| Citation |
BC.770.030
12-15 Mar 1770:881 (179)
Sir, I will tell you a story which I transcribed from a
fragment of an old book of voyages. The name of the island,
on which the author was cast away, happens to be tore out;
nor is there any thing remaining that might enable me to
form a probable conjecture in what part of the globe it is
situated.
--- We were then, says the author, conducted to the market
place, where, we observed a man, tolerable well drest,
confined in a cage, and a prodigious concourse of people
dancing round him, shouting, Liberty!--Liberty! --On asking
the meaning of all this, "That man in the cage, said our
conductor, is the genius of Liberty, our chief idol:
contradiction is our primum mobile, the spring of all our
actions, and therefore we always worship Liberty in a cage."
"And pray, Sir, I replied, does the genius submit to his
confinement voluntarily? No, I was answered, we accused him
of singing a ballad, which we proved he did not sing, and
therefore, according to our first principle of
contradiction, we condemned him to the cage. . .
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