ABSTRACT
The moral pros and cons of government are not confined to utility or oppression; for besides affecting prior and independent interests, government initiates something new. At the very least, it institutes itself; and the mere fact that this new vortex has arisen in the habits of a group of men, introduces among them a new art, a new type of desires and satisfactions. This new art, called government, is not without its specific emotions, which never could have figured in human life if no governments had existed. Politics are a sport like hunting, fighting, and play-acting: they are also a lottery, with big and little prizes. What is called ambition is largely, in the ambitious soul, a tendency to play a part, as in a dream, proudly placing oneself in the centre of thrilling scenes, and impressive ceremonies, full of sound and large gestures, but perhaps signifying nothing. Megalomania inebriates with a sense of greatness, without knowledge of what is great.
