" This was spoken as became the
bravest man who was ever born in the bravest commonwealth. But with
us, generally, no condition passes for servitude that is accompanied
with great riches, with honours, and with the service of many
inferiors. This is but a deception the sight through a false
medium; for if a groom serve a gentleman in his chamber, that
gentleman a lord, and that lord a prince, the groom, the gentleman,
and the lord are as much servants one as the other. The
circumstantial difference of the one getting only his bread and
wages, the second a plentiful, and the third a superfluous estate,
is no more intrinsical to this matter than the difference between a
plain, a rich and gaudy livery. I do not say that he who sells his
whole time and his own will for one hundred thousand is not a wiser
merchant than he who does it for one hundred pounds; but I will
swear they are both merchants, and that he is happier than both who
can live contentedly without selling that estate to which he was
born. But this dependence upon superiors is but one chain of the
lovers of power, Amatorem trecentae Pirithoum cohibent catenae.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43