A Methodical System of Universal Law

Chapter I: Concerning the natural and social state of man

323 the laws of Nature and Nations deduced, &c. book ii Of the Law of Nations u c h a p t e r i u Concerning the natural and social state of man. section i Hitherto we have considered the law of nature, by which the actions of particulars ought to be regulated. Now, the next thing to be done in this undertaking, is to deduce the laws of nations from their principles, and to give a compendious view of them. This we promised (l. 1. §23). But since the law of nations is the law of nature, applied to social life, the affairs of societies, and of independent political bodies (l. 1. §21), we cannot treat of it distinctly, without first giving a clear notion of what we call states and societies. The connection . 324 the laws of nature and nations section ii State in general means the quality which constitutes a particular thing, or makes it what it is; and thus the qualities constituting man are rightly said to make his state. Now, we may either consider man merely as consisting of certain faculties of body and mind with which he is endowed by his Creator, or we may consider him as subjected to laws for the regulation of his free actions. The first way of considering man is called considering him in his physical state.* The second is considering him as a moral being, or in his moral state. But in treating of the law of nations, the objects of which are mens free actions, it is evident, that it is not merely man’s physical, but more directly his moral state, whichthenfalls under consideration. section iii This moral state, by which men are so greatly distinguished, is either cogenial to them, or it depends upon some deed of ours. The first is called natural; theotheradventitious. Whereforethenaturalstate of man is that quality or condition imposed upon man by nature, without any deed of his, by which our free actions are subjected to, and limited by a natural law, suitable to the nature of that state. The adventitious state of man, on the other hand, is a quality or condition which man brings * Thus it is by regulations arising from the will of the Creator, that men are male and female, that some have well formed, and others distorted bodies; that some have a strong and robust, others a weakly and feeble constitution; that some are beautiful, and others deformed; and which is more, that some have a very quick and vigorous apprehension, an universal penetrating genius, while others are exceeding slow and dull, and have no capacity almostfor anything.Allthesedifferences,itisplain,belong to the physical or natural state of man, as it is called by the civilians. On the other hand, the free actions of man are differently limited, if he be a husband, from what they are, if he live in celibacy; differently according to the different personages or characters one bears, as of a parent, or a child, a master or a servant, &c. For which reason, all these differences are referred to the moral state of man, which is called by civilians his civil state. But let it be observed, that the moral state of man extends a little farther than what they call the civil state, to which they only refer the state of liberty, citizenship, and a family state. Of man’s physical and moral state. What is meant by a natural, and what by an adventitious state. book ii, chapter i 325 him-self into by his own deed, in consequence of which his free actions are subjected to, and limited by a natural law, suitably to the nature and exigencies of that state.* section iv We do not then oppose a natural state to the state of brutes, for the difference between our nature and that of the brutes belongs rather to our physical than our moral state (§2); nor to what the Civilians call a contra-natural state, such as they have feigned the state of slaves to be,§2. Inst. de jure pers. but to a social and a civil state; both of whichbeing imposed upon men by themselves, are equally adventitious. But what this state is, shall be more accurately considered, and thereby it will appear , why so great a number of men, forsaking their natural state, have put themselves into other states, attended with many and...