Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/51

 This Form, as it is the most simple, so it is infinitely the most general. Scarce any Part of the World is exempted from it's Power. And in those few Places where Men enjoy what they call Liberty, it is continually in a tottering Situation, and makes greater and greater Strides to that Gulph of Despotism which at last swallows up every Species of Government. This Manner of ruling being directed merely by the Will of the weakest, and generally the worst Man in the Society, becomes the most foolish and capricious Thing, at the same time that it is the most terrible and destructive that well can be conceived. In a Despotism the principal Person finds, that let the Want, Misery, and Indigence of his Subjects, be what they will, he can yet possess abundantly of every thing to gratify his most insatiable Wishes. He does more. He finds that these Gratifications increase in Proportion to the Wretchedness and Slavery of his Subjects. So that neglecting the publick Welfare,