AN OLYMPIC DIALOGUE. 329 



aM, left any one fhould Imagine, that the fceptre de- 

 pended on the will of the people, he wifely adds : that 

 it was Jupiter himfelf w{io delivered this eniign of lo- 

 ve reign authority to kings. This is truth, and I know 

 nothing greater. 



Jupiter.~\ Lam very much obliged to thee and to 

 old Pome r ! But, to fpeak honeftly, what may have 

 palled for truth in thofe rude ages of the early infancy 

 of the world, is fo no longer, when we are fpeaking 

 of a people, that has at length, by experience and ci- 

 vilization, attained to that point, Where, mafter of its 

 reafon, it is become ftrong enough to fhake off the 

 yoke of old prejudices and idle conceits. Nations have 

 their infancy and. childhood, as well as individuals ; 

 and, fo long as they are as ignorant, as v/eak and' ir- 

 rational as children, they muft be treated as children ; 

 and be governed by blind obedience to an authority, 

 which is not accountable to them. But as individuals" 

 do not always remain children, fo neither do nations. 

 It is a trefpafs agajnft nature, to endeavour, by force 

 or fraud, or (as is commonly the cafe) by both, to 

 keep them in perpetual childhood : but it is folly and 

 wickednefs at once, to continue to treat them as chil- 

 dren, when they are already grown up to maturity; 



Juno.~] I grant, Jupiter, that a higher degree of 

 civilization demands a different kind of government, 

 from what is moft adapted to a nation ft 111 rude, or 

 ftill in the firft periods of civilization. But all the phi- 

 |ofophers of the earth will never be able to caufe that 



ten 



