Justice -- Early works to 1800; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Utopias -- Early works to 1800
Like man, like State,--the tyrannical man will answer to tyranny, which is
the extreme opposite of the royal State; for one is the best and the other
the worst. But which is the happier? Great and terrible as the tyrant may
appear enthroned amid his satellites, let us not be afraid to go in and
ask; and the answer is, that the monarchical is the happiest, and the
tyrannical the most miserable of States. *577* And may we not ask the same
question about the men themselves, requesting some one to look into them
who is able to penetrate the inner nature of man, and will not be
panic-struck by the vain pomp of tyranny? I will suppose that he
{cxxxviii} is one who has lived with him, and has seen him in family life,
or perhaps in the hour of trouble and danger.
Assuming that we ourselves are the impartial judge for whom we seek, let
us begin by comparing the individual and State, and ask first of all,
whether the State is likely to be free or enslaved--Will there not be a
little freedom and a great deal of slavery? And the freedom is of the bad,
and the slavery of the good; and this applies to the man as well as to the
State; for his soul is full of meanness and slavery, and the better part
is enslaved to the worse. He cannot do what he would, and his mind is full
of confusion; he is the very reverse of a freeman. *578* The State will be
poor and full of misery and sorrow; and the man's soul will also be poor
and full of sorrows, and he will be the most miserable of men. No, not the
most miserable, for there is yet a more miserable. 'Who is that?' The
tyrannical man who has the misfortune also to become a public tyrant.
'There I suspect that you are right.' Say rather, 'I am sure;' conjecture
is out of place in an enquiry of this nature. He is like a wealthy owner
of slaves, only he has more of them than any private individual. You will
say, 'The owners of slaves are not generally in any fear of them.' But
why? Because the whole city is in a league which protects the individual.
Suppose however that one of these owners and his household is carried off
by a god into a wilderness, where there are no freemen to help him--will
he not be in an agony of terror?-- *579* will he not be compelled to
flatter his slaves and to promise them many things sore against his will?
And suppose the same god who carried him off were to surround him with
neighbours who declare that no man ought to have slaves, and that the
owners of them should be punished with death. 'Still worse and worse! He
will be in the midst of his enemies.' And is not our tyrant such a captive
soul, who is tormented by a swarm of passions which he cannot indulge;
living indoors always like a woman, and jealous of those who can go out
and see the world?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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