It is thought at present there is no republic, except in Europe. I am
mistaken if I have not somewhere made the remark myself; it must,
however, have been a great inadvertence. The Spaniards found in America
the republic of Tlascala perfectly well established. Every part of that
continent which has not been subjugated is still republican. In the
whole of that vast territory, when it was first discovered, there
existed no more than two kingdoms; and this may well be considered as a
proof that republican government is the most natural. Men must have
obtained considerable refinement, and have tried many experiments,
before they submit to the government of a single individual.
In Africa, the Hottentots, the Kaffirs, and many communities of negroes,
are democracies. It is pretended that the countries in which the greater
part of the negroes are sold are governed by kings. Tripoli, Tunis, and
Algiers are republics of soldiers and pirates. There are similar ones in
India. The Mahrattas, and many other Indian hordes, have no kings: they
elect chiefs when they go on their expeditions of plunder.
Such are also many of the hordes of Tartars. Even the Turkish Empire has
long been a republic of janissaries, who have frequently strangled their
sultan, when their sultan did not decimate them. We are every day asked,
whether a republican or a kingly government is to be preferred? The
dispute always ends in agreeing that the government of men is
exceedingly difficult. The Jews had God himself for their master; yet
observe the events of their history. They have almost always been
trampled upon and enslaved; and, nationally, what a wretched figure do
they make at present!
DEMONIACS.
Hypochondriacal and epileptic persons, and women laboring under
hysterical affections, have always been considered the victims of evil
spirits, malignant demons and divine vengeance. We have seen that this
disease was called the sacred disease; and that while the physicians
were ignorant, the priests of antiquity obtained everywhere the care and
management of such diseases.
When the symptoms were very complicated, the patient was supposed to be
possessed with many demons--a demon of madness, one of luxury, one of
avarice, one of obstinacy, one of short-sightedness, one of deafness;
and the exorciser could not easily miss finding a demon of foolery
created, with another of knavery.
The Jews expelled devils from the bodies of the possessed, by the
application of the root _barath_, and a certain formula of words; our
Saviour expelled them by a divine virtue; he communicated that virtue to
his apostles, but it is now greatly impaired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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