodily strength, and intellectual or spiritual qualities ; 

 the other, which may be called moral, or political, because it 

 depends on a sort of convention, and is established, or at least 

 authorised, by the consent of mankind. This last inequality 

 consists in the different privileges which some enjoy, to the 

 prejudice of others, as being richer, more honoured, more 

 powerful than they, or by making themselves obeyed by 

 others. 



Of course the question readily suggests itself : 

 Before drawing this sharp line of demarcation 

 between natural and political inequality, might it 

 not be as well to inquire whether they are not 

 intimately connected, in such a manner that the 

 latter is essentially a consequence of the former ? 

 This question is indeed put by Rousseau himself. 

 And, as the only answer he has to give is a pieiv 

 of silly and insincere rhetoric about its being a 

 question fit only for slaves to discuss in pn - 

 of their masters, we may fairly conclude that he 

 knew well enough he dare not grapple with it. 

 The only safe course for him was to go by on the 



