Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/55

 THE GEEAT-GEEAT-GEANDSON OF CAPTAIN KIDD. 47

they first began to complain, would be so tyrannized and browbeaten by this public opinion that they would hardly think of more than of buying out the Kidds, and, wher- ever here and there any one dared to raise his voice in favor of stopping piracy at once and without compensa- tion, he would only do so under penalty of being stigma- tized as a reckless disturber and wicked foe of social order.

If any one denies this, if any one says mankind are not such fools, then I appeal to universal history to bear me witness. I appeal to the facts of to-day.

Show me a wrong, no matter how monstrous, that ever yet, among any people, became ingrafted in the social system, and I will prove to you the truth of what I say.

The majority of men do not think ; the majority of men have to expend so much energy in the struggle to make a living that they do not have time to think. The majority of men accept, as a matter of course, whatever is. This is what makes the task of the social reformer so difficult, his path so hard. This is what brings upon those who first raise their voices in behalf of a great truth the sneers of the powerful and the curses of the rabble, ostracism and martyrdom, the robe of derision and the crown of thorns.

Am I not right ? Have there not been states of society in which piracy has been considered the most respectable and honorable of pursuits ? Did the Roman populace see anything more reprehensible in a gladiatorial show than we do in a horse-race ? Does public opinion in Dahomey see anything reprehensible in the custom of sacrificing a thousand or two human beings by way of signalizing grand occasions ? Are there not states of society in which, in spite of the natural proportions of the sexes, polygamy is considered a matter of course ? Are there not states of society in which it would be considered the most ridiculous

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