Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/54

 Thus was the famed Republic of Sparta strongly fortify'd, by the united and concurrent Power of Manners and Principles, all pointing to the same End, the Strength and Duration of the State: Of Manners and Principles, which in their particular Application, seemed to sacrifice the Happiness of Individuals to the Preservation of the Whole: And while they were most abhorrent from the Maxims of improved human Nature, secured the Institutions of a savage Policy.

From this View of the Spartan Commonwealth, these farther Remarks may naturally arise.

1. It hath been Matter of Surprize to those who have written on this famed Republic, "by what Means should be able to perswade the Spartans, not only to change the Form of their Government, but to quit their private Possessions, their Manner of Life, the Use of Money, the Advantages of Commerce, the Property of their Wives,