Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/46

8 You will not then eteem my time or your own mipent, in placing this idea of Mr. Turgot in all its lights; in conidering the conequences of it; and in collecting a variety of authorities againt it.

My dear Sir,

SOCIETY of gods would govern themelves democratically," ays the eloquent philoopher of Geneva; who however would have agreed, that his "gods" mut not have been the claical deities: ince he knew from the highet authority, the poets, who had their information from thoe divinities the Mues, that all the terrors of the nod, the arm, and the thunderbolts of Jupiter, with all the energy of his undiputed monarchy, were inufficient to hold them in order. As it is impoible to know what would have been his definition of the gods, we may quietly purue our enquiry, whether it is practicable to govern men in this way. It would be very urpriing, if, among all the nations that have exited, not one has dicovered a ecret of o much importance. It is not neceary for us to prove that no uch government has exited; it is incumbent on him who hall embrace the opinion of Mr. Turgot, to name the age, the country, and the people, in which uch an experiment has been tried. It might be eaier to determine the quetion concerning the lity