Conclujton and Recapitulation. 357 
O liberty ! heaven-born liberty, come with all thy powers, 
with all thy healing charms ; teach us how to defend our- 
helves, and cure our dangerous wounds ! — This is not rhap- 
fody, nor yet a vilionary fear, or falfe refinement. Nations 
differ in their manners, but with fome diftin&ions the fame 
caufes produce the fame efte&s. I have obferved, in every clime 
in which I have drawn my breath, where corruption prevailed 
moft, there have the people been moft galled with the yoke 
of arbitrary power. But defpotifm reaches not beyond the 
grave ; it does not confign mens fouls to everlafting perdition. 
Come then despotic rule, with all thy terrors ! try if thou 
can’ft teach us to be virtuous ! When it pleafes the almighty 
that our juft and pious monarch fhall leave this corrupted land, 
if venality fhould introduce defpotifm, in good earned:, let an 
aurelius or a nero reign, proftitution of confcience may be- 
come lefs fafhionable ; and if there is less corruption, perhaps 
there will be more virtue. But do not flatter yourfelf! the more 
confiderable the part you a£t in this venal scene, the more 
you ought to harden your arms for fetters, inftead of adorn- 
ing them with bracelets, fince the time may come, heaven 
only knows how foon, when virtue may be imputed to you as a 
crime : when your very repentance of the fin of fubferibing to 
this deflrudlive plan, fo far as you may have really fubferibed 
to it, may be punished as an offence ; and your not continu- 
ing to abet it, confidered as a contumacious oppofition of an 
eftablifhed fyftem no longer to be oppofed. 
Whether we are more wicked than other nations, or not, I am 
fure we are not fo much punished. If to live under an arbitrary 
3 y° ke 
