Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/13

through private enmity; ſome, for the money they had lent, by the hands of the borrower. Every kind of death, every dreadful act, was perpetrated. Fathers ſlew their children; ſome were dragged from altars, ſome were butchered at them; numbers, immerſed in temples, were ſtarved. The contagion ſpread through the whole extent of Greece: factions raged in every city; the licentious many contending for the Athenians, and the aſpiring few for the Lacedæmonians. The conſequence was, ſeditions in cities, with all their numerous and tragical incidents. Such things ever will be, ſays Thucidydes, ſo long as human nature continues the ſame. But if this nervous hiſtorian had known a balance of three powers, he would not have pronounced the diſtemper ſo incurable, but would have added—ſo long as parties in cities remain unbalanced. He adds—Words loſt their ſignification: brutal raſhneſs was fortitude; prudence, cowardice; modeſty, effeminacy; and being wiſe in every thing, to be good for nothing: the hot temper was manly valour; calm deliberation, plauſible knavery; he who boiled with indignation, was truſtworthy; and he who preſumed to contradict, was ever ſuſpected. Connexion of blood was leſs regarded than tranſient acquaintance: aſſociations were not formed for mutual advantage, conſiſtent with law, but for rapine againſt all law: truſt was only communication of guilt: revenge was more valued, than never to have ſuffered an injury: per-

juries