Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/15



Chap. I. §. 1. Slavery is o vile and mierable an etate of man, and o directly oppote to the generous temper and courage of our nation; that it is hardly to be conceived, that an Englihman, much les a gentleman, hould plead for it. And truly I hould have taken Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, as any other treatie, which would peruade all men, that they are laves, and ought to be o, for uch another exercie of wit, as was his who writ the encomium of Nero; rather than for a erious dicoure meant in earnet, had not the gravity of the title and epitle, the picture in the front of the book, and the applaue that followed it, required me to believe, that the Rh