But the truth is, that though human institutions appear to be the obvious and obtrusive causes of much mischief to mankind, yet in reality they are light and superficial, they are mere feathers that float on the surface, in comparison with those deeper seated causes of impurity that corrupt the springs and render turbid the whole stream of human life.
Mr Godwin, in his chapter on the benefits attendant on a system of equality, says: The spirit of oppression, the spirit of servility, and the spirit of fraud, these are the immediate growth of the established administration of property.

They are alike hostile to intellectual improvement.

The other vices of envy, malice, and revenge are their inseparable companions.

In a state of society where men lived in the midst of plenty and where all shared alike the bounties of nature, these sentiments would inevitably expire.

The narrow principle of selfishness would vanish.