on to the productiveness of the
general industry; still, his own exaltation and grandeur were the
ultimate objects in view.

Young persons, when they read in history of the power which many great
tyrants have exercised, and the atrocious crimes which they have
committed against the rights of their fellow-men, sometimes wonder how
it is that one man can acquire or retain so absolute a dominion over so
many millions as to induce them to kill each other in such vast numbers
at his bidding; for, of course, it is but a very small number of the
victims of a tyrant's injustice or cruelty that are executed by his own
hand. How is it, then, that one weak and often despicable and hateful
man can acquire and retain such an ascendency over those that stand
around him, that they shall all be ready to draw their swords
instantaneously at his bidding, and seize and destroy, without
hesitation and without mercy, whomsoever he may choose to designate as
the object of his rage and vengeance? How is it that the wealthiest,
the most respected, and the most popular citizens of the state, though
surrounded with servants and with multitudes of friends, have no power
to resist when one of these Neros conceives the idea of striking him
down, but must yield without a struggle to his fate, as if to
inevitable destiny?

The secret of this extraordinary submission of millions to one is
always an army. The tyrant, under the pretense of providing the means
for the proper execution of just and righteous laws, and the
maintenance of peace and order in the community, organizes an army. He
contrives so to arrange and regulate this force as to separate it
completely from the rest of the community, so as to extinguish as far
as possible all the sympathies which might otherwise exist between the
soldiers and the citizens. Marriage is discouraged, so that the troops
may not be bound to the community by any family ties. The regiments
arc quartered in barracks built and appropriated to their especial use,
and they are continually changed from one set of barracks to another,
in order to prevent their forming too intimate an acquaintance with any
portion of the community, or learning to feel any common interest or
sympathy with them. Then, as a reward for their privations, the
soldiers are allowed, with very little remonstrance or restraint, to
indulge freely in all such habits of dissipation and vice as will not
at once interfere with military discipli