For it is reason's own law, to choose the less of two
evils; and accordingly we may conclude, that no one is acting against
the dictate of his own reason, so far as he does what by the law of the
commonwealth is to be done. And this anyone will more easily grant us,
after we have explained, how far the power and consequently the right of
the commonwealth extends.
7. For, first of all, it must be considered, that, as in the state of
nature the man who is led by reason is most powerful and most
independent, so too that commonwealth will be most powerful and most
independent, which is founded and guided by reason. For the right of the
commonwealth is determined by the power of the multitude, which is led,
as it were, by one mind. But this unity of mind can in no wise be
conceived, unless the commonwealth pursues chiefly the very end, which
sound reason teaches is to the interest of all men.
8. In the second place it comes to be considered, that subjects are so
far dependent not on themselves, but on the commonwealth, as they fear
its power or threats, or as they love the civil state (Chap. II. Sect.
10). Whence it follows, that such things, as no one can be induced to do
by rewards or threats, do not fall within the rights of the
commonwealth. For instance, by reason of his faculty of judgment, it is
in no man's power to believe. For by what rewards or threats can a man
be brought to believe, that the whole is not greater than its part, or
that God does not exist, or that that is an infinite being, which he
sees to be finite, or generally anything contrary to his sense or
thought? So, too, by what rewards or threats can a man be brought to
love one, whom he hates, or to hate one, whom he loves? And to this head
must likewise be referred such things as are so abhorrent to human
nature, that it regards them as actually worse than any evil, as that a
man should be witness against himself, or torture himself, or kill his
parents, or not strive to avoid death, and the like, to which no one can
be induced by rewards or threats.
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