Jacques-Benigne Bossuet argues in this acclaimed book that a general society of mankind, governed by Christian charity, has given way to the necessity of politics, law, and monarchy. That monarchy - natural, universal and divinely ordained, beginning with David and Solomon, is defended in the first half of the book. The last part, added soon before Bossuet's death, goes on to take up the rights of the Church, the distinction between absolutism and arbitrariness, and causes of just war.