PITHY QUOTE FROM Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill
As the wondering audience whom Mr. Burke supposes himself talking to, may not understand all this learned jargon, I will undertake to be its interpreter. The meaning then, good people, of all this, is, that government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases. In short, that government is arbitrary power.
Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man: being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French revolution," Part 1, Chapter 4, Miscellaneous Chapter
Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill
Language: English and English translation
Detail: La liberté guidant le peuple. Oil on Canvas. Eugène Delacroix, 1830. Musée du Louvre
Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill. Compiled and edited by Mark C. Rooks. Charlottesville: InteLex Corporation, 1992.
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince/Il Principe in Italian and English translation
Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, The Elements of Law, Leviathan
John Locke, Two Treatises of Civil Government, Fifth Edition
David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, Volume I
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract, Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy
The Federalist: a collection of essays, written in favour of the new Constitution, as agreed upon by the Federal convention Sept. 17, 1787
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man [Parts 1 and 2]
Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, The Subjection of Women, Considerations on Representative Government, Chapters on Socialism
Jeremy Bentham Niccolo Machiavelli
Edmund Burke John Stuart Mill
David Hume Thomas Paine
Thomas Hobbes Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Federalist Papers John Locke
The Bentham texts were drawn from the 1776 First Edition A Fragment on Government, and from the 1823 Second Edition Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.
We have also included (from Bowring) the "Historical Preface, intended for the Second Edition," of A Fragment on Government.
In this edition of the Principles, we have silently included corrections made either by Bowring or by the 1907 Clarendon edition, which were based on a 1789 sheet of corrections, overlooked in a number of instances in the 1823 edition.
In the Principles, Bentham's section numbers are not used in the reference lines. Rather, each paragraph is identified by its numerical heading (given in Arabic in both the reference lines and in the body of the text), and paragraph number where appropriate. Only a few of Bentham's chapters were divided into sections; the use of the numerical headings is more specific in any event. These numerical headings are identified in the reference lines as "Sec." consistent with other of our databases.
Bentham, Jeremy. A Comment on the Commentaries and A Fragment on Government. Edited by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart. London: University of London, The Athlone Press, 1977.
_____. A Fragment on Government. London: Printed for T. Payne, at the Mews-Gate; P. Elmsley, opposite Southampton-Street in the Strand; and E. Brooks, in Bell-Yard, Temple-Bar, 1776.
_____. A Fragment on Government. Edited by F. C. Montague. London: Oxford University Press, 1891.
_____. A Fragment on Government and An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Edited by Wilfrid Harrison. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1948.
_____. "Historical Preface, intended for the Second Edition." In The Works of Jeremy Bentham. Vol. 1, 240-59. Edited by John Bowring. Edinburgh: W. Tait, 1838-43.
_____. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. 2 vols. London: E. Wilson, Royal Exchange; and W. Pickering, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, 1823.
_____. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.
_____. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Edited by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart. London: University of London, The Athlone Press, 1970.
_____. The Works of Jeremy Bentham. Edited by John Bowring. Edinburgh: W. Tait, 1838-43.
Multiple editions of Burke's Reflections on the Revolutions in France were consulted, but the text is primarily that of Ninth Edition (following the recommendation of William Todd). All original editions consulted are listed in the bibliography.
Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on proceedings in certain societies in London, relative to that event. 3rd ed. London: J. Dodsley, 1790
_____. Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on proceedings in certain societies in London, relative to that event. 6th ed. London: J. Dodsley, 1790.
_____. Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on proceedings in certain societies in London, relative to that event. 8th ed. Dublin: Printed by W. Porter, 1791.
_____. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Edited by J. G. A. Pocock. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1987.
_____. Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. London: J. Dodsley, 1792.
_____. The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke. Edited by L. G. Mitchell; textual editor William B. Todd. Vol. VIII. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
The text of the 1898 edition of the Green and Grose Hume's Essays was used as the textual base for the essays selected from Hume's Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. We proofread the Green and Grose against the Eugene F. Miller edition, and relied upon the Miller edition in case of discrepancies.
Miller found 100 word discrepancies between Green and Grose and the 1777 edition of the Essays (the last published in Hume's lifetime), and 175 punctuation differences. We are indebted to Prof. Miller for his efforts; we did not have access to a 1777 edition. We corrected those spelling errors in Miller which were not also in Green and Grose (e.g. splendour for spendour). We found five such discrepancies. Those spelling errors which occur both in Miller and in Green and Grose (e.g. falshood) remain. Prior to publishing this work we consulted both Prof. Miller and the Liberty Fund, both of whom kindly consented to our using Prof. Miller's textual corrections.
Hume, David. Essays Moral, Political, and Literary. Edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898.
_____. Essays Moral, Political, and Literary. Edited by Eugene F. Miller. Rev. ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1987.
_____. The Philosophical Works. Edited by Thomas Hill Green and Thomas Hodge Grose. 4 vols. London: 1886.
We have made over 1000 punctuation changes in the Leviathan, and over 400 in De Cive, based on the 1651 editions; however, many more would need to be made to make the punctuation precisely that of the 1651. We have retained the spelling and capitalization conventions of Molesworth. We believe it is preferable to have modernized spelling in a search context, since the researcher would otherwise have to recall or speculate how a word might have been spelled in (e.g.) 1651, in order to search for it.
The Elements of Law is a reproduction of the 1889 Tönnies edition. All variant readings have been moved to the end of the chapter in which they are found. Two typographical corrections were made in the text of the Tönnies. The text of the editor's preface concerned with The Elements of Law has been retained; the text describing the material included in the appendix has been deleted (since we do not include the material in the appendix).
De Cive was scanned from the Molesworth edition but proofread against the 1651 English edition. We found over 250 word and phrase discrepancies with the 1651; we have made these discrepancies variants, except where noted. The variants are significant in that Molesworth worked with the more authoritative Latin edition in hand; hence many of the non-biblical variants represent improvements or simply corrections of the controversial 1651 English, which Molesworth based on the Latin. (Molesworth even caught errors Warrender missed.) We are indebted to Prof. Edwin Curley for checking a number of the discrepancies, and for translating one passage of the Latin.
The Leviathan was also scanned from the Molesworth edition, but proofread against the 1651 "Head" edition. Molesworth based his edition on the "Bear" edition. (Cf. Mcpherson's introduction to Leviathan.) Again we have made the 1651 the primary text, and made the Molesworth discrepancies variants, except where noted. We have noted 371 variants. The only word discrepancies which should remain are those connected with the manner in which references are cited ((e.g.) the 21. chapter vs. chapter 21.) and use of possessives. Hobbes usually writes Moses' time as Moses time, but sometimes as Moses his time; we have followed Molesworth in using modern conventions concerning possessives.
Hobbes, Thomas. De Cive: the English version. Edited by Howard Warrender. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
_____. The Elements of Law. Edited by Ferdinand Tönnies. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1889.
_____. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Edited by Sir William Molesworth. London: J. Bohn, 1837-45.
_____. Leviathan. Edited by C. B. Mcpherson. London: Penguin Books, 1985.
_____. Leviathan or The Matter, Form & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil. London: Printed for Andrew Crooke, at the Green Dragon in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1651.
The text of the 1787 McLean edition is reproduced. Variant readings are drawn from the newspaper articles in which most of the essays first appeared. Authors and the newspaper numbering appear in brackets in the text.
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist: a collection of essays, written in favour of the new Constitution, as agreed upon by the Federal convention Sept. 17, 1787. New York: J. A. McLean, no. 41, Hanover-square, 1788.
_____. The Federalist. Edited by Isaac Kramnick. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1987.
_____. The Federalist. Edited by Jacob E. Cooke. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
The Ninian Hill Thompson translation of The Prince (1913, Third Edition) is reproduced. Page numbers refer to the Thompson translation.
The L. Arthur Burd critical edition (1891) of Il Principe is reproduced. The text has been segmented to agree with the paragraph breaks of the Thompson translation. Page numbers are from the Burd edition. The Burd text follows the edition published at Capo di Lago in 1849 under the full title: Il Principe, e gli opuscoli storici e politici di Nicolò Machiavelli, preceduti da alcuni scritti inediti di Ugo Foscolo e Vincenzo Cuoco, intorno all' autore. Capolago, Cantone Ticino: Tipografia Elvetica; 1849.
This edition is virtually identical to the "Italia, 1813" edition. Burd also collated the Polidori edition [Firenze; Le Monnier, 1848] (which (at the time) was the closest available to him of the 1532 first edition [Roma, Antonio Blado]), as well as the First Testina edition [1550].
Variant readings are identified with either a bracketed Pol. ([Pol.]) for the Polidori edition, a [TS1] for the first Testina edition, or an [I13] for the Italia 1813 edition.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Translated by Ninian Hill Thompson. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913.
_____. Il Principe. Edited by L. Arthur Burd. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891.
All of the Past Masters Mill texts were drawn from the last edition published in Mill's lifetime, with two exceptions: "Chapters on Socialism" was first published posthumously in Fortnightly Review. The Subjection of Women (1869) was drawn from the First Edition. Two later editions appeared in Mill's lifetime, without alteration (the Third Edition in 1870).
Mill, John Stuart. "Chapters on Socialism." In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 5, Essays on Economics and Society. Edited by J. M. Robson, 703-53. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967.
_____. Considerations on Representative Government. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 19, Essays on Politics and Society. Edited by J. M. Robson, 371-577. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977.
_____. On Liberty. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 18, Essays on Politics and Society. Edited by J. M. Robson, 213-310. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977.
_____. On Liberty. Edited by Elizabeth Rapaport. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1978.
_____. The Subjection of Women. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 21, Essays on Equality, Law, and Education. Edited by J. M. Robson, 259-340. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.
_____. The Subjection of Women. Edited by Susan Moller Okin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1988.
_____. Utilitarianism. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 10, Essays on Ethics, Religion, and Society. Edited by J. M. Robson, 203-59. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969.
_____. Utilitarianism. Edited by George Sher. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1979.
The text is primarily drawn from the Third London Edition, although multiple editions were consulted.
Paine, Thomas. Life and Writings of Thomas Paine. Edited by Daniel Edwin Wheeler. New York: Vincent Parke and Company, 1908.
_____. Political Writings. Edited by Bruce Kuklick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
_____. Rights of man; being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French revolution. 3rd ed. London: Printed for J. S. Jordan, 1791.
_____. Rights of man: being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French revolution. Part I. London: J. Parsons, 1792.
_____. Rights of man; for the use and benefit of all mankind. London: Printed and sold by Daniel Isaac Eaton, 1795.
_____. Rights of men [sic]: part the second. Combining principle and practice. London: Printed for T. Parsons, 1792.
_____. The Thomas Paine Reader. Edited by Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick. Harmonsworth, Middlesex, England: Viking Penguin, Inc., 1987.
The text is that of the Donald A. Cress translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Basic Political Writings, ((c) 1985 and 1987 Hackett Publishing Company.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts. In the Donald A. Cress translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Basic Political Writings. xxi-21. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1985, 1987.
_____. Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men. In the Donald A. Cress translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Basic Political Writings. 23-109. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1985, 1987.
_____. Discourse on Political Economy. In the Donald A. Cress translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Basic Political Writings. 111-138. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1985, 1987.
_____. On the Social Contract. In the Donald A. Cress translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Basic Political Writings. 139-752. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1985, 1987.
Locke's Two Treatises of Government was scanned from the 1824 Twelfth Edition, with the words proofread against the 1714 First Edition of the Collected Works, and the 1728 Fifth Edition of the Two Treatises.
Locke, John. Collected Works. 1st ed. 3 vols. London: Printed for John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row, and Sam. Manship at the Ship in Cornhill, 1714.
_____. Two Treatises of Government. 5th ed. London: Printed for A. Bettesworth in Pater-Noster-Row, J. Pemberton in Fleetstreet, and E. Symon in Cornhill, 1728.
_____. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Student ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
_____. The Works of John Locke. 12th ed. Vols. 1, 2, and 4 of 9. London: Printed for C. and J. Rivington, etc., 1824.