Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/14

juries were maſter-pieces of cunning; the dupes only bluſhed, the villains moſt impudently triumphed. The ſource of ail theſe evils is a thirſt of power, from rapacious or ambitious paſſions. The men of large influence, ſome contending for the juſt equality of the democratical, and others for the fair decorum of ariſtocratical government, by artful ſounds, embarraſſed thoſe communities, for their own private lucre, by the keeneſt ſpirit, the moſt daring projects, and moſt dreadful machinations. Revenge, not limited by juſtice or the public welfare, was meaſured only by ſuch retaliation as was judged the ſweeteſt—by capital condemnations, by iniquitous ſentences, and by glutting the preſent rancour of their hearts with their own hands. The pious and upright conduct was on both ſides diſregarded: the moderate citizens fell victims to both. Seditions introduced every ſpecies of outrageous wickedneſs into the Grecian manners. Sincerity was laughed out of countenance: the whole order of human life was confounded: the human temper, too apt to tranſgreſs in ſpite of laws, now having gained the aſcendant over law, ſeemed to glory that it was too ſtrong for juſtice, and an enemy to all ſuperiority.—Mr. Hume has collected, from Diodorus Siculus alone, a few maſſſacres which happened in only ſixty of the moſt poliſhed years of Greece:—From Sybaris 500 nobles baniſhed; of Chians, 600 citizens; at Epheſus, 340 killed, 1000 baniſhed of Cyrenians, 500 nobles killed,

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