But, however our imagination may be impressed by painting and comparison, it is nevertheless true, that a great portion of mankind, in what are called civilised countries, are in a state of poverty and wretchedness, far below the condition of an Indian.
In "Rights of Man," Paine challenges the notion of "civilized" society by pointing out the widespread poverty and suffering within it, often worse than in so-called uncivilized conditions.
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I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.
Burke's Book is easily accounted for.--When a man in a wrong cause attempts to steer his course by anything else than some polar truth or principle, he is sure to be lost.
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.