12.
"What friendship then or assurance of liberty was this when we received each other with alienated affections: when whilst they had wars, they for fear courted us;
and when they had peace, we for fear courted them: and whereas in others good will assureth loyalty, in us it was the effect of fear?
So it was more for fear than love that we remained their confederates;
and whomsoever security should first embolden, he was first likely by one means or other to break the league.
[2]
Now if any man think we did unjustly to revolt upon the expectation of evil intended without staying to be certain whether they would do it or not, he weigheth not the matter aright.
[3]
For if we were as able to contrive evil against them and again to defer it, as they can against us, being thus equal, what needed us to be at their discretion?
But seeing it is in their hands to invade at pleasure, it ought to be in ours to anticipate.
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
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