Sometimes they have
got a body of wretches, calling themselves fathers, to demand the murder
of their sons, boasting that Rome had but one Brutus, but that they
could show five hundred. There were instances in which they inverted and
retaliated the impiety, and produced sons who called for the execution
of their parents. The foundation of their republic is laid in moral
paradoxes. Their patriotism is always prodigy. All those instances to be
found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit,
at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which
affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for
the instruction of their youth.
The whole drift of their institution is contrary to that of the wise
legislators of all countries, who aimed at improving instincts into
morals, and at grafting the virtues on the stock of the natural
affections. They, on the contrary, have omitted no pains to eradicate
every benevolent and noble propensity in the mind of men. In their
culture it is a rule always to graft virtues on vices. They think
everything unworthy of the name of public virtue, unless it indicates
violence on the private. All their new institutions (and with them
everything is new) strike at the root of our social nature. Other
legislators, knowing that marriage is the origin of all relations, and
consequently the first element of all duties, have endeavored by every
art to make it sacred.
Pages:
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324