cies of delirium; it ſhould not be called guilt, but inſanity: but who would truſt his life, liberty, and property, to a madman, or an aſſembly of them? it would be ſafer to confide in knaves. Five hundred or five thouſand together, in an aſſembly, are not leſs liable to this extravagance than one. The nation that commits its affairs to a ſingle aſſembly, will aſſuredly find that its paſſions and deſires augment as faſt as thoſe of a king; and therefore ſuch a conſtitution muſt be eſſentially defective.
Others have ſeen this quality in human nature through a more gloomy medium.
Machiavel ſays, thoſe who have written on civil government lay it down as a firſt principle, and all hiſtorians demonſtrate the ſame, that whoever would found a ſtate, and make proper laws for the government of it, muſt preſume that all men are bad by nature; and that they will not fail to ſhew that natural depravity of heart, whenever they have a fair opportunity; and, though poſſibly it may lie concealed for a while, on account of ſome ſecret reaſon, which does not then appear to men of ſmall experience, yet time, which is therefore juſtly called the father of truth, commonly brings it to light in the end. Machiavel's tranſlator remarks, that although this ſeems a harſh ſuppoſition, does not every Chriſtian daily juſtify the truth of it, by confeſſing it before God and the world? and are we not expreſsly told the ſame in ſeveral paſſages of the holy ſcriptures, and in all ſyſtems of human philoſophy?
Monteſquieu ſays, "Conſtant experience ſhews us, that every man inveſted with power is apt to abuſe it: he puſhes on, till he comes to ſomething that limits him. Is it not ſtrange,
