History
consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world
by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy,
ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetites which shake
the public with the same
--"troublous storms that toss
The private state, and render life unsweet."
These vices are the CAUSES of those storms. Religion, morals, laws,
prerogatives, privileges, liberties, rights of men, are the PRETEXTS.
The pretexts are always found in some specious appearance of a real
good. You would not secure men from tyranny and sedition, by rooting out
of the mind the principles to which these fraudulent pretexts apply? If
you did, you would root out everything that is valuable in the human
breast. As these are the pretexts, so the ordinary actors and
instruments in great public evils are kings, priests, magistrates,
senates, parliaments, national assemblies, judges, and captains. You
would not cure the evil by resolving that there should be no more
monarchs, nor ministers of state, nor of the gospel; no interpreters of
law; no general officers; no public councils. You might change the
names. The things in some shape must remain. A certain quantum of power
must always exist in the community, in some hands, and under some
appellation. Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names;
to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs
by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376