What’s In It for Them

“But it is a misfortune when men love division and desire the continuance of it, first, to maintain that which is evil, and, second, to aim at their own ends, not regarding what public mischiefs come so long as their own private advantages may be served. They do not care what house is on fire so long as their eggs may be roasted, as long as they may have some poor, peddling, private benefit by it” (Burroughs, Irenicum, pp. 103-104).