Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/203

. All offered their Necks to the Yoke in hopes of ecuring their Liberty; for tho' they had Sene enough to perceive the Advantages of a political Contitution, they had not Experience enough to ee beforehand the Dangers of it; thoe among them, who were bet qualified to foreee Abues, were preciely thoe who expected to benefit by them; even the oberet judged it requiite to acrifice one part of their Liberty to enure the other, as a Man, dangerouly wounded in any of his Limbs, readily parts with it to ave the ret of his Body.

Such was, or mut have been had Man been left to himelf, the origin of Society and of the Laws, which increaed the Fetters of the Weak and the Strength of the Rich; (18) irretrievably detroyed natural Liberty, fixed for ever the Laws of Property and Inequality; changed an artful Uurpation into an irrevocable Title; and for the