Ninth Epoch. From the Time of Descartes, to the Formation of the French Republic

[We have] arrived at the knowledge of the true rights of man, which they deduced from this simple principle: that he is a being endowed with sensation, capable of reasoning upon and understanding his interests, and of acquiring moral ideas.

They recognised that maintaining those rights “was the only object of political union,” and that “the will of the majority is the only principle which can be followed by all, without infringing upon the common equality.”

It was now no longer practicable to divide mankind into two species, one destined to govern, the other to obey, one to deceive, the other to be dupes: the doctrine was obliged universally to be acknowledged, that all have an equal right to be enlightened respecting their interests, to share in the acquisition of truth, and no political authorities appointed by the people for the benefit of the people, can be entitled to keep them in ignorance and darkness…

Thus there prevailed a general knowledge of the natural rights of man; the opinion even that these rights are inalienable and imprescriptible; a decided partiality for freedom of thinking and writing; for the enfranchisement of industry and commerce; for the improvement of the condition of the people; for the repeal of penal statutes against religious nonconformists; for the abolition of torture and barbarous punishments; the desire for a milder system of criminal legislation; of a jurisprudence that should give to innocence a complete security; of a civil code more simple, as well as more conformable to reason and justice; indifference as to systems of religion, considered at length as the offspring of superstition, or ranked in the number of political inventions; hatred of hypocrisy and fanaticism; contempt for prejudices; and lastly, a zeal for the propagation of truth; These principles … became the common creed…. total annihilation of the prejudices which have established between the sexes an inequality of rights [would be one of the most important improvements that could be made. And people] will learn by degrees to regard war as the most dreadful of all calamities, the most terrible of all crimes … Nations will know, that they cannot become conquerors without losing their freedom; … that their object should be security, and not power.