and rulers should be gradually done away with. But he is careful to deprecate all ideas of violent revolution--the process is to be accomplished by the most peaceful methods. Let us see how gently he leads up to the final conclusion:
The first stage in the life of the whole human race is savagery, rough nature, in which the family is the only society, and hunger and thirst are easily satisfied, ... in which man enjoys the two most excellent goods, Equality and Liberty, to their fullest extent.... In these circumstances ... health was his usual condition.... Happy men, who were not yet enough enlightened to lose their peace of mind and to be conscious of the unhappy mainsprings and causes of our misery, love of power ... envy ... illnesses and all the results of imagination.
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