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Introduction The path of truth, said the poet Saadi,2 is narrow and lies between two precipices . At the slightest misstep, one tumbles to the bottom. One picks oneself up, dazed by the fall, struggles back toward the top, believes it is within reach, makes a last effort, and falls again on the other side. No sooner had America declared its independence than our politicians saw clearly that the ruin of England and the prosperity of France had to be the necessary consequence of this happy revolution. Now that this independence is recognized and assured, they seem to consider it with indifference, and only at the time when events are beginning to validate the latter part of their predictions do they decide to entertain doubts about them. I believe that this moment when public opinion appears to err in an opposite direction, is precisely the time when it can be useful to discuss calmly the consequences of this great event, and I will try to be a prophet without passion. The prize proposed by the Abbé Raynal,3 on the good or harm that the discovery of the New World has done to Europe, had aroused my interest; I had dared to undertake to solve this problem, but I realized that the task was beyond my powers, and I have saved from the flames only the chapter where I examined the influence that America’s independence would have on humankind, on Europe, on France in particular, and also the analysis of certain principles according to which I tried to find a method of measuring the different levels of public happiness. Since a nation taken as a whole is an abstract being, it can be neither happy nor unhappy. Thus, when one speaks of the collective happiness of a nation, one can mean only two things, either a kind of mean value resulting Influence of the American Revolution on Europe (1786) To the Marquis de Lafayette,1 Who, at an age when ordinary men are barely known in their own country, has deserved the title of Benefactor of two Worlds. By an obscure inhabitant of the old hemisphere. 22 S condorcet from the happiness and unhappiness of individuals, or the general means that can contribute to happiness, that is to say, to the peace and welfare that the land, the laws, industry, relations with foreign nations can provide to the citizenry in general. A simple sense of justice is enough to realize that only the latter meaning need be considered. Otherwise, it would be necessary to adopt the maxim, all too common among republicans ancient and modern, that the smaller number can be legitimately sacrificed to the greater, a maxim which places society in a state of perpetual war and subjects to the rule of force what should only be ruled by reason and justice.4 For man as a social being, the general means leading to happiness can be divided into two classes. The first includes everything that secures and extends the free enjoyment of his natural rights. The second contains the means of diminishing the number of ills to which nature has subjected humankind , of satisfying our basic needs more surely and with less labor, of providing greater comfort to ourselves by the exercise of our powers and the legitimate use of our industries. Consequently, the means through which we can enhance our strength and industry must be included in this same class. The rights of man are: 1. The security of his person, which includes the assurance not to be disturbed by any violence, either within his household or in the use of his faculties, the free and independent exercise of which he must retain in everything not contrary to the rights of another. 2. The security and free enjoyment of his property. 3. Since in society there are certain actions which must be regulated by common rules, since penalties must be established for infringements by an individual, either by violence or fraud, on the rights of another, man also has the right to be subjected in all these matters only to general laws extending to the entire citizenry, the interpretation of which cannot be arbitrary and the execution of which is entrusted to impartial hands. 4. Finally, the right to contribute, either directly or through representatives , to the making of these laws and to every act carried out in the name of society follows necessarily from the natural and primitive equality of man, and...

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