"
234. Thus far that great advocate of monarchical power allows of
resistance.
235. It is true, he has annexed two limitations to it, to no
purpose:
First. He says it must be with reverence.
Secondly. It must be without retribution or punishment; and the
reason he gives is, "because an inferior cannot punish a superior."
First. How to resist force without striking again, or how to
strike with reverence, will need some skill to make intelligible. He
that shall oppose an assault only with a shield to receive the
blows, or in any more respectful posture, without a sword in his
hand to abate the confidence and force of the assailant, will
quickly be at an end of his resistance, and will find such a defence
serve only to draw on himself the worse usage. This is as ridiculous a
way of resisting as Juvenal thought it of fighting: Ubi tu pulsas, ego
vapulo tantum. And the success of the combat will be unavoidably the
same he there describes it:
Libertas pauperis haec est;
Pulsatus rogat, et pugnis concisus, adorat,
Ut liceat paucis cum dentibus inde reverti.
This will always be the event of such an imaginary resistance, where
men may not strike again.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220