And here comes the quibble of the sophist, who singles out instances
of law violated in civilized communities, and holds them up as the
criterion by which to judge civilization, and triumphantly exclaims,
Lo! the fruits of civilization--of that civilization which arrogates
to itself the right to enslave mankind! But this is merely a bare
perversion of truth. He deceives no one so much as himself, when he
imagines the world will take the _exception_ for the RULE of
civilization, or make it the pretext to sustain barbarism.