Leviathan - 10
===CHAPTER XXIX : OF THOSE THINGS THAT WEAKEN, OR TEND TO THE
DISSOLUTION OF A COMMONWEALTH
If the right of the sovereign also be excluded排除, he cannot
perform the office they have put him into; which is, to defend
them both from foreign enemies, and from the injuries of one another;
and consequently there is no longer a commonwealth.
Powers divided mutually destroy each other.
And as false doctrine, so also oftentimes the example of different
government in a neighbouring邻近的 nation, disposeth安排 men to alteration
of the form already settled.
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So the people of the Jews were stirred up to reject God, and to
call upon the prophet先知 Samuel, for a king after the manner of the nations:
so also the lesser cities of Greece, were continually disturbed, with
seditions(shan动) of the aristocratical, and democratical factions; one part
of almost every commonwealth, desiring to imitate the Lacedemonians古斯巴达人;
the other, the Athenians.
And as to rebellion in particular against monarchy; one of the
most frequent causes of it, is the reading of the books of policy, and
histories of the ancient Greeks, and Romans; from which, young
men, and all others that are unprovided无生活来源的 of the antidote解药 of
solid reason, receiving a strong, and delightful impression, of the great
exploits of war, achieved by the conductors of their armies, receive
withal a pleasing idea,of all they have done besides;
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and imagine their great prosperity兴旺/繁荣, not to have proceeded from the
emulation仿效 of particular men, but from the virtue of their popular form
of government: not considering the frequent seditions(shan动), and civil wars,
produced by the imperfection of their policy.
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From the reading, I say, of such books, men
have undertaken着手/承担 to kill their kings, because the Greek
and Latin writers, in their books, and discourses论文/演说 of
policy,make it lawful, and laudable值得赞美的, for any man so to do;
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before he do it, he call him tyrant. For they say not regicide弑君者, that is,
killing a king, but tyrannicide诛杀bao君者, that is, killing of a tyrant is lawful.
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From the same books, they that live under a monarch conceive an
opinion, that the subjects in a popular commonwealth enjoy liberty;
but that in a monarchy they are all slaves.
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★In sum, I cannot imagine, how any thing can be more prejudicial to a
monarchy, than the allowing of such books to be publicly read, without
present applying such correctives of discreet谨慎的 masters, as are fit to take
away their venom毒: which venom I will not doubt to compare to the biting
of a mad dog, which is a disease the physicians call hydrophobia狂犬病.
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For as he that is so bitten, has a continual torment折磨 of
thirst, and yet abhorreth厌恶 water; and is in such an estate, as if the
poison endeavoured to convert使转化 him into a dog: so when a monarchy
is once bitten to the quick, by those democratical writers, that
continually snarl咆哮 at that estate; it wanteth nothing more
than a strong monarch, which nevertheless out of a certain
tyrannophobia(BaoZheng恐惧症), or fear of being strongly governed,
when they have him, they abhor厌恶/拒绝.