would exert their natural Liberty and Talents to think and examine for themselves; it being impoffible, unless they take this trouble, ever to be affured of the Truth; for Truth is a beautiful but coy Mistress, that will not be won without being wooed; but that yields herself up naked to the ardent pursuit of her Lover, and rewards his diligence and conftancy with unspeakable Pleafure and Delight.

But to return. As our Writer is of opinion, that nothing ought to have any weight unless supported by Reason, although it be advanced by the greatest Author; fo he flatters himself, that nothing which appears reasonable will be rejected, when it comes from the meanest. He is not fo vain as to expect that others should pay an implicit faith to him, which he has denied to much wiser men; and is so far from thinking himself infallible, that he will not be ashamed to renounce any of his own Opinions on better information. If what he writes is of any fervice to the Publick, in giving men a clearer and more diftinct view of their Civil Duties, he has gained his end; if it is not, he has this confolation, that he is not the first who has written a Pamphlet in. vain.

OF

OF THE NECESSITY OF GOVERNMENT.

O man who lives under a Civil Government can poffibly

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doubt of the Neceffity of it; fince to this he owes the fecurity of all the temporal Blessings which he enjoys. It is the Guardian Power that repels the attacks of Vice and Injury; that shields his Poffeffions from Rapine, and his Perfon from Violence; that watches over him, both when he goeth out and when he returneth home, when he fleeps and when he wakes. Were men to direct their Actions by the dictates of Reason, they would want no other Ruler; but Reason is fo faint, and Paffion fo prevalent, that they must be held with Bit and Bridle, lest they fall upon each other. And we are fatally convinced, by experience, that even the fanction of Laws is often too weak a restraint to keep them within the bounds of Duty. Suppose therefore, Civil Authority once banished from the World, and you have before you a Scene of the greatest Confusion and Misery, scarce to be paralleled by any representations Poets or Divines have given us of Hell; Men instead of being beneficial to each other, funk beneath the degree of Brute Creatures, and preying on their own Species; instead of cultivating their Minds with Religion, Learning, and Philofophy, only studying to gratify

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their

their Humour and Appetites, which would hurry them on to the most deteftable Crimes. This therefore is certainly a true maxim, that the worst Government is better than none.

Of this all Mankind have been fo fenfible, that there never was age or country without some fort of Civil Authority. It is a principle as univerfal as that of Religion; for it was not more evident to Men from Nature that the World could not exist without a God, than that the Peace of it could not be maintained without an earthly Ruler. If it was not for this persuasion, it is scarce credible that mankind would have ever paid fubmiffion to the Magistrate; fince all Government is an infringement on their Natural Equality, and a restraint on their Natural Liberty; but they found it neceffary to yield their Persons to Subjection, to preserve them from Violence; and to resign their original right to all things, to enjoy fome few in Peace and Security.

OF

OF THE ORIGINAL OF GOVERNMENT.

ALTHOUGH the ufe and neceffity of Government are

obvious to all Men, yet no one can tell how it first began. This is a Particular which lies concealed in the depth of Ages, and in which History and Tradition are filent. In the first Memorials that are extant of Mankind, fince their increase after the Flood, they all appear formed into Civil Societies; but no Account is given how they came to be fo. In this therefore every one must be left to his own conjecture: and (as in other Speculations) he that can fupport his Opinion with the most plausible Reasons, must pass for the most knowing Man. It seems most probable to me, that Civil Government owes its original to Paternal Authority, however it might afterwards be improved by Contract, or enlarged by Conquest.

I am the rather inclined to this Opinion, because in the most ancient times mankind are generally found under abfolute Kingly Government; which form perhaps would not have so universally prevailed, had there actually been great numbers equally concerned in the first Formation of a State, and every one of them at liberty to