Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/209

 by him to whom it could be of Service, rather than by him to whom it mut prove detrimental.

Government in its Infancy had no regular and permanent Form. For want of a ufficient Fund of Philosophy and Experience, Men could ee no further than the preent Inconveniencies, and never thought of providing Remedies for future ones, but in Proportion as they aroe. In pite of all the Labours of the wiet Legilators, the political State till continued imperfect, becaue it was in a manner the work of Chance; and, as the Foundations of it were ill laid, Time, tho' ufficient to dicover its Defects and ugget the Remedies for them, could never mend its original Vices. Men were continually repairing; whereas, to erect a good Edifice, they hould have begun as Lycurgus did at Sparta, by clearing the Area, and