[The Writings of Thomas Paine<br> Volume II by Thomas Paine]@TWC D-Link book
The Writings of Thomas Paine
Volume II

CHAPTER IV
33/34

As the barbarism of the present old governments expires, the moral conditions of nations with respect to each other will be changed.

Man will not be brought up with the savage idea of considering his species as his enemy, because the accident of birth gave the individuals existence in countries distinguished by different names; and as constitutions have always some relation to external as well as to domestic circumstances, the means of benefitting by every change, foreign or domestic, should be a part of every constitution.

We already see an alteration in the national disposition of England and France towards each other, which, when we look back to only a few years, is itself a Revolution.

Who could have foreseen, or who could have believed, that a French National Assembly would ever have been a popular toast in England, or that a friendly alliance of the two nations should become the wish of either?
It shows that man, were he not corrupted by governments, is naturally the friend of man, and that human nature is not of itself vicious.

That spirit of jealousy and ferocity, which the governments of the two countries inspired, and which they rendered subservient to the purpose of taxation, is now yielding to the dictates of reason, interest, and humanity.


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