the landlord {162c}, who pretended to die a martyr for Martin,
though he had been true to neither side, and was suspected by many
to have a great affection for Peter.



A DIGRESSION ON THE NATURE, USEFULNESS, AND NECESSITY OF WARS AND
QUARRELS.



This being a matter of great consequence, the author intends to
treat it methodically and at large in a treatise apart, and here to
give only some hints of what his large treatise contains. The state
of war, natural to all creatures. War is an attempt to take by
violence from others a part of what they have and we want. Every
man, fully sensible of his own merit, and finding it not duly
regarded by others, has a natural right to take from them all that
he thinks due to himself; and every creature, finding its own wants
more than those of others, has the same right to take everything its
nature requires. Brutes, much more modest in their pretensions this
way than men, and mean men more than great ones. The higher one
raises his pretensions this way, the more bustle he makes about
them, and the more success he has, the greater hero. Thus greater
souls, in proportion to their superior merit, claim a greater right
to take everything from meaner folks. This the true foundation of
grandeur and heroism, and of the distinction of degrees among men.
War, therefore, necessary to establish subordination, and to found
cities, kingdoms, &c., as also to purge bodies politic of gross
humours. Wise princes find it necessary to have wars abroad to keep