Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/67

 their Children, included often the great Actions, but withal, the Vices of Gods and ancient Heroes. Yet in this first and ruling Circumstance, in the Institution of a free State, the Parents were much at Liberty, to do as seemed good to them. Hence, a dissimilar and discordant System of Manners and Principles took Place; while some youthful Minds were imbibed with proper and virtuous Principles, some with no Principles, and some with vicious Principles; with such as must, therefore, on the Whole, tend to shake the Foundations of true Freedom.

The second ruling Defect in the Constitution of this Republic, was the Establishment of an unmixed and absolute Democracy. This naturally arose from the licentious State of Manners and Prinples [sic], which found already prevalent among the People. A virtuous People would have been content to have