’Tis a Foolish Thing for People to talk Boldly, without a Power to
Execute; for upon the Upshot, they serve only for Sport to their
Superiors. The World is like to be well Govern’d, where those that have
neither Resolution not Courage, shall take upon them to give Laws to’t:
When Fools shall correct the Works of the Heavenly Wisdom, and pass
reviews upon the Order of the Universe. It might be every jot as Cheap,
New-made as Mended; and the whole Creation taken to Pieces and Rebuilt,
as any part of the Work of Providence Improv’d. If God Pronounc’d upon
every thing that he made, that it was _Good_, who shall presume to think
he can make it Better?
The Question is the Procuring of an _Universal Peace_; and the _Hares_
are of Opinion, that the Disarming of _Lions_, _Tygers_, &c. and the
bringing of Matters to a Level, would do the Work. Let it now be
consider’d, that there is an Ambition in the very Affectation of that
Equality; for ’tis as Broad as ’tis long, whether the other shall be
brought down, or they themselves Advanc’d. ’Tis Sottish, I say, to offer
at things that cannot be brought about; it is Wicked to meddle towards
the Altering or Unsetling of Things Sacred; and it is a Madness for
the Weaker to talk of Binding the Hands of the Stronger. The Simple are
not to direct the Wise nor the Inferiors to Impose upon those that are
Above them. ’Tis Nonsense to suppose a Level in the several Parts of the
Universe, when the very Frame of it is only an Orderly Pile, or Scale of
one thing above another.
Now there are _Hares_ in Councils and in Commissions of _State_, as well
as in _Fields_, and in _Fables_, where the Multitude are for Levelling
too, and for Paring the Claws, and Drawing the Teeth of _Governors_, as
well as of _Beasts_. The True _English_ of leaving no Power to do Hurt,
is the leaving no Power to do Good neither; and to make short Work on’t,
the leaving _no Power at all. ’Tis a Juggle of the Levellers_, (says Mr.
_Selden_,) _They would have no body Above them, they say, but they do not
tell ye they’d have no Body Under them_.