An Enquiry [4th Ed.] Concerning the Principles of Political Justice and Its Influence on General Virtue, Fourth Edition

Book 8, Chapter 10 : Reflections
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER X REFLECTIONS I. Supposed danger in disseminating leveling principles. -- Idea of massacre. -- Qualification of this idea. -- Skeptical suggestions -- Means of suppressing inquiry. -- Nature of political science. -- II. Political duties, 1. of those who are qualified for public instructors -- temper -- sincerity. -- Pernicious effects of dissimulation in this case. -- 2. of the rich and great. -- Many of them may be expected to be advocates of equality. -- Conduct which their interest as a body prescribes. -- 3. of the friends of equality in general. -- Importance of a mild and benevolent proceeding. -- III. Connection between liberty and equality. -- Cause of equality will perpetually advance. -- Symptoms of its progress. -- Idea of its future success. -- Conclusion. (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Book 8, Chapter 09, Appendix 1 : Appendix. Of Health and the Prolongation of Human Life
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER IX APPENDIX OF HEALTH, AND THE PROLONGATION OF HUMAN LIFE Omnipotence of mind. -- Application of this principle to the animal frame. -- Causes of decrepitude. -- Theory of voluntary and involuntary action. -- Present utility of these reasoning. -- Recapitulation. -- Application to the future state of society. The question respecting population is, in some degree, connected, with the subject of health and longevity. It may therefore be allowed us, to make use of this occasion, for indulging in certain speculations upon this article. What follows, must be considered, as eminently a deviation into the land of conjecture. If it be false, it leaves the system to which it is appended, in all sound reason, as impregnable as ever. Let us then, in this place, return to the sublime conjecture of Franklin, a man habitually conversant with t... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Book 8, Chapter 09 : Objection to this System from the Principle of Population
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER IX OBJECTION TO THIS SYSTEM FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION Objection stated. -- Opinions that have been entertained on this subject. -- Population adapted to find own level. -- Precautions that have been exerted to check it. -- Conclusion. An author who has speculated widely upon subjects of government1 has recommended equality, (or, which was rather his idea, a community of goods to be maintained by the vigilance of the state), as a complete remedy, for the usurpation and distress which are, at present, the most powerful enemies of human kind; for the vises which infect education in some instances, and the neglect it encounters in more; for all the turbulence of passion, and all the injustice of selfishness. But, after having exhibited this brilliant picture, he finds an argument that demolishes the whole, and restores hi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Book 8, Chapter 8, Appendix 1 : Of Co-operation, Cohabitation and Marriage
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER VIII APPENDIX OF COOPERATION, COHABITATION AND MARRIAGE Advantages of social refinement -- of individuality. -- Evils of cooperation. -- Ideas of the future state of cooperation. -- Its limits. -- Its legitimate province. -- Evils of cohabitation -- of the received system of marriage. -- Consequences of their abolition. -- A promiscuous commerce of the sexes estimated. -- Inconstancy estimated. -- Education need not be a sybject of positive institution. -- Of the division of labor. It is a curious subject, to inquire into the due medium between individuality and concert. On the one hand, it is to be observed that human beings are formed for society. Without society, we shall probably be deprived of the most eminent enjoyments of which our nature is susceptible. In society, no man, possessing the... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Book 8, Chapter 08 : Objection to this System from the Inflexibility of its Restrictions
BOOK VIII OF PROPERTY CHAPTER VIII OBJECTION TO THIS SYSTEM FROM THE INFLEXIBILITY OF ITS RESTRICTIONS Objection stated. -- Natural and moral independence distinguished. -- Tendency of restriction properly so called. -- The system of equality not a system of restriction. An objection that has often been urged against a system of equality, is, "that it is inconsistent with personal independence. Every man, according to this scheme, is a passive instrument in the hands of the community. He must eat and drink, and play and sleep, at the bidding of others. He has no habitation, no period at which he can retreat into himself, and not ask another's leave. He has nothing that he can call his own, not even his time or his person. Under the appearance of a perfect freedom from oppression and tyranny, he is in reality subjected to this most unlimited slavery." To understand the force o... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

History of Political Society
CHAP. II. HISTORY OF POLITICAL SOCIETY War.--Frequency of war--among the ancients--among the moderns-- the French--the English--Causes of war.--Penal laws.--Despotism. --Deduction from the whole. THE extent of the influence of political systems will be forcibly illustrated by a concise recollection of the records of political society. It is an old observation that the history of mankind is little else than a record of crimes. Society comes recommended to us by its tendency to supply our wants and promote our well being. If we consider the human species, as they were found previously to the existence of political society, it is difficult not to be impressed with emotions of melancholy. But, though the chief purpose of society is to defend us... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Of Libels
BOOK VI Opinion as a Subject of Political Institution CHAPTER VI Of Libels Public libels. - Injustice of an attempt to pre- scribe the method in which public questions shall be discussed. - Its pusillanimity. - Invita- tions to tumult. - Private libels. - Reasons in favor of their being subjected to restraint. - Answer. - 1. It is necessary the truth should be told. - Salutary effects of the unrestrained investigation of character. - Objection: freedom of speech would be productive of calumny, not of justice. - Answer. - Future history of libel. - 2. It is necessary men should be taught to be sincere. - Extent of the evil which arises from a command to be insincere. - The mind spon- taneously shrinks from the prosecution of a libel. - Concl... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Of the Social Contract
BOOK III Principles of Government CHAPTER II OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT Queries proposed.- Who are the contracting parties?- What is the form of engagement? Over how long a period does the contract extend? - To how great a variety of propositions?- Can it extend to laws here- after to be made? - Addresses of adhesion considered. Power of a majority. UPON the first statement of the system of a social contract various difficulties present themselves. Who are the parties to this contract? For whom did they consent, for themselves only, or for others? For how long a time is this contract to be considered as binding? If the consent of every individual be necessary, in what manner is that consent to be given ? Is it to be tacit, or declared in expres... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Spirit of Political Institutions
CHAP. III. SPIRIT OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. Robbery and fraud, two great vises in society-originate, 1, in extreme poverty-2, in the ostentation of the rich-3, in their tyranny-ern- dered permanent-1, by legislation-2, by the administration of law -3, by the manner in which property is distributed. ADDITIONAL perspicuity will be communicated to our view of the evils of political society if we reflect with further and closer attention upon what may be called its interior and domestic history. Two of the greatest abuses relative to the interior policy of nations, which at this time prevail in the world, consist in the irregular transfer of property, either first by violence, or secondly by fraud. If among the inhabitants of any country there... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Of the Composition of Government
Book V Of Legislative and Executive Power CHAPTER XXI OF THE COMPOSITION OF GOVERNMENT Houses of assets. - This institution unjust. - Deliberate proceeding the proper antidote. - Separartion of legislative and executive power considered. - Superior importance of the latter. - Functions of ministers. ONE Of the articles which has been most eagerly insisted on, by the advocates of complexity in political institutions, is that of 'checks, by which a rash proceeding may be prevented, and the provisions under which mankind have hitherto lived with tranquility, may not be reversed without mature deliberation'. We will suppose that the evils of monarchy and aristocracy are, by this time, too notorious to incline the speculative enquirer to seek fo... (From : Anarchy Archives.)