in the garden
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Wandering in the garden area, one sees that one’s haphazard approach to irrigation has given the Oregon grape a case of spotted mildew that should be trimmed back and reconsidered, probably around the same time one moves the pots to overwinter the plants. Around the same time, too, that one trims back the geraniums, which have become assertively luxuriant in a not particularly helpful or decorative fashion. One considers the ponderous and already overfull compost bin, which hasn’t been collected since the last holiday season, and one considers that, perhaps, another day’s delay wouldn’t do much harm.
- Cf. Paradise Lost, passim, but, e.g., Book III, 217ff., which rather suggests that angels might not be much to write home about, either, in terms of governance.[↩]