If this be true of the art of war, it must still more of the science of politics; the study of which, however, is more intricate, as in it centers the welfare of a whole nation. Even the savages of America have their politics; yet in how confined a state! being of advantage indeed to a few particular families, but by no means securing the whole people from ruin. Several little nations have exterminated one another; others are so thinned, that a similar fate probably awaits many of them, from their unequal contest with the smallpox, spirituous liquors, and the avarice of Europeans. The more the political system of a state became an art, both in Asia and Europe, the more stable it was in itself, and the more closely it was connected with others, so that one could not fall without the rest. Thus stands China, thus Japan; ancient edifices, the foundations of which lie deep beneath their walls. The constitution of Greece, the principal republics of which contended centuries for the balance of power, was still more elaborate. Common dangers united them: and had the union been perfect, these active people would have withstood Philip and the Romans with no less glory, than they once gained against Xerxes and Darius. The defective politics of the neighboring nations alone gave Rome her advantage: separately they were attacked; separately they were conquered. Rome experienced a similar fate, when she declined in the arts of war and politics: so did Judea; and so did Egypt. No people, whose state is well regulated, can perish, even supposing them to be conquered, as China shows even with all its faults.
The utility of an art profoundly understood is more evident, when we speak of the internal economy of a country, its trade, its administration of justice, its sciences, and its manufactures. In all these it is obvious, the greater the art, the more the advantage. A true merchant employs no deception, because deceit never leads to wealth: as the man of real learning never makes a parade of false science; as the judge, who deserves the name, is never knowingly unjust; for this would be to confess themselves tyros, not masters of their arts. As certainly must the time come, when the irrational politician will be ashamed of his ignorance; and when it will be as absurd and ridiculous, to be a tyrannical despot, as it has ever been detestable. It will then be clear as day, that every irrational politician reckons with an erroneous multiplication table, and that, however great the sums he calculates, no real advantage is obtained from them. For this history is written; and in the course of it the proofs of this proposition will become evident. All the faults of government must precede, and exhaust themselves as it were; that, after all their disorders, man may at length perceive the happiness of his species to depend not on anything arbitrary, but on an essential law of nature, on reason and equity. To the development of this law we now proceed; and may the internal force of truth stamp light and conviction on the proposition.
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