Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/56

. "—Hence it appears, that the true History of this Lawgiver was lost in the Darkness of fabulous and obscure Ages: And that, as to the Beginnings of this Commonwealth, we have nothing to depend on, but the traditionary Rumours of a barbarous and lying Period. Now this seems to be fairly weighed down by the internal Evidence arising from the Nature of the Establishment itself. For it was indeed "the Establishment of barbarous Manners, carried into Permanency by political Institutions." That Mankind should be carry'd back to This, from a State of Humanity and Civilization;—that they should quit private Property, Money, Commerce, Decency, domestic Comforts, Wives and Children, and give them up to the Possession of the Public, is a Contradiction to all the known Powers and Passions of the human Mind. To effect a Change of Government only, is a Work sufficient for the Abilities of