改编自亨利·大卫·梭罗的《公民不服从》(1848)
我衷心地接受这句格言:“管理最少的政府是最好的政府”;我希望看到它得到更迅速、更系统的执行。如果把它付诸实践,它最终就等于——我也相信——“最好的政府是什么都不管的政府”;当人们为此做好准备时,这将是他们将拥有的政府。政府充其量不过是权宜之计;但大多数政府,有时是所有政府,都是不明智的。反对常备军的反对意见很多,也很严重,理应占上风,这些反对意见最终也可能反对常备军政府。常备军只是常设政府的一个部门。政府本身只是人民选择的执行其意志的方式,在人民能够通过它采取行动之前,它同样容易被滥用和歪曲。以目前的墨西哥战争为例,它是少数人利用常设政府作为工具的产物; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure. This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
但是,实事求是地说,作为一个公民,我不像那些自称为无政府主义者的人,我要求的不是立即没有政府,而是立即有一个更好的政府。让每个人都知道,什么样的政府会得到他的尊重,这将是获得这种尊重的一步。
找出下列句子中使用的修辞手法的类型及其作用:“它不能保持国家自由。它并没有让西方安定下来。它没有教育作用。”