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the above representation, 1 think, is fairly drawn from life and experience.

Nor does religion itself totally extirpate the evils we have been considering; and if religion fail of this effect, it is in vain to expect it from human discipline. In the best of men some fibres of depravity remain, exhibiting melancholy proof of its stubborn inveteracy. But whatever be the influence of religion upon its true disciples, the number of such is too small materially to affect the present argument.

We may therefore conclude, without any danger of incurring the charge of libelling human nature, that the love of pleasure, the love of consequence, and the love of wealth, have been, and still are, the most prevailing passions amongst men; and are likely so to continue, until some happier period shall arrive, when (in prophetic language) the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, and the people shall be all righteous*.

SECTION n.

Of the immediate E?ids of Government, and how far they are attainable.

Having thus premised a few general observations on man, the subject to be governed, it may be proper, before we proceed to our main design, briefly to consider the more immediate ends of government, and how far they are attainable.

Order is the beauty and strength of society; look at ten thousand men in the confusion of a mob, and after they are reduced into a well-disciplined army, and you will see a striking illustration of this position.

Among beings endued with liberty, no regular society can long subsist, if every one is left to his own direction: the diversity of their inclinations, and the limitation of their views, must produce perpetual interference, without some common rule by which to regulate their actions.

place in a state of innocence, of which such evident traces remain in the writings even of pagan antiquity, can be only matter of conjecture. As no crimes would have existed, there would have been no need of criminal jurisdiction; nor of coercive power, when every one stood prompt to the performance of his duty. This is beautifully represented by Ovid, in the following passage of his Metamorphoses, which, though familiar to boys at school, deserves to be here recited:

“Aurea prima sata est rtas, quae vindice nullo,
Sponte suä sine lege fidem rectumque colebat.
Paena metusque aberant, nec verba minacia fixo
Ore legebantur: mec supplex turbatimebat
Judicis ora sui; sederant sine vindice tuti".” Lib. 1.

No rule but uncorrupted reason knew,
And with a native bent did good pursue.
Unforc’d by punishment, unaw'd by fear,
His words were simple, and his soul sincere.
Needless was written law where none oppress'd,
The law of right was written in his breast:
No suppliant crowds before the judge appear'd, }

* The golden age was first, when man yet new, {

No court erected yet, nor cause was heard;
But all was safe, for conscience was their guard.”

Yet some regulations, even in this state, might be necessary. We learn from scripture, whence probably many of the fables of heathen poets are a corrupt derivation, that the first man, pure as he came from the hands of his Maker, was placed in the garden of Eden to dross and to keep it; which service, whatever it meant, must doubtless have belonged equally to his offspring; and we may probably suppose, that those portions of the soil upon which any of them had separately bestowed their care, would thereby have been rendered, in some degree, exclusive property. And if by the expression to dress and to keep is to be understood, besides mere embellishment, a degree of productive labour, tMere might be required, for the due djs*} bution of the produce, some settled la or rule, which, as the earth at large grew more peopled, would appear to become still more necessary. And generally, in all the intercourse and transactions of such a state, where the law of nature was silent; or not express, some positive regulations might at least be eji>

If, therefore, some political regimen would be required in a state of things where every individual was disposed to concur in promoting the common welfare, it must be more highly necessary in a state where almost every one concentrates his regards in himself.

We now proceed, after these few remarks on the need of government in general, to consider its present immediate objects, which appear to be the following:

I. PERSONAL LIBERTY.

II. PERSONAL SECURITY.

III. PRIVATE PROPERTY.

IV. PUBLIC DECORUM. .

Of these several objects I shall treat in order, and ende vour to ascertain how far they fall within^ he compass of political regulations. v

I. Personal Liberty.—This consists in the power of loco-motion, or of going uhen or where we please; Avhich power, from the very constitution of civil society, cannot be enjoyed in the same degree by every indi

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