"Peace descends on a cloud from the Temple of Commerce." — London Magazine, January 1775
In the beginning people possessed the Power of Dominion, the native right and capacity—flowing unbroken from divine Providence—to order creation itself. They perceived that abiding Prosperity, a power of Peace, dwelt within the Temple of Commerce; yet they knew it could never be received passively—it had to be secured and stewarded. So they forged the Power of War, a lawful instrument by which challenged Dominion might be vindicated. Having prevailed, they bound themselves as citizens and raised the Eagle of their Republic—as others raised their own guardians—olive branch in its right talon to wield Peace by Dominion, and arrows in its left to keep War ready as sentinel.
The Eagle established an order of Justice and Vigilance over the Temple and over every road that converged upon it. Prosperity began to flow through that order, yet the journey remained arduous. People embarked upon vast institutional vessels, leviathans of enterprise, whose collective labour formed a slow, heroic crossing. Many spent their genius and fortunes below those decks, arriving at the Temple still bound to the very hulls that bore them, unable, even through those leviathans straining with all their tonnage, to bring creation’s greatest levers into motion.
A technological dawn transformed the crossing. Within the just order secured by the Eagle's virtue, the people's forces—labour and capital, competition and consumer welfare—interacted until there emerged an accessible, naturally affordable, and safe superintelligence. The Temple's mechanisms now obeyed the simplest touch: skilled levers yielded to untrained hands, priced levers fell within universal reach. The leviathans ceased to be galleries of toil, and became swift channels toward the levers themselves. The arduous crossing gave way to reflection, and each person stood free to choose a dance among creation's mechanisms.
Justice endures, its promise steady, while timeless virtue keeps the Eagle's shield unswayed. Prosperity now flows—not as a passive gift but as a living power consciously claimed and carefully guarded—extending into the cosmic commons, where creation awaits every willing hand, empowered by Dominion and shielded by virtue.