Humanity weeps over the distresses of the peasantry of all civilized nations; and when she turns from the spectacle to behold the luxury of their lords, gross, imperial and prodigal, her sensations are certainly not less acute. This spectacle is the school in which mankind have been educated. They have been accustomed to the sight of injustice, oppression and iniquity, till their feelings have been made callous, and their understanding incapable of apprehending the nature of true virtue.

— WILLIAM GODWIN, Political Justice (1793), Book VIII., Chap. 2.