8.3. 3. Of the Spirit of extreme Equality.
As distant as heaven is from earth, so is the true spirit of
equality from that of extreme equality. The former does not imply that
everybody should command, or that no one should be commanded, but that
we obey or command our equals. It endeavours not to shake off the
authority of a master, but that its masters should be none but its
equals.
In the state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they
cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they
recover it only by the protection of the laws.
Such is the difference between a well-regulated democracy and one
that is not so, that in the former men are equal only as citizens, but
in the latter they are equal also as magistrates, as senators, as
judges, as fathers, as husbands, or as masters.
The natural place of virtue is near to liberty; but it is not nearer
to excessive liberty than to servitude.
