“But, though they so vigorously assist their friends in obtaining
reparation for the injuries they have received in affairs of this
nature, yet, if any such frauds were committed against themselves,
provided no violence was done to their persons, they would only, on
their being refused satisfaction, forbear trading with such a people.
This is not because they consider their neighbours more than their own
citizens; but, since their neighbours trade every one upon his own
stock, fraud is a more sensible injury to them than it is to the
Utopians, among whom the public, in such a case, only suffers, as they
expect no thing in return for the merchandise they export but that in
which they so much abound, and is of little use to them, the loss does
not much affect them. They think, therefore, it would be too severe to
revenge a loss attended with so little inconvenience, either to their
lives or their subsistence, with the death of many persons; but if any
of their people are either killed or wounded wrongfully, whether it be
done by public authority, or only by private men, as soon as they hear
of it they send ambassadors, and demand that the guilty persons may be
delivered up to them, and if that is denied, they declare war; but if
it be complied with, the offenders are condemned either to death or
slavery.
“They would be both troubled and ashamed of a bloody victory over their
enemies; and think it would be as foolish a purchase as to buy the most
valuable goods at too high a rate. And in no victory do they glory so
much as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct without
bloodshed. In such cases they appoint public triumphs, and erect
trophies to the honour of those who have succeeded; for then do they
reckon that a man acts suitably to his nature, when he conquers his
enemy in such a way as that no other creature but a man could be
capable of, and that is by the strength of his understanding. Bears,
lions, boars, wolves, and dogs, and all other animals, employ their
bodily force one against another, in which, as many of them are
superior to men, both in strength and fierceness, so they are all
subdued by his reason and understanding.
“The only design of the Utopians in war is to obtain that by force
which, if it had been granted them in time, would have prevented the
war; or, if that cannot be done, to take so severe a revenge on those
that have injured them that they may be terrified from doing the like
for the time to come. By these ends they measure all their designs, and
manage them so, that it is visible that the appetite of fame or
vainglory does not work so much on there as a just care of their own
security.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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