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Page 50
The second son now spoke. He said: "As I was traveling on my journey
one day, I saw a poor child playing by the edge of a lake; and, just as
I rode by, it fell into the water, and was in danger of being drowned.
I immediately dismounted from my horse, and, wading into the water,
brought it safe to land. All the people of the village where this
occurred can bear witness of the deed. Was it not a noble action?"
"My son," replied the old man, "you did only what was your duty, and
you could hardly have left the innocent child to die without making an
effort to save it. You, too, have acted well, but not nobly."
Then the third son came forward to tell his tale. He said: "I had an
enemy, who for years has done me much harm and sought to take my life.
One evening, during my late journey, I was passing along a dangerous
road which ran beside the summit of a steep cliff. As I rode
cautiously along, my horse started at sight of something lying in the
road. I dismounted to see what it was, and found my enemy lying fast
asleep on the very edge of the cliff. The least movement in his sleep,
and he must have rolled over, and would have been dashed to pieces on
the rocks below. His life was in my hands. I drew him away from the
edge, and then woke him, and told him to go on his way in peace."
Then the old man cried out, in a transport of joy: "Dear son, the
diamond is thine; for it is a noble and godlike thing to help the
enemy, and to reward evil with good."
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
_The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America_.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
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