5.2dly,This is what he tells us in the beginning of the second of the two paragraphs:but all the time the first paragraph lasted,society meant the same as government.In shifting then from one paragraph to another,it has changed its nature.`Tis `the foundations of society',(35)that he first began to speak of,and immediately he goes on to explain to us,after his manner of explaining,the foundations of government.`Tis of a `formal beginning'of 'Society',(36)that he speaks soon after;and by this formal beginning,he tells us immediately,that he means,`the original contract of society',(37)which contract entered into,`a state',(38)he gives us to understand,is thereby `instituted',and men have undertaken to `submit to Laws'.(39)So long then as this first paragraph lasts,`society',I think,it is plain cannot but have been meaning the same as `government'.
6.3dly,All this while too,this same `state of nature'to which we have seen `Society'(a state spoken of as existing)put synonymous,and in which were it not for government,men,he informs us,in the next page,would `remain',(40)is a state in which they never were.So he expressly tells us.This `notion',says he,`of an actually existing unconnected state of nature';(that is,as he explains himself afterwards,(41)`a state in which men have no judge to define their rights,and redress their wrongs),is too wild to be seriously admitted'.(42)When he admits it then himself,as he does in his next page,we are to understand,it seems,that he is bantering us:and that the next paragraph is (what one should not otherwise have taken if for)a piece of pleasantry.
7.4thly,The original contract is a thing,we are to understand,that never had existence;perhaps not in any state:certainly therefore not in all.`Perhaps,in no instance',says our Author,`has it ever been formally expressed at the first institution of a state.'(43)8.5thly,Notwithstanding all this,we must suppose,it seems,that it had in every state:`yet in nature and reason',(says our Author)`it must always be understood and implied'.(44)Growing bolder in the compass of four or five pages,where he is speaking of our own Government,he asserts roundly,(45)that such a Contract was actually made at the first formation of it.`The legislature would be changed',he says,`from that which was originally set up by the general consent and fundamental act of the society.'