"It is not gildings, and gold maces, and crown jewels alone, that make
a people servile. There is much bowing and cringing among you
yourselves, sovereign-kings! Poverty is abased before riches, all
Mardi over; any where, it is hard to be a debtor; any where, the wise
will lord it over fools; every where, suffering is found.

"Thus, freedom is more social than political. And its real felicity is
not to be shared. _That_ is of a man's own individual getting and
holding. It is not, who rules the state, but who rules me. Better be
secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions
of monarchs, though oneself be of the number.

"But superstitious notions you harbor, sovereign kings! Did you visit
Dominora, you would not be marched straight into a dungeon. And though
you would behold sundry sights displeasing, you would start to inhale
such liberal breezes; and hear crowds boasting of their privileges; as
you, of yours. Nor has the wine of Dominora, a monarchical flavor.

"Now, though far and wide, to keep equal pace with the times, great
reforms, of a verity, be needed; nowhere are bloody revolutions
required. Though it be the most certain of remedies, no prudent
invalid opens his veins, to let out his disease with his life. And
though all evils may be assuaged; all evils can not be done away. For
evil is the chronic malady of the universe; and checked in one place,
breaks forth in another.

"Of late, on this head, some wild dreams have departed.

"There are many, who erewhile believed that the age of pikes and
javelins was passed; that after a heady and blustering youth, old