encouragement, the mind sunk into profound ignorance.

The administration being secret and mysterious, there existed no means
of reform or amelioration. The chiefs governing by force or fraud,
the people viewed them as a faction of public enemies; and all harmony
ceased between the governors and governed.

And these vices having enervated the states of the wealthy part of Asia,
the vagrant and indigent people of the adjacent deserts and mountains
coveted the enjoyments of the fertile plains; and, urged by a cupidity
common to all, attacked the polished empires, and overturned the thrones
of their despots. These revolutions were rapid and easy; because the
policy of tyrants had enfeebled the subjects, razed the fortresses,
destroyed the warriors; and because the oppressed subjects remained
without personal interest, and the mercenary soldiers without courage.

And hordes of barbarians having reduced entire nations to slavery, the
empires, formed of conquerors and conquered, united in their bosom two
classes essentially opposite and hostile. All the principles of society
were dissolved: there was no longer any common interest, no longer any
public spirit; and there arose a distinction of casts and races, which
reduced to a regular system the maintenance of disorder; and he who was
born of this or that blood, was born a slave or a tyrant--property or
proprietor.

The oppressors being less numerous than the oppressed it was necessary
to perfect the science of oppression, in order to support this false
equilibrium. The art of governing became the art of subjecting the
many to the few. To enforce an obedience so contrary to instinct, the
severest punishments were established, and the cruelty of the laws