Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/35

 it is necessary that their Dictates should be coincident: That is, that the Thoughts and Actions which Religion prescribes as Duties, and forbids as Sins, should coincide with the Dictates and Appointments of public Law. In free Countries, this is the natural State of Religion; which commonly either bends to the established Laws of the Community, or moulds them into its own Genius and Complexion.

The Principle of Honour affords a concomitant Support of civil Liberty, when properly directed. It works by a powerful and universal Passion, "our Fondness for the Applause of Men:" But in free Countries, this Principle is much more liable to abuse than that of Religion: Because it is apt be be warped by the fashionable and ruling Manners of the Times: For whatever is fashionable is apt to draw Respect and Applause: Whatever is unfashionable is for the present intitled only to Contempt. Hence the Principle of Honour becomes fluctuating and