156 EXCURSION TO THE REALMS BELOW. 



Menipp. The right of the wolf over the fheep is 

 eftablifhed by the fame arguments. But how it can 

 fuit the human race, which however feem to poffefs 

 fomething, not totally infignificant, beyond mere cattle ; 

 called reafon. This, I maintain it, will not be clearly 

 made out to me. 



Xenoph. The fault may then poiiibly lie only in thyfelf, 

 good Menippus. The natural right of the wolf to the 

 fheep, if thou wilt have it fo, is a right to devour them ; 

 the right of the flronger, when we are fpeaking of men, 

 can have no other object in view, even becaufe there is a 

 relation of man with man, but not of wolves with fheep, 

 than to lead and to protect the weaker, in cafe they 

 both are Hill in the flate of natural freedom and fociety. 

 But are thefe, let it have happened whichever way it 

 will, once entered into civil fociety, which in its very 

 nature is grounded on a fupreme authority that mufl 

 be acknowledged and feared by all the members of the 

 fociety : then is it again the nature of the cafe, that 

 the ultimate aim of the fociety, namely the welfare of 

 the whole, or to fpeak more plainly, the prefervation 

 of its inward and outward fecurity, fhould determine 

 the application and the boundaries of this fupreme au- 

 thority. But, my dear Menippus, in the difcullion of 

 this whole affair, we mould take care not to lofe fight 

 of this, that man brings rights into the world with him, 

 which are independent on the arbitration of other men, 

 and of which no authority can deprive him, unlefs he 

 forfeit them by his own actions. Might, ftrength, 

 force, or power, (which here, as we are at prefent 

 rambling about in general ideas, are all alike) and right, 



are no incompatible or mutually expelling things ; on 



the 



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