Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/62

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Thoughts on

sion should mix its Alloy, with the rigorous Appointments of the State. Thus the Republic was so round and compact in all its Parts, that it might seem to defy the Attacks of the most powerful Enemy.

"But supposing an Inroad made into any one of its capital Institutions, the Ruin of the Whole was inevitable." For its several Parts receiving their Strength from each other, were therefore mutually dependent; and the Whole being an austere Contradiction to the natural Appetites of Man, the least Inroad of Indulgence naturally led on to more forcible Temptations. Thus, Inequality of Possessions brought in Wealth and Poverty. Wealth brought in Luxury: Poverty gave Birth to Envy and Avarice. Licentiousness and Faction thus crept in; and the Fall of Sparta was inevitable.

Yet even amidst the Decays of this Republic, the Force of a rigorous Education essentially mixed with the Principles of