SPINOZA, "THE ETHICS"

"IX. Nothing can be in more harmony with the nature of any given thing than other individuals of the same species; therefore ... for man in the preservation of his being and the enjoyment of the rational life there is nothing more useful than his fellow-man who is led by reason. Further, as we know not anything among individual things which are more excellent than a man led by reason, no man can better display the power of his skill and disposition, than in so training men, that they come at last to live under the dominion of their own reason." P.243, THE ETHICS, "Appendix," by Benedict de Spinoza (Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York: 1667, 1989)