Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/231

To conceive the Neceſſity of this Progreſs, we are not ſo much to conſider the Motives for the Eſtabliſhment of political Bodies, as the Forms theſe Bodies aſſume in their Adminiſtration; and the Inconveniencies with which they are eſſentially attended: for thoſe Vices, which render ſocial Inſtitutions neceſſary, are the ſame which render the Abuſe of ſuch Inſtitutions unavoidable; and as (Sparta alone excepted, whoſe Laws chiefly regarded the Education of Children, and where Lycurgus eſtabliſhed ſuch Manners and Cuſtoms, as in a great meaſure made Laws needleſs,) the Laws, in general leſs ſtrong than the Paſſions, reſtrain Men without changing them; it would be no hard Matter to prove that every Government, which carefully guarding againſt all Alteration and Corruption ſhould ſcrupulouſly comply with the Ends of its Inſtitution, was unneceſſarily inſtituted; and that a Country, where