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The System of Nature, Volume 1 by baron d' Paul Henri Thiry Holbach
page 254 of 378 (67%)
cringing slaves, who are proud of their chains; of ambitious men,
without idea of true glory; of misers and prodigals; of fanatics and
libertines! Convinced of the necessary connection of things, he will not
be surprised to see that the supineness of their chiefs carries
discouragement into their country, or that the influence of their
governors stirs up bloody wars by which it is depopulated, and causes
useless expenditures that impoverish it; that all these excesses united,
is the reason why so many nations contain only men wanting happiness,
without understanding to attain it; who are devoid of morals, destitute
of virtue. In all this he will contemplate nothing more than the
necessary action and re-action of physics upon morals, of morals upon
physics. In short, all who acknowledge fatality, will remain persuaded
that a nation badly governed is a soil very fruitful in venomous
reptiles--very abundant in poisonous plants; that these have such a
plentiful growth as to crowd each other and choak themselves. It is in a
country cultivated by the hands of a Lycurgus, that he will witness the
production of intrepid citizens, of noble-minded individuals, of
disinterested men, who are strangers to irregular pleasures. In a
country cultivated by a Tiberius, he will find nothing but villains with
depraved hearts, men with mean contemptible souls, despicable informers,
execrable traitors. It is the soil, it is the circumstances in which man
finds himself placed, that renders him either a useful object or a
prejudicial being: the wise man avoids the one, as he would those
dangerous reptiles whose nature it is to sting and communicate their
deadly venom; he attaches himself to the other, esteems him, loves him,
as he does those delicious fruits with whose rich maturity his palate is
pleasantly gratified, with whose cooling juices he finds himself
agreeably refreshed: he sees the wicked without anger--he cherishes the
good with pleasure--he delights in the bountiful: he knows full well
that the tree which is languishing without culture in the arid, sandy
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