ABSTRACT
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably belonged to the same intellectual circle as Guillaume-Thomas Raynal. He too endeavoured to fathom the secret of social felicity, and he too was convinced that he had found it in the formula of the free play of equal forces. "Independence and equality, both, it is true, are gifts of nature, but they are different, and they were given to us for different ends; we were not created as equals because it was essential that we should remain independent; but we were born independent because it was essential for us to be born equals and to remain in our equality". It was necessary to combine the principle of equality of wealth with the principle of liberty of ascent in order to awaken and keep alive the will to work in all citizens. Certainly, in America the human laws which admit of slavery violate the laws of nature which have ordained that all men shall be equal.
