Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/195

even by becoming their Maſter; if rich, he ſtood in need of their Services, if poor, of their Aſſiſtance; even Mediocrity itſelf could not enable him to do without them. He muſt therefore have been continually at work to intereſt them in his happineſs, and make them, if not really, at leaſt apparently find their Advantage in labouring for his: this rendered him ſly and artful in his dealings with ſome, imperious and cruel in his dealings with others, and laid him under the Neceſſity of uſing ill all thoſe whom he ſtood in need of, as often as he could not awe them into a Compliance with his Will, and did not find it his Intereſt to purchaſe it at the Expence of real Services. In fine, an inſatiable Ambition, the Rage of raiſing their relative Fortunes, not ſo much thro' real Neceſſity, as to over-top others, inſpire all Men with a wicked Inclination to injure each other, and with a ſecret Jealousy ſo much the more dangerous, as to carry its