Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/229

came ſenſible; Electioneering took place; Factions aroſe; the Parties contracted ill Blood; civil Wars blazed forth; the Lives of the Citizens were ſacrificed to the pretended Happineſs of the State; and things at laſt came to ſuch a paſs, as to be ready to relapſe into their primitive Confuſion. The Ambition of the principal Men induced them to take Advantage of theſe Circumſtances to perpetuate the hitherto temporary Charges in their Families; the People already inured to Dependence, accuſtomed to Eaſe and the Conveniencies of Life, and too much enervated to break their Fetters, conſented to the Increaſe of their Slavery for the ſake of ſecuring their Tranquillity; and it is thus that Chiefs, become Hereditary, contracted the habit of conſidering Magiſtracies as a Family Eſtate, and themſelves as Proprietors of thoſe Communities, of which at firſt they were but mere Officers; to call their