3/5/2023 0 Comments Wordor a common sense ideaSociety in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. ![]() The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness the former promotes our happiness possitively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. ON THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GEN- ERAL, WITH CONCISE REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any party, and under no sort of Influence, public or private, but the influence of reason and principle. Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a view of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independence: As no answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will, the time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past. ![]() Postscript to Preface in the third edition. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling of which class, regardless of party censure, is Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their affections are interested. The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. The wise and the worthy need not the triumph of a Pamphlet and those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is bestowed upon their conversions. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. ![]() In the following Sheets, the Author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Time makes more Converts than Reason.Īs a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the Parliament in what he calls Theirs, and as the good People of this Country are grievously oppressed by the Combination, they have an undoubted privilege to enquire into the Pretensions of both, and equally to reject the Usurpation of either. Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general Favor a long Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. Source: Thomas Paine, The Writings of Thomas Paine, Collected and Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway (New York: G.P.
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