ABSTRACT
Allusion has from time to time been made to a school of politicians, especially claiming for themselves the title of philosophical, who demur to this. The reader who has arrived thus far, needs not to have the fallacy of this doctrine pointed out. It is only by bearing in mind that a theory of some kind being needful for men they will espouse any absurdity, in default of something better, that the people can understand how Rousseau’s doctrine of Social Contract ever came to be so widely received. The self-importance of a Malvolio is sufficiently ludicrous; but the people must go far beyond it to parallel the presumption of legislatures. The very witness called to testify of its truth lets out its falsity. And thus, even according to the opposition hypothesis, rights are the be-all and end-all of government; and rank above it, as the end above the means.
