93 The right of the weaker. If one party, a city under siege, for example, submits under certain conditions to a greater power, its reciprocal condition is that this first party can destroy itself, burn the city, and thus make the power suffer a great loss. Thus there is a kind of equalization, on the basis of which rights can be established. Preservation is to the enemy's advantage. 31. "Each has as much right as his power is worth." Spinoza, Tractatus Politicus, vol. 2, par. 8.
32. "as his power is assessed to be" |