F

Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle walls, and farewel king.

IDEM. Richard II. act iii.

AND it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from thy hard bondage in which thou wast made to serve,

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

[The grave] from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth: it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?

The

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?

That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house

of his prisoners?

C 2

OLD TESTAMENT.
Isaiah, chap. xiv.

RIGHTS

"

WHETHER we consider natural reason, which tells us, that men, being once born, have a right to their preservation, and consequently to meat and drink, and such other things as nature affords for their subsistence; or revelation, which gives us an account of those grants God made of the world to Adam, and to Noah and his sons; it is very clear that God has given the earth to the children of men, given it to mankind in common.

LOCKE.

Civil Government, b. ii. chap. v.

God has given the earth to the children of men, and he has undoubtedly in giving it to them, given them what is abundantly sufficient for all their exigencies, not a scanty, but a most liberal provision for them all. The Author of our nature has written it strongly in that nature, and has promulgated the same law in his written word, that man shall eat his bread by his labour; and I am persuaded that no man and no combinations of men, for their own ideas of their particular profit, can, without great impiety, undertake to say, that he shall not do so; that they have no sort of right either

either to prevent the labour or to withhold the

bread.

BURKE.

Two Letters to Gentlemen in Bristol, p. 25.

EVERY man has naturally a right to every thing which is necessary to his subsistence.

To allow to the first occupier of land as much as he can cultivate, and is necessary to his subsistence, is certainly carrying the matter as far as is reasonable: otherwise we know not how to set bounds. to this right.

The social system, instead of annihilating the natural equality of mankind, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and legal equality. This equality indeed is, under bad governments, merely apparent and delusive, serving only to keep the poor in misery, and favour the oppression of the rich. In fact, the laws are always useful to persons of fortune, and hurtful to those who are destitute. Whence it follows, that a state of society is advantageous to mankind in general, only when they all possess something, and none of them have any thing too much.

ROUSSEAU.

Du Contrat Social, liv. i, ch. ix.

No father can transmit to his son the right of being useless to his fellow creatures. In a state of society, where every man must be necessarily maintained at the expence of the community, he certainly owes the state so much labour as will pay for his subsistence, and this without exception of C 3 rank

rank or persons. Rich or poor, strong or weak, idle citizen is a knave.

every

The man who earns not his subsistence, but eats the bread of idleness, is no better than a thief; and a pensioner who is paid by the state for doing nothing, differs little from a robber who is supported by the plunder he makes on the highway.

IDEM. Emile, liv. 3.

In the hive of human society, to preserve order and justice, and to banish vice and corruption, it is necessary that all the individuals be equally employed, and obliged to concur equally in the general good; and that the labour be equally divided among them.

If there be any whose riches and birth exempt them from all employment, there will be divisions and unhappiness in the hive. Their idleness is destructive to the general welfare.

HELVETIUS.

De l'Homme, vol. ii. sect. vi, ch. v.

EVERY man is entitled, so far as the general stock will suffice, not only to the means of being, but of well being. It is unjust, if one man labour to the destruction of his health, that another may abound in luxuries. It is unjust, if one man be deprived of leisure to cultivate his rational powers, while another man contributes not a single effort to add to the common stock. The faculties of one man are like the faculties of another. Justice directs, that each, unless perhaps he be employed more beneficially to the public, should contribute

to