Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/115

 are often urged by Want; of which, Discontent and Envy are the inevitable Effects. They are let loose to every Impulse of Appetite, by frequent Opportunity and Secrecy of Action: They are tempted by wicked Examples; inflamed by evil Communication and intoxicating Liquors: And though the industrious Mechanic may sometimes escape the Infection; yet the Life of the uninstructed Poor in great Cities, is too commonly a horrid Compound of Riot and Distress, Rapacity and Thieving, Prostitution and Robbery, Wickedness and Despair.

Now if this Body of Men be indeed, what Candour itself cannot deny, "too generally ignorant and ill-educated; too generally profligate in Manners, and void of Principle;" it follows, that like "the Athenian Populace of old, they must be liable to the Seduction of artful Men;" the ready Tools of every unprincipled Leader, who may choose to misguide them, to the Ends of Licentiousness and Faction.