Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/46

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[36]

ther Combination of People, and called by another Name;—to an Englishman, the Name of a Frenchman, a Spaniard, an Italian, much more a Turk, or a Tartar, raise of course Ideas of Hatred, and Contempt. Would you inspire this Compatriot of ours with Pity or Regard, for one of these? Would you not hide that Distinction? You would not pray him to compassionate the poor Frenchman, or the unhappy German. Far from it; you would speak of him as a Foreigner, an Accident to which all are liable. You would represent him as a Man; one partaking with us of the same common Nature, and subject to the same Law. There is something so averse to Nature in these artificial Political Distinctions, that we need no other Trumpet to kindle us to War, and Destruction. But there is something so benign and healing in the general Voice of Humanity, that maugre all our Regulations to prevent it, the Name applied properly, never fails to work a salutary Effect.

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