The Social Contract - 04
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The ecstasies of lovers appear so much nonsense to anyone who has?
not felt them, and the love of country, which is a hundred times?
keener更熱衷的 and more delicious than the love of a sweetheart情人, can?
likewise be understood only when it is felt;
The virtue of Socrates蘇格拉底 is that of the wisest of men, but Cato,?
between Caesar and Pompey, has the look of a god among mortals凡人. One
of them teaches a few individuals, combats the Sophists詭辯家* and
dies for truth; the other defends the state, freedom, and law
against the conquerors of the world, and finally quits the earth
when he can see that there is no longer a country for him to serve.
Do we want nations to be virtuous?—let us begin then by
making the people love their country; but how can they love it,
if their native land means no more to them than it does to
foreigners, and if what it does for them is only what cannot be
refused to anyone?
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★★It would be much worse still if they could not even?
enjoy security as citizens, and if their property, their
lives or their freedom were at the mercy of powerful men,without?
being able or allowed to risk having recourse to the law.
-★!!
Then, subjected to服從于 the duties of the civil state, but without
enjoying even the rights of the state of nature, and unable also
to use their own strength in order to defend themselves, they
would be in the worst condition that free men can be in, and
for them the sense of the words 'my country' could only be
hateful or ridiculous.
So closely is the safety of individuals?
linked to public confederation聯(lián)盟 that, were it not
for the allowances津貼 that must be made for human frailty弱點, the
social convention would rightly be dissolved if, within the state,
a single citizen were to perish死亡 when he could have been saved;
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if a single convict囚犯 were to be kept in prison wrongly; and if a
single lawsuit were obviously to be lost against justice; since,
when the fundamental conventions* are infringed侵害, there is no
longer any visible right or interest which could make the people
maintain the social union, unless they were kept within it by
force alone, which causes the dissolution of the civil state.
If it is well for one to die for the sake of all,?
I should admire the saying in the mouth of a virtuous?
and worthy patriot愛國者 who voluntarily goes to his death
out of duty, for the good of his country;
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but if the meaning is that a government is permitted to sacrifice?
an innocent person for the good of the mass, I hold this maxim to?
be one of the most execrable /'eks?kr?b(?)l/可惡的 that tyranny has?
ever invented———the falsest that could be devised★設(shè)計/發(fā)明, the most?
dangerous if it is accepted, and the most directly contrary to the?
fundamental laws of society.
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That a single man should die for all is so far from the truth?
that,rather, all have committed★托付 their property and lives to the
defence of each single man, in order that personal weakness
should always be protected by the public strength, and every
member by the whole state.
If examples are needed of the protection that the state owes
to its members, and of the respect it owes to their persons, they
will be found only among the most celebrated著名的 and courageous無畏的
nations of the earth; the worth of a man is scarcely understood
except among free peoples.?
Everything, in Rome or in the army, reflected
the love that fellow-citizens bore支撐 for one another and their
respect for the word Roman, which raised the courage and
awoke the virtue of anyone who had the honour of bearing it.
Let their country therefore be a common mother to all the
citizens; let the advantages which they enjoy there make them
cherish it; let the government allow them a share in public
administration sufficient to make them feel that they are in
their home country, and let the laws, in their eyes, be nothing
less than the guarantee of liberty for all.
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These rights, valuable as they are, belong to all men;?
but without seeming to attack them directly, hostility to them on?
the part of rulers can easily nullify使無效 their effects.?
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When powerful men abuse it, the law
becomes an offensive weapon for them and a shield against the
weak, and the pretext of public security is always the most
dangerous scourge of the people.?