with metaphysical jargon, the luxurious
grandeur of individuals has been supported by the misery of the
bulk of their fellow-creatures, and ambition gorged by the butchery
of millions of innocent victims."

This despotism, she further asserts, always continues so long as men are
unqualified to judge with precision of their civil and political rights.
But once they begin to think, and hence to learn the true facts of
history, they must discover that the first social systems were founded on
passion,--"individuals wishing to fence round their own wealth or power,
and make slaves of their brothers to prevent encroachment,"--and that the
laws of society could not have been originally "adjusted so as to take in
the future conduct of its members, because the faculties of man are
unfolded and perfected by the improvements made by society." This
knowledge necessarily destroys belief in the sanctity of prescription,
and when once it is made the basis of government, the ruling powers will
have as much consideration for the rights of others as for their own.

"When society was first subjugated to laws," she writes, "probably
by the ambition of some, and the desire of safety in all, it was
natural for men to be selfish, because they were ignorant how
intimately their own comfort was connected with that of others; and
it was also very natural that humanity, rather the effect of
feeling than of reason, should have a very limited range. But when
men once see clear as the light of heaven--and I hail the glorious
day from afar!--that on the general happiness depends their own,
reason will give strength to the fluttering wings of passion, and
men will 'do unto others what they wish they should do unto them.'"

One of the first means, therefore, by which this much-to-be-desired end
is to be attained, is the destruction of blind reverence of the past.

With uncompromising honesty, she says:--

"We must get entirely clear of all the notions drawn from the wild
traditions of original sin: the eating of the apple, the theft of
Prometheus, the opening of Pandora's box, and the other fables too
tedious to enumerate, on which priests have erected their
tremendous structures of imposition to persuade us that we are
naturally inclined to evil. We shall then leave room for the
expansion of the human heart, and, I trust, find that men will
in