Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/207

Rh page 6, "It will be necessary to show what is contained in the idea of government." Now, it is to be understood, that this refined way of speaking was introduced by Mr. Locke; after whom the author limps as fast as he is able. All the former philosophers in the world, from the age of Socrates to ours, would have ignorantly put the question, Quid est imperium? But now, it seems, we must vary our phrase: and since our modern improvement of human understanding, instead of desiring a philosopher to describe or define a mouse-trap, or tell me what it is; I must gravely ask, what is contained in the idea of a mouse-trap? But then to observe how deeply this new way of putting questions to a man's self makes him enter into the nature of things; his present business is to show us, what is contained in the idea of government. The company knows nothing of the matter, and would gladly be instructed; which he does in the following words, p. 6.

"It would be in vain for one intelligent being to pretend to set rules to the actions of another, if he had it not in his power to reward the compliance with, or punish the deviations from his rules, by some good, or evil, which is not the natural consequence of those actions; since the forbidding men to do or forbear an action, on the account of that convenience or inconvenience which attends it, whether he who forbids it will or no, can be no more than advice.'*

I shall not often draw such long quotations as this, which I could not forbear to offer as a specimen of the propriety and perspicuity of this author's style. And indeed, what a light breaks out upon us Rh