Society, guilty of favoritism and prejudice, gave to others, not
so well fitted as myself for its purposes or necessities, the station in
all particulars designed for me. I was denied my birthright, and
rebelled. Can society complain, when prostituting herself and depriving
me of my rights, that I resisted her usurpation and denied her
authority? Shall she, doing wrong herself in the first instance,
undertake to punish? Surely not. My rights were admitted--my superior
capacity: but the people were rotten to the core; they had not even the
virtue of truth to themselves. They made their own governors of the
vilest and the worst. They willingly became slaves, and are punished in
more ways than one. They first create the tyrants--for tyrants are the
creatures of the people they sway, and never make themselves; they next
drive into banishment their more legitimate rulers; and the consequence,
in the third place, is, that they make enemies of those whom they exile.
Such is the case with me, and such--but hark! That surely is the tread
of a horse.
Pages:
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543