HISTORY^ OF VERMONT. 427 



but whether that part of the nation, which had 

 acquired mtich wealth and propert}, should 

 have more influence in the affairs of govern- 

 ment. The body of the people were esteemed 

 as mere mob, wholly inadequate ^nd unfit for- 

 the affairs of government. The king, lords, and' 

 commons, were agreed in viewing the mass of 

 the people in this light. And as they had nei- 

 ther property, principle, or knowledge, it is 

 probable that the opinion which their rulers 

 formed of them, was but too just. 



Such had been the state of societ}' iu Europe, 

 for many centuries. Time, law, religion, and 

 power, had combined with every other circum- 

 stance, to degrade the people ; and to reduce 

 the body of them to the lowest state of abase- 

 ment, and contempt. In a state of societ) , in 

 which every thing had so long deviated from 

 the design and law of nature, it could not be, 

 but that the rights of men should be lost ; and 

 the idea of them had nearly perished. Nothing 

 was to be seen but one general degradation of 

 the body of the people, and an unnatural and 

 excessive exaltation of those who had acquired 

 power ; every where tending to corrupt both, 

 and to give the most unfavorable idea of the 

 capacity of the former, and of the disposition of 

 the latter. It required the daring spirit of Mil- 

 ton and Sydney, and the abilities of Locke and 

 Montesquieu, to discover the rights of men, 

 when men themselves for many centuries, had 

 made the state of society wholly opposite and 

 contrary to the state of nature. The philosopher 

 had to deduce them from the creation, and na- 

 ture of man. In this inquiry, the progress, like 



