 And what, exactly, does such a study reveal about those fundamental normative principles? The reasoning in both the DIP and DIB may be reconstructed as follows. Human nature is constituted by two essential properties: the desire for self-preservation and the need for society (see DIP, Chap. 2, and DIB, Prol. §§6–7). These two properties temper and inform each other: the desire for self-preservation is limited by the social impulse, so that humans do not naturally seek to maintain and enhance their being at all costs; conversely, the need for the company of other humans is limited by the self-preservation drive, for individuals must naturally strive to secure the means for their well-being. Moreover, the self-preservation drive and the sociability impulse are both emotive and cognitive; they are both non-rational and rational, having the force of unreflective instinct as well as well-thought-out plans. Because we are essentially both social and self-preserving beings, it follows that two things are imperative for our successful existence. We ought to abstain from what belongs to other persons, and we ought to engage in the reasonable pursuit of what genuinely serves our interest. Accordingly, Grotius makes these the first two elements of natural law in the DIB (see Prol. §§8, 10); they form the core of the first four “laws” in the DIP (see Chap. II). While these principles enjoy lexical priority in the hierarchy of natural norms, they do not exhaust the list. A study of nature also teaches us that “Evil deeds must be corrected” and “Good deeds must be recompensed” (Laws V–VI of the DIP). In fact, Grotius derives a list of some 22 fundamental natural tenets in the DIP and a similarly large group (though not numbered in the same way) in the DIB. Any explanation of Grotius’ natural law theory should begin by citing these first-order tenets or principles, for they are what constitute its substance. Recent scholarship has sought to shed light on the foregoing issues by examining how Grotius may have been inspired by Stoicism, both ancient and early modern. See in particular Brooke (2012: Chapter 2) and Straumann (2015).