Since The Primitive Times, The Wealth Of

So Natural To Man Is The Practice Of Violence That Our Indulgence Allows The Slightest Provocation, The Most Disputable Right, As A Sufficient Ground Of National Hostility.

It Was Rome, On The Fifteenth Of October, 1764, As I Sat Musing Amidst The Ruins Of The Capitol, While The Barefooted Friars Were Singing Vespers In The Temple Of Jupiter, That The Idea Of Writing The Decline And Fall Of The City First Started To My Mind.

In Everyage And Country, The Wiser, Or At Least The Stronger, Ofthetwosexes, Hasusurped Thepowers Ofthe State, And Confined The Other To The Cares And Pleasures Of Domestic Life.

To The Love Of Pleasure We May Therefore Ascribe Most Of The Agreeable, To The Love Of Action We May Attribute Most Of The Useful And Respectable, Qualifications. The Character In Which Both The One And The Other Should Be United And Harmonised Would Seem To Constitute The Most Perfect Idea Of Human Nature.

Fear Has Been The Original Parent Of Superstition, And Every New Calamity Urges Trembling Mortals To Deprecate The Wrath Of Their Invisible Enemies.