Hereditary succession requires the same obedience to ignorance, as to wisdom; and when once the mind can bring itself to pay this indiscriminate reverence, it descends below the stature of mental manhood.
Paine argues that hereditary succession demands an undiscriminating reverence for both ignorance and wisdom, thereby degrading the human intellect.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
But the spirit of the nation was not to be overcome, and it was so fully sensible of the strong ground it had taken--that of withholding taxes--that it contented itself with keeping up a sort of quiet resistance, which effectually…
Whether robbery shall be banished from courts, and wretchedness from countries?