The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
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The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
There is no doubt but the world is going wrong, or rather that it is
very capable of being much improved. What I mean by this improvement
is, the inducement of a more equal and general diffusion of happiness
and liberty. Many people are very rich and many are very poor. Which do
you think are happiest? I can tell you that neither are happy, so far
as their station is concerned. Nature never intended that there should
be such a thing as a poor man or a rich one. Being put in an unnatural
situation, they can neither of them be happy, so far as their situation
is concerned. The poor man is born to obey the rich man, though they
both come into the world equally helpless and equally naked. But the
poor man does the rich no service by obeying him--the rich man does the
poor no good by commanding him. It would be much better if they could
be prevailed upon to live equally like brothers--they would ultimately
both be happier. But this can be done neither to-day nor to-morrow;
much as such a change is to be desired, it is quite impossible.
Violence and folly in this, as in the other case, would only put off
the period of its event. Mildness, sobriety, and reason are the
effectual methods of forwarding the ends of liberty and happiness.
Although we may see many things put in train during our life-time, we
cannot hope to see the work of virtue and reason finished now; we can
only lay the foundation for our posterity. Government is an evil; it
is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary
evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.
So long as men continue foolish and vicious, so long will government,
even such a government as that of England, continue necessary in order
to prevent the crimes of bad men. Society is produced by the wants,
government by the wickedness, and a state of just and happy equality
by the improvement and reason of man. It is in vain to hope for any
liberty and happiness without reason and virtue, for where there is
no virtue there will be crime, and where there is crime there must be
government. Before the restraints of government are lessened, it is
fit that we should lessen the necessity for them. Before government is
done away with, we must reform ourselves. It is this work which I would
earnestly recommend to you. O Irishmen, Reform Yourselves, and I do not
recommend it to you particularly because I think that you most need it,
but because I think that your hearts are warm and your feelings high,
and you will perceive the necessity of doing it more than those of a
colder and more distant nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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