Theory of Politics: An Inquiry Into the Foundations of Governments, and the Causes and Progress of Political RevolutionsHarper, 1854 - 274 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accumulation of wealth administration admiration aggregation agricultural America ancient assemblies authority become body burgher burgher class CALIFORNIA LIBRARY centuries chattel slavery Christian church church of England citizens civic aristocracies civil clergy colonies combination conquest coöperation degree democracy democratic elements of power eloquence England English equality established Europe exercise existence extent fact favor feudal age force form of government France Freethinkers French revolution Greek hands idea of property increase inequality influence of mystical kings knowledge labor least legislative less liberty mass means ment monarchy moral municipal mystical ideas nature nobility nobles oligarchy operation original pains palæstra party period pleasure political power portion possession present property in power Protestant religious republics resistance revolution Roman empire Roman republic sagacity secondary elements sentiment shepherd slaves social spirit strength struggle subjects superior tended theocracy theocratic thing tion traditionary respect tribes tyranny UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA whole
Popular passages
Page 43 - I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!
Page 182 - Latona's twin-born progeny, Which after held the sun and moon in fee. But this is got by casting pearl to hogs, That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, And still revolt when truth would set them free. License they mean when they cry Liberty ; For who loves that must first be wise and good...
Page iii - Why should that name be sounded more than yours ? Write them together, yours is as fair a name; Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar.
Page 141 - So it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Page iii - Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world, Like a Colossus ; and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Page 210 - Naples rather in the hands of the first, than of the other. /One may generally observe, that the body of a people has juster views for the public good, and pursues them with greater uprightness than the nobility and gentry, who have so many private expectations and particular interests, which hang like a false bias upon their judgments, and may possibly dispose them to sacrifice the good of their country to the advancement of their own fortunes.
Page 55 - Property is nothing but a basis of expectation; the expectation of deriving certain advantages from a thing which we are said to possess, in consequence of the relation in which we stand towards it. There is no image, no painting, no visible trait, which can express the relation that constitutes property. It is not material, it is metaphysical; it is a mere conception of the mind.
Page 270 - ... those primary elements of power, sagacity, force of will, and knowledge, to be backed by the secondary elements of wealth and combination. Nor does the prospect of thus elevating them appear by any means one altogether so hopeless. Whatever objections may be made to the existing distribution of riches, and to the artificial processes by which it is regulated, — subjects which will form important topics of the Theory of Wealth, — this at least must be conceded, that no mere redistribution...
Page 211 - ... with greater uprightness than the nobility and gentry, who have so many private expectations and particular interests, which hang like a false bias upon their judgments, and may possibly dispose them to sacrifice the good of their country to the advancement of their own fortunes ; whereas the gross of the people can have no other prospect in changes and revolutions, than of public blessings that are to diffuse themselves through the whole state in general.
Page 223 - This socialist question of the distribution of wealth once raised is not to be blinked out of sight. The claims set up by the socialists, based as they are upon philosophic the'ories of long standing, having, at least some of them, many ardent supporters even in the ranks of those who denounce the socialists the loudest, cannot be settled by declamations and denunciations, and mutual recriminations, any more than by bayonets and artillery. It is a question for philosophers; and until some solution...