Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/241

This is the laſt Term of Inequality, the extreme Point which cloſes the Circle and meets that from which we ſet out. 'Tis here that all private Men return to their primitive Equality, becauſe they are no longer of any Account; and that, the Subjects having no longer any Law but that of their Maſter, nor the Maſter any other Law but his Paſſions, all Notions of Good and Principles of Juſtice again diſappear. 'Tis here that every thing returns to the ſole Law of the Strongeſt, and of courſe to a new State of Nature different from that with which we began, in as much as the firſt was the State of Nature in its Purity, and the laſt the conſequence of exceſſive Corruption. There is, in other reſpects, ſo little Difference between theſe two States, and the Contract of Government is ſo much diſſolved by Deſpotiſm, that the Deſpot is no longer Maſter than he continues the ſtrongeſt, and that, as ſoon as his Slaves