Power applied to spoliation forms the groundwork of human savagism. To
retrace its history would be to reproduce almost entire the history of
all nations--Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Egyptians,
Greeks, Romans, Goths, Franks, Huns, Turks, Arabs, Moguls,
Tartars--without counting that of the Spaniards in America, the
English in India, the French in Africa, the Russians in Asia, etc.,
etc.
But, at least, among civilized nations, the men who produce wealth
have become sufficiently numerous and sufficiently strong to defend
it.
Is that to say that they are no longer despoiled? By no means; they
are robbed as much as ever, and, what is more, they despoil one
another. The agent alone is changed; it is no longer by violence, but
by stratagem, that the public wealth is seized upon.
In order to rob the public, it must be deceived. To deceive it, is to
persuade it that it is robbed for its own advantage; it is to make it
accept fictitious services, and often worse, in exchange for its
property. Hence sophistry, economical sophistry, political sophistry,
and financial sophistry--and, since force is held in check, sophistry
is not only an evil, it is the parent of other evils.
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