Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/79

, from the fatal Principle of Novelty and Adoption.

The Danger arising from this Principle manifestly increased with the increasing Empire: That Identity and Integrity of Manners and Principles, which is the Soul and Security of every free State, gave Way to Manners and Principles wholly dissimilar. New Maxims of Life, new Principles of Religion and Irreligion, of Honour and Dishonour, of Right and Wrong, picked up indiscriminately among the Nations which they conquered, by Degrees infused themselves into the Heads and Hearts of the Roman Citizens.

Here, then, we see the original Foundation of all the Misery and Ruin which ensued. On the Conquest of the luxurious, immoral, and unprincipled Tribes of, the Romans, having no preventive Remedy in the Essence of their State, of Course adopted the Luxury, the Immoralities, the Irreligion, of the conquered People.