Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/111

 of this Body hath changed from That of being the Enemies, to That of being the Friends of Freedom.

Much it were to be wished, that along with the Tares, the Wheat had not also perished. But the general System of Manners being relaxed though refined; and Education still left more and more imperfect; the Principle of Religion being unhappily destroyed among certain Ranks, and weakened among others; —That of Honour being thus left to its own false and fantastic Dictates; —and Conscience naturally following the Whims of its untutored Parent;—Licentiousness and Faction, founded on a Want of Principle, cannot but arise, and stand among the "leading Characters of the present Times."