The first and most important rule of legitimate or popular
    government, that is to say, of government whose object is the
    good of the people, is therefore, as I have observed, to follow
    in everything the general will. But to follow this will it is
5   necessary to know it, and above all to distinguish it from the
    particular will, beginning with one's self: this distinction is
    always very difficult to make, and only the most sublime virtue
    can afford sufficient illumination for it. As, in order to will,
    it is necessary to be free, a difficulty no less great than the
10  former arises ? that of preserving at once the public liberty
    and the authority of government. Look into the motives which have
    induced men, once united by their common needs in a general
    society, to unite themselves still more intimately by means of
    civil societies: you will find no other motive than that of
15  assuring the property, life and liberty of each member by the
    protection of all. But can men be forced to defend the liberty
    of any one among them, without trespassing on that of others?
    And how can they provide for the public needs, without alienating
    the individual property of those who are forced to contribute to
20  them? With whatever sophistry all this may be covered over, it is
    certain that if any constraint can be laid on my will, I am no
    longer free, and that I am no longer master of my own property,
    if any one else can lay a hand on it. This difficulty, which would
    have seemed insurmountable, has been removed, like the first, by
25  the most sublime of all human institutions, or rather by a divine
    inspiration, which teaches mankind to imitate here below the
    unchangeable decrees of the Deity. By what inconceivable art has a
    means been found of making men free by making them subject; of
    using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and
30  even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without
    consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of
    overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish
    themselves, when they act against their own will? How can it be that
    all should obey, yet nobody take upon him to command, and that all
35  should serve, and yet have no masters, but be the more free, as, in
    apparent subjection, each loses no part of his liberty but what might
    be hurtful to that of another? These wonders are the work of law. It
    is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary
    organ of the will of all which establishes, in civil right, the
40  natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which
    dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches
    him to act according to the rules of his own judgment, and not to
    behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that
    political rulers should speak when they command; for no sooner does
45  one man, setting aside the law, claim to subject another to his
    private will, than he departs from the state of civil society, and
    confronts him face to face in the pure state of nature, in which
    obedience is prescribed solely by necessity.