Note 43 — Chapter XII · APPLIED MORAL SCIENCE.

This connection between the individual and society is clearly set forth by the Stoics. The desire for society, they hold, is immediately involved in reason. By the aid of reason, man feels himself a part of a whole, and, consequently, is bound to subordinate his private interests to the interests of the whole.43 As like always attracts like, this remark holds true of everything endowed with reason, since the rational soul is in all cases identical. From the consciousness of this unity, the desire for society at once arises in individuals endowed with reason.44 They are all in the service of reason; there is, therefore, for all, but one right course and one law,45 and they all contribute to the general welfare in obeying this law. The wise man, as a Stoic expresses it, is never a private man.46