"
"So, without feeling satisfied by his arguments, to which I do not
know whether to give the name of reasoning or of objections, I will
interrogate the masters of the science."
Let us terminate by a last and important observation this monograph of
sophisms. The world does not know, as it ought, the influence which
sophistry exerts upon it. If we must say what we think, when the Right
of the Strongest was dethroned, sophistry placed the empire in the
Right of the Most Cunning; and it would be difficult to say which of
these two tyrants has been the more fatal to humanity.
Men have an immoderate love for pleasure, influence, position,
power--in one word, for wealth.
And at the same time men are impelled by a powerful impulse to procure
these things at the expense of another. But this other, which is the
public, has an inclination not less strong to keep what it has
acquired, provided it can and knows how. Spoliation, which plays so
large a part in the affairs of the world, has, then, two agents only:
Strength and Cunning; and two limits: Courage and Right.
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