^93* strictures on manners, 137 



and thirty-five persons was to be called a troop ; any- 

 greater company was to be denominated an army, 

 and punilhed accordingly. 



Notwithstanding the seeming liberty, or rather 

 licentiousnefs of our remote ancestors, the great bo- 

 dy of the people in those ages enjoyed much lefs 

 true liberty, than where the execution of the laws 

 is the most severe, and where subjects are reduced 

 to the strictest subordination, and dependence on the 

 civil magistrate. The reason is derived from the 

 excefs of that liberty itself. Men must guard them- 

 selves at any price against insults and injuries ; 

 and where they receive not protection from the 

 laws, they will seek it by submifiion to superiors, 

 and by herding in some inferior confederacy, which 

 acts under the direction of a powerful chieftain ; and 

 thus all anarchy is the immediate cause of tyrannyj 

 if not over the state, at least over many of the indi- 

 viduals. 



Whatever we may imagine concerning the usual 

 truth and sincerity of men, who live In a rude and 

 barbarous state, there is much more falsehood, and 

 even perjury amongst them than in civilized nations ; 

 and virtue, which is nothing but a more cultivated 

 reason, never flouriflies to any degree, nor is found- 

 ed on steady principles of honour, except where a 

 good education becomes general ; and men are taught 

 the pernicious consequences of vice, treachery, and 

 immorality. Even superstition, though more pre- 

 valent among ignorant nations, is but a poor supply 

 for the defects of knowledge and education ; and 

 our European ancestors, who employed every ma- 



VOL. xvi. 5 ^ 



