These two sorts of men
move in the same direction, though in a different place. They both
move with the order of the universe. They all know or feel this
great ancient truth: Quod illi principi et praepotenti Deo qui omnem
hunc mundum regit, nihil eorum quae quidem fiant in terris acceptius
quam concilia et coetus hominum jure sociati quae civitates
appellantur. They take this tenet of the head and heart, not from
the great name which it immediately bears, nor from the greater from
whence it is derived, but from that which alone can give true weight
and sanction to any learned opinion, the common nature and common
relation of men. Persuaded that all things ought to be done with
reference, and referring all to the point of reference to which all
should be directed, they think themselves bound, not only as
individuals in the sanctuary of the heart or as congregated in that
personal capacity, to renew the memory of their high origin and
cast, but also in their corporate character to perform their
national homage to the institutor and author and protector of civil
society; without which civil society man could not by any
possibility arrive at the perfection of which his nature is capable,
nor even make a remote and faint approach to it. They conceive that He
who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue willed also the
necessary means of its perfection.
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