Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/74

 Roman Liberty: It arose even into a ferocious Pride of Virtue, independent of all outward Testimony, which hath distinguished the great Names of ancient, from Those of every other People upon Earth.

5. To these we must add the Equality of Property, the Mediocrity of Possession, the Simplicity of Life, which prevailed in early ; all these were the Outworks that guarded the internal Strength of Manners and Principles; and seemed, like the Institutions of, to promise an Eternity of Freedom.

But in Spite of all these Foundations of civil Liberty, there were three fatal Circumstances, admitted into the very Essence of the Republic, which contained the Seeds of certain Ruin: While the Tree seemed to flourish in its full Growth and Vigour, These, like Canker-Worms, lay eating at the Root.

The first of these was the Neglect of instituting public Laws, by which the