_Some Quotations rendered into English._
From Sect. 32. _Tractatus Politici_, II. 4 ('Per jus itaque'). 'By
right of nature (natural right) I understand ... the actual power of
nature.' 'Whatever an individual man does by the laws of his nature,
that he does with the highest natural right, and his right towards
nature goes just as far as his power holds out.'
'Jus naturae' = 'natural right.' 'Potentia' = 'power.' 'Jus' =
'right.' 'Jus humanum' = 'right of man,' or 'right _qua_ human.'
_Ib_. II. 5 ('Homines magis'). 'Human beings are led more by blind
desire than by reason; and hence their natural power or right should
be marked out not by reason but by any inclination by which they
are determined to act, and by which they endeavour after their own
preservation.'
'Jus civile' = 'civic right or law.'
_Ib_. II. 14 ('Quatenus homines'). 'In as far as human beings are
troubled by anger, jealousy, or any emotion of hate, so far they are
drawn in different directions and are antagonistic to one another,
and therefore they are more to be feared in so far as they are more
powerful, and more shrewd and astute, than the other animals; and
because human beings are in the highest degree liable by nature to
these emotions, therefore they are natural enemies (to one another).'
_Ib_. 15 ('Atque adeo'). 'And so we conclude that natural right can
hardly be conceived unless where human beings have laws in common,
(human beings) who have power at once to assert possession of the
lands which they are able to inhabit and to till, and to defend
themselves, and to repel all violence, and to live in accordance
with the common sentiment of all. For (by art. 13 of this chapter)
the more that thus come together into one, the more right they all
together possess.'
_Ib_. 16 ('Ubi homines'). 'Where human beings have laws in common
and all together are guided as by one mind, it is certain (by art.
13 of this chapter) that each of them has so much the less right as
the rest are together more powerful than he; that is, that he in fact
has no right over nature beyond that which the common (social) law
concedes him. But whatever is enjoined upon him by common consent, he
is bound to perform, or (by art. 4 of this chapter) he is compelled
to it by law.'
_Ib_. 17 ('Hoc jus'). 'This law (or right), which is coextensive
with the power of the plurality, is usually called 'imperium'
('authority,' 'government').
_Ib_. III. 2 ('Multitudinis quae'). 'Of a number or plurality, which
is guided as if by a single mind.' 'Status civilis' = 'civic, or
social, condition.'
_Ib_. III. 3 ('Homo ex legibus'). [In the civic condition as well as
in the state of nature] 'man acts from the laws of his own nature
and consults his own interest.' 'Sui juris' = 'in its own right,'
'autonomous.'
Sect. 33 (1). _Ib_. III. 7 ('Civitatis jus'). 'The right of the state
is coextensive with the power of the plurality which is guided as if
by one mind. But this oneness of minds is inconceivable, unless the
state has for its main intention what sound reason shows to be for
the interest of all men.'
(2). _Ib_. III. 8 ('Subditi eatenus'). 'Subjects are not in their own
right, but under the right (or law) of the state, so far as they fear
its power or threats, or so far as they love the social condition
(by art. 10 of preceding chapter). From which it follows, that all
those acts to which no one can be impelled by rewards or threats lie
outside the right (or law) of the state.'
(3). _Ib_. III. 9 ('Ad civitatis jus'). 'That belongs to the right
of the state in a less degree, which causes indignation in a greater
number.' ('Sicut'). 'Like the individual citizen, or the man in a
state of nature, the state is less in its own right in proportion as
it has greater cause for fear.'
Sect. 34. _Ib_. III. 11 ('Nam quandoquidem'). 'For seeing that (by
art. 2 of this chapter) the right of the supreme power is nothing but
the actual right of nature, it follows that two governments are to
one another as two men in the state of nature, except that the state
can defend itself against external aggression in a way impossible for
man in a state of nature, inasmuch as he is overcome daily by sleep,
often by disease or distress, and in the end by old age, and besides
this is exposed to other inconveniences, against which the state can
protect itself.'
_Ib_. III. 13 ('Duae civitates'). 'Two states are natural enemies.
For men in the state of nature are enemies. Those, therefore, who
retain the right of nature, as not being in the same state, are
enemies.'
_Ib_. III. 14 ('Nec dici potest'). 'Nor can it be said to act with
craft or perfidy in that it dissolves its promise as soon as the
cause of fear or hope is removed; because this condition was the same
for both contracting parties, that whichsoever is first enabled to be
free from fear should be in its own right, and should use its right
according to the sentiment of its mind; and, moreover, because no one
contracts for the future except on supposition of the circumstances
under which he contracts.'
Sect. 35. _Ib_. II. 18 ('In statu'). 'In a state of nature there
can be no transgression, or if one transgresses, he does so against
himself, not against another; ... nothing is absolutely forbidden by
the law of nature, except what no one has power to do.'
'Commune decretum' = 'the common (or social) behest.'
_Ib_. V. 1 ('Non id omne'). 'Not everything which we say is done
rightfully, do we affirm to be the best to be done. It is one thing
to till a field within your right, and another thing to till it in
the best way; it is one thing, I say, to defend yourself, preserve
yourself, give judgment &c. within your right, and another thing to
do all these acts in the best way; and accordingly it is one thing to
govern and manage a state within its rights, and another thing to do
this in the best way. Thus, now that we have treated in general of
the right of every state, it is time to treat of the best condition
of every state.'
'Finis status civilis' = 'the end or aim of the civic or social
condition.'
_Ib_. V. 2 ('Homines enim'). 'Men are not born of civic temper, but
become so. Moreover, the natural dispositions of men are everywhere
the same.'
_Ib_. V. 4 ('Pax enim'). 'Peace is not absence of war, but a virtue
which arises from fortitude of mind; for obedience is a constant will
to perform that which the common behest of the state requires to be
done.'
_Ethics_, III. 59, Schol. (in footnote on preceding passage) ('Omnes
actiones'). 'All the actions which follow from the affects which
are related to the mind, in so far as it thinks, I ascribe to
_fortitude_, which I divide into _strength of mind_ and _generosity_.
By _strength of mind_ I mean the desire by which each person
endeavours, from the dictates of reason alone, to preserve his own
being. By _generosity_ I mean the desire by which, from the dictates
of reason alone, each person endeavours to help other people and to
join them to him in friendship.'
('Quae maxime'). 'Which is mainly coextensive with reason, the true
virtue and life of the mind.'
('Quod multitudo libera'). [An authority which] 'a free plurality
institutes, not one which is acquired against the plurality by the
right of war.'