Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/166

 And such a Character would press forward among the first, towards the Goal of public Virtue.

Again: This rational and salutary Union may be retarded by Connexions of Friendship, Gratitude, or Blood. This Cause tends to confirm and extend the Influence of the former. Fathers, powerful Friends, and Patrons, connect themselves with Parties, and cleave to them on a mistaken Principle: Sons, obliged Friends, and Dependents, are naturally inlisted in their Party; and are rivetted in it, not only by false Honour, but Education, Gratitude, Affection. How peculiarly unfortunate is this Circumstance; that the generous Passions should ever become the Adversaries of public Virtue!

The same false Attachment to Friends, Patrons, and Relations, naturally prevails, in a certain Proportion, among the middle Ranks of the Kingdom. Their Interests, Passions, and Prejudices, are not so immediately concerned as Those of the higher Ranks; and therefore 'tis natural