 other Governors, thou didst not desire any Thing, thou didst not wish for any Thing, thine Eye was not bent to any Thing, save the Good of thy People! therefore thou cou'dst not stray, thou hadst no other way to travel. Could
Aesop
's Log have been moved to Action upon the same Principle, the Regency of Storks had not prevailed among Men. How am I provoked,
Pansa,
when I see thee insulted! how am I grieved when I find thee deposed! Saving the Realms of a certain Majesty, I say, and sigh to myself, O, that the whole Earth were as thine Island of
Barataria;
and thou,
Sancho,
the Legislator and the Ruler thereof.
I feel Conviction. I confess it. But tell me, I pray you; why has the World, through all Ages and Nations, universally ascribed Heroism and Glory to Conquest?
Through the Respect, as I take it, that they have for Power. Man is by Nature weak; he is born in and to a State of Dependence; he therefore naturally seeks and looks about for Help; and, where he observes the greatest Power, it is there that he applies and prays for Protection. Now, though this Power should be exerted to his Damage, instead of Defence, it makes no Alteration in his Reverence for it; he bows while he trembles, and while he detests he worships. In the present Case, it is with Man, as it is with God; He is not so awful and striking, he is not so much attended to, in the Sunshine and gentle Dews of his Providence and Benignity, as in his Lightnings and Thunders, his Clouds and his Tempests.
Hero, heros, and
, in the three Languages, signify a Demigod, or one who is superior to mere Man. But, how can this Superiority or Distinction be shewn? The serene Acts of Beneficence, the small and still Voice of Goodness are neither accompanied by Noise nor Ostentation. It is Uproar and Tumult, rather the Tumbling of sacked Cities, the Shrieks of ravish'd Matrons, and the Groans of dying Nations that fill the Trump of Fame. Men of Power and Ambition find Distinction and Glory, very readily, attainable in this Way; as it is incomparably more easy to destroy than to create, to give Death than to give Life, to pull down than to build up, to bring Devastation and Misery rather than Plenty and Peace and Prosperity upon Earth.
Were not Mankind, in this Instance, as blind to their own Interests, as they
