Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 01.djvu/378

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370
SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE
  1. Where the Reins of Government are too slack, there the Manners of the People are corrupted: And that destroys Industry, begets Effeminacy, and provokes Heaven against it.
  2. Oppression makes a Poor Country, and a Desperate People, who always wait an Opportunity to change.
  3. He that ruleth over Men, must be just, ruling in the Fear of God, said an old and a wise King.
  4. Envy disturbs and distracts Government, clogs the Wheels, and perplexes the Administration: And nothing contributes more to the Disorder, than a partial distribution of Rewards, and Punishments in the Sovereign.
  5. As it is not reasonable that Men should be compell’d to serve; so those that have Employments should not be endured to leave them humorously.
  6. Where the State intends a Man no Affront, he should not Affront the State.

A PRIVATE LIFE

  1. Private Life is to be preferr’d; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it. The one is free and quiet, the other servile and noisy.
  2. It was a great Answer of the Shunamite Woman, I dwell among my own People.
  3. They that live of their own, neither need, nor often list to wear the Livery of the Publick.
  4. Their Subsistance is not during Pleasure; nor have they patrons to please or present.
  5. If they are not advanced, neither can they be disgraced. And as they know not the Smiles of Majesty, so they feel not the Frowns of Greatness; or the Effects of Envy.
  6. If they want the Pleasures of a Court, they also escape the Temptations of it.
  7. Private Men, in fine, are so much their own, that paying common Dues, they are Sovereigns of all the rest.

A PUBLICK LIFE

  1. Yet the Publick must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve publick Marks of Honor and Profit.