The leaders, seeing the mischiefs of dissension, would employ all their art to extirpate that evil.

Thus they would forbid killing one another, stealing one another's wives, &c.

The third and last step is the invention of letters; this is essential to the growth of society, and to the corresponding, expansion of law.[22] I .-- Mandeville's object being chiefly _negative_ and _dialectical_, he has left little of positive ethical theory.

Virtue he regards as _de facto_ an arbitrary institution of society; what it ought to be, he hardly says, but the tendency of his writings is to make the good of the whole to be preferred to private interest.
II .-- He denies the existence of a moral sense and of disinterestedness.
The motive to observe moral rules is pride and vanity fomented by politicians.

He does not regard virtue as an independent end, even by association, but considers that pride in its naked form is the ever present incentive to good conduct.
V .-- The connexion of virtue with society is already fully indicated.
In France, the name of HELVETIUS (author of _De l'esprit, De l'homme_, &c., 1715-71) is identified with a serious (in contrast to Mandeville), and perfectly consistent, attempt to reduce all morality to direct Self-interest.