3516. They everywhere pretended with their lips that it was wholly for the sake of their republic that they were disposed to wrest from others their property, as if to them alone pertained everything in the whole extent of the earth. But it was told them that they had no [real] concern for the commonwealth, but merely laid hold of this as a confirmatory argument, as one does when he undertakes to defend any concupiscence to which he has become addicted. They were therefore remitted into a state which might put it to the test whether, if it had been possible, they would have seized and appropriated whatever belonged to the state and its citizens, and it was shown by an idea communicated to me, that they would have done it, and if the republic could not afterwards have sustained itself, that they would have gathered up their wealth and emigrated, not caring if the whole country should perish. Wherefore it is clear that the argument was post-assumed, and not a proof of their real end, which, if it had been, would have implied the presence of something good. As it was, it implied only evil, as they were wholly contrary to the love of the neighbor, not caring, as was shown, if they should so far deprive families of their substance that they should be compelled to go forth naked with their children and live by begging. There was therefore nothing in them but evil. They wondered when they perceived that they had nothing good in them, which they could not but perceive, as they were such as could perceive what is true, for they know that the love of the neighbor is the principal law: but whether they themselves had ought of this love, except towards the poor who favor [and assist] them in their writing and trading, though they ponder upon it, they find no evidence of it. As to others, they look upon them as laboring under phantasies with which their minds are infected. But when it was inquired whether they were not wholly contrary to love, and whether this was not still a principle of vastly higher excellence, they were unable to answer.