Rousseau_contrat-social

does his duty, indeed, but does it with profound indifference to the
good or ill success of his cares. Provided he has nothing to reproach
himself with, it matters little to him whether things go well or ill
here on earth. If the State is prosperous, he hardly dares to share in
the public happiness, for fear he may grow proud of his country’s glory;
if the State is languishing, he blesses the hand of God that is hard
upon His people.
For the State to be peaceable and for harmony to be maintained, all the
citizens without exception would have to be good Christians; if by ill
hap there should be a single self-seeker or hypocrite, a Catiline or a
Cromwell, for instance, he would certainly get the better of his pious
compatriots. Christian charity does not readily allow a man to think
hardly of his neighbours. As soon as, by some trick, he has discovered
the art of imposing on them and getting hold of a share in the public
authority, you have a man established in dignity; it is the will of God
that he be respected: very soon you have a power; it is God’s will that
it be obeyed: and if the power is abused by him who wields it, it is the
scourge wherewith God punishes His children. There would be scruples
about driving out the usurper: public tranquillity would have to be
disturbed, violence would have to be employed, and blood spilt; all this
accords ill with Christian meekness; and after all, in this vale of
sorrows, what does it matter whether we are free men or serfs? The
essential thing is to get to heaven, and resignation is only an
additional means of doing so.
If war breaks out with another State, the citizens march readily out to
battle; not one of them thinks of flight; they do their duty, but they
have no passion for victory; they know better how to die than how to
conquer. What does it matter whether they win or lose? Does not
Providence know better than they what is meet for them? Only think to
what account a proud, impetuous and passionate enemy could turn their
stoicism! Set over against them those generous peoples who were devoured
by ardent love of glory and of their country, imagine your Christian
republic face to face with Sparta or Rome: the pious Christians will be
beaten, crushed and destroyed, before they know where they are, or will
owe their safety only to the contempt their enemy will conceive for
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