Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/46



HESE Reasonings, founded on the Nature and Constitution of Man, will receive a strong and unanswerable Confirmation from the History of free States. Hence we shall obtain the clearest Evidences of Fact, that while virtuous Manners and Principles retained their Efficacy and Power, civil Liberty remained unshaken: That as these decayed, Liberty declined: That as soon as these were lost, Liberty was no more; Licentiousness crept in; Faction triumphed; and overwhelmed these degenerate States in one common Ruin.

To this Purpose I shall briefly analyze the Genius of the three most eminent