Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/16

 Yet the Writer esteems it a necessary though obvious Task: Not only that he may appeal to his Idea of it, thus established; but also, because in the Conduct (at least) if not in the Writings of his Countrymen, it seems to have been sometimes mistaken.

The natural Liberty of Man, considered merely as a solitary and savage Individual, would generally lead him to a full and unbounded Prosecution of all his Appetites. Some Savages there are, though few, who live nearly, if not altogether, in this brutal State of Nature.

These last Expressions, it must be confessed, are inadequate to their Subject: For such a State of Man is worse than that of Brutes, and in the strict Sense, is also contrary to Nature. For Brutes are endowed with unerring Instincts, which Man possesseth not: Therefore such a solitary and wretched State is strictly unnatural; because it prevents the Exertion of those Powers, which his Nature is capable of