Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/31

 may correspond, coincide, or coalesce, with all the great and essential Appointments of public Law.

The Nature of Man admits of this Improvement, though not in a perfect, yet in a considerable Degree. He is born with Appetites suited to his own Preservation, and the Continuance of his Species: Beyond this, he is by Nature at once selfish and social; compassionate and resentful; docile, either to Good or Evil; and hence, capable of acquiring new Habits, new Passions, new Desires, either to the Welfare or Destruction of his Fellow-Creatures.

Virtuous Manners I call such acquired Habits of Thought and correspondent Action, as lead to a steady Prosecution of the general Welfare.

Virtuous Principles I call such as tend to confirm these Habits, by superinducing the Idea of Duty.

Virtuous Manners are a permanent Foundation for civil Liberty, because they