ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPORTS. 2g 



limply confidered, and void of crime or ag- 

 greiTion, neither ought, or indeed can be to 

 any effeftual purpofe, the objects of reRriclive 

 ledOaiion. I cannot find that fuch kind of 

 interference, in any country, has ever had a 

 better effecl than to arm the law courts with 

 an arbitrary power, corrupt the inferior magif- 

 tracy, maintain a banditti of fpies and inform- 

 ers, and to increafe the number of other ver- 

 min, ftill-more flagitious and abandoned. I 

 know we have men among us, fo exceffively 

 fond of reftraining, the extravagancies of hu- 

 man liberty with parchment fhackles, that 

 they would, if poffible, regulate even the du- 

 ties of the bed-chamber, and the economy of 

 our phyfical occafions, by a61: of parliament. 

 But it ought to be confidered, that to frame 

 laws, concerning the obfervanceor breach of 

 which, in a moral view, the citizens are per- 

 fe6lly indifferent, is to deftroy that veneration 

 which fhould ever attach to the public infti- 

 tutes ; in facl to bring the very principle of le- 

 giflation into contempt. Laws, which from 

 their nature can only have a partial effeft, are 

 worfe than ufelefs. The attempt is vain and 

 deceptious, in a free ftate, either to controul 

 liberty of opinion in any refpeft; or of adion, 

 in thole things which nature herfelf has evi- 

 dently ordained fhould be committed without 

 referve to individual difcretion. 



4 Unfortunately 



