VII ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN 319 



nised as soon as possible. I am greatly disposed 

 to think, that when ownership established by 

 force has endured for many generations, and all 

 sorts of contracts have been entered into on the 

 faith of such ownership, the attempt to disturb it 

 is very much to be deprecated on all grounds. 

 For the welfare of society, as for that of individual 

 men, it is surely essential that there should be a 

 statute of limitations in respect of the consequences 

 of wrong-doing. As there is nothing more fatal 

 to nobility of personal character than the nursing 

 of the feeling of revenge nothing that more 

 clearly indicates a barbarous state of society than 

 the carrying on of a vendetta, generation after 

 generation, so I take it to be a plain maxim of 

 that political ethic which does not profess to have 

 any greater authority than agreeableness to good 

 feeling and good sense can confer, that the 

 evil deeds of former generations especially if they 

 were in accordance with the practices of a less 

 advanced civilisation, and had the sanction of 

 a less refined morality should, as speedily as 

 possible, be forgotten and buried under better 

 things. 



" Musst immer thun wie neu geboren " is the 

 best of all maxims for the guidance of the life of 

 States, no less than of individuals. However, I 

 express what I personally think, in all humility, 

 in the face of the too patent fact, that there are 

 persons of light and leading with a political 



