Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/75

 In Reality, they had no Part of it. In Athens there were usually from ten to thirty thousand Freemen: This was the utmost. But the Slaves usually amounted to four hundred thousand, and sometimes to a great many more. The Freemen of Sparta and Rome were not more numerous in Proportion to those whom they held in a Slavery, even more terrible than the Athenians. Therefore state the Matter fairly: The free States never formed, though they were taken altogether, the thousandth Part of the habitable Globe; the Freemen in these States were never the twentieth Part of the People, and the Time they subsisted is scarce any thing in that immense Ocean of Duration in which Time and Slavery are so nearly commensurate. Therefore call these free States, or popular Governments, or what you please; when we consider the Majority of their Inhabitants, and regard the natural Rights of Mankind, they must appear in Reality and Truth,