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A DIGRESSION ON THE NATURE, USEFULNESS, AND NECESSITY OF WARS AND QUARRELS
This being a matter of great consequence, the author intends to
treat it methodically and at large in a treatise apart, and here to
give only some hints of what his large treatise contains. The state
of war, natural to all creatures. War is an attempt to take by
violence from others a part of what they have and we want. Every
man, fully sensible of his own merit, and finding it not duly
regarded by others, has a natural right to take from them all that
he thinks due to himself; and every creature, finding its own wants
more than those of others, has the same right to take everything its
nature requires. Brutes, much more modest in their pretensions this
way than men, and mean men more than great ones. The higher one
raises his pretensions this way, the more bustle he makes about
them, and the more success he has, the greater hero. Thus greater
souls, in proportion to their superior merit, claim a greater right
to take everything from meaner folks. This the true foundation of
grandeur and heroism, and of the distinction of degrees among men.
War, therefore, necessary to establish subordination, and to found
cities, kingdoms, &c., as also to purge bodies politic of gross
humours. Wise princes find it necessary to have wars abroad to keep
peace at home. War, famine, and pestilence, the usual cures for
corruption in bodies politic. A comparison of these three--the
author is to write a panegyric on each of them. The greatest part
of mankind loves war more than peace. They are but few and mean-
spirited that live in peace with all men. The modest and meek of
all kinds always a prey to those of more noble or stronger
appetites. The inclination to war universal; those that cannot or
dare not make war in person employ others to do it for them. This
maintains bullies, bravoes, cut-throats, lawyers, soldiers, &c.
Most professions would be useless if all were peaceable. Hence
brutes want neither smiths nor lawyers, magistrates nor joiners,
soldiers or surgeons. Brutes having but narrow appetites, are
incapable of carrying on or perpetuating war against their own
species, or of being led out in troops and multitudes to destroy one
another. These prerogatives proper to man alone. The excellency of
human nature demonstrated by the vast train of appetites, passions,
wants, &c., that attend it. This matter to be more fully treated in
the author's panegyric on mankind.
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