This instruction, which embraces all the useful sciences, boils down to four main points: to know the will, the power, and the number of contributors[^1] to our wealth, and the proportion that must be maintained so that everything we do leads to the common goal of society, which is temporal happiness in which wealth—as long as it is not universal—has not reached the (305) highest degree of its perfection. That is why each individual must wish for it and direct all his actions to this general goal of the whole human race. When the minds of young people are well-nourished[^2] with this truth, the knowledge of which is as necessary as daily bread, they will easily understand that there is no true and solid wealth but that which is acquired by enriching others, and that that which ruins others is only dung and rots in the hands of the one who has violated the rights of nature in its acquisition. Then their will will lend itself more easily to fulfilling its natural duties and to following the path that nature shows us for acquiring and (306) administering goods, which is to support the will, the power, and the number of those who contribute to our needs. Because the will of everyone is, generally speaking, the same, namely to be rich or to have necessary, convenient, and superfluous things, everyone must know how far the power of others goes to satisfy their will and that there are limits that cannot be passed, and that it is impossible to demand more than the number of those who must provide life’s needs can produce. By this, we will easily understand that it is very necessary to maintain a certain proportion in the acquisition and administration of wealth, which supports the will, the power, (307) and the number of others, and that without it, wealth cannot become complete, that is, universal. By knowing that the state’s wealth can only increase by the number of its contributors[^3] and that this always means an increase in wealth for each individual, we will also see that all the ways that lead men to shrink this number are directly contrary to their true individual interests.
When the prince has everyone’s mind prepared in public schools and in all other possible ways with this essential knowledge and with what I generally noted in the previous chapter, the next level of education[^4] will be (308) more effective after the basic[^5] one I have just mentioned. Because it is not enough for everyone to know his needs and his poverty, to know there is only one way to get out of it, to have the good will to contribute proportionally to the needs of others, and to multiply the number of contributors[^6] to his wealth. It is also necessary for him to take a certain path, or a profession, that leads him to his goal because everyone cannot do the same thing. For this result, it is good for his mind to be well-nourished[^7] by the knowledge of the profession or the trade that he wants to choose, since without it, his good will and disposition would remain almost useless.
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