Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/10

vi his eye, a system, which as it makes all the virtues and vices depend on the establishment of human laws, and as it would prove that men were born in a state of war, and that the first law of nature is a war of all against all, overturns, like Spinosa, all religion, and all morality. Hence he laid down this position, that there were laws of justice and equity before the establishment of positive laws: hence also he has proved that all beings had laws; that even before their creation they had possible laws; and that God himself had laws, that is, the laws which he himself had made. He has shewn that nothing can be more false than the assertion that men were born in a state of war; and has made it appear that wars did not commence till after the establishment of society. His principles are here extremely clear; from whence it follows, that as he has attacked Hobbes's errors, he has consequently attacked those of Spinosa; and he has been so little understood, that they have taken for the opinions of Spinosa, those very objections which were made against Spinosism. Rh