Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/86

found in that of Britain. For the first was the entire Work of a single Legislator, struck out at one Heat; all its Institutions conspiring to one End, and centering (like the Radii of a Circle) in one single Point: To This, the outward Form of Government, the internal State of Education, of Religion, Manners and Principles, were uniformly subordinate. But at the Time of the Revolution, which was the first Æra of Britain's Freedom, many prior Institutions and Establishments, both in Religion and Policy, Manners and Principles, had taken Place: These had been formed on the fortuitous Events of Time; and had resulted from a Variety of contending Parties; of Power, fluctuating at different Periods, between the Kings, the Nobles, the Priesthood, and the People. All these it was impossible for human Art to remove and new-model, without shaking the State to its Foundations: Hence, though the Form of the British Constitution, civil and religious, be of