I found this very nice summary in What was Leo Strauss up to? by Steven Lenzner and William Kristol, The Public Interest, Fall 2003.

Having presented the classic natural-right teaching, Strauss turns to the modern doctrine of natural right. His presentation brings forth several points of contrast between the classics and the moderns. First, the classics view moral and political matters "in the light of man�s perfection" or his end, whereas the moderns take their bearings from man�s origin or from man in "the state of nature." Second, according to the classics, "man is by nature a social being" or political animal, while to the moderns, the individual is prior to society. Third, for the classics, political activity is properly directed at the cultivation of virtue; for the moderns, the aim of political life is to replace the insecurity of man�s natural state by a secure liberty.

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