Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/103

 ruling Principle of the Times; when Opinions and Doctrines began to be derided as Things indifferent. The noble Writer was naturally led to embrace this growing Error of the Times, by a too flattering Opinion which he had imbibed concerning unassisted human Nature; as being sufficient of itself to establish the unerring Practice of Virtue, unless beforehand sophisticated by servile Institutions.

The noble Writer, indeed, attempts a Vindication of this licentious Conduct, by an Appeal to the Practice of ancient and. There, he tells us, "Philosophy had a free Course, and was permitted as a Balance against Superstition. And while some Sects, such as the Pythagorean and latter Platonic, joined in with the Superstition and Enthusiasm of the Times; the, the Academic, and others, were allowed to use all the Force of Wit and Raillery against it. "—This hath a