l6a EXCURSION TO THE REALMS BELOW* 



beft for reaching the end of the utmoft poffible welfare 

 of the common weal. This hypothecs is in direct con- 

 tradiction to hiftory, and muft ever be fo, becaufe it 

 runs counter to the courfe of nature in the develope- 

 ment of man, and therefore to whatever is poffible by 

 means of nature. 



For rendering this as plain to you as it is to myfelf, 

 let us cafe one glance on the antient periods of the world. 

 The firft object that Unites us, is the great difference 

 between the conftitution of the nations in the northern 

 part of Afia and in Europe, and thofe which inhabit 

 the regions of Alia to the fouth. In the latter we find 

 already, long before the civilization of our Greece, 

 great monarchic flates, where the will of the regent is 

 frhe fovereign law ; where he is worfliipped like a god, 

 and dreaded like an evil daemon ; where he is lord and 

 proprietor of the whole ftate, and the fubjects without 

 murmur or hefitation, confider themfelves as his Haves, 

 whofe poffeffions, means, bodies and lives, he can dif- 

 pofe of at will ; in fhort, where the monarch is all, and 

 the people have abfolutely no civil exiftence ; or only 

 juft fo much as is necefTary, for that the imaginary 

 god, when he deigns to look downwards from his tre- 

 mendous throne, may not be forced to fee nothing but 

 gloomy forefts, and favage beafb, which would foon 

 bring his defpotifm to an end. 



Menipp. But, in the name of all the gods and god- 

 defies, how is it poffible that men, who were in their 

 fenfes, could ever conform to fuch an unnatural confuV 

 tution ? 



Xenoph. Nothing can be plainer ; and the reafon of 

 it is, becaufe nothing was more natural than this very 



unnatural 



