Of The Foundations Of A State; Of The Natural And Civil Rights Of Individuals;
And Of The Rights Of The Sovereign Power.
(1) Hitherto our care has been to separate philosophy from theology, and to show the
freedom of thought which such separation insures to both. (2) It is now time to determine
the limits to which such freedom of thought and discussion may extend itself in the ideal
state. (3) For the due consideration of this question we must examine the foundations of a
State, first turning our attention to the natural rights of individuals, and afterwards to
religion and the state as a whole.
(16:4) By the right and ordinance of nature, I merely mean those natural laws wherewith
we conceive every individual to be conditioned by nature, so as to live and act in a given
way. (5) For instance, fishes are naturally conditioned for swimming, and the greater for
devouring the less; therefore fishes enjoy the water, and the greater devour the less by
sovereign natural right. [16:1] (6) For it is certain that nature, taken in the abstract, has
sovereign right to do anything, she can; in other words, her right is co- extensive with her
power. (7) The power of nature is the power of God, which has sovereign right over all
things; and, inasmuch as the power of nature is simply the aggregate of the powers of all
her individual components, it follows that every, individual has sovereign right to do all
that he can; in other words, the rights of an individual extend to the utmost limits of his
power as it has been conditioned. (8) Now it is the sovereign law and right of nature that
each individual should endeavour to preserve itself as it is, without regard to anything but
itself ; therefore this sovereign law and right belongs to every individual, namely, to exist
and act according to its natural conditions. (9) We do not here acknowledge any
difference between mankind and other individual natural entities, nor between men
endowed with reason and those to whom reason is unknown; nor between fools, madmen,
and sane men. (10) Whatsoever an individual does by the laws of its nature it has a
sovereign right to do, inasmuch as it acts as it was conditioned by nature, and cannot act
otherwise. [16:2] (11) Wherefore among men, so long as they are considered as living
under the sway of nature, he who does not yet know reason, or who has not yet acquired
the habit of virtue, acts solely according to the laws of his desire with as sovereign a right
as he who orders his life entirely by the laws of reason.
(16:12) That is, as the wise man has sovereign right to do all that reason dictates, or to
live according to the laws of reason, so also the ignorant and foolish man has sovereign
right to do all that desire dictates, or to live according to the laws of desire. (13) This is
identical with the teaching of Paul, who acknowledges that previous to the law - that is,
so long as men are considered of as living under the sway of nature, there is no sin.
(16:14) The natural right of the individual man is thus determined, not by sound reason,
but by desire and power. (15) All are not naturally conditioned so as to act according to
the laws and rules of reason; nay, on the contrary, all men are born ignorant, and before
