The advancement of political knowledge may be expected to produce in time the like effects. Cauſeleſs diſcontent and ſeditious violence will grow leſs frequent, and leſs formidable, as the ſcience of Government is better aſcertained by a diligent ſtudy of the theory of Man.
It is not indeed to be expected, that phyſical and political truth ſhould meet with equal acceptance, or gain ground upon the world with equal facility. The notions of the naturaliſt find mankind in a ſtate of neutrality, or at worſt have nothing to encounter but prejudice and vanity; prejudice without malignity, and vanity without intereſt. But the politician’s improvements are oppoſed by every paſſion that can exclude conviction or ſuppreſs it; by ambition, by avarice, by hope, and by terrour, by public faction, and private animoſity.
