Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/218

tacked, but which good Princes have always defended as the tutelary Divinity of their Realms. How much more reaſonable is it to ſay with the Sage Plato, that the perfect Happineſs of a State conſiſts in the Subjects obeying their Prince, the Prince obeying the Laws, and the Laws being equitable and always directed to the Good of the Public? I ſhall not ſtop to conſider, if, Liberty being the moſt noble Faculty of Man, it is not degrading one's Nature, reducing one's ſelf to the level of Brutes, who are the Slaves of Inſtinct, and even offending the Author of one's Being, to renounce without reſerve the moſt precious of his Gifts, and ſubmit to the commiſſion of all the Crimes he has forbid us, merely to gratify a mad or a cruel Maſter; and if this ſublime Artiſt ought to be more irritated at ſeeing his Work deſtroyed than at ſeeing it diſhonoured. I ſhall only ask what Right thoſe, who were not afraid thus