As the chances of birth entered into its original
composition, and God hath not made all alike fit for so heartless a
duty, it sometimes happened, as in the present instance, that the more
worldly of its members had to overcome the generous disposition of a
colleague, before the action of the terrible machine could go on.
It is worthy of remark, that communities always establish a higher
standard of justice and truth, than is exercised by their individual
members. The reason is not to be sought for, since nature hath left to
all a perception of that right, which is abandoned only under the
stronger impulses of personal temptation. We commend the virtue we
cannot imitate. Thus it is that those countries, in which public opinion
has most influence, are always of the purest public practice. It follows
as a corollary from this proposition, that a representation should be as
real as possible, for its tendency will be inevitably to elevate
national morals. Miserable, indeed, is the condition of that people,
whose maxims and measures of public policy are below the standard of its
private integrity, for the fact not only proves it is not the master of
its own destinies, but the still more dangerous truth, that the
collective power is employed in the fatal service of undermining those
very qualities which are necessary to virtue, and which have enough to
do, at all times, in resisting the attacks of immediate selfishness.
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