, Pusilanimity, Venality, and Seduction; like some ancient Oak, the Lord of the Forest, to a Pack of vile Worms that lay gnawing at the Root; or, like
Egypt,
be contemptibly destroyed
by Lice and Locusts.
Should the Morals of our Constituents ever come to be debauched;
Consent,
which is
the Salt of Liberty,
would then be corrupted, and no Salt might be found wherewith it could be seasoned. Those who are inwardly the Servants of
Sin,
must be outwardly the Servants of
Influence.
Each Man would then be as the
Trojan Horse
of old, and carry the Enemies of his Country within his Bosom. Our own Appetites would then induce us to betray our own Interests; and State Policy would seize us by the Hand of our Lusts, and lead us a
Willing Sacrifice to our own Perdition.
Should it ever come to pass that Corruption, like a dark and low hung Mist, should spread from Man to Man, and cover these Lands. Should a general Dissolution of Manners prevail. Should Vice be countenanced and communicated by the Leaders of Fashion. Should it come to be propagated by Ministers among Legislators, and by the Legislators among their Constituents. Should Guilt lift up its Head without fear of Reproach, and avow itself in the Face of the Sun, and laugh Virtue out of Countenance by Force of Numbers. Should public Duty turn public Strumpet. Should Shops come to be advertized, where Men may dispose of their Honor and Honesty at so much per Ell. Should public Markets be opened for the purchase of Consciences, with an
O yes!
We bid most to Those who set themselves, their Trusts, and their Country to Sale! If such a Day, I say, should ever arrive, it will be Dooms-day, indeed, to the Virtue, the Liberty, and Constitution of these Kingdoms. It would be the same to
Great-Britain,
as it would happen to the Universe, should the Laws of Cohesion cease to operate, and all the Parts be dissipated whose orderly Connection now forms the Beauty and
Common-Wealth of Nature
--Want of Sanity in the Materials, can never be supplied by any Art in the Building � A Constitution of
public Freemen
can never consist of
private Prostitutes.
WITHIN little more than a Month,
Harry
made himself perfect Master of the foregoing System, and wrote Comments upon it much more voluminous than the Text.
As he had lost his Friend
Ned,
who was now under the Tutelage of his Uncle, Mr.
Catharines,
little
Dicky Clement
became the principal Companion of his Hours of Amusement, and
