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I WONDER, that, in the first Edition of this Effay, I forgot to mention fome Inconveniences I fuffer of a very grievous nature, and which have a right to a place in Pages 13 and 14 of this Edition.

When I am in a Coach with a Fair Lady, I am hid by Silk and Whale-bone. When I fit next her at Table, my Arm is fo pinioned, I can neither help her nor myself. We are deprived of the pleasure of seeing each other; and she would scarce know I was there, if she did not sometimes hear me under her Wing. I am in Purgatory on the Confines of Paradife. I therefore beg one favour, and which she may grant with Honour, that (since I defpair of fupplanting her Lap-dog *) fhe will allow me a Cufhion to raise me above fuch Misfortunes.

* N. B. Many Ladies fay, that Shock is as ugly a Cur as myself, and unworthy of his Poft. But nothing fo disrespectful fhall ever efcape me, left it would offend, or be thought the Envy of a Rival.

AN

ESSAY

ON

CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

TREATING SUMMARILY

OF ITS

NECESSITY, ORIGINAL, DISSOLUTION, FORMS, AND PROPERTIES.

"Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magiftri." HOR.

THE

PREFACE

IT

T may be expected that the Writer of the following Essay should apologize for the Publication of it; fince there have been many and great Authors on the fame Subject. He obferves the fame conduct towards the last of these, as they did towards the first; and might therefore plead their example as his excuse. But he thinks himself better justified by reason; for the more any Subject is examined the better it will be understood; and the true understanding of the nature of Government he takes to be of great use and importance, fince both Magiftrates and People are like to act moft regularly when they have the clearest sense of their civil obligations. And certainly this knowledge was never more necessary than in the present age; for when Subjects are required by Law to fwear that a Government is rightful, they must inform themselves from whence a right to authority proceeds, or else they act by an implicit faith. He is fully perfuaded, that what he advances tends to confirm men in their opinion of the right of our present happy Establishment. And he esteems it almost an infallible mark, that Rulers hold their authority by a just tenure, when they fuffer the general nature of that tenure to

be tried and examined. At the fame time he imagines it no ill Compliment to the Government, when, by delivering his opinion on that Subject with Confidence, and without Reserve, he gives an instance of the Liberty we at present enjoy under it.

As the reading Sir William Temple's " Effay on Government” first inspired him with the design of writing this Treatise, so it is the only Book which he has cited or confulted on the occafion. What he offers is entirely the refult of his own judgement, formed on recollection and confideration of what he had read or heard, compared with his own Thoughts on the Subject. For he chofe rather to be guided by Reason than Authority, and by his own Reason than another man's. And indeed he thinks that (strictly fpeaking) there is no fuch thing as Authority in matters of Judgement: For the Nature of Truth is not to be altered by Opinion; and a Propofition is never the more or lefs true, because it has been afferted or denied by Eminent Men. Their Opinions can no farther gain assent, than as they are supported with good Reasons; nor can their Reasons pass for good, any further than as they are agreeable to the Sentiments of him that examines them: fo that in the conclufion it will be found, that no man can judge for another, but that every man must judge for himself. If any one say, I will be of such an Opinion, because another is, he deceives himself; for though he may indeed act as if he was of that Opinion, yet he cannot be really fo without an inward conviction; Opinion being the determination of the Understanding, and not of the Will. It were therefore to be wished, that men would not give themselves up blindly to be led by others in Subjects of the greatest importance; but that they would

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