And since they do not know exactly who they are, they must regard all men as such and contribute proportionally to preserving their will, their power, and their number. An infinite number of ancient and modern examples will make them know that all goods of whatever nature are only dust without this will, without this power, and without this number; and since they have a greater quantity of goods and want to use them, they are more (298) obliged than others to preserve this will, this power, and this number, and therefore, they have more needs and are poorer than the others.

There is no good of any kind that is worth as much as the life of one man, and nothing can be called good except by the use that others make of it. This impression, having won over everyone’s mind, must return an infinite good to the state and erase a large part of what passions and rages could inspire in some against their natural feelings to preserve one another; it must help with multiplying the number of contributors[^1] to its wealth.

I said that the education of which our mind has the most need with regard to temporal felicity or our wealth (292) is contained in a very simple proposition, which is, to know our natural poverty and the remedy for getting out of it. This education contains an infinite amount of knowledge that must reach us with the help of and by communication with others; at least we would need an infinite amount of time to acquire it by ourselves. However, everyone needs it equally, and the prince must provide it to everyone if he wants everyone to be a useful contributor[^1] to the state’s wealth.

Besides, it is as important for the good of the state that all the contributors[^1] to its preservation think well on this subject as it is in the public interest that everyone is well fed and no one dies of hunger. The art of thinking well in this regard must be common to all those who make up a state, like the (289) ability to walk, drink, and eat. It is surprising to see that one wants to set up a science that only belongs to people of letters or a certain manner and not to any rational man.

After the prince has made (286) the necessary regulations in his states to make the language of the country perfect, to make it easy for everyone to know how to speak, read, and write well, to teach all the arts and sciences, and especially to put all the laws and regulations of the state in the language that everyone knows, he can think of making all the languages of neighboring nations with which his people trade very common and have them taught in public schools.

Germany owes a lot to M. Thomasius,[^1] Privy Counselor to the Prussian King (283) and Rector of the Royal University of Halle[^2] in Saxony, because he led the way in teaching all the sciences in our language and purged them of an infinite amount of nonsense which prevents truly educating[^3] and perfecting our minds. The sciences that concern perfecting the human mind are for everyone: no one, not even women, should be excluded from them. But it is impossible for everyone to know the dead languages, and I argue once again that no one can know them perfectly.

How many useless trips would country people be spared, if they knew how to communicate by letter and went about their domestic affairs during this time? How many excellent geniuses are buried and lost among the common people only because of their inability to read the writings of others and to make themselves understood in the same way? The Lacedemonians did not permit fathers and mothers to raise their children according to their whims: they took them and put them into the hands of wise and capable people to make them worthy subjects of the state.

A prince who wants to get rich and to perfect his government must follow here as elsewhere the order and the natural combination of things, which are manifested by universal wisdom (276) in nature. If it is necessary for the good of the state for the prince to be master dispenser and principal administrator of the necessary things for preserving the body, it is all the more necessary that he endeavors to make himself master and sovereign arbiter of everything that must nourish and perfect the minds of the contributors[^1] to public opulence.

VI.  However, it is not enough for the prince to think only of preserving and perfecting the body of every contributor[^1] to the state’s wealth; there is another kind of necessity that is not less important than the one I just spoke about. This is the nourishment[^2] that all men owe each other with regard to their minds, which I showed in the preceding chapter where I demonstrated that it is not less necessary for our (273) wealth than nourishing the body, since it is not possible for the body to perform its functions without the help of the mind.

Thus, in the way that I understand it, a prince who gives and preserves a reasonable value to necessary things, especially grains, will at once put farmers at their ease and protect them from the misfortunes that usually happen to them from abundance when town inhabitants, the rich, and misers only seek to crush them by taking advantage of their need to sell their produce for nothing, which at the same time makes it impossible for them to pay the prince’s taxes.