Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/204

Benefit of a few ambitious Individuals ſubjected the reſt of Mankind to perpetual Labour, Servitude, and Miſery. We may eaſily conceive how the Eſtabliſhment of a ſingle Society rendered that of all the reſt abſolutely neceſſary, and how, to make head againſt united Forces, it became neceſſary for the reſt of Mankind to unite in their turn. Societies once formed in this Manner, ſoon multiplied or ſpread to ſuch a Degree, as to cover the Face of the Earth; and not to leave a Corner in the whole Univerſe, where a Man could throw off the Yoke, and withdraw his Head from under the often ill-conducted Sword which he ſaw perpetually hanging over it. The Civil Law being thus become the common Rule of Citizens, the Law of Nature no longer obtained but among the different Societies, in which, under the Name of the Law of Nations, it was qualified by ſome tacit Conventions