DEPARTMENT OF MINISTRY REFORM |
| DIRECTOR H.R. Tutman |
ABOUT
When we come to scrutinize and to classify the motives by which human actions are impelled, there appears among the number one of very obvious and general operation, which may easily serve to account for the existence of governments, so far, at least, as those who govern are concerned. This motive is, the Pleasure of Superiority — that pleasure which men feel, not merely in the acknowledgment by others of their superiority, but in the practical exercise of it; an impulse of mighty moment in human affairs, great and small. In its political operation, this motive is commonly known by the term Ambition; and this motive it is which constantly supplies such a host of candidates for every dignity, from the paltriest village magistracy up to the stations of prime minister or king — candidates who, in spite of the cares and vexations which such positions generally involve, are ready to incur expenses and obligations, to labor night and day, and even to submit to manifold humiliations, to obtain them.
This sentiment, however, is far from being sufficient to account, by itself, for the phenomenon of government ; since, by the very same force with which it impels men to seek the position of governors, it impels them also to avoid and escape from the position of subjects. Here, indeed, we discover the chief cause, the motive power, of all political-re volutions — a cause always active, and which, unless repressed by other more potent causes, or provided with some safer and more limited field of exercise, will be forever producing revolutions, or, if not revolutions, rebellions, anarchy, and civil commotions. There never can, indeed, be any settled obedience or quiet submission on the part of the governed, until the pain of inferiority, which the position of subjects naturally tends to inspire, is counterbalanced or neutralized by the operation of other sentiments.