294 APPENDIX. 



fore our workday ; the noise is so loud, that it 

 drowns the voice of the law ; and there may be 

 some truth in his waggery, who said, That such 

 as mean to commit rape upon the body politic, 

 must put out the laws ; as others upon a like 

 occasion use to put out the lights. 



Finally, if we ever hope to sin with impunity, 

 to usurp prosperously, or to govern arbitrarily ; 

 we must take out that lesson in Plautus : 



If my own affairs require, 

 I can set the state on fire. 

 Let the ruined kingdom bleed. 

 So my private ends may speed ; 

 I can dance in such a storm, 

 'Tis a new way to reform.* 



COLASTERION. 



It is most certain, that sinister ends are pro- 

 moted by innovations ; but it lies in our bosoms 

 to promote or quench the innovations them- 

 selves : which we can no way better do, than 

 by a strict adherence to the laws ; for as long 

 as we maintain them, they will maintain us : if 

 we observe these, it will rescue us from the 

 hands of state novelists ; for we are not fit for 

 their turns, till we are cross biassed with fac- 

 tion. 



* Idem facere, quod plurimi alii, quibus res timida aut tur- 

 bida est j pergunt tuibare usque, ut ne quid possit conquies- 

 ccre. 



