Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/102

 place. The first and leading object of their affection was the general welfare. This tuition was carefully continued till they were enrolled in the list of men."

With respect to the Athenian government, he says, page 62, "The first and ruling defect in the institution of this republic seems to have been the total want of an established education, suitable to the genius of the state. There appears not to have been any public, regular, or prescribed appointment of this kind, beyond what custom had accidentally introduced."

He says, page 70, "There were three fatal circumstances admitted into the very effence of the Roman republic, which contained the seeds of certain ruin; the first of which was, the neglect of instituting public laws, by which the education of their children might have been ascertained."

He complains, page 83, "that the