While Miller argued in the caption for this painting that “real and absolute liberty” only exists in the savage life, he quickly pointed out that
The great difficulty is that he has too much freedom for his own good. It causes him to be proud, overbearing, and oppressive. Eventually he carries measures with such a high hand and becomes so intolerably tyrannical that it is found essential to knock him on the head. This he comprehends better than a long harangue, and may be called the Argumentum [ad] baculinum [loosely translated, appeal to force, or “might makes right”]; in fact it is reasoning to him as plain as a pike-staff. No successful bully has yet existed, who, sooner or later, has not met his fate from one who is still more powerful and as Corporal Nym would say, “That is the moral of it.” (Ross, 1968, text accompanying plate 40)
Corporal Nym is a fictional Shakespeare character given to wise-sounding but often-inscrutable comments.
