In other words, the money I do not owe it, and of which it robs me,
pays for the persecution which it inflicts upon me; I am reduced to
paying out of my own purse the wages of my inquisitors, my jailer and
my executioner. A more glaring oppression could not be imagined! -
Let us watch out for the encroachments of the State and not allow it
to become anything more than a watch-dog. Whilst the teeth and nails
of other guests in the household have been losing their sharpness, its
fangs have become formidable; it is now colossal and it alone still
keeps up the practice of fighting. Let us supply it with nourishment
against wolves; but never let it touch peaceable folks around the
table. Appetite grows by eating; it would soon become a wolf itself,
and the most ravenous wolf inside the fold. The important thing is to
keep a chain around its neck and confine it within its own enclosure.
IV.
The state is tempted to encroach. - Precedents and reasons for its
pretensions.
Let us go around the fold, which is an extensive one, and, through its
extensions, reach into almost every nook of private life. - Each
private domain, indeed, physical or moral, offers temptations for its
neighbors to trespass on it, and, to keep this intact, demands the
superior intervention of a third party.
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