THE

SPIRIT

OF

DESPOTIS M.

Vicesimus Knox

DIVITIAS COMITATUR LUXUS, et LEXUS exit in TY-
RANNIDEM. Riches are attended with Luxury, and Luxury ends
in Defpotifm.

ERASMUS.

Ex regum immoderatâ libidine unjusta bella temerè plerum
què fufcipiuntur, fceleratè geruntur, turpiter depointur
confequence of the Spirit of Defpotif among Kings and Grandees,
unjust wars are, for the most part, rafhly undertaken, wickedly con-
duited, and, after all, abandoned with defectand difgrace.

BUCHANAN

MBTIC

PUBLIC LIBRARY
153311

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUN

639

THE heart is deceitful above all things; who can know it? As far as I know my own, it feels an anxious desire to serve my fellow-creatures, during the short period of my continuance among them, by stopping the effusion of buman blood, by diminishing or softening the miseries which man creates for himself, by promoting peace and by endeavoring to secure and extend civil liberty.

I attribute war, and most of the artificial evils of life, to the Spirit of Despotism, a rank poisonous weed, which grows and flourishes even in the soil of liberty, when over-run with corruption. I bave attempted to eradicate it, that the salutary and pleasant plants may have room to strike root and expand their foliage..

There is one circumstance which induces me to think that, in this instance, my beart does not deceive me. I am certain, that in attempting to promote the general happiness af man, without serving any party, or paying court to any individual, I am not studying my own interest. On the contrary, I am well aware that my very subject must give offence to those who are possessed of power and patronage. I have no personal enmities, and therefore am truly concerned that I could not treat the Spirit of Despotism, without advancing opinions that must displease the nominal great. I certainly sacrifice all view of personal advantage to what appears to me the public