of mine and thine had been the parent of every vice.

ABBE DE MABLY.

De la Legislation, liv. i. cb.iii.

Ir is evident that the first offence must have been his who began a monopoly.

The fruitful source of crimes consists in one man's possessing in abundance that of which another man is destitute.

The spirit of oppression, the spirit of servility, and the spirit of fraud, are the immediate growth of the established system of property. The other vices of envy, malice, and revenge, are their inseparable companions. In a state of society where men lived in the midst of plenty, and where all shared alike the bounties of nature, these sentiments would inevitably expire.

Property brings home a servile and truckling spirit, by no circuitous method, to every house in the nation. Observe the pauper fawning with abject vileness upon his rich benefactor, and speechless with sensations of gratitude for having received that which he ought to have claimed with an erect mien, and with a consciousness that his claim was irresistible. Observe the, servants that follow in a rich man's train, watchful of his looks, anticipating his commands, not daring to reply to his insolence, all their time and their efforts under the direction of his caprice. Observe the tradesman, how he studies the passions of his customers, not to correct but to pamper them; the vileness of

his

his flattery, and the systematic constancy with which he exaggerates the merit of his commodities.

Ambition is of all the passions of the human mind the most extensive in its ravages. It adds district to district, and kingdom to kingdom. It spreads bloodshed and calamity and conquest over the face of the earth. But the passion itself, as well as the means of gratifying it, is the produce of the prevailing system of property. It is only by means of accumulation that one man obtains an unresisted sway over multitudes of others. It is by means of a certain distribution of income that the present governments of the world are retained in existence. Nothing more easy than to plunge nations so organized into war. It is clear that war in every horrid form is the growth of property.-It is property that forms men into one common mass, and makes them fit to be played upon like a brute machine.

GODWIN.

Political Justice, b. viii. ch. ii.

How comes it that so many are infected with the pestilence of wickedness? It is that they who bear rule over them, having caught the distemper, communicate it to others. By the first ambitious man was the world corrupted.

VOLTAIRE.
Philosoph, Dia.

My master was yet wholly at a loss to understand what motives could excite this race of lawyers to perplex, disquiet, and weary themselves

and engage in a confederacy of injustice, merely for the sake of injuring their fellow animals; neither could he comprehend what I meant in saying, they did it for hire. Whereupon I was at much pains to describe to him the use of money, the materials it was made of, and value of the metals, that when a [man] had got a great store of this precious substance, he was able to purchase whatever he had a mind to, the finest clothing, the noblest houses, great tracts of land, the most costly meats and drinks; and have his choice of the most beautiful females. Therefore since money alone was able to perform all these feats, our [people] thought they could never have enough of it to spend, or to save, as they found themselves inclined from their natural bent either to profusion or avarice. That the rich men enjoyed the fruit of the poor man's labour, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former. That the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by labouring every day for small wages, to inake a few live plentifully. I enlarged much on these and many other particulars to the same purpose: but his honour was still to seek; for he went upon a supposition, that all animals had a title to their share in the productions of the earth, and especially those who presided over the rest. Therefore he desired I would let him know what these costly ineats were, and how and how any of us happened to want them. Whereupon I enumerated as many sorts as came into my head, with the various methods

of

of dressing them, which could not be done without sending vessels by sea to every part of the world, as well for liquors to drink as for sauces, and innumerable other conveniencies. I assured him

that this whole globe of earth must be at least three times gone round. before one of our better females could get her breakfast or a cup to put it in. He said, that, must needs be a miserable country which cannot furnish food for its own inhabitants. But what ne chiefly wondered at was, how such vast tracts of ground, as I described, should be wholly without fresh water, and people put to the necessity of sending over the sea for drink. I replied, that England the dear place of my nativity) was computed to produce three times the quantity of food more than its inhabitants are able to consume, as well as liquors extracted from grain, or pressed out of the fruit of certain trees, which made excellent drink; and the same proportion in every other convenience of life. But in order to feed the luxury and intemperance of the males, and the vanity of the females, we sent away the greatest part of our necessary things to other countries, from whence in return we brought the materials of diseases, folly, and vice, to spend among ourselves. Hence it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging,robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, flattering, suborning, forswearing, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling, star-gazing, poisoning, whoring, canting, libelling,

2

free-thinking, and the like occupations : every one of which terms I was at much pains to make him

understand,

SWIFT.

Gulliver's Travels, part iv. ch. vi,

WHAT'S here?

Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold?

Thus much of this will make black white; foul,

Wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward,

valiant:

Will lug your priests and servants from your

sides;

Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads;
This yellow slave

Will knit and break religions, bless the accurst;
Make the hoar leprosy ador'd; place thieves,
And give 'em title, sense and approbation,
With senators on the bench: this, this is it
That makes the wappen'd widlow wed again;
She whom the spital house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day again. Come, damn'd earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Do thy nature right.

* **

O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow

That