conduct, which renders him either happy or miserable, virtuous or
vicious, estimable or hateful. It is thus he becomes either contented or
discontented with his destiny, according to the objects towards which
they have directed his passions--towards which they have bent the
energies of his mind; that is to say, in which they have shewn him his
interest, in which they have taught him to place his felicity: in
consequence, he loves and searches after that which they have taught him
to revere--that which they have made the object of his research; he has
those tastes, those inclinations, those phantasms, which, during the
whole course of his life, he is forward to indulge, which he is eager to
satisfy, in proportion to the activity they have excited in him, and the
capacity with which he has been provided by Nature.

_Politics_ ought to be the art of regulating the passions of man--of
directing them to the welfare of society--of diverting them into a
genial current of happiness--of making them flow gently to the general
benefit of all: but too frequently it is nothing more than the
detestible art of arming the passions of the various members of society
against each other,--of making them the engines to accomplish their
mutual destruction,--of converting them into agents which embitter their
existence, create jealousies among them, and fill with rancorous
animosities that association from which, if properly managed, man ought
to derive his felicity. Society is commonly so vicious because it is not
founded upon Nature, upon experience, and upon general utility; but on
the contrary, upon the passions, upon the caprices, and upon the
particular interests of those by whom it is governed. In short, it is
for the most part the advantage of the few opposed to the prosperity of
the many.

Politics, to be useful, should found its principles upon Nature; that is