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80
In a little state with a small population,
I would so order it,
that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a
hundred men, there should be
no employment of them; I would make the
people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove
elsewhere
(to avoid it).
Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion
to ride in them; though they had
buff coats and sharp weapons, they
should have no occasion to don or use them.
I would make the people return to
the use of knotted cords (instead
of the written characters).
They should think their (coarse) food sweet; their
(plain) clothes
beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common
(simple) ways sources of enjoyment.
There
should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices
of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to
us, but I
would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any
intercourse with it.
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