Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/17



THE protection and preservation of life and property, are objects which have been anxiously and necessarily attended to in the most harmless states of society; and the invention of ingenious men, has in all times been applied to contrive means of security adapted to resist the nefarious practices of the day. A review of their productions, which we must presume to have been effectual to their purpose, suggests a conclusion, that the morals of former times, were as much less depraved than those of the present, as the mechanical contrivances for security were less excellent;