[542]We must read Sir Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha," London, 1680, on the prevailing theory in order to see from what a quagmire of follies people emerged. He said that Adam, on his creation, had received an absolute and regal power over the universe; that in every society of men there was one legitimate king, the direct heir of Adam. "Some say it was by lot, and others that Noah sailed round the Mediterranean in ten years, and divided the world into Asia, Africa, and Europe" (p. 15)—portions for his three sons. Compare Bossuet, "Politique fondée sur l'Ecriture." At this epoch moral science was being emancipated from theology.
[543]Locke, "Of Civil Government," 1714, book II. ch. II. sec. 4.
[544]Ibid. sec. 13.
[545]Ibid. II. ch. VII. sec. 87.
[546]Ibid.
[547]Ibid. sec. 93.
[548]Ibid. II. ch. VIII. sec. 95.
[549]De Foe's estimate.
[550]"Their eating, indeed, amazes me; had I five hundred heads, and were each head furnished with brains, yet would they all be insufficient to compute the number of cows, pigs, geese, and turkies which upon this occasion die for the good of their country!... On the contrary, they seem to lose their temper as they lose their appetites; every morsel they swallow serves to increase their animosity... The mob meet upon the debate, fight themselves sober, and then draw off to get drunk again, and charge for another encounter."—Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," Letter CXII. "An election described." See also Hogarth's prints.
[551]Ibid.