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Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/109

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[99]

Friends at large. Pope has expressed them in good Verse, where he talks with so much Force of Reason and Elegance of Language in Praise of the State of Nature.

Then was not Pride, nor Arts that Pride to aid,
Man walk'd with Beast, Joint-tenant of the Shade.

On the whole, my Lord, if Political Society, in whatever Form, has still made the Many the Property of the Few; if it has introduced Labours unnecessary, Vices and Diseases unknown, and Pleasures incompatible with Nature; if in all Countries it abridges the Lives of Millions, and renders those of Millions more utterly abject and miserable, shall we still worship so destructive an Idol, and daily sacrifice to it our Health, our Liberty, and our Peace? Or shall we pass by this monstrous Heap of absurd Notions, and abominable Practices, thinking we have sufficientlydischarged