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After the state or city comes the world, the third circle of human
society, the first being the house, and the second the city. And the
world, as it is larger, so it is fuller of dangers, as the greater
sea is the more dangerous. And here, in the first place, man is
separated from man by the difference of languages. For if two men,
each ignorant of the other's language, meet, and are not compelled to
pass, but, on the contrary, to remain in company, dumb animals,
though of different species, would more easily hold intercourse than
they, human beings though they be. For their common nature is no help
to friendliness when they are prevented by diversity of language from
conveying their sentiments to one another; so that a man would more
readily hold intercourse with his dog than with a foreigner. But the
imperial city has endeavored to impose on subject nations not only her
yoke, but her language, as a bond of peace, so that interpreters,
far from being scarce, are numberless. This is true; but how many
great wars, how much slaughter and bloodshed, have provided this
unity! And though these are past, the end of these miseries has not
yet come. For though there have never been wanting, nor are yet
wanting, hostile nations beyond the empire, against whom wars have
been and are waged, yet, supposing there were no such nations, the
very extent of the empire itself has produced wars of a more obnoxious
description, social and civil wars, and with these the whore race has
been agitated, either by the actual conflict or the fear of a renewed
outbreak. If I attempted to give an adequate description of these
manifold disasters, these stern and lasting necessities, though I am
quite unequal to the task, what limit could I set? But, say they,
the wise man will wage just wars. As if he would not all the rather
lament the necessity of just wars, if he remembers that he is a man;
for if they were not just he would not wage them, and would therefore
be delivered from all wars. For it is the wrongdoing of the opposing
party which compels the wise man to wage just wars; and this
wrong-doing, even though it gave rise to no war, would still be
matter of grief to man because it is man's wrong-doing. Let every
one, then, who thinks with pain on all these great evils, so
horrible, so ruthless, acknowledge that this is misery. And if any
one either endures or thinks of them without mental pain, this is a
more miserable plight still, for he thinks himself happy because he has
lost human feeling.
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