Man, naturally as he is, with all his faults about him, is not up to the character.
Can we possibly suppose that if governments had originated in a right principle, and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, the world could have been in the wretched and quarrelsome condition we have seen it?
What inducement has the farmer, while following the plough, to lay aside his peaceful pursuit, and go to war with the farmer of another country?
or what inducement has the manufacturer?
What is dominion to them, or to any class of men in a nation?
Does it add an acre to any man's estate, or raise its value?
Are not conquest and defeat each of the same price, and taxes the never-failing consequence ?--Though this reasoning may be good to a nation, it is not so to a government.

War is the Pharo-table of governments, and nations the dupes of the game.
If there is anything to wonder at in this miserable scene of governments more than might be expected, it is the progress which the peaceful arts of agriculture, manufacture and commerce have made beneath such a long accumulating load of discouragement and oppression.

It serves to show that instinct in animals does not act with stronger impulse than the principles of society and civilisation operate in man.

Under all discouragements, he pursues his object, and yields to nothing but impossibilities..