Every individual, high or low, is interested in the fruits of the earth; men, women, and children, of all ages and degrees, will turn out to assist the farmer, rather than a harvest should not be got in; and they will not act thus by any other property.
From "Rights of Man," Paine asserts the unique and universal importance of agriculture to all people.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
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.