ABSTRACT
INEQUALITY does not much matter when men see in it the outcome of the divine will, which for reasons of its own, unfathomable to the human mind, has made some states strong and others weak, and has given wealth to one nation and withheld it from others. For centuries the material inequality of individuals presented no problems, for it was offset by their absolute spiritual equality before God Almighty, who had endowed the lowest serf and his lordly master with an equally immortal soul. States as well as men were the children of God, so to speak, for he had accorded them sovereignty, and whatever their size or their material resources, they ranked equally high before him.
