In the beginning, man found himself faced with uninhabited spaces which, in relation to the small number of the first human beings, abounded in goods suitable for subsistence. At first they consumed the spontaneous gifts of nature without making any effort, and enjoyed freedom and idleness, the first objects of desire among uncultured and ignorant peoples. But the fruits of the earth last only for a short time, and do not come back until the following year, whereas man eats every day. He saw population increase, and the means of subsistence become proportionately more troublesome to acquire. Thus it was necessary for him to look for new things on which to subsist. He had to cultivate the land, whence arose agricultural nations. He had to herd together and rear domestic animals, which was the origin of herdsmen. And he had to hunt wild animals and set traps for them, and do the same also for fish, which was the origin of hunters and fishermen.
Of these three modes of life, derived from three different kinds of subsistence, the first gives rise to settled laws, weights, measures, and everything which is concerned with determining and guaranteeing possessions. It was necessary, before devoting one’s toil and sweat to the regular cultivation of a piece of land, to be assured of the possession of the harvest and the enjoyment of its fruits. The second kept innocence and hospitality alive for a longer time, and devoted itself to the sciences, to astronomy, and to speculation. A life which was busy but without strain, abundant but without excess, constrained but without fetters, must have made human nature appear in its best light. Very few laws were needed by men whom nothing tempted to escape from the laws of nature. The third, finally, although the most contemptible and founded on the least secure basis, was in general better adapted to natural licentiousness, to the brutish man. The only laws it could accept were those relating to the gathering together of aggressive forces, the laws of invasion; for the laws of stability are based on the physical extent of the means of subsistence, which in this case were all for tuitous, uncertain, and scattered. By virtue of these same principles, the first of these three kinds of society was settled, the second nomadic, and the third vagrant, piratical, and marauding—always in accordance with the nature and kind of their means of subsistence.
Of these three forms of society, the first could very soon become populous in areas which had to rely on the fertility of the soil to increase the means of subsistence. The second only admitted of a small number of men entrusted with the care of flocks and herds—a small number, that is, in relation to the wide expanse of land required for pasturage. The third could be populous only in proportion to what was obtained in the way of booty; and as it took no care at all to maintain and renew what was provided in this way, it must very quickly have been forced to rush headlong into marauding and to act aggressively against its neighbours, who had united together in industrious or peaceful societies. The most ancient, reliable, and authentic annals of humanity (abstracting from all other ways of looking at them) corroborate the conjectures we have made on the basis of the nature of things. Cain, the first leader of husbandmen, we are told in the scriptures, invented weights and measures. Abraham and Lot, the sons of fellow-herdsmen, virtuous and bound together in friendship, were nevertheless forced to separate from one another, because together they were unable to subsist, increase, and multiply. Nimrod, the first known leader of hunters, was also the first conqueror—a characteristic which can only be a consequence of marauding.
