The Social Contract

The page number at the top is flanked by two decorative floral ornaments.
❦ )( 8 )( ❦

it is also the sentiment of Hobbes. Thus, the human species is divided into herds of cattle, each of which has its chief, who guards it only to devour it.

AS a shepherd is of a nature superior to that of his flock, the shepherds of men, who are their chiefs, are also of a nature superior to that of their peoples. Thus reasoned, according to Philo, the Emperor Caligula; concluding quite aptly from this analogy that Kings were Gods, or that the peoples were beasts.

THE REASONING of this Caligula comes back to that of Hobbes and of Grotius. Aristotle, before them all, had also said that men are not naturally equal, but that some are born for slavery and others for domination.