THE passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct, and giving his actions the morality they had formerly lacked. Then only, when the voice of duty takes the place of physical impulses and right of appetite, does man, who so far had considered only himself, find that he is forced to act on different principles, and to consult his reason before listening to his inclinations. Although, in this state, he deprives himself of some advantages which he got from nature, he gains in return others so great, his faculties are so stimulated and developed, his ideas so extended, his feelings so ennobled, and his whole soul so uplifted, that, did not the abuses of this new condition often degrade him below that which he left, he would be bound to bless continually the happy moment which took him from it for ever, and, instead of a stupid and unimaginative animal, made him an intelligent being and a man.
       Let us draw up the whole account in terms easily commensurable. What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. If we are to avoid mistake in weighing one against the other, we must clearly distinguish natural liberty, which is bounded only by the strength of the individual, from civil liberty, which is limited by the general will; and possession, which is merely the effect of force or the right of the first occupier, from property, which can be founded only on a positive title.
       We might, over and above all this, add, to what man acquires in the civil state, moral liberty, which alone makes him truly master of himself; for the mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescribe to ourselves is liberty. But I have already said too much on this head, and the philosophical meaning of the word liberty does not now concern us.

Foreward
book i
   1. Subject of the First Book
   2. The First Societies
   3. The Right of the Strongest
   4. Slavery
   5. That We Must Always Go Back to a First Convention
   6. The Social Compact
   7. The Sovereign
   8. The Civil State
   9. Real Property
   Notes
book ii
   1. That Sovereignty is Inalienable
   2. That Sovereignty is Indivisible
   3. Whether the General Will is Fallible
   4. The Limits of the Sovereign Power
   5. The Right of Life and Death
   6. Law
   7. The Legislator
   8. The People
   9. The People (continued)
   10. The People (continued)
   11. The Various Systems of Legislation
   12. The Division of the Laws
   Notes
book iii
   1. Government in General
   2. The Constituent Principle in the Various Forms of Government
   3. The Division of Governments
   4. Democracy
   5. Aristocracy
   6. Monarchy
   7. Mixed Governments
   8. That All Forms of Government Do Not Suit All Countries
   9. The Marks of a Good Government
   10. The Abuse of Government and Its Tendency to Degenerate
   11. The Death of the Body Politic
   12. How the Sovereign Authority Maintains Itself
   13. The Same (continued)
   14. The Same (continued)
   15. Deputies or Representatives
   16. That the Institution of Government is not a Contract
   17. The Institution of Government
   18. How to Check the Usurpations of Government
   Notes
book iv
   1. That the General Will is Indestructible
   2. Voting
   3. Elections
   4. The Roman Comitia
   5. The Tribunate
   6. The Dictatorship
   7. The Censorship
   8. Civil Religion
   9. Conclusion
   Notes