The Complaint of Peace

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1813 edition. Excerpt: ... "Duas respublicas animo coiitemplamur; alteram magnam et vere publicam, qua dii atque homines continentur; in qua, non ad hunc angulum respicimus, aut ad ilium; sed terminos eivitatis nostrse eum sole metimur; alteram, cui nos adscripsit conditio nascendij hcec, aut Atheniensium erit, Carthaginiensium, aut alterius alicujus urbis, quee non ad omnes pertineat homines. "Quidam eodem tempore ntrique reipuhlicse dant operam, majori minorique; quidam tantiim minori; quidam tantiim majori. "There are two kinds of commonwealth which we contemplate with the mind's eye; the one most extensive, and justly to be called the common country of us all; and it is that, in which both gods and men are comprehended; that, in which we do not look for our own nation, to one corner of the world or to another, but measure the boundaries of the state to which we belong, by the sun's course: the other is that particular spot on which we happened to be born; this, peradventure, may be the Athenian's country, or the Carthaginian's country, or may belong to some other particular state, but not to all men. "Some persons are liberal enough to devote themselves, at the same time, to the service of both these kinds of commonwealth, the greater and the smaller; others only to the smaller, and a third sort exclusive-Iy to the greater." Seneca de Otio Sap. c. 31. The first sort are the wisest philosophers and most useful philanthropists; but the middle sort are narrow-minded men, who become statesmen to serve themselves and their families, with little real regard to the happiness and improvement of human nature. "Socrates did not stile himself an Athenian or a Grecian, but a Cosmian, that is, a citizen of the world; just as another might stile himself a Rhodian or a...