Note 68 — Chapter XXXII · OF DEBTORS.

Commerce and property are not themselves an end of the social compact, but they may be a means to reach that end. To expose all the members of society to evils, for the production of which so many circumstances work together, would be to subordinate ends to means—a paralogism of all the sciences, but especially of political science, and one into which I fell in the first editions, where I said that the innocent bankrupt ought to be kept guarded in pledge of his debts or employed as a slave to labour for his creditors. I am ashamed of having so written. I have been accused of irreligion without deserving to be, and I have been accused of sedition without deserving to be. I offended the rights of humanity, and no one reproached me for it!