IX GOVERNMENT 409 



The physiocrats accepted the dogma of human 

 equality, and they further agreed with Locke in 

 considering that the restriction of the functions of 

 the Government to the protection of liberty and 

 property was in nowise inconsistent with further- 

 ance of education by the State. On the contniryf* 

 they considered education to be an essential 

 condition of the only equality which is consistent 

 with liberty. Moreover, they laid great stress on 

 the proposition that justice is inseparably con- 

 nected with property and liberty. Nothing 

 can be stronger than the words of Quesnay on this 

 point : 



La ou les lois et la puissance tutelaire n'assurent point la 

 propriete et la liberte, il n'y a ni gouvernement ni societe profit- 

 ables ; il n'y a que domination et anarchie sous les apparences 

 d'un gouvernement; les lois positives et la domination y protegent 

 et assurent les usurpations des forts, et aneantissent la pro- 

 priete et la liberte des faibles. 1 



That is to say, the absolute political ethics of 

 the individualist leave as little doubt in his mind 

 that private property and the right to deal freely 

 with it are essential to the protection of the weak 

 against the strong, as the absolute political ethics 



advocacy of freedom, within the law ; equality, before the law ; 

 and fraternity, outside the law. I am not sure that, from the 

 purely philosophical point of view, the form in which that great 

 Jew, Spinoza, has stated the rule is not the best : " Desire 

 nothing for yourself which you do not desire for others," (nihil 

 sibi appetere quod reliquis hominibus non cupiant). (Ethiees, iv. 

 xviii. ) 



1 Droit Naturel, chap. 5. 





