310 ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN vil 



advanced are so easily upset, it is probable that 

 he had in his mind something which is dift'rivnt 

 from that sense. 



I am a good deal disposed to think that this is 

 the case. There is much to be said in favour of 

 the view that Rousseau, having got hold of a 

 plausible hypothesis, more or less unconsciously 

 made up a clothing of imaginary facts to hide its 

 real nakedness. He was not the first nor the last 

 philosopher to perform this feat. 



As soon as men began to think about political 

 problems, it must have struck them that, if the 

 main object of society was the welfare of its mem- 

 bers (and until this became clear, political action 

 could not have risen above the level of instinct a ), 

 there were all sorts of distinctions among men. and 

 burdens laid upon them, which nowise contributed 



1 It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds 

 for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify 

 our instincts. I cannot doubt that human society existed before 

 language or any ethical consciousness. Gregarious animals form 

 polities, in which they act according to rules conducive to the 

 welfare of the whole society, although, of course, it would be 

 absurd to say that they obey laws in the juridical sense. The 

 polities of the masteries* dogs in KastiTn cities are well known. 

 And, in any street of an English town, one may observe a small 

 dog chased by a bigger, who turns round the moment he has 

 entered his own territory and defies the other ; while, usually, 

 after various manifestations of anger and contempt, the 

 withdraws. No doubt the small dog has had pivvi. 

 l>erience of the arrival of assistance under siu-h circumstances, 

 and the big one of the effects of sticks and stones and other odd 

 missiles ; no doubt, the associations thus engrained an- the 

 prime source of the practical acknowledgment of ownership on 

 both sides. I suspect it has been very much the same among 



