Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/88

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Thoughts on

of them. It is much in every Parent's Option, whether he will impress his Childrens Hearts with such Habits and Principles as accord to the Genius of the State, or with Impunity suffer them to contract such Manners and Opinions as tend to its Dissolution. A Circumstance pregnant with Danger to this free State: For hence, Manners and Principles, its chief Support, are liable to be incurably perverted in the Heart, at that Time of Life, in which alone they can be effectually impressed.

5. In the important Circumstance of "the Admission of Change," or the "Principle of Adoption," the British Constitution is contrary to That of Sparta; and nearly on a Level with Those of Athens and Rome.—Foreign Commerce, foreign Travel, new Manners, new Principles, new Modes of Dress, of Amusement, of Luxury, are here adopted with a Degree of Avidity almost unbounded.—Happy would the Writer esteem his